Lesson 26

Cloud, Link, MIDI & Live

Take a quick tour of the ways Move connects to other gear and apps, and find out where to keep learning.

You’ll need:

A Move that is switched on and on Wi-Fi (for the Cloud and Link parts)
Optional, for Cloud, an Ableton account and Cloud switched on in Move Manager
Optional, a USB MIDI keyboard

The idea

Everything in this course so far happened inside Move. That’s the point of it: you can pick it up and make music anywhere. But Move can also talk to the world around it, and this last lesson is a short tour of the four main ways.

Ableton Cloud keeps copies of up to eight Sets online, so you can carry on with a song in the Note app on a phone or tablet, in Ableton Live on a computer, or on Push. You switch it on once in Move Manager (Lesson 25), using an Ableton account.
Link keeps Move in time with other apps and devices on the same network. Start a drum loop on Move, and a friend’s app on a phone plays along at the same speed.
MIDI is a common language music gear uses to send notes. It carries which note was played and how hard, not the sound itself. With it, a USB keyboard can play Move’s sounds.
Control Live Mode turns Move into a controller for Ableton Live on a computer.

You don’t need any of these to make music on Move. Try the ones that sound useful, and skip the rest.

Let’s start with Cloud. Hold Shift and press Step 1 to see your Sets.
You should see: The Set Overview, with a lit pad for each of your Sets.
Hold Shift and press the pad of a Set you’d like to take elsewhere. Let go of both.
Only see Cloud Off?
Cloud isn’t switched on yet. Open that entry to see the address for Move Manager, then in Move Manager go to the Settings page and click Activate Cloud. You’ll sign in to your Ableton account there. Lesson 25 shows how to open Move Manager.
You should see: The display shows the options for that Set.
Turn the wheel to Upload to Cloud and press the wheel. After the upload, the Set’s icon on the display gets a small cloud.
Didn’t work?
Uploading needs Wi-Fi. No connection right now? Don’t worry: Move holds on to the upload and sends it when Wi-Fi returns. If Move says the limit is reached, you already have eight Sets in Cloud: make one of them local first (see Good to know).
You should see: The entry briefly shows that the Set is uploading, then a message says it's done.
Now Link. Hold Shift and press Step 2.
You should see: The Setup menu opens.
Turn the wheel to Link and press the wheel to open it. You’ll find three choices:
Off
Tempo
Start/Stop
Tempo makes Move follow the shared speed. Start/Stop does that too, and also starts and stops Move together with the others. Off means Move keeps its own time.
You should see: The Link entry opens, with three choices.
Turn the wheel to Tempo.
Didn’t work?
If the choice doesn’t seem to stick, press the wheel once while Tempo is highlighted. Link only finds apps and devices on the same network as Move. If Move is plugged into a computer by USB-C, the computer’s network works too. While Link is on, recording has no count-in, so choose Off again when you’re playing alone.
You should see: Tempo is chosen, and Move now follows the speed of any Link session it finds.
Hold Back to leave the Setup menu.
You should see: The Setup menu closes.
Now MIDI. Plug a USB MIDI keyboard into the USB-A port on Move’s back. Move can power a small keyboard through the same cable.
Didn’t work?
Most small USB keyboards work, as long as they need no special driver on a computer. Very fast USB gear, such as Push, won’t work here.
You should see: Nothing changes yet: Move is ready to listen to the keyboard.
Press a track button to open a track, then play some keys on your keyboard. To play a different sound, press a different track button.
Didn’t work?
If nothing sounds, hold Shift and press that same track button. This opens a menu of options for that track. Find the MIDI In setting with the wheel and set it to Auto (see the note below). Then press Back to leave the menu.
You should hear: Playing the keyboard plays the sound of the track you picked.

Try it yourself

Put a Set in Cloud, then open the Note app on a phone or tablet signed in to the same Ableton account and find your Set there.
Turn on Link with Tempo, open any Link-enabled app on a phone on the same Wi-Fi, and change the tempo in the app. Watch Move follow.
With a keyboard plugged in, record a melody from it into a clip, just like playing the pads (Lesson 11).

Good to know

Taking a Set out of Cloud. Hold Shift, press the Set’s pad, and choose Make Local. Move keeps its copy; only the online one goes.
Note Sets on Move. A Note Set can have lots of tracks, but Move only has room for four. You’ll get the first four, and the rest stay behind in Note.
Control Live Mode needs Ableton Live (12.1 or newer, or 11.3.35 or newer) on a computer and a USB-C cable. It’s the Control Live entry in the Setup menu. To come back, open Setup again and choose the Standalone entry, which takes its place. While you’re in Control Live Mode, a keyboard on the USB-A port won’t work.
Headphones and speakers. The audio out jack on the back works for both. The audio in jack takes line-level sound, for example from a phone; a microphone or a guitar needs a preamp in between.
Move as a sound card. Plugged into a computer by USB-C, Move can send its audio to the computer, to record it in Live or another app. Choose what it sends in the USB-C Audio entry in Setup. With Main Out chosen, Move’s own speaker goes quiet.

Where to go next

You’ve reached the end of First Moves. Well done! Here’s where to keep going:

The official Move manual covers every feature in depth. Now that you know your way around, it will read much more easily.
Learning Music is a free, playful site from Ableton about beats, melodies, chords and song structure. Everything you try there, you can try on Move.
Learning Synths explains how synthesizers make sound, one knob at a time. It’s the perfect next step after Lesson 17.

Most of all: keep making things. Start a new Set, grab a sound you like, and see where it goes.