Live 12: What’s New In v12.1

The Main Quantizer tab with Scale Aware and MIDI side‑chain engaged.

We check out what’s new in Live 12.1.

Following the smorgasbord of new features in 2024’s Live 12 update, 12.1 brings even more devices and enhancements. Let’s take a run through what’s new and improved in the latest version...

Auto Shift

First up, and possibly most significant, is the new Auto Shift device — Ableton’s answer to vocal pitch correction. Something of a cross between the simple‑but‑effective Little AlterBoy by Soundtoys and the high‑end vocal processing of market leaders Antares Auto‑Tune and Celemony Melodyne, Auto Shift is an intuitive and ‘free’ alternative. Whilst it doesn’t necessarily have the audio polish or graphical display of the latter two, it does have some impressive features they lack.

The first of these is the ability to use a separate MIDI clip as a side‑chain input. In the simplest use case, the external MIDI part might contain only the ‘correct’ version of the melody, allowing the vocal to track it for a fully corrected vocal line. But things get much more interesting if you use a clip with a different melody, or a counterpoint, or even a mad arpeggiation to create wild and almost impossible‑to‑achieve‑otherwise pitch effects. And, of course, you can control any monophonic line, it doesn’t necessarily have to be a vocal. This alone will reward much creative experimentation.

Not only that, but the incoming MIDI part doesn’t even have to be monophonic — you can program a chord sequence in ‘Poly’ mode, and Auto Shift will produce an instant backing harmony (up to four parts). Use the Wet/Dry balance to make sure the lead is prominent, and job done. (Of course, for more control, you may wish to duplicate the lead part and create a harmony Group on a new channel, with each part having its own pan and volume settings).

Real‑time pitch correction is another welcome feature. Whilst more widely supported in other auto‑tune plug‑ins, this is a trick still not available in Melodyne.

All of this is controlled within the Quantizer tab of Auto Shift, with LFO being the secondary tab. The Quantizer tab also contains a horizontal pitch meter which shows how much the incoming audio is being corrected by, and a one‑octave keyboard highlights the note to which the audio is being quantised. If you click the Scale Aware button, the keyboard then highlights the notes of the current Global Scale and quantises only to those. In a neat twist, you can choose additional accidentals to include, or indeed not use Scale Aware at all and leave it chromatic, or choose an entirely arbitrary selection of notes.

‘Strength’ adjusts how strictly Auto Shift moves the incoming note’s...