Ableton Live 12.4 Beta: Wireless Audio and Smarter Stem Separation

Ableton Live 12.4 Beta: A New Era of Connectivity and Workflow

On February 10, 2026, Ableton opened the public beta for Live 12.4, a significant and free update for all Live 12 license holders. While point releases often focus on minor fixes, 12.4 delivers powerful new features and workflow refinements centered on creative collaboration and efficiency. The headline feature, Link Audio, promises to untether musicians from their audio interfaces, while major upgrades to Stem Separation make remixing faster than ever.

The Game-Changer: Stream Audio Wirelessly with Link Audio

For years, Ableton Link has been the gold standard for wirelessly synchronizing the tempo and timing of multiple devices over a local network. Live 12.4 dramatically expands this technology with the introduction of Link Audio, a feature that allows users to stream multi-channel, uncompressed audio between any Link-enabled devices.

This means you can now send and receive high-quality, 32-bit float audio in real-time between:

• Multiple laptops running Ableton Live
• A computer and a standalone Push 3 or Move
• Live and other Link-enabled music apps

Link Audio eliminates the need for extra audio interfaces, complex routing, and cumbersome cables for collaborative sessions or hybrid setups. It intelligently handles latency, keeping everything perfectly in sync. Whether you're jamming with a friend in the same room or integrating a standalone hardware groovebox into your main project, Link Audio streamlines the process, letting you focus purely on the music.

Stem Separation Gets a Major Workflow Boost

First introduced in Live 12.3, the Stem Separation tool was already a powerful feature for isolating drums, bass, vocals, and harmonies from a single audio file. The 12.4 update makes it significantly more flexible and useful, especially for live performers and samplists.

Key improvements include:

• Partial Separation: You no longer need to process an entire audio file. You can now select just a specific portion of a clip in the Arrangement or Session View and extract stems only from that selection, saving immense processing time.
• Single-Track Merging: After separation, you can now merge the resulting stems onto a single track. This cleverly places the stems into an Instrument Rack, with each stem (drums, bass, etc.) on its own chain. This is ideal for processing the stems as a group or easily mapping them to macros for live remixing.

Creative Tools Get Sharper: Device Updates

Live 12.4 also brings welcome updates to several of its core audio effects, making them more intuitive and powerful.

Erosion: A Visual Overhaul

The bit-crushing and distortion effect, Erosion, has been completely redesigned. It now features a real-time spectrum visualizer that clearly shows how the effect is modulating and mangling the incoming audio. This visual feedback makes it far easier to dial in precise textures, from subtle digital grit to extreme noise.

Chorus-Ensemble & Delay: More Modulation

• Chorus-Ensemble: This classic effect now offers more direct control over the delay time, expanding its range to create a wider variety of vibrato and flanger-style sounds.
• Delay: The versatile Delay device gets new LFO modulation options, allowing you to create rhythmic, evolving echoes by modulating the filter frequency or delay time.

A Smarter Way to Learn: The New Learn View

To help users master these new features and the full depth of the software, the old Help View has been replaced with a completely new Learn View. Instead of a simple alphabetical index, the Learn View is structured by topic, guiding users through concepts in a logical, step-by-step manner. This makes it a more effective educational tool for both beginners getting started and experienced users looking to deepen their knowledge.

Users with a Live 12 license can access the 12.4 public beta now through Ableton's beta testing program.