Today, Ableton has announced that its new technology, Link, is now available to test as part of the latest free Ableton Live release, Live 9.5.1 beta.
Link enables users to play electronic instruments together “with the freedom of a live band and without the hassle” of MIDI setup. The technology keeps devices in time over a wireless network.
As of today, Link is now available (in beta) for Live users, so two Live users will be able to sync and play together wirelessly.
The idea behind Ableton Link is to streamline syncing of multiple devices – both computers running Live, and iOS devices running music apps. Users connect and sync wirelessly to the same network and can begin playing together immediately. Anyone can start and stop their part while others keep playing. And anyone can adjust the tempo and the rest will follow.
But perhaps the most interesting aspect of Ableton Link is that Ableton is making Link available to developers via a free software development kit. And Live isn’t even necessary to use Ableton Link.
Ableton Link support has already been announced for these apps:
- A Tasty Pixels Loopy
- Akai iMPC Pro
- Audiobus
- ElasticDrums
- Finger Pro Bassline
- Finger Pro LP-5 loop player
- Finger Pro MoDrum x0x beat making app
- Korg Gadget for iPad
- Korg iElectribe for iPhone
- Korg iPolysix for iPad
- Korg iKaossilator
- Korg SyncKontrol
- Zaplin Musics triqtraq
Pricing and Availability. Ableton Link is free for current Ableton Live users via today’s beta update to Ableton Live, 9.5.1. Prospective users can join the beta program here to download Live 9.5.1 beta with Link. More information about how Link works is in the video below, and, with a list of current Link-enabled apps, at the Ableton website.
Developers who are interested in building Link into their app can obtain a free Link SDK from Ableton by contacting [email protected].
Trying to get a sense on, what other data can be sent back and forth as well.
Is this only time code or can MIDI for note on off / cc be sent as well? Audio would be super cool if possible 😉
if it’s not live is it memorex ?
Are there any iOS apps that support this now?
I’d be *really* pumped if there were some windows/mac/linux programs aside from Ableton that could use this. I’d love to jam with somebody using something like LMMS. I’d even love to see some standalone Virtual Instruments that can use the feature. It’d be a new kind of LAN party.
whats nice is that you can get the developer’s package (yes I said package) and implement their code into many other applications out side of Live and not even need live to do anything.
Cant wait to see what comes of this, Max for live and all you mentioned above
I hope Intua, the guys who produce Beatmaker 2, get on the case with this new technology. I’ve always wanted to sync Beatmaker 2 with Ableton but never got it to work effectively. 🙁