Ableton reveal Live 10.1
It’s roughly a year since Ableton dropped Live 10, a major update to their all-conquering DAW which focused heavily on quality of life improvements and small features designed to please long-term users. Now the Berlin-based developers are dropping a free update, which once again focuses heavily on user-requested additions. We’ve got our hands on the Beta version, so let’s now dig into the coolest elements of Live 10.1.
Wavetable upload
Live’s Wavetable synth was one of the headline additions for version 10, and it takes pride of place in this latest update too. The big news here is the ability for users to add their own sounds to act as wavetable sources for the two oscillators, something that many third-party wavetable plugins can already do, but was sorely missed here. In practice, this now works using a simple drag-and-drop, allowing users to simply pull wavetable files or samples over from Live’s browser, as you would when adding a sample or audio file elsewhere in the DAW.
Automate it
Another of Live 10’s new features that's been refined for 10.1 is the automation system. The big news here comes from a number of new ways to input automation curves. First up is a draw mode, which allows proper free-hand automation to be inputted using the mouse, without being bound to the arrangement grid. There are now a number of pre-designed automation shapes on offer too, so that users can automatically add curves, bounces, fluctuations and the like, without painstakingly creating them for themselves. 10.1 also introduces the ability to type in numerical values for automation points, for more precisely defined markers. There are updated ways to edit automation curves too, allowing lines to be stretched and skewed, by moving multiple break points at once. Erratic hand-drawn shapes can be simplified too, using the new Simplify Envelope command.
Clips gain dedicated automation and modulation envelopes too, meaning these two types of movement can be applied independently. This allows, for example, a clip to contain a tremolo-like volume modulation, while automating the overall volume level across the course of the clip.
More than a Suite deal
Live 10 brought a new Echo effect to Suite owners, but there were fewer new devices for Standard and Intro users. Version 10.1 addresses that a little, with two new effects for all versions of Live, named Channel EQ and Delay. The former updates the existing DJ-style three-band EQ from Live’s arsenal, fleshing out EQ Three with new smart, adaptive EQ curves and a spectral analyser view similar to on EQ Eight. Delay, meanwhile, combines the existing Ping Pong and Simple Delays with a few new character parameters too, such as the ability to engage repitched delays or have the effect jump or fade in.
What else?
A favourite addition of ours comes from the fact that Live 10.1 now lets users freeze tracks even when they contain sidechain routings. So you can now save on CPU load without having to forego your sidechain compression setups.
Another big, and widely requested, update comes in the form of VST3 support – something many saw as a big omission from v10. This update adds new export options too, including the ability to choose whether or not to include Master or Send channel effects when exporting individual tracks or groups.
Lastly, 10.1 adds support for ‘pinch zoom’ capable computers (such as Macs) along with a whole raft of keyboard shortcuts that offer a quick means to, say, view an entire arrangement, unfold tracks or match track heights across the whole screen.
Live 10.1 should be entering public Beta soon. Keep an eye on Ableton.com for more details.