MXGPU in Ableton’s Input/Output
Originally published on Ableton.com: Input/Output: MXGPU
Text by Danny Turner. Photos by Ana Viotti.
Ableton ran a feature on MXGPU in its Input/Output series. It covers how we write, how we play, and what runs underneath. This is our short note on it. The full piece lives on Ableton.com.
The rig in the middle of the room. MAAT, Lisbon, March 2025. Photo: Ana Viotti
Why ABLETON
Ableton Live sits in the middle of everything we do. We sketch in it, we finish records in it, and on stage it runs the whole rig. As we told Ableton: “Ableton is at the centre of everything.”
It is the clearest record yet of how the show runs, written by the people who make the software, with Sudden Light out and the 360° show on the road.
Rundown
Inspiration. Contrast. Harsh against soft, precise against chaotic. Everyday sounds sampled and resampled until they stop sounding real, then held inside a song of about three minutes.
Workflow. Ideas start in Session View, without worrying about structure. Vocals begin as loose melodies. Lyrics and arrangement come later, in Arrangement View.
Live set-up. One multitrack session: stems, MIDI and live instruments processed in real time. Every mixer channel maps one to one to an input and an output, so Live works as a digital insert. MIDI out keeps the lighting desk and the lasers in sync. The article counts more than 100 shows on this system.
Software. Drum Sampler, Roar for saturation, Echo on almost every channel, Max for Live devices, and custom racks built to add randomness.
A free download. Peripheral Systems, a Live project made from field recordings around Lisbon and turned into playable instruments, with an exclusive track and notes. It needs Live Suite.
Lasers over the rig. MAAT, Lisbon, March 2025. Photo: Ana Viotti
If you open Peripheral Systems and make something from it, we would like to hear it: hello@mxgpu.net.
Originally published on Ableton.com: Input/Output: MXGPU
Text by Danny Turner. Posted on 4 November 2025.