Connect TidalCycles to Ableton Live via SuperCollider

1. Use tidal-midi (preferred)

The MIDI support is split into a separate package called tidal-midi .

Install it with:

cabal update
cabal install tidal-midi

Then in your Tidal boot file (often called BootTidal.hs), add something like:

import Sound.Tidal.Context import Sound.Tidal.MIDI

– Open a virtual MIDI device (e.g. “IAC Driver Bus 1” on macOS) (midiStream, tidalMidi) <- midiStream “IAC Driver Bus 1” 1

let d1 = streamReplace tidalMidi 1

In Ableton:

Create a MIDI track.

Set its input to “IAC Driver Bus 1” (or whatever virtual port you set up).

Drop in an instrument (Analog, Operator, etc.), arm the track, and you’ll hear Tidal’s sequences.

1. Send MIDI via SuperDirt

SuperDirt can also send MIDI out.

In SuperCollider, configure SuperDirt to talk to a MIDI device:

MIDIClient.init; m = MIDIOut.newByName(“IAC Driver Bus 1”, “IAC Driver Bus 1”); ~dirt.soundLibrary.addMIDI(\midi, m);

Then in Tidal, you can do:

d1 $ n “0 2 4 7” # s “midi”

Ableton will receive notes on that MIDI track.