Hands-on w Ableton Live 11

The latest update to Ableton’s world-c adds creative effects, MPE control, im clips and a lot more besides

In recent times at least, Ableton haven’t been ones to rush software updates. There was a five-year gap between the arrival of Live 9 and Live 10, and nearly six years between 8 and 9 before that. It was something of a surprise then, when we received news of Live 11’s forthcoming arrival less than three years after the release of Live 10.

We’ve had our hands on the closed Beta version for a few weeks now and – while we’ll hold off on a full review until its public release early next year – we’re ready to take you on a whistle-stop tour of the latest updates, new devices and revamped features.

Workflow

Ableton Live updates often look a touch underwhelming at first glance, but become more and more interesting as you dig into the details. That’s certainly true of Live 11 – visually, not a lot has changed to the overall look and feel of the DAW, and even a seasoned user could open Live 11 and not immediately clock that anything much has changed. Even on paper, Live 11 can read like a bit of a non-event. There are no new instrument devices here, and the headline workflow improvement – the ability to comp multiple recording takes – is a feature that’s been available in rival DAWs for years.