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This page is read from MIDI Instrument Definitions, a Python library used in the author's other projects, in which every number is traced to a document its maker published. Its source is on GitHub.

Ableton Move MIDI implementation

The MIDI implementation of the Ableton Move: what it answers to, on firmware 2.1.1.

At a glance

Firmware
This page describes firmware 2.1.1.
MIDI channel
Any one of 1 to 16.
Parts
Track, 4 of them: each on a MIDI channel of its own, taking notes.
Voices
Not recorded.
Note range
Not recorded.
Velocity
Not recorded.
Aftertouch
Polyphonic, a value for each key. It sends aftertouch too.
Pitch bend
Not recorded.
Program change
Not recorded.
MIDI clock
Sent and received.
Start and stop
Not recorded.
Control change
None.
NRPN
None.
System exclusive
Not recorded.

Where these facts come from

Source documents

How they were read

Move's release notes, read in full and version by version, with the Operation Manual for what the instrument is, and the product page, tech specs and new-features page for what the manual is too old to cover.

THE MANUAL NUMBERS ITS SECTIONS, so its citations name one: the MIDI material is in section 2.1.7, the MIDI setting, and section 4.1.3, Connecting MIDI Devices, with aftertouch in section 9.4, the ports in section 1.2.2, Ableton Link in section 4.2 and the track count in section 4.3.3.

THE MANUAL CANNOT BE USED FOR MIDI AND IT TOOK A SECOND READER TO SEE IT. It is copyright 2024 and its newest software reference is version 1.1; the current software is 2.1.1. The release notes carry a dated MIDI entry for 1.2.0, 1.3.0, 1.5.0, 1.6.0 and 1.7.0, and between them they overturn five of the manual's statements. A first reading took the manual as authoritative and the product page as marketing overreach, and had the instrument backwards in five fields.

WHAT CHANGED, AND WHEN. MIDI clock out at 1.2.0: "It is now possible to send MIDI Sync (i.e., MIDI clock) out when Move is set to receive MIDI notes" (release_notes). Polyphonic aftertouch out at 1.3.0: "Move now sends out polyphonic aftertouch when set to MIDI Out, which lets you play expressively when using external MIDI controllers" (release_notes). Simultaneous input and output, per-track channels, and clock in, all at 1.5.0: "MIDI input and output can now be active simultaneously. Additionally, MIDI send and receive channels can be configured for each track" (release_notes). USB-C became a MIDI port at 1.7.0.

THE CHANNEL RANGE IS ESTABLISHED BY THE MAKER'S OWN WORKED EXAMPLE AND NOWHERE ELSE. The manual never writes the words MIDI channel at all. The release notes do it by arithmetic: "if the first track has MIDI In set to Channel 5, and all the other tracks are set to MIDI In Auto, when any of the other tracks is selected, it will receive MIDI notes from channels 1-4 and 6-16" (release_notes). So the range is 1 to 16, and that sentence is the only place either endpoint appears in any of the five documents.

AND MIDI IN HAS AN AUTO SETTING WORTH KNOWING ABOUT, because it is not a channel: it "activates all MIDI input channels for the currently selected track - except for channels that are explicitly assigned to other tracks" (release_notes). A track set to Auto therefore answers on a range that depends on what the other three tracks are set to, which is a property of the player's Set rather than of the instrument.

IT ANSWERS TO NO CONTROLLER, AND THE MAKER SAYS SO: "monophonic aftertouch, MIDI CC, and MIDI mapping are not supported" (manual). That statement is from the 1.1-era manual and no release note since adds either parameter control by controller number or MIDI learn, so it still holds - and it is a stated absence rather than a silence, which is why control_change records none rather than being left unset.

ONE CONTROLLER NUMBER EXISTS IN ALL FIVE DOCUMENTS AND IT IS SENT, NOT ANSWERED. From 1.3.0: "an 'All Sound Off' MIDI message (CC 120) is sent to the MIDI output" (release_notes), when playback stops or a clip is retriggered. control_change: none is a statement about what this instrument answers to - see the field's own meaning in the format - so the two do not conflict, and CC 120 is a channel mode message rather than a parameter controller in any case. It is recorded here because it is the one number a reader of these documents will find.

FOUR TRACKS, EACH WITH ITS OWN SEND AND RECEIVE CHANNEL. "Move supports a maximum of four tracks" (manual), and from 1.5.0 each has per-track options for MIDI Out and MIDI In (release_notes). The parts below record that; polyphony is not recorded because no document states a voice count for this instrument at all.

AFTERTOUCH TRAVELS BOTH WAYS AND ONLY TWO OF THE INSTRUMENT'S OWN ENGINES ANSWER IT. Received: "Move can receive polyphonic aftertouch messages" (manual). Sent, from 1.3.0, as above. And the narrowing: "Drift and Wavetable support this type of aftertouch" (manual), said twice, so the other instrument types do not. The format now holds the two apart: aftertouch: poly for what it answers to, and aftertouch_transmits: true for what it sends.

A CHECKED ABSENCE, STATED TWICE AND UNDER TWO NAMES: channel aftertouch. The MIDI section calls it "monophonic aftertouch" (manual) and the playing chapter says "Move does not support Channel Aftertouch, where the pressure applied to one pad affects all pads simultaneously" (manual). A reader searching for either name will miss the other, so both are here.

NOT RECORDED: transport. Every synchronisation entry in the release notes says MIDI Sync, glossed once as "(i.e., MIDI clock)" (release_notes), and nothing in any of the five documents names start, stop, continue or song position as a MIDI message. clock is recorded and transport is not, which is a narrower claim than the documents might seem to support.

AND THE START AND STOP COMMANDS IN THESE DOCUMENTS ARE ABLETON LINK'S, WHICH IS NOT MIDI. Link "keeps devices in time over a wired or wireless network" (manual) and has a setting named Start/Stop which "syncs the playback position as well as the tempo" (manual). That is the exact vocabulary of MIDI transport and song position, reached by something that is not MIDI at all, and it is the likeliest thing in this instrument's documents to be recorded as MIDI by mistake.

CHECKED ABSENCES, each searched for in all five documents and found nowhere: program change, bank select, pitch bend, registered and non-registered parameters, system exclusive, MIDI thru, local control, omni mode and MPE.

NOT RECORDED: velocity, in either direction. The pads are "velocity-sensitive" (manual) and a Full Velocity setting plays everything "at the maximum velocity (i.e., a velocity value of 127)" (manual) - but that is what the pads generate internally, and no document says whether note velocity travels over MIDI either way. The one genuine MIDI value in these documents is that 127, and it is about the pads.

THE PORTS, AND THEY DISAGREE ACROSS THREE PAGES. The manual gives MIDI to USB-A alone: "You can connect a MIDI device via the USB-A port on the back of the unit" (manual), where Move is the host and "can supply it with up to 500 mA of power" (manual). 1.7.0 added USB-C, Move being the device: "other hardware with a USB Host port can now connect to Move via its USB-C port" (release_notes). The new-features page states the current position plainly - "Share MIDI with external gear via Move's USB-C and USB-A ports" (new_features) - while the tech specs still put MIDI only on USB-A (tech_specs) and the product page's own port list omits USB-A entirely (product_page). There is no DIN and no TRS MIDI.

A DEVICE RESTRICTION THAT READS AS A CONTRADICTION AND IS NOT QUITE ONE: "Low-speed and full-speed USB devices are supported, but not hi-speed USB devices such as Push" (manual), against 1.7.0 naming "Push 3 or other hardware with a MIDI capable USB-A port" (release_notes) among what Move can exchange MIDI with (release_notes). The first is about what Move will host on its own USB-A port and the second about Move being hosted over USB-C, which reconciles them - but neither document says so, and a reader taking either alone gets the opposite answer about the same two products.

WHAT GATES MIDI ENTIRELY: Control Live Mode. The manual says "sending and receiving MIDI data does not work when Move is in Control Live Mode" (manual) and that the MIDI setup entry disappears there; 1.6.0 then made devices on the USB-A port forward to the computer in that mode instead (release_notes). So the manual's flat statement is no longer the whole of it, and what a connected device does in that mode depends on the version.

ONE DOCUMENT THAT WOULD SETTLE WHAT IS LEFT COULD NOT BE READ. Release note 1.7.0 points at a dedicated Knowledge Base article about using MIDI with Move. help.ableton.com answered 403 on two attempts spaced ninety seconds apart, the request unvaried. It exists, it is not in the library, and it is where to look first for velocity, transport and program change.