Same settings across multiple ableset devices (including mobile devices)

[CharlesM1725]

Hello! I was testing out running a redundant setup and Ablenet and realised I had to manaully chnage the settings on my Computer A, B and iPad to all be similar settings.

Is there a way to globally roll out settings? Stuff like, “turn off auto follow audio interface scene”, global performance view.

E.g. Scenario. Rolling out remote ipads to each band member on stage (say 5) right now I would have to manually configure each remote device?

Thanks!

[agustinvolpe]

Hey Charles!

Good question! This is a pretty common workflow once you start scaling to multiple devices.

In AbleSet 2, there isn’t a single “global preset” you can push automatically, but you can achieve consistent UI behavior in a couple of practical ways:

• You can create a MIDI mapping that triggers a chain of OSC commands to set things exactly how you want (views, locks, device-specific options, etc.).
• You can also use an OSC track at the start of your project (or at the start of each song) to act as a configuration / bootstrap step.

Using device control commands, you can target every connected browser or iPad at once, for example:
• Force all devices to open the same page (Performance / Setlist / Lyrics)
• Apply specific device settings
• Lock devices after configuration

You’ll find the relevant settings commands documented here.

This way, even if you’re deploying multiple iPads on stage, you can re-apply your preferred UI state automatically instead of configuring each device manually every time.

Starting with AbleSet 3 Beta 12, things get even cleaner thanks to project-specific files.

AbleSet now stores its settings and data inside an AbleSet folder within your Ableton project, which means:
• Global settings
• MIDI mappings
• Canvases
• Custom styles

…all travel with the project. You can copy the project to another computer, load it, and get the exact same configuration right away.

This already solves the “same settings across multiple computers” part very nicely. For mobile / remote devices, you can still combine this with device-level OSC commands if you want to enforce a specific UI state on load.

Hope that helps clarify the current options — happy to go deeper if needed!

[CharlesM1725]

Amazing that’s a great idea and thanks for the detailed explanation/response.

How would you right out multiple specific OSC devices for the [devices] value of the OSC command?

[agustinvolpe]

Hey Charles,

You can address multiple specific devices in the [devices] argument by listing their device names directly (the same names shown in the OSC Settings → Device Name ), or by using all , depending on what you want to target.

I actually posted a very similar approach some time ago, in this thread.

You can put this either in an OSC track or inside a MIDI mapping using a chained Custom OSC command, like in the screenshot below

In this example, the sequence does the following:

1. Locks all devices
2. Unlocks only the MacBook Pro
3. Sends all devices to Lyrics View
4. Switches the MacBook Pro back to Performance View
5. Enables song info in Performance View on all devices
6. Disables song info specifically on the iPhone

So you end up with:

• Everyone seeing lyrics
• The main machine in Performance View
• Slightly different UI behavior per role, all from one trigger

One thing to keep in mind: There’s a 50ms delay between OSC commands by default, so if you’re sending a longer chain, the full configuration might take 2–3 seconds to propagate to all devices. In practice, it’s not really an issue.

This pattern scales really well once you start handing out multiple iPads on stage.

Hope that helps!

[CharlesM1725]

Oh sweet thanks!

And if I want to target specific devices? Say I have iPhone, MacbookPro and iPad but only want to send commands to iPhone and iPad?

/devices/showPage/ iPad iPhone lyrics; ?

Maybe also a tag for ‘band devices’ vs ‘crew devices’ could be something?

[agustinvolpe]

You can absolutely do that.

You handle this from Settings → OSC Settings → OSC Device Names.

Each device can have one or more aliases, so you’re not limited to a single name per device. You can group devices logically just by how you name them.

For example:

• Your phone could have aliases like: iPhone, Apple
• Your laptop could have aliases like: MacBookPro, Apple
• An iPad could have: iPad, Band

Once you do that, you can target devices in a few different ways:

• Target specific devices directly:

/devices/showPage iPad iPhone lyrics

• Or target a group via a shared alias:
Instead of sending something like:

/notify/big MacBookPro,iPhone "Tuning Break"

…you can simply do:

/notify/big Apple "Tuning Break"

That message will show up on all devices that have Apple as one of their aliases.

So in practice, aliases work really well as:

• “band devices” vs “crew devices”
• Phones vs tablets vs main machines
• Any custom grouping you want

Hope that helps!

[CharlesM1725]

Hell yeah thanks for this! Didn’t realise I could already set aliases that’s awesome