MIDI Clip Sync

Harmonybeam can sync its progression directly to MIDI clips in either the Session View or Arrangement View (requires Ableton Live 11 or higher). Any changes you make to the progression are then reflected automatically once Clip Sync is established.

Establishing Clip Sync

1. Click on the green Sync button in the bottom right of the plugin. The Link symbol next to it now switches to green to indicate that Clip Sync is active, and the button now changes to Desync to allow you to deactivate the Clip Sync.
2. Make any changes you like to the progression, either by using the Input Bar, rearranging Chord Blocks, or changing the chords through the Chord Picker.
3. Any changes are immediately reflected in the MIDI clip.

A synced clip can be freely moved, looped or resized and the Sync state will be maintained, but editing its contents (notes) will break the Sync state (see below).

Synced clips are labeled with their contents, for example HB [Dm7 G7 Cmaj7 Am7]. If the progression contains rests, the label includes them in the same order as the chord strip. When Bass Split is active, the bass clip is labeled with the bass notes it contains. These labels update as you edit the progression, so you can identify the clip from Live without opening the device or piano roll.

Sync States

Once a clip is synced, Harmonybeam updates it automatically. The Link icon in the controls row shows:

• Green — clip is synced
• Amber — clip is out of sync (e.g. after manually editing the clip in Live)
• Red — clip is not synced

Tip

Currently, one instance of Harmonybeam supports syncing one clip per track. If you would like to manage different progressions on the same track, you can in theory add multiple plugin instances on the same track and each instance manages its own clip. While we do not officially support this, it generally works, but we can’t guarantee 100% bug free usage. Future updates may include a better way to manage multiple progressions on the same track.

Tip

When you manually edit a synced clip (e.g. by moving or changing notes), the plugin considers it out of sync and will no longer update it. You can then click "Restore Sync" to overwrite any manual changes and sync it again.

Bass split

You can route bass notes to a separate MIDI track using the Bass Split dropdown in the controls row:

1. Select a target MIDI track from the dropdown
2. The lowest note of each chord is sent to that track
3. Upper voices remain on Harmonybeam’s track

This lets you use a dedicated bass instrument while the main track handles the harmony. As with the main clip, the bass clip can be moved, looped and resized, but changing its contents will break the Sync state. Rest blocks create silent gaps in both the main clip and bass clip. Deleting the bass clip automatically sets “Bass Split” to Off.

Related settings

On the Settings page, the following settings change how Clip Sync behaves:

Clip destination

Choose where clips are created:

• Arrangement — writes to a clip in Arrangement View
• Session — writes to a clip slot in Session View

Arrangement clip position

When using Arrangement as the destination, this setting controls where the clip is placed:

• Playhead — at the current playhead position
• Loop Start — at the loop start marker