How to start a track with AI in Ableton Live
The full session below goes from a blank Ableton project to an arranged tech house track using StudioPilot. This page is the written version: every quoted prompt is what was actually said in the session.
1. Start with a groove, not a song
“Let's get an eight bar loop groove going. Just drums. Check my sample pack. We're making a tech house track.”
StudioPilot analyses the loops in your packs and lays down a starting groove. You can dig through your own samples instead. The point of asking first is it might hand you something you would never have picked. Danny builds the whole eight-bar loop before touching arrangement: get the song you want to hear, then stretch it.
2. Layer the percussion
“I need a little shaker or a jingle as well.”
If the sound isn't in the current pack it checks your other packs, explains its choice ("clean, all high end, no low mud. I'll tuck it quietly under the hat") and balances it against what's already playing.
3. Bassline in Serum
“Add Serum on a new track with MIDI. Lay down some MIDI notes for a tech house bassline so I can test some sounds on it. Add Kickstart to the bass.”
It writes the bassline as real MIDI on the track, so you audition presets against actual notes. You can name the key you want to work in. To try variations, duplicate the track and ask: "I want a different variation: longer notes, not so much movement." It mutes the original so you can A/B them.
4. Melody as call and response
“Create a new track with Serum. I want a nice melody, not too much, something that plays call and response with the bass.”
Don't like the first pass? Say so and it rewrites, or edit the MIDI yourself. It's your track. Danny rejected two versions, kept the third, then: "Add a slight reverb and delay on that."
5. Ask what's missing
“What else is missing, do you think?”
This is the sound-engineer moment: it reviewed the session and flagged real problems: no structure yet, no risers or transitions, the vocal dumped in wet with no EQ, and a 138 BPM sample sitting in a 128 project that needed its warp checked.
6. Arrange the eight bars into a track
“Let's start arranging. How shall we do this?”
It stretched the loop into a DJ-length arrangement: intro, groove, build one, drop one, breakdown, build two, drop two, outro. Then it took notes like "drop two gets boring after sixteen bars, we need more elements coming in" and staggered new layers through the second half.
7. Details that make it move
“I added a 909 snare on a track. On the MIDI track, make it a really long tech house snare roll.”
It writes the roll out as MIDI notes. Later, on the vocal: "On build two, can we make the vocal a vocal chop, so it brings energy into the drop?" It chopped the phrase into rising eighth-note slices, pitched the last bars up, and swept a filter open into the drop. Danny's reaction in the video: "I would never have used Beat Repeat to do this."
8. Clean the low end
“Remove all the low-end frequencies from the percussions and loops so we can clean things up.”
The rule Danny gives in the video: 90% of the time, high-pass everything that isn't kick or bass so nothing fights for the sub and the mix stays clean. StudioPilot put an EQ Eight on all nine percussion tracks and set each high-pass individually, "so the lows come out without gutting the body."
9. Check the kick and bass relationship
“Should we do anything to make the kick and the bass more blended? Keep the kick we've got.”
It measured the kick (nearly all sub, barely any click, Kickstart at 100%) and reshaped the balance so the kick punches and the bass sits under it instead of vanishing. A hole and a blend are different things.
The workflow in one paragraph
Build an eight-bar loop first: groove, bass, melody, one vocal. Ask what's missing. Arrange it out to DJ length. Add the transitions and rolls. High-pass everything that isn't kick or bass. Check the kick-bass blend last. And keep your own taste in charge. StudioPilot is the engineer, you're the producer. It works with a standalone app (AI built in) or the Setup Kit for Claude and Codex.