Ableton has announced the upcoming release of Live 12, a major update designed to spark musical creativity – introducing playful MIDI tools for generating unexpected ideas, new devices and sounds with surprising capabilities, and improvements that let you work more intuitively.
Live 12 will be released in early 2024, and will soon go into public beta.
Ableton is now offering a 20% discount on all new Live 11 licenses, as well as upgrades from previous versions. Users can then upgrade to Live 12 for free when it’s released. Find the details in the Ableton shop.

What’s coming in Live 12
Play freely with ideas.
MIDI Transformations and Generators – Create a variety of simple or complex variations to your MIDI clips. Add ornaments, connect successive notes and chords, simulate guitar strums, or pick from a set of generative algorithms to conjure up melodies, rhythms and chords that follow constraints you define.
MIDI Editor improvements – Rearrange the order of a selection of notes by pitch, velocity or duration. Stretch, split, chop or join notes in new ways; shape the velocity of notes more easily; transpose them into a scale; or add intervals chromatically or in key.
Keys and Scales – Choose a key in Live’s Control Bar to see its notes in any clip you create. Then edit
clips using scale highlighting as a guide, use the clip scale to transform and generate musical ideas, or sync the scale of MIDI devices and instruments to the clip being played.
Tuning Systems – Work in tunings outside the 12-tone equal temperament system, and access them with Live’s devices as well as any MPE-capable plugin.

Surprise yourself with the sounds you create.
Meld – A bi-timbral, MPE-capable instrument designed for deep sound-shaping that generates a wide array of textural and experimental sounds with two easy-to-use macro oscillators.
Roar – Create everything from subtle and precise mastering-grade warmth to wild and unpredictable sound degradation with Live’s new coloring and saturation effect. Roar’s three saturation stages can be used in series, parallel, or even in mid/side and multiband configurations
– and it comes equipped with an extensive modulation matrix.
Granulator III – The latest iteration of Robert Henke’s granular instrument now has MPE capability, giving you expressive control over parameters like note bend, vibrato and glissando. Plus, you can now capture audio in real time and start manipulating it immediately.
New Packs – Find new tricks for performing on the fly with the four Max for Live devices of Performance Pack. And explore unlikely instruments and unique foley recordings with the Lost and Found collection.
Work more intuitively.
Stacked Detail Views – Get an overview of everything a track is doing at a glance: see your devices and the Clip Editor at the same time, as well as automation and device parameters, so you can focus on the track you’re working on without repeatedly switching between views.
View styling – Stay in the flow with Live 12’s cleaner, more modern look that removes visual complexity and keeps the focus on your music.
Mixer improvements – Live’s Mixer, previously available only in Session View, can now be used in Arrangement View. It also comes with improvements that make it more accurate for detailed mixing decisions, and easier to read and control.
Browser tagging – Use the included tags or custom ones to search for sounds without the constraints of the browser’s built-in categories.
Sound Similarity Search – Start with a sample and tell Live’s browser to find comparable sounds and instrument presets related to timbre.
Accessibility and navigation improvements – Control core workflows in Live 12 using assistive technologies like screen readers, and use new keyboard shortcuts to navigate to nearly every part of Live.

Pricing: (Note prices are in Australian Dollar)

• Suite: A$1099
• Standard: A$529
• Intro: A$149

The new Push invites expressive playing, producing and performing, free from distractions. It can be configured as a standalone instrument, or to be used with a computer. Push is upgradeable, and features replaceable components for an extended lifespan at the centre of your studio.

Expressiveness
Push’s 64 MPE-capable pads detect finger pressure and placement across X and Y axes for nuanced per-note control. Play bends and slides, filter or affect some notes within a chord, or play multiple articulations within one pad.

Connectivity
Plug external instruments, synths, and effects straight into Push’s built-in audio interface to record directly into your Push set or into Ableton Live. Plus, send gate and CV signals to your modular gear for a combined Eurorack/Push setup, or use your Push with class- compliant MIDI gear.

Standalone Playability
As a standalone instrument, Push is designed to sit at the heart of a laptop-free music setup. With a built-in battery and storage, you can make music without plugging in a single cable using instruments and effects you know from Ableton Live, along with your own Packs and sample libraries. Connect to WiFi to transfer sets back and forth between Push and Live.

Configurability
Push is available in two configurations to suit different needs and budgets. With a processor, Push functions as a standalone instrument. Without a processor, Push needs to be connected to a computer. If you buy your Push without a processor, you can add one yourself later using the Upgrade Kit. And it will also be possible to replace the processor, hard drive and battery later, so your instrument can keep up with the advance of technology.

The standalone configuration of Push is powered by a specially-adapted Intel NUC Compute Element, which combines a processor, RAM memory and WiFi in a credit-card-sized component.

Pricing & Availability
Push (with processor): A$2999
Push: A$1499
Upgrade Kit: A$1599
Push is available now through Ableton.com

Ableton Live’s latest 11.3 update adds Drift, an all-new MPE-capable synth and the first for all editions of Live – including Live Lite. Drift is a characterful device capable of a wide variety of sounds from every era of modern music.

A New Synth For All Editions Of Live 11
Its minimal layout and interactive controls make adjusting the sound easy for musicians new to synthesis, while the sounds it can produce will give even experienced sound designers a broader sonic palette.

Inspired by classic hardware but borrowing heavily from modern synths and Eurorack modules, Drift has been carefully tuned by ear to deliver great sound at any setting, quickly and easily.

More MPE-Capable Instruments
This free update to Live 11 also adds MPE capability to Analog, Collision, Electric and Tension, giving you more options when you want to add more expressive control to your music. 

More Expressive Control Of Your Music
Many features in Live 11 have now been updated to support MPE:

• The MPE Control device now has added functionality, an updated UI and reduced CPU load
• Note Echo now supports MPE with feedback controls for each dimension. This offers a creative way for MPE modulation to change over time
• An updated Core Library with expressive content is available in 11.3

As part of the Black Friday sales, Ableton is offering 20% off Live, Push and Packs for a limited time only. This offer applies to Live 11 (Suite, Standard, and Intro), Push, upgrades to Live 11 (Suite or Standard), Max for Live, all Packs, and crossgrades to Max 8.

Live 11
Live comes in three editions: Intro, Standard and Suite. They share common features, but Standard and Suite have additional features, instruments, Packs, and effects.

Intro — Essentials at a great price
A$119 (A$149 RRP)
Or A$19.58 for 6 months

Standard — Full features plus extras
A$527 (A$659 RRP)
Or A$87.85 for 6 months

Suite — Complete integrated studio
A$879 (A$1099 RRP)
Or A$146.50 for 6 months

Push
Push is a hardware instrument that seamlessly integrates with Live to give you a hands-on and expressive music-making experience.

Intro — Essentials at a great price
A$799 (A$1148 RRP)
Or A$133.20 for 6 months

Standard — Full features plus extras
A$1230 (A$1658 RRP)
Or A$205 for 6 months

Suite — Complete integrated studio
A$1502 (A$2098 RRP)
Or A$250.35 for 6 months

Max For Live
Discover new instruments, effects and customisations for Live.
A$215 Buy It Now (A$269 RRP)
A$103 Crossgrade (A$129 RRP)

For more details, head to the Ableton shop.

This release also comes with a number of small improvements, including an updated Shifter device, which adds a new mode for real-time monophonic pitch shifting, as well as delay, an envelope section, an LFO and glide functionality.

Two new Max for Live utilities, Align Delay and Shaper MIDI are also added. Align Delay allows artists to compensate for lag when sending signals throughout their system. Shaper MIDI generates modulation data that can bring more expression to MIDI performances.

Additional features include improvements to comping, updates to Clip handling, and more.