Should You Use Ableton To Control ProPresenter?

The abilities of Ableton are honestly unfathomable. If you’re anywhere close to my age, you may remember the days of The David Crowder*Band. If you’re even more of a “Crowdster” you’ll remember BWack using Ableton to control the lights, media, and tracks at some point of their career. Better yet, Steve 3.0.

Sorry, my age is showing.

Back to the question at hand. Should you control ProPresenter with Ableton? I think it’s a case-by-case scenario. I don’t personally ever have to worry about it since I’m not over scheduling our ProPresenter team.

A Fail-Safe

I think having this feature prepped and built into your multitracks would be a genius idea. Just have them ready to go. The old saying “hope for the best, but prepare for the worst” applies here. You never know if someone is going to call in on a given Sunday.

Getting Timing to 100%

Another reason that I would actually consider using Ableton to control ProPresenter is that it ensures that your timing for the current and next slides are perfectly timed.

Uh-Oh

There’s something working against us here. Should you run ProPresenter with Ableton, there’s always the question of “what about the other aspects of service”. If there is a flow moment that happens to not be on a track, you won’t have lyrics. I would still say it’s best to have a person back there to handle flow moments and the message aspect of the service. Especially if your pastor uses a lot of media.

So, Is That A No?

The question of should you run ProPresenter with Ableton is something that will require you to answer for yourself and your churches needs. Personally, I think it’s the nuclear option and should only be used as such.