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I'm trying to take a track to be mastered from Ableton Live 9 to Logic Pro, but the original on Ableton is on a MBP with no Logic Pro installation, and my Logic Pro installation is on a MBP with no Ableton Live installation.

How can I get the project (preferably with information like automation/MIDI) from Ableton, via file transfer, to Logic Pro?

The only option I've come up with so far, is to try and bounce the individual tracks in Ableton, which will mean I lose the automation, so I could strip that off on the bounce, and reapply in Logic.

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    I can't think of a way to copy automation data between any two apps, off the top of my head, unless OMF export and import will do it, or unless the destination app will actually open the source apps file type(s). One thing that might enable it is that the Live "automation" might just be MIDI CC data, which you should be able to bring into Logic. Hopefully someone who knows more will be able to give you a real answer.
    – Todd Wilcox
    Nov 15, 2016 at 21:17
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    If I have time tonight I'll try this: gearslutz.com/board/music-computers/…
    – Todd Wilcox
    Nov 15, 2016 at 23:42

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The only way to do this is to bounce all your tracks down, one way or another.

You can export all your MIDI tracks as MIDI files which will include automated controller data. You can import these MIDI files into logic and the automation will be visible in the hyperdraw - however, for that to work you'll need to have the same AU plugins installed for logic to use or you'll need to re-create your sounds in logic using available soft synths. If you used native Ableton soft synths such as operator or analog and you want to the sounds to remain the same then you'll need to bounce those tracks to audio as the only means of getting them out of Ableton.

You say you want to move the project to Logic to be mastered then you shouldn't need the automation and MIDI data from Ableton, just mix the track to a suitable standard in Ableton and bounce all your tracks to audio files which can be loaded into logic. Stricktly speaking this would be mixing, not mastering. Mastering is usually applied to a single stereo mix (i.e. bounced wav file). Often when mixing it can be better not to be able to "go back" and keep tweaking otherwise it can be very difficult to ever finish a mix!

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    I'm accepting this as the answer, mostly because this is probably the first time I've revisited the question in almost a year. Thanks for your answer Ralphonz. A lot came up in my professional work to distract me from this problem, but looking at it now, I think your last sentence is the one I needed to hear most, giving myself too many options to keep tweaking and fiddling meant I never progressed with this track at all.
    – rbrtl
    Dec 6, 2017 at 13:58

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