Ableton Link V3 Update Adds Start/Stop Functionality

For those who are not yet familiar with Ableton’s Link protocol, it is a technology that keeps devices in time over a local network. It has the ability to operate over WIFI networks meaning multiple devices can play in time without needing to be connected via physical cabling. Link is not only part of Ableton Live, but also comes as a built-in feature of other software and hardware for music making.

Link has been widely adopted and praised for it’s simplicity and accuracy. The latest update (V3) now adds essential Start/Stop commands. Link 3.0 is backwards compatible with earlier versions and is already available in Audiobus 3 with other app developers soon to follow suit. Further information was provided by Ableton:

“As of Version 3, Link allows peers to share information on the user’s intent to start or stop transport with other peers that have the feature enabled. Start/stop state changes only follow user actions. This means applications will not adapt to, or automatically change the start/stop state of a Link session when they are joining. After a peer joins a session it exposes and listens to all upcoming start/stop state changes. This is different to tempo, beat, and phase that are automatically aligned as soon as an application joins a session. As every application handles start and stop commands according to its capabilities and quantization, it is not expected that applications start or stop at the same time. Rather every application should start according to its quantum and phase.”