Playhead.

It's like Cursor for Ableton Live

An AI collaborator that lives inside your session — reads your clips, understands your intent, and iterates with you in plain language.

Get Early Access See how it works
Ableton Live · Max for Live · Claude AI
Stateful conversation
Reads your clips
Iterate in plain language
Drum patterns
Melodic generation
Create mode
Iterate mode
Plan mode
Native to Ableton
Max for Live
Stateful conversation
Reads your clips
Iterate in plain language
Drum patterns
Melodic generation
Create mode
Iterate mode
Plan mode
Native to Ableton
Max for Live
In the studio
Playhead running inside Ableton Live
Playhead Chat panel running natively inside Ableton Live — mid-conversation building a UK garage pattern

The difference

It knows what's in your session

Other tools give you a prompt box. Playhead reads your open clip, understands the context — tempo, key, what's already written — and responds accordingly. Ask it to add a snare on every offbeat and it adds one to your pattern, not a generic one.

Playhead iterate
You
Let's make a nice 2-step shuffle with skippy swung hats and kicks
Playhead
Generated 24 notes (2 unique pitches)
You
This is cool! Now add a snare, and an open hat on every single off beat, like house
Playhead
Added snare on 2 and 4, open hats on every 8th note offbeat. Updated your pattern — 38 notes total.
describe what you want...
Send

How it works

01
Install the Pack
Double-click the .alp file. Ableton installs everything automatically — no manual file copying, no setup scripts.
02
Drop it on a MIDI track
Playhead lives as a Max MIDI Effect. It reads your session's tempo, time signature, and the clip open in your piano roll.
03
Have a conversation
Describe what you want in plain language. Iterate, refine, plan. The AI understands what you've already written and builds on it.

What makes it different

⟳
Stateful conversation
Full conversation history. Playhead remembers everything you've said in the session — follow-up instructions actually work.
◈
Reads your clips
In iterate mode, Playhead reads the notes in your open piano roll before responding. It modifies your pattern, not a generic one.
◎
Three modes
Create generates new clips. Iterate edits what's there. Plan is a pure conversation mode for music theory and arrangement ideas.
⬡
Native to Ableton
Built as a Max MIDI Effect — not a VST wrapper. It has direct Live API access. Tempo, time signature, clip slots sync automatically.

Pricing

Simple. No surprises.

Own it once, or let us handle the API.

One-time
$29
forever · bring your own API key
  • Full Ableton Pack (.alp)
  • All three modes
  • Lifetime updates
  • Your own Anthropic API key required
Buy the Pack
Pro — Early Access
$12
per month · managed API included
  • Everything in One-time
  • No API key needed — we handle it
  • Unlimited generations
  • Priority access to new features
Get Early Access