To get the preset up and running on a Touch Bar-enabled MacBook, you'll need a piece of software called BetterTouchTool, which can be found on the pATCHES website, along with a breakdown of what the hack can actually do.Ĭurrently the preset is free for the first 45 day thanks to a BetterTouchTool's free trial, but after that, you'll need to purchase a license that costs £6.50. The new preset adds shortcuts for some of Ableton's most important functions, including the save button, adding new audio, MIDI and return tracks, muting tracks, time controls and the ability to switch between Ableton's two main views. “Ableton Live has not yet received any official support for the Touch Bar, so we at pATCHES put together this collection of icons, shortcuts, and macros to take advantage of the adaptable portion of your keyboard.” “After owning a new MacBook for some time now, I can report back to say the Touch Bar is no gimmick at all – everyday applications like Photoshop, Quicktime, and Premiere get a productivity boost with app-specific toolsets right at the top of your keyboard,' states the site. Well, the gimmickry might be coming to an end as Ableton-centric site pATCHES has created its own unofficial Ableton support for Apple's much-maligned Touch Bar. And it works with the Siri Remote, too! What do you think?ĭo you already use Better Touch Tool, or is this your first word about it? What actions do you have assigned? Let us know below.Ever since Apple's Touch Bar made its debut on the latest MacBooks - we've yet to see its addition as anything other than a clever gimmick. Even if you don't have a MacBook Pro with Touch Bar, you can take advantage of BetterTouchTool's other customizations for the Magic Mouse and Magic Trackpad. It won't brick your Mac, and quite frankly, it's such a good customizable tool that it should be on everyone's Mac. Though you can't download BetterTouchTool from the Mac App Store - it's the kind of app that requires far too much system hook-in to be properly sandboxed under Apple's rules - it's still a solid app from a respected developer. Better Touch Tool isn't in the Mac App Store - but you should still own it

I suggest browsing around the predefined actions to see everything you can do. You'll have to allow it to control your computer through your Security & Privacy's Accessibility. If you're interested, download BetterTouchTool and then move the download into your Applications folder to get started.

One Touch Bar action I created for Slack - thanks to a little help from Alex W - included a shortcut that let me switch between chat rooms with just a tap. Open a specific app you've built Touch Bar actions for, however, and the bar will shift to displaying those buttons instead.

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