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I want to build a self-generating audio installation with Ableton Live 8 & Max4Live which is fed by audio snippets via a constantly updating Soundcloud dropbox.

Basically, I want Ableton/Max4Live to automatically pull any content that is put in the Soundcloud dropbox of my account to input/route it to an internal channel.

I don't expect any full manual, just a rough overview on what I could need to learn/build this would be very much appreciated.

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  • I tried answering this and couldn't find anything helpful to say other than "maybe you could find/write a plugin to play those files back as audio in Live?" – Warrior Bob Aug 12 '11 at 21:31
  • Can you provide more details on why you want to pull all files from a Soundcloud dropbox into channels in Ableton/M4L? Perhaps Gobbler would suffice: gobbler.com/i/Y1@Ep-w – Robert Dyson Dec 5 '11 at 18:14
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I think this could be a way of building the application:

  • Have a client side script that reads the list of tracks from the soundcloud api:

    I couldnt find a way to get the dropbox contents, but maybe you could create a group and that way it will be easier to moderate the tracks and you could ask the api for them with something like:

    GET /groups/{id}/tracks

    Check out the SoundCloud API Documentation

  • Make a script inside MAX for live that pings your client side script looking for new tracks every 30 seconds and loads the files returned by the api and adds them to a live channel/clip

    I dont know how you load and parse a feed in max for live but i know if someone can make live list the public twitter stream it should be posible.

    Check out the Max for Live Documentation

    I think you would have to mark the tracks as Downloadable or at least streameable in Soundcloud for this to work.

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If you are on Mac, I'd recommend creating a script in some scripting language, like Perl or PHP, which runs every minute and keeps a local folder of sound files up to date with that's on your soundcloud dropbox.

You could then have your Max patch watch this local folder and pull in new files as they arrive. I would not try to make Max pull sound files directly from your soundcloud dropbox, as this will be more complicated and Max is not really set up to do this.

I bet there is a Soundcloud library for Perl and/or PHP.

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