Live set and the connector
Telling Downstage which Live set it is looking at, and installing the script that connects it to Live.
Downstage 0.9.0 · updated 13 Oct 2026Backstage › Live set has the two things that connect Downstage to Ableton: the connector, and the choice of which Live set your setlists belong to.
The connector
Downstage talks to Live through a small control-surface script — a Remote Script, in Ableton's terms. It lets Downstage read your locators and tracks, and ask Live to jump, play and stop.
The top of the tab says where things stand:
| It says | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Connected to Live. Nothing to do here. | All good. |
| Not installed on this computer yet | Press Install the connector. |
| Installed, but Live is not answering | Live is closed, or Downstage is not chosen as a Control Surface. |
Installing it
- Press Install the connector. It copies a folder called
Downstageinto Live's User Library, underRemote Scripts. - Quit and reopen Ableton Live.
- In Live: Settings › Link, Tempo & MIDI › Control Surface, and choose Downstage. Leave Input and Output on None.
The button is only offered on the Mac that runs Ableton — not from an iPad — because it writes into that Mac's Ableton folder. It writes into the User Library only; it never touches a Live set.
If Downstage says it could not find the User Library, Live has either never been opened on this Mac or its User Library has been moved. Open Live once and try again.
If you already have AbletonOSC
The connector is AbletonOSC, an open-source Remote
Script by Daniel Jones and contributors, installed under the name Downstage. If you already have a
folder called AbletonOSC in your Remote Scripts — because you use it with another tool —
Downstage can talk to that one just as well.
What you must not do is choose both as Control Surfaces at once. They are the same script and want the same port, so whichever Live loads second gets nothing. Pick one. Backstage tells you when both are installed.
Which Live set is this?
Downstage reads your songs straight from whatever set is open in Live, so the show works without choosing anything. But setlists and notes have to be saved somewhere, and Downstage saves them beside the Live set they belong to. This is where you tell it which set that is.
- The list shows the Live sets found in your Music, Documents and Desktop folders, most recently saved first. Backups, templates and your User Library are left out.
- Tap your show's set. It is remembered from then on.
- If your set is somewhere else — an external drive, a deeper folder — paste the full path to the
.alsfile into the field underneath and press Use this.
The line above the list says which set is in use.
Downstage never opens your .als file. Choosing a set only tells it which folder to keep
its own small .downstage folder in.
If the set has moved
If the chosen set cannot be found — the drive is unplugged, or the project was moved — Downstage says so here and in the warnings, and stops saving setlist changes rather than lose them. Plug the drive back in, or choose the set again in its new place.
More than one Live set
Each Live set has its own setlists, kept beside it. If you open a different set in Live for a different show, come here and choose it, and that set's setlists appear.