Elastic Drums + Ableton Link Sync Engine Previewed

Ableton introduced Live 9.5 this morning, and one the elements of the update is the new Link feature, which lets you play in time with multiple iOS devices and multiple instances of Ableton Live music software over a wireless network.

Developer Oliver Greschke of Elastic Drums was allowed to implement an early alpha version of the Link sync software, demonstrated in the video, above.

Elastic_Drums_plus_Ableton_SyncAbleton explains how Link works:

“To set up, just switch on Link, connect to the same network and start jamming. Anyone can start and stop their part while others keep playing. And anyone can adjust the tempo and the rest will follow. No MIDI cables, no installation, just free-flowing sync that works.”

Greschke says, “I think Link will really [be] a game changer, and I hope it will be a standard in every app and every DAW soon.”

Greschke expects to publish an update of Elastic Drums with Link capabilities by the end of November. More information on Link is available on the Ableton website.

9 thoughts on “Elastic Drums + Ableton Link Sync Engine Previewed

  1. Is Live the only ‘master’ or can any device or app be the master?

    And is this an open protocol that any developer can implement?

  2. Now, don’t get me wrong here: this looks like a feature which is most likely very useful to some people, but the ability to “Hook up” DAW’s over a network isn’t exactly new. For example the ReaStream VST (part of the freely available ReaPlugs; a VST collection which is also included with Reaper) can also do this: send & receive audio and/or midi across a network.

    Sure: it’s not as specific as change the tempo which then gets propagated throughout all stations. But it does allow to hook up more DAW’s.

  3. I guess there must be a lot of buzz about Elastic Drums: I checked it out yesterday, thought about buying it, and today the price had doubled.

    1. Elastic Drums is one of the better iOS drum machines. Pretty deep sound sculpting and automation, plus some very cool ‘live jam’ FX features.

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