Description
Ableton has unveiled the public beta of Live 13. Live 13 introduces a Step Sequencer that offers an entirely new way to enter notes in a MIDI track.
Live’s new Step Sequencer is a classic X0X-style sequencer with a few twists. Patterns can range from eight to 128 steps, and each lane has its own settings for step count, playback rate, direction and swing, so you’re able to dial in polyrhythmic patterns that evolve and change as the sequence plays through.
Along with the notes themselves, five additional parameters are visualised on the sequencer – the default is velocity, but you can also tweak offset, step length, step repeat, pitch bend and probability individually by adjusting the height.
On the Device front, Drum Synth is a device with 25 unique percussive presets spread across nine different categories, covering imitations of classic drum machines like the TR-808, TR-909 and CR-78, synthesized recreations of acoustic percussion like the bongo, guiro and timpani, and a handful of more overtly digital, experimental and even melodic sounds.
Live Suite also gains Looplet, a four-track looper inspired by classic tape looping. Load up a sample or record a loop, and you can play back a different chunk of audio on each of its four playheads, with per-playhead settings for playback direction, transposition and time-stretching, and a mixer section with panning, filters and routing.
Along with these new devices, Live 13 introduces dedicated Racks for multiband and mid-side processing, making it easier to apply precisely targeted effects processing across different frequency ranges or portions of the stereo field.
Instruments and effects aside, there’s a whole host of workflow improvements in Live 13. The most significant of these is ARA 2 support, something that many Live users have been after for some time. There's a new Contextual Browser too, accessible directly in Racks and Device Chains.
It's also notable that at a time when many DAW developers seem to be focused on shoehorning in AI-powered features – as with recent releases from Apple, Splice and Image-Line – there's no mention of AI with Live 13.
Read more: https://www.musicradar.com/music-tech/ableton-live-13-is-here-everything-you-need-to-know-about-lives-latest-update