Ableton | Live 11 DAW Software Ableton

Ableton Live 11

Create your perfect take

Play video: Artist records and edits multiple takes of her voice and a MIDI keyboard using comping

Artist records and edits multiple takes of her voice and a MIDI keyboard using comping

Take recording and comping

Live organizes multiple passes of an audio or MIDI performance into individual takes. Pick the best moments of each performance and combine them to create your perfect take. Or approach sound design in a new way by splicing together random samples from your library.

Linked-Track Editing

Link two or more tracks to edit their content simultaneously. This makes editing multi-tracked instruments or performances with multiple musicians easy and fast whilst keeping everything in time across tracks. This feature also works for MIDI tracks.

Add more feeling to your music

Play video: Artist demonstrates MPE using a Roli Seaboard, Push and Live 11’s new Note Expression View

Artist demonstrates MPE using a Roli Seaboard, Push and Live 11’s new Note Expression View

Use your MPE-capable controller

Plug in your MPE-capable controller and immediately add bends, slides and pressure for each individual note in a chord. Add subtle expression variations, morph between chords and create evolving sonic textures.

What is MPE?

MPE stands for MIDI Polyphonic Expression. This way of using MIDI allows MPE-capable devices to control multiple parameters of every note in real time for more expressive instrumental performances.

Experiment with new devices

Hybrid Reverb

Hybrid Reverb combines convolution and algorithmic reverbs. Place your sounds in any space, from accurate real-life environments to those that defy physical reality. Use the algorithmic side to add control and modulate the reverb tail, run it in parallel or in series with the convolution side, or play Hybrid Reverb like an instrument for real-time sound design.

Spectral Resonator

Breaks the spectrum of an incoming audio signal into partials, then stretches, shifts and blurs the result by a frequency or a note in subtle or radical ways. The MIDI sidechain input also allows musicians to process material in key and even play the device as if it were a polyphonic instrument.

Spectral Time

Transforms sound into partials and feeds them into a frequency-based delay, resulting in metallic echoes, frequency-shifted and reverb-like effects. The Freeze function captures and holds a slice of audio – either free-running or in time with the beat – for stuttered, glitched and washed-out effects.

PitchLoop89

Create jittery glitch effects, delayed digital shimmers and outlandish vibrato with this Max for Live pitch shifting device created in collaboration with Robert Henke and inspired by the Publison DHM 89 – an early digital effects processor. It’s a flexible tool to add character to sounds in the studio, or for in-the-moment experimentation onstage.

Inspired by Nature

Six playful instruments and effects created in collaboration with Dillon Bastan that use natural and physical processes as their inspiration.

• Vector FM – Manipulate different combinations of FM oscillators represented by moving particles – play with movement and voices to create evolving modulations and textures.
• Vector Grain – A granular looper that visualizes sound modulation by moving particles on the interface – play with attraction and magnetism or loop the particles through a flow field.
• Vector Delay – Each visualized particle in this multitap delay device represents a different delay line – create pitch shifting or reverse delay effects with movement controlled by physical forces.
• Emit – This visual granular synthesizer uses particles shooting across a spectrogram to show the grain of a sample being played, while vertical movements represent filtering and panning.
• Tree Tone – Grow different fractal patterns inspired by plants, then use them as resonators for internally generated noise or incoming audio.
• Bouncy Notes – Bounce balls up and down a piano roll to create pitch shifting delay effects or arpeggiation with this gravity-based MIDI sequencer.

Do more on stage

Play video: A producer and drummer duo show tempo following and Macro improvements in action

A producer and drummer duo show tempo following and Macro improvements in action

Tempo Following

Live listens to and adjusts its tempo based on incoming audio in real time, making it a dynamic part of the band instead of the tempo source that everyone has to follow. When you DJ, you can even turn Live into a tempo-synced FX box.

Macro Variations

Store the state of your Macros for later recall – perfect for creating instant variations to your sounds or builds and drops during performance.

Rack improvements

Configure your Racks to have between 1 and 16 Macros. Randomize the state of your Macros with the randomization button. Map this control to MIDI and perform drastic changes in real time to surprise your audience and yourself.

Be unpredictable

Note chance

Set the probability that a note or drum hit will occur and let Live generate surprising variations to your patterns that change over time.

Velocity chance

Define ranges for velocity probability for subtle, humanized variations in the dynamics of your patterns.

Do more with Follow Actions

Follow Actions can now be linked to the clip length, making it faster to create interesting sequences of clips. Scene Follow Actions let you create evolving arrangements. You can also set Follow Actions to jump to specific clips and enable and disable Follow Actions globally.

Work with new sounds

New instruments

Created in collaboration with Spitfire Audio, these three Instrument Packs bring the dynamic chamber ensemble textures to any production.

Upright Piano

Upright Piano infuses your productions with the natural warmth of an upright piano. Close-recorded for an intimate feel, this classic sound is at home in many styles of music – whether it’s used at its purest in a folk song or transformed in an electronic track.

Brass Quartet

Feature a rich blend of trumpet, flugelhorn, tenor horn and trombone in your music. The instrument highlights the natural breathiness, range of expression and broad tonality of this brass quartet’s instrumentation.

String Quartet

From delicate pizzicato droplets to full, vibrant layers, get the authentic timbres and textures of a string quartet. This combination of two violins, viola and cello has a sound that is immediately intimate, and is also a great starting point for sonic exploration.

New Curated Collections

These Packs capture the musical threads that tie evolving styles and scenes together. Each is a curated selection of instruments, clips and samples that share a common sonic theme.

Voice Box

Voice Box invites you to get inventive with vocals. This Pack features a comprehensive collection of contemporary vocal samples from multiple voices, a set of playable vocal instruments, and Effect Racks designed for vocal processing.

Mood Reel

Set the scene with a collection of sounds for making music with a modern narrative feel. Evocative layered instruments combine organic and synthetic sounds with textural elements to add mood, space and movement to productions.

Drone Lab

Drone Lab is a place of sustain. Weave complex, evolving threads through your productions with tonal and textural samples, generative noise, multisampled instruments, plus devices and Effect Racks designed for experimentation.

Live Key Features	Intro	Standard	Suite
Software Instruments	4	6	17
Sounds	1500+	1800+	5000+
Library Size	5+ GB	10+ GB	70+ GB
Audio Effects	21	37	60
MIDI Effects	8	14	16
Unique Session View for quick, intuitive composition, flexible performance and improvisation	Y	Y	Y
Nondestructive editing with unlimited undo	Y	Y	Y
Multitrack recording up to 32-bit/192 kHz	Y	Y	Y
Powerful MIDI sequencing of software and hardware instruments	Y	Y	Y
Advanced warping and real-time time-stretching	Y	Y	Y
Unlimited Instruments, Audio effects and MIDI effects per project	Y	Y	Y
Group tracksUse multiple levels of groups to mix with greater flexibility and manage detailed arrangements more easily.	Y	Y	Y
VST2, VST3 and Audio Unit support	Y	Y	Y
Time signature changes	Y	Y	Y
Comping New in Live 11Record multiple takes of a performance, then combine the best ones.	Y	Y	Y
Linked-track editing New in Live 11Link two or more tracks to edit their content simultaneously.	No	Y	Y
Multiple automation lanes	Y	Y	Y
MIDI Polyphonic Expression New in Live 11Add bends, slides and pressure for each individual note in a chord, add subtle expression variations, morph between chords and create evolving sonic textures more easily.	Y	Y	Y
Track Freeze	Y	Y	Y
Capture MIDIRecall your best ideas after you’ve played them – Capture MIDI can turn what you played into MIDI clips, without having to think about recording.	Y	Y	Y
Tempo Following New in Live 11Live listens to and adjusts its tempo based on incoming audio in real time, making it a dynamic part of the band instead of the tempo source that everyone has to follow.	Y	Y	Y
Note Chance New in Live 11Set the probability that a note or drum hit will occur and let Live generate surprising variations to your patterns that change over time.	Y	Y	Y
Velocity Chance New in Live 11Define ranges for velocity probability for subtle, humanized variations in the dynamics of your patterns.	Y	Y	Y
Automatic plug-in delay compensation	Y	Y	Y
MIDI remote control instant mapping	Y	Y	Y
MIDI output to hardware synths	Y	Y	Y
MIDI Clock/sync	Y	Y	Y
Generate or receive Pitch, Control, Clock and Trigger CV	No	No	Y
Multicore/multiprocessor support	Y	Y	Y
WAV, AIFF, MP3, Ogg Vorbis, FLAC file support	Y	Y	Y
Ableton LinkA technology that keeps instances of Live and a growing collection of iOS apps in time over a wireless network.	Y	Y	Y
Instrument Racks Updated for Live 11Combine multiple instruments and effects into a single device, allowing for split and layered sounds with customized Macro controls	Y	Y	Y
MIDI Effect Racks Updated for Live 11Combine MIDI effects into a single device, allowing for customized MIDI processing chains with simple Macro controls	Y	Y	Y
Drum Rack Updated for Live 11An instrument for layering samples, synths and effects in a classic 16-pad grid	Y	Y	Y
Audio & MIDI tracks	16	Unlimited	Unlimited
Scenes Updated for Live 11	16	Unlimited	Unlimited
Send and return tracks	2	12	12
Audio inputsMono audio input channels	8	256	256
Audio outputsMono audio output channels	8	256	256
Complex warp modesAdvanced algorithms for stretching audio, ideal for working with mixed audio or full tracks.	Y	Y	Y
Audio-slicingSlice audio to a Drum Rack or Sampler instance.	No	Y	Y
Audio to MIDIExtract harmony, melody or drums from an audio sample and convert it to MIDI.	No	Y	Y
Max for LivePowers a range of instruments and devices in Live Suite, and lets you customize or build your own devices, change the way Live works, and connect Live with the world around it.	No	No	Y
REX file supportSupport for ReCycle/Reason audio files.	No	Y	Y
POW-r ditheringMastering quality dithering modes for downsampling audio.	No	Y	Y
Groove Pool and extract grooveA set of templates that lets you adjust the timing and “feel” of sequences or make your own by extracting timing from existing audio material.	Y	Y	Y
Video import/export Updated for Live 11Import video as a clip and save modified video and audio.	Y	Y	Y

Live 11 System Requirements

macOS

• macOS High Sierra 10.13 to Monterey 12
• Intel® Core™ i5 processor or Apple M1
• 8 GB RAM
• 1280×800 display resolution
• Core Audio compliant audio interface recommended
• Access to an internet connection for authorizing Live (for downloading additional content and updating Live, a fast internet connection is recommended)
• Approximately 3 GB disk space on the system drive for the basic installation (8 GB free disk space recommended)
• Up to 76 GB disk space for additionally available sound content

Windows

• Windows 10 (Build 1909 and later)
• Intel® Core™ i5 processor or an AMD multi-core processor.
• 8 GB RAM
• 1366×768 display resolution
• ASIO compatible audio hardware for Link support (also recommended for optimal audio performance)
• Access to an internet connection for authorizing Live (for downloading additional content and updating Live, a fast internet connection is recommended)
• Approximately 3 GB disk space on the system drive for the basic installation (8 GB free disk space recommended)
• Up to 76 GB disk space for additionally available sound content