What’s new in Ableton Live 11?

Aulart has great news for Ableton Live users: we will be having Live 11 very soon! Yes, you heard right. After 4 years from the release of Live 10, which already brought us wonderful new instruments and effects, such as the Wavetable synth or the Drum Buss, along with workflow interface improvements, in 2021 we can expect new exciting surprises.

However, you don’t have to wait until next year, since we already can give you a preview of what it will be to produce with the new Ableton Live 11. Curious to know? Then, continue reading! But don’t forget to subscribe to our newsletter: we want to keep you updated with any new details coming out and future tutorials!

Ableton is right now offering a 20% off when buying Live 10 with a free upgrade to Live 11

Comping:

We still remember the excitement it was to learn that in Live 10 we would be able to have all our Midi takes recorded, even if we had forgotten to press the record button. Now we will be happy to know that we will be able to create and deal with big amounts of audio or Midi takes easily, without losing our workflow and being able to focus, once more, on what Ableton wants the creators to focus on: the music.

So, Live 11 will organize multiple passes of an audio or MIDI performance into individual takes making it easy to combine the best of many takes or find creative new combinations. Then, you will be able to link two or more audio or MIDI tracks to edit or comp their content simultaneously. Imagine how much time you will be able to save with this function while having your “perrrfect take”

MPE expression control:

It is good news for MPE-capable controller users. Ableton will be prepared to immediately add bends, slides and pressure for each individual note in a chord. You will be able to add subtle expression variations, morph between chords and create evolving sonic textures.

Editing the pitch, slide and pressure envelopes of each note to refine the expression of your takes, will be easier than ever. As the icing on the cake we also know that native devices such as Wavetable, Sampler and Arpeggiator will be all updated to support MPE. There will be presets included for each device which will bring new dimensions of interaction and playability to your sound. The new expressive possibilities also will enable polyphonic aftertouch on Push.

New devices and effects:

If the most exciting device in Live 10 was a powerful wavetable synth that blew your mind with the richness of its analog sound and unlimited flexible possibilities, the star in Live 11 will be a convolution reverb effect.

Still, it’s not just any convolution reverb similar to some others that have recently become so popular. Ableton Live has wanted to go beyond that and has created a hybrid reverb that perfectly combines convolution with artificial algorithmic properties. So, you will be able to mix real ambiences with impossible environments in order to create incredible spaces in a fast and intuitive way. 

Live 11 will bring some other effects that will certainly make you spend hours experimenting with them. The Spectral Resonator will break the spectrum of an incoming audio signal into partials, then stretch, shift and blur the results by a frequency or a note in subtle or radical ways. 

The Spectral Time will transform sound into partials and will feed them into a frequency-based delay, resulting in metallic echoes, frequency-shifted and reverb-like effects. The Freeze function will capture and hold audio. 

PitchLoop89 will be based on an early digital effects processor. This device will create jittery glitch effects, delayed digital shimmers and outlandish vibrato to add character to sounds in the studio or onstage. It has been created in collaboration with Robert Henke.

New instruments:

Inspired by Nature will be six playful instruments and effects that will use natural and physical processes as their inspiration. Created in collaboration with Dillon Bastan, they will allow you combine, modify and experiment with moving particles of sound, each in a very unique way: 

However, this is not just it, since Ableton has collaborated with Spitfire Audio, one of the most prestigious sound libraries brands, to bring to Live users some new piano, brass and strings packs of great quality. On the other hand, Ableton has also prepared some new more modern collections of sounds based on vocals, drones and organic sounds thought for a wide variety of genres and music contexts.

Performance features:

Of course, Ableton had to offer some new Live features to make all performers using this DAW in their shows happy again. So, take for granted the best friends relation you will certainly have with the Tempo Following feature: Live will listen to and adjust its tempo based on incoming audio in real time, making your computer a dynamic part of your band instead of the tempo source that the rest of members has always to follow. 

Furthermore, within the rack improvements that will also take place in Live 11, we find the Macro Snapshots. They will allow us to store the state of our Macros for later recall, which will be perfect for creating instant variations to the sounds or builds and drops during performance. 

Chance tools:

There is also room for some random options that will inspire you when composing, and so we find the Note chance tool, which will set the probability that a note or drum hit occurs, letting Live generate surprising variations to your patterns that change over time. The Velocity chance tool will define ranges for velocity probability for subtle, humanized variations in the dynamics of your patterns.

And last but not least, the Follow Actions tool will offer more possibilities to your clips with update 11. They will be linked to the clip length, making it faster to create interesting sequences of clips. Scene Follow Actions will let you create evolving arrangements and will be able to jump to specific clips and enable and disable Follow Actions globally.

Extra handy additions:

Ever wondered what plugins are consuming most of your CPU? In Live 11 you will have access to an updated master display that will show you the current and average CPU usage, and to a CPU meter per-track showing you which tracks in a set use the most processing power.

Also, the view details of clips will be improved. New tabs will be available for Note Parameters, Follow Actions, Envelopes and MPE, which will let you have a clearer overview of and access to parameters and properties of a Clip. You will also be able to edit loops of multiple clips simultaneously, focus on a single clip in context and easily transpose entire arrangements from one piano roll.

Push has also some updates that will make this controller even more powerful. You will see visualizations of key parameters in Hybrid Reverb, Spectral Resonator and Spectral Time. Also, you will be able to Apply different levels of aftertouch to individual notes when using Wavetable, Sampler, Arpeggiator and supported VSTs. And the Key and Scale feature will be linked to Push so it can be changed per clip. These and some other delightful little surprises will make you spend some happy time discovering how Push can improve your workflow even more.

More coming soon!

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