Ableton Live

What's new in this version:

New Features and Improvements:
Link Audio:
- With Link Audio, you can stream audio in real-time between Link peers in a shared session. To send or receive audio, make sure that both Link and Link Audio are enabled for all participants. Once enabled, all tracks with audio output can be received by Link peers
- The names for active peers are shown in the new Link drop-down menu in the Control Bar. To receive audio, select a peer via the input type chooser on an audio track and then choose the specific source track with the input channel chooser. Make sure the audio track in Live is armed to hear the incoming audio

A dedicated Link page has been added to Live's Settings. It contains all the previously available options related to Link, as well as the following new options for Link Audio:
- Audio — Enable this toggle to activate Link Audio. Make sure that Link is also enabled via its toggle in the Control Bar once you’re ready to start sending or receiving audio
- Name — Use this field to specify the name that is shown to connected peers
- Latency — Use this slider to set the input latency applied to the audio received from peers. We recommend adjusting this based on your network performance and workflow needs. The current buffered amount for each peer is shown in the Peers list and will be updated as you adjust the latency
- Sync to Incoming Audio — Enable this toggle when monitoring incoming audio from Link Audio peers in Live<. When enabled, Live's Link session is delayed by the set latency value. Note that all other peers in the session must have Monitoring Mode set to Off
- Peers — A list of current Link Audio peers is shown here, along with their current status and buffered amount
- For the best streaming quality and reliability, we recommend using a wired LAN connection with Link Audio. Wi-Fi is supported, but the audio quality depends on the stability of the wireless network
- Note that the audio buffer size affects the streaming latency. We recommend using lower buffer sizes on peers receiving audio and higher buffer sizes on peers sending audio to achieve lower streaming latency

Erosion:
- The Erosion device has been updated to feature new sound capabilities, as well as a refreshed interface
- In the previous version of the device, there were three separate modes for applying sine- or noise-based modulation to a signal. Now, these modulation sources can be combined via the new Noise Blend control. The Stereo Width control can be used to morph from a mono to stereo modulation source, which allows the stereo width to be scaled precisely
- In addition, the algorithmic latency in the device has been reduced to 2 ms, down from the previous ~5 ms
- Sets created prior to 12.4 that include Erosion will load the previous version of the device, which is now named Erosion Legacy

Chorus-Ensemble:
- The Classic mode in the Chorus-Ensemble device has been refined to improve results with a wider range of source material. This mode has also been renamed to Chorus to better reflect its resulting effect
- Chorus mode also includes two new parameters: Time and Taps. You can use the Time chooser to select a fixed delay time for the delay lines in the chorus. This makes it possible to set longer delay times, which can be useful for bass and guitar sounds. The Auto setting preserves the original behavior where the delay time is scaled dynamically per tap and with the modulation amount. The Taps parameter lets you switch between a one or two tap delay. The single tap delay results in simpler, thicker chorus textures that sound similar to the effects from classic hardware pedals
- Note that the default Auto value for the Time parameter ensures backward compatibility with Chorus-Ensemble presets from Sets created prior to 12.4

Delay:
- The LFO section in the Delay device includes more modulation time modes and LFO shapes. The LFO rate can now be set in Hertz, milliseconds, or tempo-synced beat divisions. You can also choose from seven LFO waveforms and use the new Morph parameter to shape the selected waveform

Separate Stems for Time Selection:
- It is now possible to separate only the selected portion of an Arrangement Clip into stems via the new Separate Stems for Time Selection command. This command is accessible in the context menu for a time selection in the Arrangement View
- Additionally, stem separation now only processes the audible portion of a clip as defined by its start and end markers. This helps reduce the processing time required for separation

Merge Selected Stems to Single Track:
- When separating stems, it is now possible to merge the selected stems into a single clip in a new audio track using the Merge to Single Track checkbox in the Separate Stems dialog. The stems are merged after the separation process. This can be useful for combining specific stems into one clip. For example, if you want to create an instrumental loop from a song that has vocals, you can merge the Drums, Bass, and Others stems into a new clip while leaving Vocals unselected
- Note that the Merge to Single Track checkbox can only be enabled if two or three stems are selected, and not one or all four

Learn View:
- The new Learn View offers a redesigned learning experience within Live to make it easier to understand and explore Live's core concepts. This view replaces the earlier Help View and its associated lessons
- Learn View provides structured learning modules that combine video content with written explanations. These modules guide you through different parts of the interface and key features in Live. You can filter lessons by topic and mark them as completed to track your progress. The video tutorials can be viewed in the Learn View or opened in a separate Picture-in-Picture window, which makes it easier to follow along in Live while the Learn View is closed
- All of the available videos are also accessible via the Learn View playlist on YouTube. New modules will continue to be added in the future and can be released independently from Live updates, so you don't have to wait for a new version of Live to access new content
- The content included with Packs, previously known as “Pack lessons”, is now referred to as "Pack Info pages" to distinguish from the educational content within the Learn View. Pack Info pages are available via the Pack Overview, which you can open from the Help menu. You can also open the Pack Info pages for individual Packs using the Show Pack Info option in a Pack's context menu

Quick Tags Improvements:
- It is now possible to create new tags, parent tags, and tag groups directly from the Quick Tags panel in the browser. To create a new tag, type a tag name in the Quick Tags panel. If no existing tag is found, you can press Enter or click Create new tag… to confirm and add the new tag. You will then be prompted to select a tag group or parent tag for the newly created tag. Type the name of an existing tag group or parent tag, or type your desired name and select either the Create new parent tag… or Create new tag group… option

Additional Features and Improvements:
Max for Live Improvements:
- Updated the bundled version of Max to 9.1.4. This update introduces new parameter visibility options to handle a variety of common use cases
- The new "Visible" and "Visible (Not Stored)" visibility modes expose parameters to Live, but do not support automation. Practically, this means that they are visible to Push (and other control surfaces), but will not appear in the automation view. The "Visible" mode also causes Live to store the parameter's value in presets and with the Set for later restore. "Visible (Not Stored)" does not store the value, which can be useful for momentary controls. Note that this mode is not yet implemented in Live, but is expected to be implemented in a future update
- The visibility modes are only available for Float, Int and Enum parameter types. When using these modes, a new parameter attribute will become available in the object's inspector: "Undo When Visible". This attribute is on by default; however, when the attribute is disabled, your Visible parameter becomes invisible to Live's Undo system
- The following changes were also made in this update
- abl.* objects: added @freezein attributes to hybrid reverb object
- Autocomplete: rnbo~ is preferred over rnbo.remot
- Push 3 Standalone: improved disabling of Jitter G
- MGraphics mgraphics_set_dash: allow 256 dash element
- v8: js folder supports long extension

Max Fixed Bugs:
- abl.device.drift~: fixed moddst attr option
- abl.dsp modulators: fixed macro 2 assignment
- abl.dsp.modalresonator~: fix @Damping attribut
- abl.dsp.saturator~: fixed setting curve typ
- BEAP: names correctly displayed in Modules sideba
- jit.pwindow: fixed rendering when initialized off-screen in Max for Liv
- mc.function: fixed hang with @clickinactive set to selec
- mc.generate~: fixed crash when changing channels with audio o
- Patcher grid: fixed drawing on right/botto
- text: improved optimizations with large file
- textbox / listbox: fixed crash when making a new prese
- jsbuffer: fixed crash if no buffer name set ye
- Parameters: Fixed an assertion which caused CI builds to fail
- Paths: Fixed a crash when paths were added/removed in Max for Live (Windows only)
- In addition, Max for Live received the following updates
- Added SimplerDevice.replace_sample to the Live API, which takes an absolute path to an audio file and replaces the loaded sample in Simpler
- Parameters in Max for Live devices can now be made non-automatable or non-undoable
- Added a new "Max for Live Developer Mode" entry to the Options menu. Activating the Max for Live Developer Mode enables the Edit button in Max for Live devices. Previously, this mode could only be activated by adding the -MaxforLiveDeveloperMode option to the Options.txt file. Note that as a part of this change, the "Copy Max for Live Path" context menu entry is now only displayed when the Max for Live Developer Mode is active

Arrangement View:
- On macOS, the selection behavior for Cmd-clicking in the Arrangement has been updated. It is now possible to temporarily disable the grid to place the insert marker off-grid or to create a time selection starting at an off-grid time
- Cmd-clicking outside the time selection range now toggles the grid and places the insert marker at the clicked location
- Cmd-clicking inside the time selection range now toggles the clicked track's or lane's selection state
- If only one track or lane is selected, Cmd-clicking inside the time selection range on that lane also places the insert marker instead of deselecting the lane. The mouse cursor changes to help indicate this behavior: a plus sign is shown when the lane's selection state is going to be toggled
- When focused in the Arrangement timeline with no time selected, pressing Esc moves focus to the headers of the selected lanes in the timeline
- Added a new Copy Time menu command that can be used to copy time in the Arrangement. The shortcut is CtrlShiftC (Win) / CmdShiftC (Mac). The shortcut for capturing MIDI has been removed

Browser:
- The Plug-Ins label in the browser has been optimized to load the content list quicker when plug-ins are grouped by creator
- On Windows, it is now possible to navigate Live's browser forward and back with the mouse browser navigation buttons. This feature works when Live's browser is in focus

Control Surfaces:
- Added Control Surface support for Akai MPK mini IV
- On Launchkey Mini MK4, Launchkey MK4, and Move, you can now adjust step duration in the step sequencer by holding a step and pressing an adjacent step
- The Move Control Surface now supports audio clips in Note Mode
- Improved the parameter mappings for Auto Shift and Erosion in the Move control surface script

Core Library:
- Added new Audio Effect Racks (Vocal Strip Complete, Guitar Amp Stack)
- Added new Chorus-Ensemble presets that use the new Time and Tap controls
- Added new Delay presets that use the new LFO controls
- Added a new default preset for Phaser-Flanger
- Refined other various presets
- Added new Drum Racks by KUČKA
- Added presets for the updated Erosion device
- Presets for the legacy version of Erosion are now available under Packs/Core Library/Devices/Audio Effects/Legacy/Erosion Legacy
- Updated the default preset for Chorus-Ensemble
- Added new and updated presets for the Chorus-Ensemble and Delay devices

Devices:
- Wavetable now supports a maximum voice count of 16 voices
- Devices can now be renamed even when folded. This triggers the device view to be unfolded, such that the renameable title becomes visible
- The filter decay in Drum Sampler's 8bit effect can now be disabled by turning the decay parameter all the way up
- Parameter naming for the delay sections across devices has been improved
- Parameter names have been made more consistent across several audio effects
- Improved consistency of display names for filter parameters across devices
- The parameter names in Auto Shift have been updated to be more consistent with other devices

Interface:
- The colors used for deactivated or other inaudible clips in Session View have been updated to better distinguish them from empty clip slots. Deactivated clips in take lanes have also been updated to make it clearer which sections are used in the main lane and which are not
- The horizontal border between Session slots now uses a shade of color from the surrounding clips instead of neutral gray to mitigate color strobing effects
- Updated software text in various areas of Live
- MIDI Editing
- Increased the width of the area at the start or end of a MIDI note that allows resizing the note to make resizing easier. MIDI notes can now also be resized by grabbing them from slightly before the note start. This can be helpful when the note is very short. Previously, this kind of resizing was only possible slightly behind the note end

Performance:
- On Windows, enabling the EnableRealTimeWorkQueue debug option allows Live to create up to 64 threads for audio processing instead of the operating system–limited 32 real-time threads. Note that this does not necessarily improve performance, as a higher number of threads can increase thread management overhead

Setup:
- A warning is now shown in the Link preferences when the selected audio driver is not compatible with Link

Session View:
- Solo can now be toggled with the S key for selected chains in Session View. If a track is selected, the S key toggles solo for the track

Splice Integration:
- Live now checks for available Splice updates at startup
- Added support for navigating into and out of the Splice label using the Tab and Esc keys

Stem Separation:
- In High Quality mode, Stem Separation now displays total progress instead of resetting the progress indicator for each individual separation step
- An error is now displayed when separating stems if the operation cannot be performed due to insufficient disk space
- When separating stems, the exported audio files now retain the same bit depth as the source material
- Stem separation can now use the GPU instead of the CPU on computers running macOS 26.3, which makes the separation process faster

Fixed:
Live Bugfixes:
- Fixed an issue where it was not possible to navigate back to the Splice label with the Browse Back and Browse Forward buttons after navigating to other labels in the browser. This change also makes it possible to use these buttons to navigate to the Cloud label even when Cloud is not authorized, as well as to the Max for Live label even when Max is not available
- The Status Bar messages for parameters that are disabled due to a macro mapping now display the correct macro name
- The Min/Max slider columns in the Mapping Browser now have a minimum width of 50 px and can grow to a maximum width of 80 px when the column is expanded
- Fixes an issue where the name for a user preset would be reverted after switching between the A and B device states
- Macro variations now fold and unfold with the device as expected
- Fixed an issue where clips copied or recorded from seamlessly looping unfaded Session clips would not seamlessly loop
- The Fade button for all Arrangement clips is now visible in Arrangement and determines whether loop jumps are faded
- Soundtoys plug-ins no longer crash after performing Undo immediately after instantiation
- Fixed an issue where Live would show an error message in the Status Bar that would not go away when dragging an instrument or MIDI effect over the Main track or when dropping an instrument or MIDI effect on an audio, group, or return track
- Fixed a crash on Windows that could occur during shutdown when closing Live from the taskbar after dismissing the “Save changes” dialog
- Fixed two bugs that occurred when entering full-screen mode on macOS while the macOS system setting "Displays have separate Spaces" is disabled
- On displays with a "notch," i.e., the camera area on a MacBook display, Live's window no longer sticks out beyond the bottom of the display
- The macOS Dock and menu bar now appear when moving the mouse cursor to the corresponding screen edge
- Breakout views for disabled devices now allow interaction with controls like the regular device views do
- Fixed a crash that occurred when switching between the Session and Arrangement View with the Tab in rare cases
- Fixed an issue that occurred when importing MIDI files with tracks that contained only MIDI meta events (e.g., tempo changes or time signature changes) where Live would create empty clips for these tracks
- Fixed a bug where the "Bounce to New Track" command would appear in the return tracks and Main track context menus
- Probability groups are now restored when consolidating MIDI clips
- Fixed an issue where a clip that was set to Lead would revert to Follow after bouncing
- Fixed a potential crash that occurred when bouncing a Group Track that contained a track with a tempo leader clip
- Fixed a crash that could occur with the Live API when using duplicate_clip_to_arrangement with an Arrangement clip if the target track was the same as the source
- Fixed an issue where soloing a device chain in a Rack would set the track highlight to the Group Track if it was also soloed, which caused the Device View focus to be lost
- Fixed an issue where changing the solo state for a track using the Live API would unintentionally change the highlighted track
- Added missing Info View descriptions for the Device View area
- Fixed an issue in the KeyLab mk3 Control Surface that prevented parameter details from being displayed when the fifth fader was touched
- Fixed an issue where it was not possible to load certain MIDI files, such as those from the AudioRealism Bass Line 3 (ABL3) plug-in
- Fixed a crash that occurred when deleting a track with an Instrument Rack that had parameters from a Max for Live Modulator mapped to the Macro Controls
- Fixed a crash that occurred when recovering a Live Set in certain scenarios
- Fixed an issue where the default values for a Max for Live device would not output on load if the device was deactivated and then enabled again once a Set was reopened
- Fixed a crash that occurred when using Undo to restore a deleted device with automation on the Main track. Also fixed the same crash that could happen when attempting to recover a Live Set
- Fixed an issue where filters in the browser were not reset as expected when hot-swapping devices
- Fixed an issue where the names for automated plug-in parameters were not restored as expected when loading a Live Set. This issue affected the Soundtoys Effect Rack plug-in specifically, but this fix may also apply to other plug-ins with similar preset states
- Fixed a bug where the current setting for a track's input routing was not copied from the original track to the new track when using the Bounce to New Track command
- Fixed an issue where using Collect All and Save for a Set that contained a sample without a file extension in its name could cause the .als file to be moved to the project's Backup folder
- The width of the Main track is now correctly restored when loading a Set made with a Live version older than 12.1
- Third-party control surfaces, such as the SSL UC1 and Softube Console 1, should now work properly after reordering tracks in Live
- Fixed an issue where Roar’s modulation section title required a double-click to open. The section now opens on single-click, which is consistent with other sections
- Fixed an issue where focus did not move as expected for device chain headers when navigating between chain and track headers using the arrow keys
- Fixed a crash that occurred when opening Live's Settings window under certain circumstances
- Fixed an issue on Windows where the export audio function would not progress. This would happen in the rare cases when Live would fail to synchronize with Microsoft Windows' Desktop Window Manager
- Fixed a bug in Shaper MIDI where envelopes would remain in the sustain phase after a Note Off
- Fixed a crash that could occur when starting clip slot recordings in very quick succession
- Fixed an issue that caused an Arrangement clip's name to appear as blurry double text when the clip was dragged over an existing clip
- Fixed an issue where not all of the originally visible Macro Controls were restored after undoing a hot-swap to a Rack with fewer Macro Controls
- Fixed a bug where MPE Control would briefly expand and then return to the standard size immediately after loading the device
- Fixed an issue where in some cases Live would unexpectedly zoom out in the Arrangement View when changing the view's size
- Fixed a crash that could occur when creating Arrangement clips using the create_audio_clip and create_midi_clip Max for Live API functions
- Fixed a crash that could sometimes occur when changing the color of an Arrangement clip on a track where take lane clips were also present
- Fixed an issue which made it necessary to wait a few milliseconds after scrolling or zooming with the mouse wheel before it was possible to pan a view by dragging while holding the CtrlAlt (Win) / CmdOption (Mac) shortcut
- Fixed a bug where the option to save a Set was disabled in spite of making changes to scale settings within the Set
- Fixed an issue where the note output from Arpeggiator could change drastically when a Max for Live MIDI effect was placed before it in the device chain
- When using Arpeggiator in Synced mode, there is now a 5 ms grace period after the last grid division. If the first note occurs within this period, it is considered to belong to the previous grid division, and the sequence starts immediately instead of waiting for the next grid division
- Fixed an issue where sliders in Racks were not readable in dark themes or when mapped
- Fixed an issue where dragging and dropping the left of two crossfading clips to the right would reset the crossfade between the two clips
- Fixed an issue where locators were not included when cutting, copying, pasting, or duplicating time in the Arrangement
- Fixed a bug where plug-in windows opened in the wrong order and could not be reordered
- MPE Control no longer sends out an initial CC 74 value when loaded
- Fixed an issue where freezing or bouncing a track with real-time devices could disable devices in tracks used for sidechaining, or controlling or modulating a parameter via Max for Live devices, resulting in incorrect audio
- Fixed an issue where other MIDI tracks would not play back when freezing a track containing External Instrument
- Fixed a bug where bouncing to a new track in the Session View where the track contained transposed unwarped clips would result in incorrect clip length
- Fixed an issue that caused an open video window to disappear when dragging and dropping items in Live
- Fixed an issue where a track's main lane clips that were edited while auditioning a take lane were played back incorrectly
- Fixed a crash that occurred when moving a breakpoint after moving insert marker away from and then back to the previous position
- When performing stem separation from the browser while working with an empty Set, the Set's tempo is now updated to match the tempo of the clips resulting from the stem separation
- Fixed a bug that occurred when running stem separation on an unanalyzed sample from the browser where stem separation would not produce correct Warp Markers and onsets
- Extended the repair mechanisms for corrupt documents with non-unique Pointee IDs to work in more cases
- The mixer's volume section layout now correctly responds to height and track width changes
- Fixed a bug in Shifter that caused delayed audio to be cut off
- Tempo-synced AUv3 plug-ins now correctly follow Live's tempo after changing the sample rate in Settings
- Fixed an issue where the Slice to New MIDI Track software text was displayed in the Info View when the Extract Chains menu entry was selected
- Fixed an issue where it was not possible to navigate back to the Splice label with the Browse Back and Browse Forward buttons after navigating to other labels in the browser. This change also makes it possible to use these buttons to navigate to the Cloud label even when Cloud is not authorized, as well as to the Max for Live label even when Max is not available