Our friend DeafMan is back with another retro take on the Ableton Live color scheme. This time, the idea is making Live look attractive and legible in low light – even extreme low light. So get set for that late-night session, light a couple of candles, and travel back to the screen aesthetics of the 80s and 90s.
When we last joined DeafMan, they were remaking Ableton Live with the color scheme of pricey 90s SGI / UNIX workstations. Some of you, of course, found that awful – and some of you fell in love (or fell in love again). The new INFRA|Light theme collection I expect will appeal to more folks, with a sexy on-black look. I’ve been using these late at night since Clem started testing them, and they’re in fact perfect for letting you work into the wee hours or onstage in low light. And there’s still enough contrast for when the sun comes up (I’m using them now even with light pouring in a window).
There’s a new custom typeface with these, too, and it comes in two versions – a “large” default, and then a “small” version optimized for higher zoom settings. (For me, since I zoom for readability anyway, I was happy with “large” but you’ve got a choice.) From DeafMan:
These themes are inspired by professional softwares of the 90’s and 80’s. The mute colour schemes reduce eye-strain whilst maintaining excellent visibility, thus making these themes particularly well suited for low-light studio environments.
And I love how these look:
INFRA|Light Studio Themes for Ableton Live 11
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Plus, if you liked MID|Light, those low-contrast themes had a revision with the addition of a more colorful IMPACT set of variants, which you might prefer if you found the original standard versions a bit too drab. Here it is in rust:
MidLight Theme Collection for Ableton Live 11
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Seems ULTRA|Light must be next, no, Clem?
We did talk a little bit about how the theming options in Live could be greatly improved; I hope we revisit that th– erm, topic.
Previously in retro Ableton Live themes: