live-to-wwise

An Ableton Live extension that sends audio clips into a Wwise project over the Wwise Authoring API (WAAPI) — the Ableton counterpart to ReaWwise.

Select audio clips in Live, right-click Send to Wwise…, batch-rename them, pick a destination in the Wwise hierarchy, optionally wrap them in a container, and import — all without leaving Live.

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Requirements

• Ableton Live 12.4.5 (currently in public beta).
• Wwise open, with a project loaded and the Authoring API enabled (Wwise → Project Settings), listening on the default WAMP port 8080.
• Node ≥ 24.14.1 (the Extension Host runtime) for building.

Live and Wwise run on the same machine — the extension talks to ws://127.0.0.1:8080/waapi.

Get Started

Install to Live

Download Release and install in Ableton Settings - Extension.

Build

npm install          # installs the vendored SDK + CLI from ./vendor
npm start            # dev build + launch in the Extension Host (extensions-cli run)

Usage

With Wwise open (project loaded, Authoring API on):

1. Select clips in Live.
   • Arrangement View — drag a time selection across one or more audio tracks (take lanes included). Clips overlapping the range are collected.
   • Session View — select one or more clip slots (across tracks/scenes). Empty slots and MIDI clips are skipped.
2. Right-click → “Send to Wwise…”. The extension reads the Wwise hierarchy (with a progress dialog) and opens the batch form.
3. In the batch form:
   • Wwise destination — a searchable combobox of container-capable objects under the Actor-Mixer Hierarchy; free-text is also accepted.
   • If it already exists — useExisting (skip) / replaceExisting (update audio) / createNew (auto-rename).
   • Container — optionally wrap the batch in a Random / Sequence / Switch / Blend container (find-or-created by name; all sounds land inside it).
   • Rename — prefix · base · suffix:
     • base — each clip’s original name, or a literal applied to all.
     • prefix NNname, suffix nameNN — zero-padded running index; a blank affix name collapses to just the index.
     • Live old → new preview; numbering resumes after objects already at the destination (or inside the chosen container).
4. Transfer. Clips are renamed in Live as one undo step (⌘Z reverts the whole batch), then each source file is imported via ak.wwise.core.audio.import. Each object gets a Notes line recording its Live source path, and all imported objects are revealed in the Wwise Project Explorer. A summary lists per-item success/failure.

Notes on behaviour

• Imports are copies. Wwise copies each WAV into the project’s Originals folder and owns that copy — moving or renaming your Live-side sources never breaks the Wwise references. The rename only touches the Live clip name (which flows to the Wwise object name); disk files are left alone so clips never go offline.
• Offline cache. The last-fetched hierarchy is cached to hierarchy-cache.json. If Wwise is unreachable, the form still opens (with an “unreachable” banner) from the cache; the transfer itself then fails cleanly until Wwise is back.
• Persistence. Host/port, last destination, import operation, rename, and container settings persist between sessions in environment.storageDirectory, falling back to ~/.live-to-wwise when the host provides none.
• Switch/Blend containers are created with their children, but switch/state and blend-track assignment is left to do manually in Wwise. Random/Sequence work out of the box (default container properties).

What it transfers (and doesn’t)

Transfers the clip’s source file (AudioClip.filePath), not a render — so warp/trim, clip envelopes, and track FX are not captured. This is an SDK limitation: only renderPreFxAudio is available (pre-FX, per audio track), and MIDI/instrument tracks can’t be bounced. Region/FX-accurate export is future work (see the roadmap). WAV/AIFF sources are recommended.

Architecture

Ableton Live (Extension Host, Node runtime)
  └─ live-to-wwise ── WAAPI (WAMP over WebSocket) ──▶ Wwise Authoring App
                       ws://127.0.0.1:8080/waapi        (ak.wwise.core.audio.import)

The WAAPI stack is hand-rolled and dependency-free (node:net + node:crypto), so nothing native has to load inside the Host sandbox:

Layer	File	Role
TCP probe	src/waapi/probe.ts	sandbox gate — can we open a socket?
WebSocket	src/waapi/websocket.ts	minimal RFC 6455 client
WAMP	src/waapi/client.ts	WaapiClient — HELLO/WELCOME, CALL/RESULT, SUBSCRIBE/EVENT
Wwise ops	src/wwise/import.ts, hierarchy.ts, cache.ts	import, destination/child queries, offline cache
Live side	src/live/selection.ts, rename.ts	resolve selections → clips; pure naming engine
UI	src/ui/dialogs.ts	modal HTML dialogs as data: URLs
Config	src/config.ts	persisted settings
Entry	src/extension.ts	context-menu actions + the runBatch orchestration

Roadmap

Ableton Extension SDK is still under development, some useful actions of the DAW are not exposed yet. This repo will stay in active development and update as the SDK grows.