Ableton Link

I finally took the plunge to see what all the fuss was about with Ableton, and yeah, it certainly takes the idea of the DAW as a musical instrument way, way farther than I would have dreamed possible from my experience with Cubase. However, I personally don’t have much use for the session view and all the, well, “live” features. Plus, while it’s of course possible to create complete productions from scratch using the arrangement view in Ableton, there are hundreds of little things that make it ill-suited for such a task compared to Cubase. For example, the MIDI editing capability alone is orders of magnitude more powerful in Cubase. You can’t even cut notes in half in the Ableton piano roll!

Nonetheless, the Ableton factory effects and instruments, and the way they are organized into device chains, are a joy to use in a way that’s difficult to explain unless you’ve tried them for yourself. I know Cubase is starting to incorporate views similar to Ableton device chains, and that is a very good thing. For the time being though, my ideal system would be a Rewire-like setup with Cubase as the master, with MIDI and audio routed to Ableton running as the slave, and then audio collected back in Cubase. This is of course not possible with Rewire, because audio can only travel from the slave to the master in Rewire 2. So, I don’t really have any need for Link, but I wish there was some kind of Rewire 3 that accommodates fully bi-directional audio and MIDI.

I would absolutely love some off way of linking Ableton and Cubase. I have been using Cubase for over 12 years and recently I have teamed up with 2 friends who are both Ableton users. I personally am not a huge fan of Ableton but I do love the Push 2. In our scenario being able to jam with both Cubase and Ableton would be amazing…

I’ve tried it with Reason, Live and Maschine together. I was imagining more of a VST System Link experience, in some ways it’s better, some worse. The waiting for next bar took some getting used to. Very stable. Far out to be able to set tempo from any of the 3 apps.

I think it is very useful.

Cubase’s piano roll kills Live’s. Live’s launchpad thing is unequaled. Maschine browses and beats. Have it all.

+1

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Every now and then a new innovation comes that advances music production in ways the benefit both consumers and companies in great ways. VST was one of those. Ableton Link is another.

I hope Steinberg takes this serious. I hope every DAW maker, iOS app maker or any music related developer takes this serious. It’s incredible powerful and will help people collaborate without boundaries, it’s truly next level.

++ for Ableton LINK!!
I`ve been buying every Cubase Upgrade for Years twice (Dongle Protection…). Although for me the last Upgrades were not groundbreaking…
But for that feature I would really not regret to have spend my Money!
I keep on hoping that Steinberg will hear us and fullfill our dreams to make us happy!

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Agreed. I’d like to see this in Cubase and Nuendo

Yes please LINK!!!
Tried Rewire and MTC etc lots of slippage on start and not very tight sync hopefully this would improve all of that.
Being able to write with 2 complete different approached would help with creative writing.

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omg over five years of waiting…

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Cubase is great for writing midi and composing arrangements, but it’s really bad at things that Live excels like using the drum rack.

Now that ReWire is dead, Cubase needs a way to interface with the outside world and I think Ableton Link is probably the best choice (unless Steinberg created a new protocol).

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Please Ableton Link with Cubase 12

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Yes, PLEASE!!! We really want Cubase 12 and Push 2 together!

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Cubase 12 got released, any news if Link is available with the update ?? I don’t find anything about it my my online research.
I also tried to see if there was a third party VST that could send Ableton Link signal to Ableton Live… No success so far… If anybody has a workaround I would be glad to hear.
Now since Rewire is discontinued, I really want to find a way to make Cubase & Ableton work together before I upgrade anything.

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Yes, Please!!! Also for using with Maschine in a different computer, not only for Ableton Live. Also, being able to use Push2 with Cubase would be epic!!!

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Is there a chance to enable ableton link in cubase 12? Hopefully we will get an update to syncronize our music production tools.

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Cubasis 3.4 already got Ableton Link and it is also needed in Cubase 12.

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As there is not Rewire mode, please enable Ableton Link in Cubase 12. So, we can use it together with Push hardware.

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Ableton Link in Cubase 12

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I’m in the process of trying to sync Live to Nuendo. It’s a hell of a process. So far I’m able to do the following:

  • Control Nuendo transport with Push 2
  • Route a stereo signal from Live into Nuendo

All of this requires loopback audio software, LoopMIDI, and Max/MSP. I don’t have those two features listed working together yet. It will require more development.

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An alternative to Rewire is this Blue Cat Connector. I haven’t tried it so I can’t say how well it works.

Cubase 13! Ableton Link!
Maybe we’ll be lucky this time!
Please Steinberg, have mercy, hear our lamentations!
We still use Cubase in our studio, we’re just creatures of habit.
We then use Ableton for spontaneous sessions with multiple computers.
Of course it would be great if Cubase could run with Ableton Link on the main computer in which all the audio tracks are recorded.
We’ve been waiting for a few years now, but as we all know, hope dies last. :sunglasses:

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