This article is for Ableton Live 10 and previous versions. Ableton Live 11 introduced MPE support and the built-in devices 'Wavetable', 'Sampler', 'Simpler' and 'Arpeggiator' all now support MPE . For a full guide to setting up the Seaboard in Live 11, click here.

Set up: Analog


Analog responds minimally to 5D touch but can still take advantage of the Strike and Glide dimensions of touch.


Open ROLI Dashboard


Open Ableton Live and create a MIDI track with Analog as the instrument:

  • Create a patch in Analog and set Pitch Bend Range to 12


Ableton Analog Set Range


  • When you're happy with the patch, duplicate the MIDI track to match the channel range set in ROLI Dashboard. Example: if channel range is set from 1 - 5 in ROLI Dashboard, duplicate the first MIDI track until there are 5 MIDI tracks total
  • On each track set 'MIDI from' to Seaboard
  • Directly below 'MIDI from', set the Input channel for each track sequentially from 1 to 5
  • Record arm each of the 5 MIDI tracks


Ableton Analog Duplicate Track


Set up: Electric


Electric responds minimally to 5D touch but can still take advantage of the Strike and Glide dimensions of touch.


Open ROLI Dashboard


Open Ableton Live and create a MIDI track with Electric as the instrument:

  • Create a patch in Electric and set Pitch Bend Range to 12


Set Pitch Bend Range


The Strike dimension of touch is in effect by default when opening Electric as the instrument responds to velocity. To expand the expressiveness of Strike when using Electric, change the velocity settings in the Stiffness and Force areas under the Mallet heading.


In this example, we've used the following settings:

  • Mallet Stiffness set to -100%
  • Mallet Force set to 30%


Set Velocity


  • When you're happy with the patch, duplicate the MIDI track to match the channel range set in ROLI Dashboard. Example: if channel range is set from 1 - 5 in ROLI Dashboard, duplicate the first MIDI track until there are 5 MIDI tracks total
  • On each track set 'MIDI from' to Seaboard
  • Directly below 'MIDI from', set the Input channel for each track sequentially from 1 to 5
  • Record arm each of the 5 MIDI tracks


Duplicate Track


Set up: Tension


Tension responds minimally to 5D touch but can still take advantage of the Glide dimension of touch.


Open ROLI Dashboard


Open Ableton Live and create a MIDI track with Tension as the instrument:

  • Create a patch in Tension and set Pitch Bend Range to 12 


Set Pitch Bend Range


*Ableton advises that pitch bend in Tension may only work reliably when bending downward. The Slide dimension of touch is not as accurate in Tension as in other Live instruments.

  • When you're happy with the patch, duplicate the MIDI track to match the channel range set in Dashboard. Example: if channel range is set from 1 - 5 in Dashboard, duplicate the first MIDI track until there are 5 MIDI tracks total
  • On each track set 'MIDI from' to Seaboard
  • Directly below 'MIDI from', set the Input channel for each track sequentially from 1 to 5
  • Record arm each of the 5 MIDI tracks


Duplicate Tracks