Something like ReWire will give you sync, as well as audio and MIDI routing between two applications running on the same computer. Link is not for every occasion it’s focused on doing just one very important job. This is great for adding an organic quality to your synth sounds. Everything in Live can be locked to project tempo, to a robotic degree if required, but if we take LFOs for example, each one has the option to sync with note values, or to manually set the LFO cycle to Hertz, which will behave in a more old-school way, and drift over time, if you set it by ear. While we’re talking about sync, let’s just remember that one of the cool things about Live is that sync within projects is flexible. Ableton has kept Link open, so it doesn’t even need Live to work. If all you’ve got is phones and tablets, no problem. Even if you have to beef up the audio a bit, you can use a battery-powered mixer and some battery/rechargeable speakers, which will have the fringe benefit of making the jam easier to record as well. Link jams are very easy amongst friends, all you need is a quiet-ish space, a bit of table or floor, and you’re off (by the way Ableton hasn’t stated any limit on how many devices can play at once). The Force was the first hardware piece I’ve encountered with built-in WiFi and Link support it also has MIDI and CV/Gate, so it’s perfect for testing such setups. In the walkthrough, we refer to a very specific setup, consisting of Ableton Live 10, Akai Force and Arturia DrumBrute, but that’s purely because of what we had to hand at the time. Anybody can start, stop, join, leave, change tempo… and it just keeps rolling. With Link, however, it’s very democratic.
#Ableton live demonstration software#
One of Link’s strengths is that there’s no longer a sync master/slave relationship, which is always something to deal with if you’re using ReWire, where it’s impossible for the software to exit the setup without everything else falling over at the same time. It’s good to have the option to turn it on or off, though. Since Live 10 added the ‘Start Stop Sync’ option in Preferences, Link’s been adopted by even more musicians – that was one feature many of us requested – the ability to start and stop all our sync’d gear at once. Come to think of it, you could even Link VCV Rack to Live on the same computer.Īs we point out in the walkthrough, it’s often better to rely on Ethernet for an important gig, but that’s usually down to the up and down nature of WiFi rather than any reservations about Link itself. If you really get stuck, find an iOS/Android app, or grab the Live demo or VCV Rack (an open-source virtual modular synthesizer) and put them on another computer. The great thing about using Link is that you probably won’t need to add any more software or apps to try it, because it’s included with so many.
#Ableton live demonstration install#
No extra purchase or install is required, and that’s a crucial aspect of what’s made it popular. Over time, it’s appeared on ever more software, from Bitwig Studio on macOS/Windows, to Korg Gadget on iOS, while also encroaching into the ‘real world’ through Akai’s new Force hardware. Link is reliable, and super-easy to understand and to configure. With Live 9.6, Ableton introduced Link, a sync solution that works via WiFi or Ethernet. We’ve used MIDI cables and interfaces to connect the black boxes that clutter our workspaces, and we’ve used ReWire to connect the DAWs that clutter our computer desktops, with varying levels of complexity and reliability. For any musician or producer running a lot of digital gear side-by-side, synchronisation has always been an issue – an inconvenient necessity.