Chord Progression for Dummies

An Ableton Live 12 extension (Extensions SDK 1.0.0-beta.0) that makes good chord progressions effortless: pick a genre and a mood, get a progression — with all the rhythmic/dynamic "feel" chosen for you. Simpler and prettier than its sibling chord-progression; the technical knobs are tucked behind an Advanced button.

Status: implemented (v1.0.0). Genre/mood engine, favorites, per-genre preview and the Advanced panel are built. Packaged .ablx is ready to install.

Minimal black-and-white UI with Gumroad-style press buttons. A dark mode toggle (☾ / ☀) sits in the header, and your last-used theme is remembered across sessions.

What it does

• Genre — a big, searchable list (~24) with your favorites pinned on top.
• Mood — Happy, Sad, Dark, Dreamy, Energetic, Chill, Romantic, Epic.
• Key + Mode — simple pickers; mood drives the feel, key/mode drive the harmony.
• Variation — cycle fresh progressions for the same genre + mood.
• Feel, automatic — genre + mood set swing, gate, dynamics, density, octave and more. Power users open Advanced for the full v1 control set (+ best-effort ADSR).
• Favorites — star genres (pin them) and whole progressions (recall + re-generate), saved across sessions.
• Listen — in-browser preview with a per-genre tone (piano, EP, pad, pluck, synth).
• Generate — writes a MIDI clip into the right-clicked Session slot.

See the design docs:

• docs/DECISIONS.md — every settled choice.
• docs/DESIGN.md — architecture, data model, UI.
• docs/CONTENT-MODEL.md — genres, moods, templates, feel.

Install

1. Download Chord-Progression-for-Dummies-1.0.0.ablx from the latest release.
2. Ableton Live 12 Beta → Settings → Extensions → choose the .ablx (Developer Mode off).
3. Quit Live fully (Cmd+Q) and reopen.

Requires Ableton Live 12 Beta (or later) with Extensions support.

Usage

Right-click an empty Session clip slot → Chord Progression for Dummies….

Develop

Requirements: Node.js ≥ 24.14.1; Ableton Live 12 Beta with Developer Mode on. The SDK and CLI are vendored in vendor/ (Ableton beta software — not redistributable).

npm install
cp .env.example .env     # set EXTENSION_HOST_PATH to your Live beta
npm start                # build:dev + extensions-cli run
npm run build            # production bundle
npm run package          # build a .ablx

Constraints honored

The SDK has no transport control or real-time MIDI, so the preview can't drive your own Live plugin live (use Generate, then play in Live). Instrument ADSR is only reachable when the device exposes named Attack/Decay/Sustain/Release parameters — handled best-effort in Advanced. Full rationale in docs/DECISIONS.md.

License

Extension source: MIT. The bundled Ableton SDK/CLI have their own terms (Ableton beta).