Ableton Note

Category

Description of App

Start new musical ideas with a curated selection of sounds and effects. Play beats and melodic parts, sample your world, and continue your tracks in Ableton Live.

Note is a place to form ideas, experiment with sounds and find direction. Get your ideas out or play until inspiration hits using a selection of Ableton Live’s drum kits, synths and melodic instruments. Or create your own sound palette by recording the sounds around you into Note’s sampler instruments using your phone’s microphone.

If you want to take your ideas further, use Ableton Cloud to send your projects to Live (version 11.2.5 or later) without leaving the app. Open your project from Live’s browser, then keep working – you can edit all your MIDI notes, and all your samples and sounds from Note are exactly the same.

Begin with a beat:
• Choose from 56 Drum Sampler kits
• Tap out a beat using the 16-pad grid
• Quantize your beat to fix any loose timing
• Nudge notes to correct mistakes
• Add more layers of rhythm
• Create beat repetitions with Note Repeat
• Change parameters to shape your sound
• Experiment with effects

Start with a melody:
• Choose from 261 synth sounds and 36 Melodic Sampler instruments
• Play your melody or chord progression with either the 25-pad grid or the piano roll
• Set a key and scale to get instantly harmonic results, or leave your options open
• Overdub more layers of harmony
• Change parameters to shape your sound
• Add effects to experiment with sound design

Sample your environment:
• Create your own kits by recording percussive sounds into Note’s Drum Sampler
• Record tonal sounds to create your own Melodic Sampler instruments
• Manipulate your samples by cutting, filtering or repitching them
• Shape or transform your sounds with effects

Capture improvisations:
• Play something, then tap the Capture button to keep it
• Play at the tempo that feels comfortable and Note will detect it
• Note will recognize the length of the phrase
• A loop is created automatically
• Quantize it, add to it, or change the sound

Create variations:
• Note features a grid-based Session View layout
• Double your loops to create variation within clips
• Duplicate your clips and create different versions of your ideas
• Create eight tracks with up to eight clips on eight scenes
• Try different layer combinations and song structures
• Export your work in Session View as an audio file to listen and share

Version

1.0.13

Free or Paid

Paid

Apple Watch Support

No

Device(s) App Was Tested On

iPhone

iOS Version

17

Accessibility Comments

This is possibly one of the most accessible music production apps on iOS, aside from GarageBand. Ableton has done an amazing job here, and as far as I can tell pretty much everything works with VoiceOver. The interface is very easy to use, however I would recommend turning hints on at first as there is important information that you will not get if you have them disabled.
As of Live 12, accessibility has been implemented on both Mac OS and Windows, and the update will be released within the next few months. It's currently undergoing beta testing right now, and if you would like to see the release notes, here's a link: https://www.ableton.com/en/release-notes/live-12-beta/

VoiceOver Performance

VoiceOver reads all page elements.

Button Labeling

All buttons are clearly labeled.

Usability

The app is fully accessible with VoiceOver and is easy to navigate and use.

Recommendations

1 people have recommended this app

Most recently recommended by Zachary 1 year 1 month ago

Options

Comments

By Ramy on Tuesday, December 5, 2023 - 16:17

Hello:
Thanks so much for this great App .
I was searching to find an easy app on ios just to put rhythm loops on it and change there tempo, just for piano jaming.
am practising piano, and i need something to play on.
so, even if I can load some audio loops in my phone, i can not use them, because they have fixed tempo.
am A Logic pro user on mac, and Frankly do not want to learn something difficult new.
so, just asking if this app can do what i need in an easy way?
Thanks in advance

By Firefly on Tuesday, December 5, 2023 - 16:17

I just got this app and I’m really really impressed. I have listened to the manual on YouTube, though there are no voiceover specific help guides that I know of at least, so I’m trying to figure everything out. I think this will be a really cool thing for me to get into! As far as creating stuff. If anyone who has been using it for a while, has any tips or tricks please don’t hesitate to let me know.

By Jonathan Candler on Tuesday, December 5, 2023 - 16:17

With the desktop version of ableton going to be accessible soon for what I know, May switch from logic to this to make beets! Been wanting to use ableton for a long ass time and maybe, when accessibility comes to desktop, I'll be giving this a go for sure. Gunna see what I can do with ableton note too! Just another tool to add to my toolbox of daws I use. Reaper and logic being my main go to for different stuff.

By Ramy on Tuesday, December 5, 2023 - 16:17

ok, great
i'l give it a try and see
Thanks so much

By Ramy on Tuesday, December 5, 2023 - 16:17

Great thanks so much
but do not think that i'll have time to learn a new DAW, am just a logic beginner from 1 year after Cakewalk and Pro tools.
BUt it depends on what tools will Live will add.