StitchAble User Manual

Section 01

Getting started

StitchAble is a macOS app that stitches your individual worship and band songs into a single, gapless Ableton Live set, ready for playback. It works with MultiTracks downloads and with songs you have already built in Ableton, and it can output for Live 11 or Live 12.

The whole point is to get you from a folder of songs to a playable set in about a minute. Here is the short path.

1. Install it. Open the DMG, drag StitchAble into Applications, and launch it. A guide voice and the click sounds install themselves on first launch, so there is no setup step.
2. Direct StitchAble at your songs. It scans and lists what it finds, reading each song's title, artist, key, BPM, and time signature from the best-named folder, or from the .als filename.
3. Drag songs into the running order on the right, in the order you will play them. Reorder any time by dragging.
4. Set each song's options: a transpose if you need a key change, and the transition into the previous song.
5. Preview a transition with the play button to hear the seam before you commit.
6. Build. StitchAble produces a single Live set, optionally a full Ableton project, that opens natively in your chosen version of Live.

What your songs can look like

As of 1.0.3 the scan is far more forgiving, so you do not have to reorganize anything to get started. StitchAble finds your songs whether each one is:

• a song folder with an Ableton project inside, the standard layout;
• a single song folder you point at directly;
• a loose .als file; or
• a flat folder of .als files, one per song.

Key, BPM, and time signature are read from the best-named folder, and failing that from the .als filename. If you choose a folder with no Ableton projects in it at all, StitchAble now says so, "No Ableton projects (.als) found," rather than showing you an empty list and leaving you to guess.

Section 02

The running order

Your set lives in the running order. Each song is a row, and between every two songs sits a transition control.

A song row shows its number, title, artist with BPM and key, a time-signature pill, a transpose stepper with the resulting key, and a remove button. Drag rows to reorder them.

Setting a key by hand

When a song's name does not carry its key, the row lets you set one yourself, new in 1.0.3. Do that and the key display and transpose-to-key both work for that song like any other.

Section 03

Song transitions

The control between two songs sets how the next song joins the previous one. Click it to choose.

• Gap (default, 1 bar): an N-bar gap between the songs.
• Gapless (AutoLink): the next song starts exactly where the previous song ends.
• Overlap by N bars (1 to 8): the next song starts N bars before the previous song ends, so they overlap. The count is measured in the outgoing song's bars, so a 2-bar overlap means the previous song's last two bars play underneath the incoming song. Both songs play through the overlap at their own natural tempo, and nothing is time-stretched.

If the two songs use different time signatures, the boundary notes the meter change.

Section 04

Transition preview

Next to each transition is a play button that lets you hear the seam without building the whole set.

1. Click the play button beside a transition.
2. StitchAble prepares the preview, shown by a brief loading spinner.
3. It plays a few seconds of the outgoing song's tail meeting the incoming song's start, honoring the transition you chose and each song's transpose, with the count-in aligned to the real build.
4. Click again to stop.

The preview is a dry monitor of the songs' stems, with no click, guide, or effects, which is exactly enough to judge timing, key, and how the overlap feels.

Section 05

Transpose

Any song can be transposed up or down by up to 12 semitones. StitchAble uses an AUPitch-style pitch shift that changes pitch only, so timing is preserved and just the key moves.

1. Use the transpose stepper on the song's row.
2. Read the resulting key shown right beside the stepper.

Songs that change key mid-song are handled, with both the start and end keys shown, for example Ab→A.

Section 06

Click

StitchAble gives the whole set one unified click. Each song's own click pattern is preserved and mapped onto the set's shared click drum rack, so the click stays consistent from song to song no matter where each song came from.

The grid supports downbeat, quarter, eighth, and sixteenth, and the sixteenth-note click plays by default. You can mute individual click pads in Settings.

Section 07

Guide

StitchAble also gives the set one unified guide lane for spoken section cues, like Verse and Chorus. The guide instrument is pinned to a single consistent layout, so every song's cues map to the same notes and the guide is easy to maintain in one place.

1. Choose a guide voice or family in Settings.
2. Use the per-pad cue library to set your section cues.
3. Reorder the guide rack as you like.

A guide voice and the click sounds install with the app on first launch, so there is nothing to download before your first set. Switch voice or family in Settings, or bring in more with Add Pack…, including the MultiTracks samples or your own recordings.

Section 08

Control track lanes review

Some lanes merge into one across your whole set instead of staying one per song. This window lists those lanes, whatever they happen to be in your songs, and shows you before you build whether they actually will merge. New in 1.0.4.

Open it with the ▦ button next to Create Set. It lists every merging lane across the songs in your running order, in a window you can resize.

Reading it

• Lanes match by name and by type. An audio lane and a MIDI lane of the same name are two different lanes and will never merge. That is expected, not a fault, so seeing both listed separately is correct.
• The number strip beside each lane, 1 2 3 and so on, is one number per song in your set. A number is green when that lane exists in that song and dim when it is missing. All green means the lane merges into one across the whole set.
• Possible typo. When one song spells a lane differently from the others, StitchAble flags it. That single character is the reason a lane would otherwise arrive in your set as two.

Fixing a mismatch

1. Rename the odd lane inline, right in the review window, so it matches the others.
2. Click Apply Renames.
3. Build. The lanes now merge into one.

The warning on the main window

The ▦ button flashes a red warning when there is a naming mismatch it can fix. If it is not flashing, your lanes already line up and there is nothing to do here.

Section 09

Outputs and returns

StitchAble routes the set's audio sensibly. Stems go into their song group, and click and guide go to their own outputs, which you can configure.

When songs bring their own effect returns, StitchAble reconciles them so the merged set keeps each song's sends and returns intact.

Section 10

Live 11 or Live 12

Choose your target Live version, and the set opens natively in Live 11 or Live 12, with the format differences handled automatically.

MultiTracks and older songs are converted for you; Live 12 songs are used directly.

Section 11

Recent sets

StitchAble remembers your recent sets. Reopen a recent running order from the Recent menu instead of rebuilding it by hand.

Section 12

Fix folder name

If a song's folder name has a typo, such as a mis-spelled key, that would confuse the merge, use the per-song Fix folder name action. It safely corrects the folder on disk and re-points that song's samples.

1. Find the flagged song in your library.
2. Use its Fix folder name action.
3. StitchAble corrects the folder and relinks the samples for you.

There is also a Rename all, which canonicalizes every non-standard folder in one pass.

Section 13

Settings

Settings is where you set up the pieces the whole set shares: the guide voice or family, the per-pad click family and mutes, the order of the click and guide racks, the guide and click source (audio or MIDI), Add Pack… for extra guide and click packs, and output routing. It opens instantly.

Section 14

Trial and activation

StitchAble is free to download and build with. The trial is the whole app, not a crippled version: every feature works, and the only limit is size.

• Build up to 10 sets.
• Up to 3 songs in each set.
• Everything else is unrestricted, including transitions, preview, transpose, click, guide, and Live 11 or 12 output.

When you are ready, buy a license and you get a key on your receipt.

1. Paste the key into the activation screen.
2. Press Activate. That is one online check on this Mac.
3. After that StitchAble runs fully offline, with the caps lifted in the app you already have.

Section 15

Compatibility

StitchAble works with MultiTracks stem downloads and with Ableton-authored song projects, so your library can mix both.

It outputs a single gapless Live set, optionally a full Ableton project. The app is a macOS app, Developer-ID signed and Apple-notarized, so it opens with a normal double-click.

Section 16

Tips

• Preview before you build. A two-second listen at each seam catches an awkward overlap or a wrong-key entrance before you ever open Live.
• Choose overlap length by feel. Two bars is a gentle wash between songs; more bars make a longer, more deliberate blend. Remember the count is in the outgoing song's bars.
• Transpose to build a set that flows. Small moves keep singers comfortable and let neighboring songs share a key without warping anything.
• Set your guide voice once. Choose the family you want in Settings and every set you build uses it, so this is a one-time decision unless your team changes languages.

Section 17

Troubleshooting

The usual snags and the fix for each.