Ableton Track Color Changer

Objective: Automatic color assignment if it contains the track name In Ableton Live

Description: this python program lets you assign a color in an Ableton track depending the name of the track. The color of a track helps you to organize, find and visualize quickly the track in your musical composition. The colors applied have been followed (or try to follow) the suggestions from Marc Mozart

Disclaimer: There are more options on the market to do the same that this utility does, but very few are free

Note: This code is based in the original from CoryWBoris named AbletonAutoColor. The code of this repository has been tested on Ableton Live 12

Release Notes

• 20250604 - Currently there is only one version

Why this project

The project from Cory was working fine, but there were two things that I wanted to change.

• The first one related with the colors used by Cory.
• The second one and most important for me, be able to change the color of a track, if the track or some part of it, contains the text that we use to change the color

For example, if my plan is change the color of a track at Ableton if the text is "synth", I would like to change this if the track contains "synth", not if is equal to "synth". So if my track is named as "synth", or "synth main" or "whatever synth", the color change will be applied too

How it works

This project is for Mac and Windows

• This is a python code, that Ableton is able to interpret and work with it (we'll talk about it later)
• You will have to download two files, put them into a folder, and open Ableton Live
• After this, you will have to go to the Settings in Ableton Live, and indicates the python code that you want to use
• Restart Ableton Live, and use the utility

When you open Ableton Live, this utility will be working. You can go to the Settings of Ableton Live again, to disable it

Installation

The installation is manual but very easy. Follow the next steps:

1. You will have to go to the User Library of Ableton Live

For macOS users: go to /Users/{your_username}/Music/Ableton/User Library

For Windows users: go to \Users\[username]\Documents\Ableton\User Library

2. Create the folder Remote Scripts if it's not already created
3. Create a folder titled TrackColorChanger inside the Remote Scripts folder
4. Download both .py files, TrackColorchanger.py and __init__.py that you will find in the folder TrackColorChanger of this repository, and place them (overwrite the folder if it is necessary) in the Remote Scripts/TrackColorChanger folder
5. Restart or Open Ableton Live
6. Go to the Ableton Live Settings, select TrackColorChanger in the "Link|Tempo|Midi" tab of Ableton Live Settings, and make sure the input and output are set to 'None'

Organization of the colors

I have organized the name of the tracks by categories, but in this program or utility, you can find the name of the tracks only

Note: I have tried to follow the organization suggested by Marc Mozart

I share with you the categories, name of the tracks and color. You can edit this content as you want. I am going to explain you how to do it

drum

• "hats": 29
• "kick": 28
• "perc": 57
• "snare": 42
• "tom": 0

synth

• "keys": 21
• "lead": 22
• "pad": 49
• "piano": 63
• "pluck": 65
• "synth": 64

bass

• "bass": 60

efx

• "ambience": 3
• "atmos": 17
• "drone": 59
• "efx": 32
• "noise": 31
• "riser": 45

strings

• "guitar": 18
• "string": 1

vocal

• "main voice": 54
• "vox": 66

wind

• "wind": 38

This information can be found in the python code:

track_colors = {
    "hats": 29,
    "kick": 28,
    "perc": 57,
    "snare": 42,
    "tom": 0,
    "keys": 21,
    "lead": 22,
    "pad": 49,
    "piano": 63,
    "pluck": 65,
    "synth": 64,
    "bass": 60,
    "ambience": 3,
    "atmos": 17,
    "drone": 59,
    "efx": 32,
    "noise": 31,
    "riser": 45,
    "guitar": 18,
    "string": 1,
    "main voice": 54,
    "vox": 66,
    "wind": 38
}

The code or number of each color, can be found in the next table/image

And the list of this colors in a Ableton Live project, and in all its tracks in the next one:

As I said, you can use the name or part of it in your tracks to give the same color, regardless of using the exact word or a text with the word:

If you want to change a text or color, you can edit the file TrackColorchanger.py

Remember save the file and restart Ableton Live to apply the changes.