Display song sections per specific song selection

General
1

Hi all,

I would love to be able to show the song sections drop down on specific songs in the canvas setlist window. not all songs. is this possible?

2

Hey @scotthalliday2000, welcome to the forum!

There’s a built-in option in Setlist View called Auto-Expand the Current Song, which automatically shows the sections of whichever song is currently active and collapses everything else. You can enable it in the Setlist View by tapping the gear icon (:gear:) at the bottom-left and toggling Auto-Expand the Current Song. Since the Canvas Setlist element uses the same settings as the main Setlist View, this will apply there too.

You can also manually tap the :play_button: arrow next to any song to expand it at any time.

You can also see this in action in the official tutorial.

Would that work for your use case?

3

Hi there.

Thanks for be response!

unfortuanly not, what I want is the ability have only certain songs open the sections view, and to be automated that way.

So for example song 1, 2, 3 all stay collapsed , but when the set gets to song 4, the sections view drops down so that our MD can see important looping sections , and the song 5, the sections dropdown closes back up.

Thanks again for the suggestion, I appreciate you taking the time.

4

Hey @scotthalliday2000,

You can achieve this using an OSC Track.

1. Disable Auto-Expand globally
Tap the gear icon (:gear:) at the bottom-left of the Setlist View and make sure Auto-Expand the Current Song is off.

2. Create a +OSC MIDI track in Ableton
Name it something like Sections Control +OSC [playing] (the [playing] attribute means it only fires during playback, not when you’re scrubbing around).

3. Add clips in the songs that need it

  • At the start of song 4: place a clip named /devices/showSections all true
  • At the start of song 5: place a clip named /devices/hideAllSections all

Adding to this, there’s also a scripting approach that might suit you better depending on your setup.

Instead of placing clips in the Ableton arrangement, you can use AbleSet’s Project Script to react to song changes automatically. The advantage here is that it’s based on song names, not position, so if you reorder songs in the setlist, the behavior follows the songs and you don’t have to update anything.

The script listens for the active song to change, checks if that song is in a predefined list, and shows or hides sections accordingly:

// Add the exact song names that should show sections
const SONGS_WITH_SECTIONS = new Set([
  "Song Four",
  "Another Song",
  // add more as needed
]);

onOscChange("/setlist/activeSongName", ([name]) => {
  if (SONGS_WITH_SECTIONS.has(name)) {
    sendOsc("/devices/showSections", "all", true);
  } else {
    sendOsc("/devices/hideAllSections", "all");
  }
}, true);

The song names need to match exactly as they appear in AbleSet (case-sensitive). You can find the Project Script editor under Settings → MIDI Mapping, OSC & Scripting → Project Script.

Is that something you’d be comfortable setting up, or would you prefer to stick with the OSC Track approach?

I’m looking forward to your reply!

1 Like
5

Wow!

Thank you! Unreal!

The frost approach will work great for me. Out of interest, with the 2nd option , where exactly do I put that code?

Thanks again !!

6

Hey @RScott,

Glad it helps! The code goes in Settings → MIDI Mapping, OSC & Scripting → Project Script.

Hope that helps!