Ableton Live 12: Explore what’s new 

I love the fact that its now fully accessible to users who are blind. I'm super excited! Always wanted to use the software... and now I can.

Dear Ableton Team, I love all the updates in this new version, it looks truly amazing. But there is still one big thing I am missing as a Composer for Film and Media. PLEASE update your film input and add a feature to work in timecode instead of bars in beats. It is the only thing holding me back from exclusively working in Ableton!

10 years producers ask: - ARA 2 or another built-in pitch editing. - Bounce and place with one button - PDC delay compensation - Deactivation of plugins (real without CPU load) - Not closing the project when only 1 plugin does not work - Ability to work in 3 projects in different tabs at once - Freezing Groups - Gain on the clip, not inside the clip - More colors and gradient option - Dynamic equalizer (in EQ8 at least add different slope and the ability to see not 12db spectrum) - The ability to drag a sample from the project to the browser and have it appear there as a file, not as a project - Auto tune at least from maxforlive to redo in native. Of this, 89% have other DAWs. And what do we have now? Ableton 10 latest version 10.1.43. Next Ableton 11 latest version Live 11.3. you don't finish versions until they are logically completed. And immediately releases a new one, most likely you have seen how cubase, fl, logic, bitwig, studio one have already shown new functions and even AI. What does Ableton offer? Did we make a visible mixer right away with the arrangement? Browser? These are all starndart functions of any other DAW. You always show the Macbook Pro in your video why you can't open Live and open the other 9 different DAWs and see the CPU load, and understand that Live is very far from being in the lead, if not lagging behind. What comes out? I bought version 10 for $ 749 + $ 249 for an update for version 11 + about $ 200 more for a 12 update and we have a DAW price of about $ 1200 and this is from version 10, and someone with version 9 is even more. And you release 1-2 new functions and serve as if it is a completely new DAW. If you need money you can make updates every year and who needs them would buy them. Or open Donate on the website so that people can give you money, maybe then you will listen to those who bring you money from sales. Do you have a website Ableton.centercode do you go there at all? Try to go there in the offers already a new version of DAW.

UPDATE: Ok, I'll eat my shoe. Live 12 is the most stable, CPU-efficient version I've ever used. Its performance on my M2 Pro Mac Mini is honestly mind-blowing. I feel like I can really trust this software again. --- Some of the new features look cool, but all I care about is having a software I can fully trust on stage. That's why I started using Live in the first place, but the last two versions of Live have gotten progressively worse. This is really all that I want: - No random CPU spikes when the CPU average is low (below 20%). - No sluggish performance in sets with lots of tracks - if a track's devices are turned off and not being used or automated, they shouldn't slow the project down. - Please, please please please, fix the bug that causes CPU spikes when pressing play or skipping around in arrangement mode. If you can fix those three things in Live 12, I'll buy it in a heartbeat.

Now I can see the mixer in arrangement view. Revolutionary!

I would love for Ableton to release a major build where the only changes are PERFORMANCE fixes. Address the issues such as projects that crash from only 1 broken plugin, the random CPU spikes, sluggish performance in sets with lots of tracks etc. We already have so many features in Ableton but it's time to get back to basics and really work out the performance kinks that are holding this DAW back. I struggle to engage with your marketing of "spark endless ideas with MIDI tools, creative intuitively in an improve interface, get lost in the sound-shaping potential of new devices" when there is a clear performance barrier that regularly gets in the way and hinders my workflow.

Ableton please! 🙏 -Group Freezing/Flattening -Strip Silence -Clip Gain Editing (in arrangement) -Make Pitch Automation a single button or default (tired of digging to get to it every time) -Option for DRY/WET individual control on native plugins

Just two things i'd love to see 1. Option to hide tracks 2. Point and adjust values with mouse wheel Hope they are coming soon.

I can't express how happy I am to finally see the accessibility support in Ableton live! as a legally blind professional musician, the lack of this kind of support created a love and hate for Ableton Live for me. Better late than never! Super excited to trying it out and giving feedback as a disabled power user since v1!

Ableton is a great product! But I join the comments about the updates. The technical team should take a more careful approach to the issue of user needs. Ableton should be a trendsetter in this race, not a laggard. After the latest update Cubase, Logic and FL - Ableton looks behind.

Live 8 - April 2nd 2009 Live 9 - March 5th 2013 Live 10 - February 6 2018 Live 11 - February 23 2021 Live 12 - Early 2024 Live 8 to live 10 took almost 9 years. Live 10 to Live 12 has taken 6 years. Live 11 felt like a cash grab upgrade, and now this. Whatever happened to at least one big free update like 9.5? I don’t even own the new Push 3 but just screw anyone who purchased it + a full license I guess? I love Ableton Live, but this company feels like it’s just trying to squeeze the most amount of money out of us by providing the least amount of value for that money at this point. Saying this as someone who bought Live 10 Suite on launch day, and upgraded to 11 suite during pre-launch.

Sorry Ableton... Live has been my main (only) DAW for 15 years. But Live11 performed so badly that I basically replaced Live with the Synthstrom Deluge for playing live shows because I simply couldn't trust Live11. I have been upgrading right away from Live 9/10/11 and I am still nostalgic about how well Live8 simply "worked". I have always been on the suite plan and thought Ableton was the only game in town, but this rapid abandonment of 11 before it was even fleshed out has me thinking of looking somewhere else. I don't see anything life changing here and I would have been much happier with some performance improvements for Live11.

I bought 9,10 and 11 but I feel like QA is getting worse over time, just fix your stuff first or even better, push them in Live 11 and then get real new features for the right price. Sometimes I need to get back to old intel machine to have a live performance for stability. It crashes randomly on live set so, it's a no buy for me until stuff is working. Ableton, you used to be stable.

This is all nice and good but Ableton is still missing some basic quality of life features that basically every other DAW has. Okay we finally got comping and sub-groups in the last versions, but what's about changing the order and having unlimited return tracks, what's about better video implementation, what's about tab to transient. Why can't we have a better Melodyne integration like Studio One has? A better way to sort your plugins, more colors/categories. Better editing tools.

I feel the upgrade price is a little unreasonable

We need: 1. Bounce in place (without having to freeze a track first) 2. Simultaneous clip editing (when not aligned vertically) 3. AUDIO PITCH EDITING!!

For a major release, this feels a bit underwhelming and all over the place. Some smaller features sound cool but I don't think I will upgrade.

Of course they implement a new granular synth before ara. Pls listen to the community, I’m your biggest fan but this is really upsetting

I eagerly await for the day that the Ableton team blesses their software with the simple yet underrated capability to use VIDEO with no issues so I can score to picture. More and more it seems like a far off dream...

First substantial Ableton update in a while, I'm looking forward to experiment the new features! But, there's one thing not addressed in the video or in a changelog that you guys really should, and it's PERFORMANCE! Since Ableton 11 I'm constantly dealing with cpu spikes and stuttering, while in v10 my projects always go flawless.

I just love how Ableton major updates come suddenly out of nowhere!

I am somewhat excited for this definitely. But I'd really appreciate it if they allowed for plugin sandboxing like Bitwig does. 99% of the crashes happen because of VST plugins, so it would be nice. I also wish they gave us custom tags. The tags they're adding here, and the colors they added before are great, but custom tags are also super helpful imo, because you might have categories of sound/material that won't fall into the ones they've already created, and it will be really tedious to search for things like that otherwise. And another thing I wish they changed is how the "wet" vs "dry" parts of each effect are treated. It would be nice if the "wet" part of each native effect was able to be processed separately from the "dry". Bitwig does this and I find incredibly helpful and time saving. Overall though, I feel like this update may just be somewhat substantial and I can't wait to try the beta. EDIT: They support custom tags apparently! So that's exciting.

I like the new stuff but this should have been in Ableton 11. From all the feature requests Ableton ignores it makes me want to try Bitwig

As hyped as I am for this update, I do feel like ableton is loosing to bitwig and I'd love to see that addressed in this update: plugin sandboxing & per plugin delay compensation (maybe not as standard but as an option at least) is a must in my opinion for any DAW power user in 2023. I hope they address this at some point! I do think the features they showed of are very cool especially MIDI editing!

1. Starting with ableton Live 11.2, the size of the dual-monitor midi editor cannot be fixed in full size When asked by Ableton they said this was what it was meant to be I really don’t understand If Live 12 doesn’t fix it, i won’t update it 2. I want to tell Ableton, “don’t pretend you don‘t know about melodyne ARA” If it’s not that, I hope that “ableton” makes its own vocal tunes editor 3. Personally, I think the 11.1.6 version is the most stable on Live 11 Starting from 11.2, I felt like it was getting weird and broken 4 I think it’s time to be more faithful to the basics that more DAWs have in common than to release new features, as many people say 5.It‘s just my opinion, but when I look at the updates on Live 11 and 12, I also think that the key personnel at ableton have recently gone somewhere. In the past, ableton felt like a pioneer in this industry, but now it feels like growth has stopped compared to FL Studios and Logic There are a lot of personal templates on Ableton Live, so it's not easy to move to another Daw

Ableton - please fix / solve or find a way to accurately bulk bounce stems from projects that use a bunch of Group Tracks / Busses. 👍

This should be an upgrade in ableton 11. You look like apple now, upgrading every 2-3 years to get our money. I have been upgrading with you since ableton 8 suite but it time to say no more money for you guys

Bounce in Place still not implemented…wake up Ableton.

Id really love to see a bounce in place similer to bitwig having a channel that can edit audio an midi in one channel is a must now

I've loved Ableton since the beginning and have always defended it. I requested the ARA since version 9 and I waited for 10 then 11 and now 12 and there is still no ARA. goodbye Ableton and thank you for everything 😢

And still we aren't able to horizontally select multiple audio clips and shorten or fade them!

I really dont understand why Ableton seems so bad at taking our feedbacks... and always dissapoints us when there's new updates... We will have to see more depth what acutallly changed and improved but based on this video, it should've been maybe 11.6 updates. WE NEED all these features that all the other DAW supports! I can go on and on about what I want but now Ive given up at this point. Why is it always so hard for Ableton to see what the users actually want....? After using Ableton for 10 years I moved to a different DAW last year and sadly I thought to myself... why didnt i change it sooner...? I was very excited about Ableton 12 hoping maybe I will use it again but... so far... im not sure if I will come back... such a exciting day but dissapointing day at the same time :(.....

Please add : - Group Freezing - Song Section Overview Lane in Arrangement View (Optionally Activateable) - FX Order Randomizer Thanks for what you added to 12. Its pricey though. But im very interested in how it will change how Live is used, cause of the special updates it brings to the software :)

👍😊 Hey @Bitwig Thanks for letting us Edit Audio in Session View. Ableton seems to be Incompetent.

Lol how is this not just 11.5? No ARA2, no Strip Silence, no "Bounce to Mono", no Atmos, like cmon, start listening to the community.

I would love to see a single clip freeze and flat function in the arranger. FL has this since years. For example you hover over a midi clip right mouse click and then select freeze and it will put it in a new audio lane.

Faders in the Arrangement View. That's all I wanted. Thanks, Ableton!

Thank you very much Ableton Live. Just as you have created excellent software for those who see. Now they also thought of people with disabilities. Already do amazing things with Reaper. Now I will be able to use your product as well. Now there is a criticism of some people there. with this selfishness and all mocking. I can already see its bright future, a whole heart -atrophied heart that cannot get new orizonte. And I really cry, I cry with joy. Thank you Ableton Live for programming software for those who see and for those who do not see. success!

Hold up... this is supposed to be a major release version "Live 12" and yet you guys didn't even bother adding some of the most requested features?! BETTER AUDIO WORKFLOW - NO BRAINER LIST (Requested by users for the past 5+ years over and over...) 1. Clip gain - directly on audio clips in the playlist for quick adjustments 2. Bounce in place 3. Group freezing 4. ARA support Who is calling the shots at Ableton? how did this get approved as a major version release? it's a joke. Whoever said let's make some UI enhancements and add a few browser and piano roll updates and call it "Live 12" is robbing everyone. Should of waited another year until you at least implemented even ONE of the features I listed to at least justify it as a major release. This ain't it....

I hope you have fixed all the Performance issues from 11, otherwise It's not worth the upgrade. I'll stay at 10.

There is a very long list of bugs, which are unfixed in Live 11 since launch. Please give me a reason to spend money on Live 12 now.

That neural search for similar sounds, beyond drums, is awesome! It’s also like an invisible/tansparent way to organize your sounds/samples. In the video, it starts with a girl sampling instruments; with Ableton new neural understanding of sound, I expect (and dare I say soon?) A new version of their Sampler which can listen to you playing an instrument, maybe in a set way, and recognize, classify and organize all the different notes/tones and velocities/intensities into a virtual instrument, automatically, maybe with legatos too. It actually doesn’t seem that hard to make such a sampler, since most of the work in creating a virtual instrument is tediously mechanical and repetitive. This Would be a massive game changer. If Ableton does this, I hope they will create a Sampler community/ecosystem like Spitfire Audio did with Pianobook. That would create massive and continuous attention and engagement for Ableton, at virtually no cost to them. Imaginations gone wild!

where is the love for audio editing?

Working on performance issues & crashes will be stellar. Thanks to the Ableton team for their hard, creative work.

Come on guys 160 bucks for an upgrade that mainly gives you a little bit more usability, is a little bit on the rough side. Don´t get me wrong, good features but the price point is off...

Thankyou so much abelton for accessibility features for visually impaired users❤️❤️❤️❤️

Still No ARA2 support. Unbelievable. I really didn't want to go to cubase but now I have to 😢

11.3 is still a mess. Whatever features are present in 12, if the current version is still half baked, there's every chance 12 is going to be just as bad or worse. Do Ableton even care about fixing 11 first? Apparently not.

I think Ableton doesn't care about what their users need and instead focus on financial gain. This feels like a minor update and not a new version of Live. When are we going to see features such as : - pitch correction tools - proper PDC - group freezing - a way to turn off indexing when needed (indexing slows the computer a lot, especially if you use hdd's) or switch to the old type browser which didn't scan the samples - built-in bridge for 32 bit plugins (yes, people still use them!) etc. And even after all these updates the "pitch automation glitch" inside a midi clip is still not fixed etc.

With ableton live 12 my workflow get explosive! It’s an amazing Peace of software! For me the Best one on Earth ! Thank you der Ableton ♥️♥️♥️

Add the lazy chop feature that comes with Push to the Live sampler natively. There’s already devices/max devices that do it. It would be such a simple addition and really welcome in the sampling world.

i love software companies! they do what ever they want, but they ask in a small survey to help them to be better. DAMN!

I think everyone needs strip silence without using any max or other stuff... and also a function where you can bypassed all the plugins just like similiar to pro tools or logic, thanks I love u.

The only reasons I use Logic over Ableton are the built in Flex Pitch for vocals and such and there are good samples and instrument sounds in logic. Fix that and I’m all in.

This update is pretty mid in comparison to the recent FL Studio update

+ ARA + VOLUME COMPENSATION on every Native plugin + STRIP SILENCE + The ability to insert a VST to multiple tracks at once, for example tape or something + GROUP FREEZING + CLIP GAIN EDITING + AUTO TUNE or another pitch correction tool + DYNAMIC EQ + VU & LUFS meters :)

Why are these upgrades so expensive? Genuinely considering sharpening up on FL studio again

just make Ableton work with melodyne and I'll die happy

We need PDC, Plugin Delay Compensation to work propperly. Group freezing and bounce in place too... come one guys, you can do that surely? It looks fantastic overall I have to say!!

Destructive audio editing within detailed audio clip view? Ability to vertical zoom all tracks in project without having to individually select them first? There are just fundamental DAW features that people have requested. I desperately want Ableton to care about mix engineers. Edit: Default vertical zooming may have changed? Here's the release notes. "A new toggle to the right of the Time Ruler can be used to switch on vertical waveform zooming for all audio clip waveforms. There is also a slider to set the zoom factor, which can be applied in x (multiplied by) or dB (which can be selected using the right-click context menu)"

I just want to be able to export stems quickly…11 is painfully slow. Is 12 improved?

Please fix recorded latency while monitoring on auto or in 😢

Added unnecessary stuff and ignored the most important ones like stability, performance and the little things that make it a pain to use. I might just switch to another DAW.

This is pretty underwhelming. I've always felt that asking over 200 for every major update while Ableton already being pretty expensive is a pill hard to swallow, more over when most of the updates lately (IMO) don't really feel like they offer any substantial upgrade, granted I don't own an instrument with MPE so maybe that is lost on me, hence I am still on 10. But seeing so many other DAW's upping their game while offering free updates really makes me question where Ableton is going. I am aware this update is free for 11 users but like I said before I am on 10 and my point is more of a gripe with their overall update model and what it offers.

The browser tagging and midi features look most exciting and interesting to me. Though the tagging system is a bit late to the game. Having a legit bounce/render in place is a welcome addition (finally!), tired of having to create new tracks and set up routing every time I want to bounce midi. Wondering if it will also work in real-time, for the use of bouncing hardware synths and outboard gear. The mixer still looks pretty underwhelming and is one of the primary reasons I won't even bother mixing in Ableton (I just bounce out and mix in Pro Tools). Nice that you can see it on the arrangement view, but it's still basically some faders and a few knobs. Sends are still really vague, "A and B" whatever that is... I would love to see Ableton do a full refresh of the mixer so you can see all your routing, inserts, sends and busses at a glance. Super handy for comparing and copying between tracks, and simply being able to see what is going where at a glance.

Please fix the CPU issue. I'm still on Ableton 10 and won't make the shift till it's as solid. I think a lot of people have been voicing this since 11

This is disappointing. These are welcomed additions but I expected more. This should have been an 11.5 update IMO. I’ll prolly skip this update tbh. Things I want to see: - Group track freeze - better audio editing - audio tuning - bounce in place - an answer to FL’s stem separation - An answer to FL’s AI mastering - ARA - Collaboration features - Dolby Atmos - More workflow and quality of life focused features!

IM SO EXCITED!! So cool to have proper faders available in arrangement view, all the new MIDI features, and especially a GRANULAR SYNTH! AAAAAAAA

I really would like to see Ableton invest in a preset browsing standard API for all VSTs. Something similar to Native Instruments' NKS standard with more fluid device control. You shouldn't need an Arturia or Native Instruments midi controller to have full control of their plugins. It should be handled by the DAW in my opinion.

Thanks for saving me £159 Ableton!

FIX THE STABILITY ISSUES PLEASE. EVERYTHING ELSE IS SECONDARY.

need skin customization improvements: 1. horizontal grid line in the piano roll to see the boundaries of the notes 2. highlighting scale in piano roll depends on the theme, and not on the color of the clip, give the color of the notes from the clip only with multi-selection 3. separate wave color in the playlist and sample viewing 4. separate color for highlighting in the browser and playlist 5. normal skin editor with pick up?

Some cool new minor features, but nothing looks game-changing "changing". I could care less to see the mixer in the arrangement view, takes up more space on that screen. Like FL has that new mastering feature where you can match RMS and LUFs levels in your final output (built into the DAW). I was hoping for something cool like that. Wonder when Ableton will ever fix their pitch feature...

This all looks so fun but what I wanna know is….Can we finally vertically zoom a wave form without increasing its gain?

Yeah I’ve been using live since 9 was released in 2013 - at this point I’d be totally okay with an update that doesn’t include any new sounds and devices.. we would just want more quality of life updates. Seems to be the sentiment of the entire comments section I’ve been looking at FL Studios purely for the workflow features. Ableton your competitors are getting very savvy on that end

How many synthesisers do you think I need, Ableton? Didn't we *just* have Drift? It's nice to see you finally adding some QoL features for once - via a paid update, of course - but seriously, priorities...!

Please fix the sluggishness in sessions that are medium-large... from 10 to 11 something happened and the UI freezes sometimes for minutes at a time.

Would be great if you could filter out wav samples by key and scale. I’ve always wanted something like splice in Ableton

Amazing update, congratulations!. One thing thou, the "Generate" tab in the clip windows should come before the "Transform", I mean first you generate and then you transform. Other than that, DOPE!!!

dynamic EQ, strem separator, more accessable midi glides, this is what we want first, where is it?

I just hope it offers stem (sample) separation like all the others DAW's and VST's dropping in 2023-2024

It feels like 11 released yesterday lmfao I HAVE NO MONEY !

Ableton still hasn't created its own analogue of "melodyne" for voice processing? Maybe at least it will be in Live 15?

Good to see were finally getting a midi upgrade.

Finally see the MIDI editor improvements!

Still no ARA2 Support, or any Audio Aligning Feature. I'm pretty sure they can do something like this with Live's Warp Engine.

I don't know, this looks cool. I just expected more for the next major update. That feels just like a overdue patch. All other daw's have so many quality of life features nowadays and AI. This just feels a bit rusty for a new release and behind a paywall...

But can we freeze/flatten a group?

BUT CAN WE FREEZE GROUPS???

just installed live 12. @ABleton did you seriously drop the buttons in the right bottom corner to dosplay different mixercomponents but added the buttons h and w (which on clicking has the same result as pressing h or w) ? WHY?

Bounce in place or bounce to new audio track? Please? Pretty pretty please?

if a midi clip is cut and the note does not start in the clip, it will disappear, it is very annoying to look for the beginning every time and move it to the beginning of the clip. in fl studio it works fine

Finally got rid of the switching between screens. Should have been free update to 11.

Damn this is a poor show. Some new devices and some interface features other DAWs have had for 20 years being used as main selling points. I hoped this would be the time I upgraded!

Pretty sad they didn’t implement more Collections. Maybe a few more would be better. I’ll keep Live 10 for now, not worth the upgrade imo

The FL Studio piano roll rn: *Finally, A worthy opponent! Our battle will be legendary!*

Interesting, some max4live devices (or their functionality) looks like its "built in" and the few new plug ins and MIDI editing would make me think this is an 11.4.x update, rather than a paid Live 12 update. Are there custom key commands? Is there proper PDC on the channels? Per clip inserts? Is there multiple audio clip editing? Built in bounce in place? Built in delta solo for every plug in instance? In any case, good to see Live 12, but I'll pay again at Live 13 and "skip" paying for each update.

For a new version number I was expecting more. I'll stick with v10 for a bit longer.

Damn that was quick, thought 12 would be shown in like 2 years, and now you actually got stuff that might make me jump from 10 to 12!

Long live the King!