Your First Five Minutes with Pliris
The one path that takes you from a fresh account to running an Ableton show set — in about five minutes.
Welcome to Pliris.
Here's the thing about a suite of eight apps that's designed to take playback programming from hours down to minutes (and honestly, sometimes seconds): it can feel like there's a lot to learn on day one.
There isn't.
There's really just one path you need to walk to feel the magic of what Pliris does — and you can walk it in about five minutes. So let's do that together.
Whether you're on a free account or a paid account, you can follow along. I'll call out the differences as we go.
Step 1: Add Your First Band
This is the front door.
In the Bands app, you'll add a band — and that band becomes the container for everything else: songs, arrangements, stems, setlists, all of it.
One note on accounts: Free accounts can manage one band. Paid accounts can manage unlimited bands. If you're a touring engineer working with multiple artists, that's why you'd upgrade.
Step 2: Add Your First Song
Once your band is created, click Add Song.
Give it a name. (I'm calling mine "Something I Can Dance To." Yours is probably better.)
Click Add Song to create it.
Here's what happens behind the scenes: Pliris automatically creates an arrangement for that song. Free accounts get one arrangement per song. Paid accounts get unlimited arrangements per song — so you can have a studio version, a live version, an acoustic version, a "we cut the bridge for festival sets" version, whatever you need.
Step 3: Upload Your Stems
The Arrangement page will open automatically. You'll see a Drop Files zone — or you can click the Upload button if you'd prefer to browse.
A quick word on stems: if you have raw, individual stems, use those. Don't bother pre-grouping them. Pliris is going to handle the grouping for you.
Before you confirm the upload, look for the "Analyze on Upload" toggle. Make sure it's enabled.
This is the thing you came here for.
When Analyze on Upload is on, Pliris uses a credit to extract your song's tempo, beats, time signature, sections, and stems — automatically, from the stems alone. No tapping tempo. No marking sections by hand. On a paid plan, auto-analyze also pulls key, chords, and lyrics. And manual mode is always there if you'd rather type a BPM or bring sections in from Ableton yourself.
Credits: Free accounts get 3 credits per month. Paid accounts get 35. One credit per song analysis.
Rename Your Stems
Before you finalize, you'll want to rename each stem so Pliris knows what it's looking at and routes it to the right group.
If you're not sure what a stem is, click into it and press Shift + Space to preview it. Then type the name — Guitar, Lead Vocal, BGVs, Synths, Percussion, Drums, whatever it actually is.
Pro tip: press Tab to jump between stem names quickly. It's the fastest way through this step.
Once your stems are named, close that window. Analysis kicks off automatically.
Step 4: Play With It While It Analyzes
While Pliris is doing its thing, don't just stare at the progress bar. Poke around the song page.
A few things worth trying:
- Press play. Listen to your song with everything balanced.
- Try Focus mode. Click the headphone icon on any stem (drums, for example) and that stem plays at full volume while everything else drops to about 30%. It's the fastest way to listen for problems in a single part without losing musical context.
- Mute and solo. Standard stuff — but try muting BGVs and lead vocal together, or soloing just the vocals to hear them naked.
- Jump around the song. Once song sections come in, you can click to skip between verse, chorus, bridge, etc.
When analysis finishes, you'll see your key, tempo, and time signature populated. Click into the Lyrics tab to see the auto-extracted lyrics (you can edit and fix anything that came through wrong). Same with Chords. You can also record MIDI program changes right on this page, or add them manually.
There's a lot here. Don't try to learn it all in five minutes. Just know where it lives.
Step 5: Download Your Ableton Set
This is the moment.
Click Download and choose Ableton Set.
You'll be asked to pick a location on your computer. I keep an Exports folder for this — pick whatever makes sense for you, hit Select. The first time you do this, your browser will show an Allow prompt. Say yes.
Here's what's actually happening when you click that button:
It looks like a normal cloud download. It is not a normal cloud download.
While the file is making its way to your computer, your set is being programmed by an expert Ableton Live programmer, in real time, based on your preferences. On a free account, your set is built into the Playback Intro template — the same template close to 10,000 people have downloaded since I started giving it away for free.
When it lands, double-click the file (or right-click → Open in Ableton Live).
You're going to see a fully programmed session:
- Your song track, your tempo track, your foundations light click track
- A cues light and cue player
- A markers track with your song sections labeled
- Your song grouped together
- All your stems routed to the correct return tracks
This is the part that used to take you an hour or two. You just did it in about ninety seconds.
Step 6: Edit in Ableton, Re-Import to Pliris
Once you're in Ableton, you might want to make adjustments — relabeling a section from "Verse" to "Pre-Chorus," tweaking arrangement, whatever.
Make your edits. Save the Ableton file.
Then come back to Pliris, open your song, and click Upload again. This time, drop in just the .als file (not the stems) and click Import.
You'll see a warning if you're out of credits — ignore it. This import doesn't use a credit. It's not re-analyzing anything. It's just pulling your section changes back into Pliris so the two stay in sync. It's basically instant.
Now your pre-chorus shows up where the verse used to be.
Step 7: Create Your First Setlist
Last thing, and then you're done.
Click Setlist. You can add your song to an existing setlist, but you don't have any yet, so let's make one.
Type a name. ("Will's First Show" works fine. So does whatever your actual first show is.)
Click to create it, hit Apply, and your song is now in your setlist.
From the Setlist view, you can:
- Make it a public link to share with the band
- Print it
- Assign LTC values (yours are already assigned, which is great)
And once you've built up a few songs in your library, the real payoff hits: go to Export Ableton from the setlist view, and Pliris will export your entire show set — every song, in order, ready to run.
That's what "from stems to set in seconds" actually means in practice.
That's Your First Five Minutes
Quick recap of the path:
- Add a band
- Add a song
- Upload stems with Analyze on Upload enabled
- Play with the song page while it analyzes
- Download as Ableton Set
- Edit in Ableton, re-import changes
- Build your first setlist
Do that once and you've used Pliris the way it was designed to be used.
Frequently asked questions
Can I follow this guide on a free Pliris account?
Yes — whether you're on a free or paid account, you can walk the whole path. Free accounts get one band, one arrangement per song, and 3 analysis credits per month; paid accounts get unlimited bands and arrangements and 35 credits per month.
Should I group my stems before uploading them to Pliris?
No — if you have raw, individual stems, use those and don't bother pre-grouping them. Pliris handles the grouping for you; just rename each stem (Guitar, Lead Vocal, BGVs, Drums, etc.) so it routes to the right group.
Does re-importing an edited Ableton file to Pliris use a credit?
No. When you drop just the .als file back into Pliris, the import doesn't use a credit — it isn't re-analyzing anything, just pulling your section changes back in so Pliris and Ableton stay in sync. If you see an out-of-credits warning on that import, ignore it.
What does Focus mode do on the song page?
Clicking the headphone icon on any stem puts that stem at full volume while everything else drops to about 30%. It's the fastest way to listen for problems in a single part without losing musical context.
What does auto-analyze extract on a free account versus a paid one?
On any account, Analyze on Upload extracts your song's tempo, beats, time signature, sections, and stems automatically. A paid plan adds key, chords, and lyrics to auto-analyze — and manual mode is always available if you'd rather type a BPM or bring sections in from Ableton yourself.
If you get stuck anywhere — in the Bands app or any of the other Pliris apps — click the support bubble in the bottom-right corner of any page. Send us a message. You'll hear back within 24 hours.
Go run a great show.
— Will