Ableton quietly released an update to the Move mobile standalone instrument, and it’s got a surprise: you can now sample directly from the USB-C port.
Sampling over USB-C is cool, as it makes an easy way to quickly sample from computers, tablets (okay “iPads”), and smartphones. Got something fun on your phone? Connect a USB-C cable and grab it. Weird and wonderful moment in your VCV Rack patch? Turn it into a sample. This will also work with the handful of instruments out there with USB-C host capability – and hopefully more are coming.
Life gets a bit more complicated when you have an iPhone or iPad with Lightning port instead of USB-C. Unfortunately, Lightning-to-USB-C cables are unfortunately not supported. All is explained in the Knowledge Base article:
The other big awaited feature is, you can finally send polyphonic expression over the MIDI out port for controlling other devices. Move can’t quite compete with the likes of a LinnStrument, Osmose, or Ableton’s own Push 3, but it’s at least nice not to lose that data.
Also in this release, via Ableton’s release notes (emphasis mine):
- You can now solo tracks by pressing and holding the Shift and Mute buttons simultaneously and then pressing a track button.
- Longer entries in the browser, such as sample or preset names, now scroll on the display so that the full name is visible.
- When used as an audio interface, Move now defaults to outputting its internal microphone and line-in. Move’s main output can still be selected in Setup; however, doing so will disable Move’s speaker when a USB-C cable is connected.
- Move now sends out polyphonic aftertouch when set to MIDI Out, which lets you play expressively when using external MIDI controllers.
- A wider selection of presets is now used when creating a new Set.
- Uploads to Ableton Cloud are now faster.
- Triggered one shot samples and long release note phases now stop when playback stops and when clips are retriggered. Additionally, an “All Sound Off” MIDI message (CC 120) is sent to the MIDI output.
No complaints here, though. I’m excited to head straight to some USB-C sampling.
You can now buy Ableton Move from Sweetwater, currently with some cool Berklee online classes bundled in for free (neat)!
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Ableton Move Standalone Instrument
For more on Move: