Session Notes

A minimal Markdown notepad for Ableton Live 12, built on the Live Extensions SDK. Jot lyrics, ideas, and to-dos without leaving Live, with clean, native-feeling typography and a render-by-default Markdown view. Tag a lyric line with a bar or timecode and drop it straight onto the arrangement.

Requires Ableton Live 12 with the Extensions feature (SDK 1.0.0-beta.0).

Features

• Markdown, rendered by default. Write in Markdown; a single tap or ⌘E toggles between View and Edit. Headings, bullet/numbered lists, bold/italic, blockquotes, links, and clickable GFM task lists (- [ ] / - [x]).
• Lyrics on the timeline. Tag a lyric line with its position, then send the block to the arrangement as locators or clips. Positions can be a bar ([17]), a bar and beat ([17.3]), a timecode ([1:04]), or a bit of math ([=8*4]). Untagged lines under a tag flow one bar apart, and a blank line ends the block so your prose and to-dos are left alone.
• Two kinds of notes:
  • Per-project notes are saved into a Session Notes/ folder inside the current Ableton project, so they travel with the Set when you move, share, or back it up. Keep as many as you like per project.
  • Global notes live with the extension, for anything not tied to a specific Set.
• Manage notes in place. Create, rename, and delete notes from the dropdown; copy a note's path or reveal it in your file browser.
• Settings panel. Tune the note text size, pick a compact or default window, and flip on Zen Mode for distraction-free writing.
• Save-As aware. Start jotting in an unsaved Set, then save it: the pad offers to carry those notes into the new project folder.
• Autosave on close. Close the pad (Done, ⌘S, or Esc) and it saves; Revert discards edits made since you opened it.
• Remembers your place. Reopens whatever note you had open last.
• Show file location and a built-in Markdown & lyric-timing help (the ? button).

See it in action

Write in Markdown, hit View to render it, then tag any lyric line with its position and send the block to the arrangement:

In the note (View)	Ready to send

They land on the timeline as named locators (on the ruler) and clips (on a dedicated Lyrics track), lined up to the bars and timecodes you tagged:

Settings and the built-in help are a button away:

Settings	Markdown & lyric-timing help

Try it yourself: paste this into a note, switch to View, then press the timeline button.

# Midnight Drive

Key: A minor · 128 BPM · ref: that Bonobo track

- [x] Track the drums
- [ ] Re-amp the bass on the second drop
- [ ] Mix the vocal louder in the bridge

Verse: keep it breathy, close-mic.

[1] Headlights bleed into the rain
chasing signals down the lane
[5] every mile a different me
[9] static on the radio
[1:04] and I let the whole thing go

The # heading, the prose line, and the to-dos are ignored by the timeline; only the tagged block is sent. The untagged chasing signals down the lane flows one bar after [1].

Install

1. Download the latest Session-Notes-<version>.ablx from the Releases page.
2. In Live: Settings → Extensions, then drag the .ablx file onto the page.
3. Right-click a track, clip slot, or scene → Extensions → Session Notes: Open…

Usage notes

• Open it from the right-click menu on an audio/MIDI track, clip slot, or scene. (The SDK has no global menu, so it attaches to the objects you can reach almost anywhere.)
• Per-project detection works even for MIDI-only Sets: if there's no audio to trace, the extension briefly imports a tiny silent probe to learn where the project folder is, then removes it.
• An unsaved Set has no project folder yet, so notes live in Ableton's temporary folder until you save. Save the Set (and reopen it once) and your notes attach to the project; a hint reminds you until then.

Develop

npm install
npm start        # build + run in Live's Extension Host (Developer Mode must be ON)
npm run build    # dev bundle
npm run package  # production bundle → Session-Notes-<version>.ablx

Node ≥ 22.11 is required (the SDK's minimum). Source lives in src/extension.ts (host logic) and src/interface.html (the webview UI).

License

MIT © Bengisu (@bengybade)