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He’s lived with it for a few months, now Andy Jones judges if Ableton Live’s 12th major update is still the DAW MVP…

You’ve got to love the way Ableton release big Live updates. It announces it and then spends months tweaking, opening up the beta for all sorts of feedback so when the final build is released, it should be damn near perfect. Which is great news for everyone, but it does feel like we’ve been talking about Ableton Live 12 for ages, and have certainly spent an inordinate amount of time with these various Beta builds. So, is the final (final) version worth your wonga?

What’s all the fuss about?

Like many DAW users, we tend to get a bit too excited about big instrument additions when faced with a major point update, and largely go ‘meh’ to the smaller stuff, but Live 12 kind of turns that on its head. It has lots of both big and small extras, and in opposition to our normal upgrade use, we’ve actually been enjoying more of the less obvious stuff. But there’s a lot to love overall, so let’s try and give you an overview.

The big plugin headlines are the new Meld synth and Roar effect. Meld is a bi-timbral macro oscillator synth that has two selectable engines in which you can load very different oscillators, from basic VA to fairly obvious Bitgrunge to ‘not immediately obvious’ Tarp. Honestly the best first thing to do is load up one of the many excellent presets and just step through the oscillators; you’ll soon get the Meld drift, and understand that it’s hugely flexible because of varied macro oscillators and their many combinations. But there’s a lot more.

Roar has to be heard to be believed, and looks set to be an Ableton Live classic in the future