Ableton Live 11 now supports Apple's M1 chips natively
The DAW should be able to tap into some extra computing power.
The first major update to Ableton Live 11 is now available to all users, bringing with it native support for Apple's M1 chips. Ableton had been beta testing the update and Apple silicon support since September.
The popular music production suite should run more efficiently on M1-powered Macs after users update to Live 11.1. The DAW will no longer need to use Apple's Rosetta 2 emulator, so users will be able to harness more of their computer's power. Tapping into several plugins simultaneously can strain system resources, and native support for M1 architecture may lighten the load on that front too.
Ableton is making other changes in Live 11.1. Among those are improvements to the arrangement view, which make it easier to navigate using arrow keys. You can customize the CPU meter to show both the average and current CPU levels or either of those.
There's a new Shifter audio effect in Live Standard and Suite, which is designed for pitch shifting, frequency shifting and ring modulation. Ableton has added two tools to Max for Live called Align Delay and MIDI Shaper. The former's all about lag compensation and you can use MIDI Shaper to generate modulation.
It's worth bearing in mind that Ableton Live 11 won't update to the latest build automatically. Users will need to log in to Ableton's website and download the new version from there.