Connecting Miles to your DAW
Miles follows your set through a small bridge inside your DAW. In Ableton Live, install the bridge, pick it in Live and read the status line. In FL Studio, open FL Studio and read the status line; on Windows it connects through two loopMIDI ports.
Why there is a bridge
Miles can hear the DAW that is playing and, with the eye on, look at its window. To know what is inside your set, the tracks, the devices and the notes, it needs a small bridge inside the DAW itself.
Miles connects to Ableton Live and FL Studio, on Mac and Windows. More DAWs are coming. In Ableton Live the bridge is a Remote Script called NolvraMILES; in FL Studio it is a MIDI script of the same name. Miles uses the bridge to follow your set, and it never moves or deletes anything of yours. When you ask for a part, it writes MIDI onto a new track or pattern of its own; the guide on Miles Expert mode explains it.
Ableton Live
Install the bridge
On a Mac, the line at the top of the Miles panel reads Ableton Live is not connected until the bridge is in place. Click that line. Miles copies NolvraMILES into the Remote Scripts folder of your Ableton User Library and answers: Installed. In Live, open Settings > Link/MIDI and select 'NolvraMILES'. If you moved your User Library, Miles finds it through Live's own settings. On Windows the installer has already done this step for you.
Select it in Live
If Live was open while the bridge went in, close it and open it again. Then open Live's Settings, go to Link/MIDI and pick NolvraMILES as a Control Surface. One copy of the bridge serves every Live version on the computer.
Read the status line
With Live open and NolvraMILES selected, the status line at the top of the panel reads Ableton Live connected, with a blue dot. From then on Miles follows your set while you work.
What the status line says
- Ableton Live connected: the bridge is talking and Miles is following your set.
- Ableton Live is not sending, the bridge is installed: the bridge is in place but Live is not sending anything. Open Live, then check that NolvraMILES is still selected under Link/MIDI.
- Ableton Live is not connected: the bridge is not installed yet. Click the line to install it.
- Bridge updated, reselect NolvraMILES in Live Settings: Miles brought its bridge up to date and Live is still running the old one. Select NolvraMILES again under Link/MIDI.
FL Studio on Mac
Open FL Studio
With Miles running, open FL Studio. The first time, Miles shows an Install FL script button in its panel that puts its NolvraMILES script into FL Studio: the guide Setting up FL Studio for Miles on Mac walks through it. The status line at the top of the panel reads FL Studio connected. From then on Miles follows your project.
What Miles sees in FL Studio
Your FL Studio project: the status line shows FL Studio and its tempo. It does not see the notes in your piano roll; it hears your song's key with the ear, and asks you to confirm it: I'm hearing F minor, is that right?
When both DAWs are open
If Ableton Live and FL Studio are both open, Miles follows Live and says so. Close Live and it switches to FL Studio.
FL Studio on Windows
Two loopMIDI ports
On Windows, Miles talks to FL Studio through two ports made with loopMIDI, named Miles Out and Miles In, and the NolvraMILES script in FL Studio. While FL Studio is open and loopMIDI or a port is missing, Miles says To connect FL Studio, install loopMIDI (tobias-erichsen.de) and add two ports: "Miles Out" and "Miles In". The guide Setting up FL Studio for Miles on Windows with loopMIDI walks through it.
When it connects
The status line reads FL Studio connected. If FL Studio is open but nothing arrives, it reads FL Studio is open but not sending.
When FL Studio does not connect
- Another MIDI device is using Miles's port number: Miles says so. Quit and reopen FL Studio and Miles moves to an unused one.
- A window is open in FL Studio, such as a plugin's notice or a loading message: close it and Miles sees your project again.
- On Windows, quit loopMIDI or delete a port and Miles shows its loopMIDI line again within 3 seconds.
Updates look after themselves
Every time Miles starts, it compares its own copy of the bridge with the one in your User Library and replaces it when it is out of date. The only thing left for you is the reselect in Live that the status line asks for.
What the bridge tells Miles
- Every track, returns and master included, with its chain of devices, down inside Racks and Drum Rack pads.
- The names of plugin settings with their positions, without units.
- The name of the loaded preset, where Live shares it.
- Which tracks are frozen.
- The notes of one clip: the clip open in Detail view, or else the Session slot you have highlighted.
Related guides
- Setting up FL Studio for Miles on Mac: where the NolvraMILES script goes, FL Studio's MIDI settings, and what the status line says.
- Setting up FL Studio for Miles on Windows with loopMIDI: the two ports, the script and FL Studio's MIDI settings.
- Miles Expert mode: what Miles writes into Ableton Live and FL Studio, and how to take it back.
Nolvra Miles is an AI assistant for Ableton Live and FL Studio. It reads your song and writes the part you ask for.
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