AbleSet 3.2 Preview: Smarter Setlist Building for Live Performers

Leolabs previews powerful new setlist features in AbleSet 3.2, including headings, per-instance notes, song usage indicators, and timed annotations.

Leolabs has been quietly building something substantial inside AbleSet 3.2, and this preview walkthrough from developer Leo gives a clear look at the new setlist editor features taking shape. If you perform live with Ableton, these changes are worth paying close attention to.

What It Does

The updated setlist editor overhauls how you construct and organise your live set. The persistent song-adding dialogue alone removes a small but constant friction point: the panel stays open while you add songs, so building a full setlist no longer requires repeated clicks to reopen it. Songs can be sorted alphabetically or arranged to match your Ableton arrangement order.

A usage indicator now shows how many times each song appears in the setlist, because you can now add the same song multiple times. Each instance is fully independent, with its own description and colour, which makes reprises and alternate versions genuinely practical to manage rather than a workaround.

Headings let you divide a setlist into named sections such as a main set or encore, and they can be inserted between existing songs using a contextual icon that appears when you hover between entries. Notes can be attached to any song or stop gap, assigned a colour, flagged for announcement via the cues feature, and given a manual duration. That duration feeds directly into the running total for both the current section and the full setlist, giving you a much clearer picture of your show’s timing before you walk on stage.

How to Use It

• Add songs: Press the plus icon or use Command K to open the song picker. The dialogue stays open so you can add multiple songs in one session.
• Sort your list: Choose alphabetical order or match the arrangement order from your Ableton project.
• Add the same song more than once: Each instance gets its own description and colour, so reprises and variants are clearly labelled.
• Insert headings: Press Command K and select Heading, or type a hashtag followed by the section title. Drag headings into position or use the insert icon that appears between songs.
• Attach notes: Click the plus button after any song to add a note. Alternatively, type a greater-than sign directly in the editor to create an inline note. Notes in stop gaps display with a distinct stop icon and dark background.
• Set note durations: Type a duration against any note to have it counted toward the total setlist and section timings.
• Trigger cue announcements: Enable the cues option on a note so it is announced automatically after the preceding song ends.

Why It Matters

Live performance with Ableton has always demanded careful preparation, and the setlist layer is where that preparation either holds together or falls apart under pressure. The changes in AbleSet 3.2 give performers a more structured and readable view of their show, reduce the steps needed to build and edit a set, and surface timing information that previously required manual calculation. These are features in active development and Leolabs is gathering feedback, so now is a good moment to get hands-on with the beta and shape what ships.