Move Everything for Ableton Move: now with on-device Stem separation, song mode, and more

Move Everything is an open framework for Ableton Move that turns it into an open platform with more synths, FX, and new workflow features.

In mid-February, I reported on Move Everything by Charles Vestal, the powerful open framework that adds plenty of new instruments, FX, and more to the Ableton Move.

With so many new options, you might think that Move is reaching its limits. Not so, says Charles Vestal. He has once again brilliantly expanded Move Everything.

First, he added a new audio editor that brings two new modes: trim and slice. Trim has classic controls like start and end points and zoom in/out. Plus, you can scale, gain, and normalize the waveform.

The slicer mode can manually and automatically cut your sounds into 128 slices. Neat, you can easily export the slices as slices, drum preset for as a REX loop.

Time Stretching & Stem Separation

The new updates 0.70/0.71 also add time-stretching with parameters: the number of bars in your file, the target BPM, and the pitch. Yes, the latter changes the pitch of your file without changing the BPM. The time-stretched file can also be saved.

A highlight of this update is the introduction of on-device Stem Separation. You don’t need any extra software for it. According to Charles Vestal, it’s not the best separation algorithm, but it should be sufficient for what you do on the Move.

Either way, it’s a highlight, and it’s crazy that he incorporated this into the Ableton Move hardware.

Another great new feature in Move Everything is Song Mode, which lets you bundle patterns into songs. According to the specs, each song mode step consists of one clip from each track. Each step can have configurable repeats

It’s a welcome addition, as this was previously missing in the official Move firmware.

Ableton has introduced Link Audio with the new Live 12.4 update, further developing the MIDI-based Ableton Link with audio capabilities. The developer has even implemented Link Audio into the Move.

And there are even more smaller additions that can be found on GitHub.

Simply Wow, what Charles Westal is doing here! Okay, it involves a lot of menu diving, but the power this open-platform Ableton Move gives is amazing.

I’m curious to see how the project develops. Perhaps in the future, it will also be able to make coffee or respond to website comments.

The new Move Everything update is available now on GitHub.

Available from my partner 

Thomann

 

Article from February 20, 2026

With the Move, Ableton takes a different approach than with its Push 3 standalone device. It’s more compact and functions more as a sketchbox than a full-fledged groovebox. It also has a significantly reduced feature set compared to the Push 3.

However, the latest updates have significantly enhanced the functionality, including the long-awaited audio tracks. If that’s not enough features for you, you can check out the Move Everything firmware. This turns the Ableton Move into an open platform.

Move Everything

Like the Push 3 Standalone, the Ableton Move is based on a Linux foundation with an embedded closed platform based on the Live ingredients.

The open-source Move Everything firmware by developer Charles Vestal changes that, making it an open-source platform that feels like a modular OS. According to the developer, it’s an unofficial framework for running custom instruments, effects, and controllers on Ableton Live.

The developer played it cleverly. Instead of replacing the firmware and risking crashing the device, it adds a Shadow UI that runs alongside stock Move, enabling additional synths, FX, and other tools to run in parallel to the usual UI.

Even though this project modifies software on your Ableton Live, you can restore it normally, as the framework runs alongside it. Installation is very easy, and any Move user can do it. No programming knowledge is required.

However, it remains crucial to create backups and know your recovery options. Move Everything is an unofficial hack without manufacturer support. 

New Instruments & FXs

The highlight of the Move Everything framework is its ease of installing new instruments and effects. These instruments can be installed. Many of them are familiar and already exist in other projects.

• Braids (Mutable Instruments macro oscillator) (not Plaits)
• DX7 (Dexed synth based on the Yamaha DX-7 FM Synthesizer) 
• Hera (Roland Juno-60 emulation) 
• JV-880 (Roland JV-880 emulation)
• RaffoSynth (synth with Moog Ladder filter) 
• OB-Xd (Oberheim OB-X emulation)
• SF2 (SoundFont Synthesizer) 
• Surge XT hybrid Synthesizer

Part of this is a module called the CLAP plugin host, which allows you to host Linux CLAP plugins.

Then, you can also add new effects like the Cloudseed (algorithmic reverb), Junologue Chorus (Juno-60 chorus), NAM (Neural Amp Modeler), Space Delay (RE-201 Tape Delay), Tapescam (Tape Saturation), and more.

Alongside this, there are different overtakes/utilities available, including a four-track recorder, the Dirtywave M8 Launchpad Pro emulator, and the SIDaster III controller.

Accessibility, More Features & Workflow 

Part of the Move Everything hack is expanding the sound tools to include more instruments and effects. Secondly, the hack also adds accessibility and workflow features that were not previously part of Ableton Move.

For example, it optionally integrates a screen reader directly onto the device. This makes Ableton Move the first fully standalone groovebox with genuine support for blind and visually impaired musicians.

It reads out controls via text-to-speech and allows adjustments to speed, pitch, and volume. All of this happens on the device without any extra tools. That’s a big thing to me, opening it up to more musicians.

This allows blind people also to use the Move and its sketchbook music-making concept to make music. It’s strange that Ableton itself didn’t think of this before.

Further, it comes with a built-in radio (Radio Garden plugin) with various international stations that you can sample from within the device. Not only can you sample from the radio, but also from YouTube right from the Move hardware.

Plus, there is a quantized sampler and a skipback function that writes the last 30 seconds of audio, and more. 

First Impression

A super exciting, open-source project that puts the Ableton Move in a different light. I would now be interested in how Ableton responds to the project and whether it inspires them to make the OS more open.

Move Everything is available now as a free download from GitHub. It runs in the Shadow Mode besides the official firmware.

More information here: GitHub

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