Live 12.2 is Out Now – with Bounce to New Track, the All-New Auto Filter, Expressive Chords, and More

Ableton Live 12.2 is here. All Live 12 users can update now for free to explore all the latest features: including new and improved devices, Bounce to New Track, and a better browsing experience. The update also brings major new creative features for Push and Move.

Watch the video below for a full rundown of the new features, and pick up a handful of ideas to try for yourself:

Bounce to New Track lets you quickly bounce clips or time selections on any MIDI or audio track, including all processing, to a new audio track – it’s an easy way to add micro-edits and transition effects to your tracks. Bounce Track in Place converts the whole track to audio.

Auto Filter gets a complete overhaul: with real-time visualization, new modulation and mixing controls, and the introduction of creative filter types like Resampling, Comb, Vowel, and DJ. Auto Filter is now available for the first time on Ableton Note and Move too.

Expressive Chords is a Max for Live device for Live 12 Intro, Standard, and Suite – now available via the Packs page. Play interesting, nuanced and natural-sounding harmonies from single MIDI notes using 52 expertly curated chord sets and the device’s built-in MIDI and MPE controls.

Roar lets you play the pitch of its feedback in Note mode with the new MIDI sidechain, and you can now feed external audio to the envelope follower too – for coloring and distortion that gels with the rhythms and melodies of your track. The new Delay routing mode and Dispersion filter type bring further sound-shaping possibilities to one of Live 12 Suite’s most versatile tools.

Meld adds a four-voice Chord oscillator that allows you to adjust or modulate the chord shape and inversion with two macro controls, while scale awareness keeps everything in key. For a new way to modulate and mangle sounds, try the synth’s new Scrambler LFO effect too.

Resonators and Spectral Resonator both support Live 12’s scale awareness and tuning systems – and Spectral Resonator’s new Quantize feature allows you to individually quantize the harmonics to your chosen scale, tuning system, or chromatic note, for more harmonic results.

Browser improvements in Live 12.2 include the new Quick Tags panel that enables you to view, edit and assign tags directly in the Browser. You can customize the look of any label and user folder in your sidebar with a range of new icons, and the Browser lets you view multiple columns of metadata at once. The Filter View has been simplified too, and its hidden features are now more discoverable.

What’s new for Push?

The new 16 Pitches layout lets you transpose and transform your one-shot samples into melodic sequences spanning multiple octaves – all to the key or tuning system of your track, and with extra feel and expressivity from Push’s MPE-enabled pads. 

You can now structure songs, perform live sets, play with probability, and explore more flexible ways of sequencing clips and scenes, with Follow Actions on Push. 

Take full control over the timing, feel, and even the tonality of your music, with access to the Groove Pool and Live 12’s Tuning Systems directly from Push, plus Bounce to New Track. 

And in addition to the all-new Expressive Chords and the updates to Auto Filter, Meld, and Roar, Live 12.2 brings the External Audio Effect device to Push – enabling you to use hardware audio effects wherever you like in your Push Set. 

For a full list of what’s new for each version of Push, see the release notes for Live 12 on Push*.

What’s new in Move 1.5?

Sample slicing lets you chop samples in Move’s Drum Racks. Choose a sample and the number of slices you want, adjust the sample boundaries if needed, and you’re ready to go. Chop vocals and chord progressions, deconstruct and re-order rhythms, and even turn each slice into a melody of its own with Move’s 16 Pitches.

Move now goes even better with other gear. With simultaneous MIDI In/Out in Move 1.5, you can send and receive MIDI across all four tracks at the same time, and each track can be configured with its own MIDI In/Out settings. Move can also now receive MIDI clock settings from external devices.

Auto Filter also comes to Move, complete with all the new controls and filter types, and a range of presets to help you get the most of them. Use it to shape your sounds on individual tracks, or as a performance effect on the Main Track.

Take the tour to learn more about Live 12, and head to the Ableton shop to get your license now.

Live 12.2 is a free update for all Live 12 users and will be installed the next time you open Live. If auto-update is turned off, go to your user account to download. 

For full details on Live 12.2 check out the release notes*.

*Note: Release notes are only available in English