Ableton Link
Ableton Link shares a beat between music programs and devices on one network: Ableton Live, many DJ programs and lots of music apps. With Ableton Link on, the lamp plays to the beat of a Link session on its network:
- The sound effects - the ones marked with the notes - take the beat as their sound: a kick on every beat, the strongest on the first beat of the bar, a snare on two and four, and hats in between. They move in time with the music, and every lamp on Link moves in time with every other.
- Some other effects play in time too: Blink, Blink Rainbow, Strobe, Strobe Rainbow, Strobe Mega, Theater, Chase 2, Bpm, Heartbeat, Sinelon, Sinelon Dual, Sinelon Rainbow, Breathe, Fade, Wipe and Sweep. Their speed slider still sets how fast they go - in steps of whole beats, half a beat, two beats and so on - and each round starts on a beat. From four beats on, it starts on the bar.
In the effect list - on the lamp's page and in the cloud panel - the link symbol marks the effects that play to Link's beat, and the link filter shows only those.
Switching it on
- On the lamp's page: Sync tab, Ableton Link, Turn on.
- In the cloud panel: the link button under a light's gear, or for a whole group, the link button on the group's card.
Tick Enable on boot to have it on after a restart.
Ableton Link or Audio reactive: both are what the sound effects react to, and they can only take one. Switching Ableton Link on switches Audio reactive off, and the other way round - and only one of the two can be ticked to start on boot.
In a cloud-synced group the lamps go together: switch Ableton Link or Audio reactive at one of them, and the others follow.
What it shows
The Sync tab shows what Link is doing:
| Shown | Meaning |
|---|---|
| No Link session on this network | Link is on, but nothing on the lamp's network plays Link. The effects play as they do without sound until a session appears. |
| Joining the session | A session is there; the lamp is measuring its clock. This takes a moment. |
| 124.0 BPM, 2 peers | The lamp follows the session: its tempo, and how many Link programs are in it. The four lights beside Beat show the bar, the first beat in amber. |
| stopped | The session shares start and stop - in Live, Start Stop Sync - and is stopped. The sound effects go quiet until it plays again. |
In the cloud panel the same line is under the light's gear, and a group's card shows the tempo beside its buttons while its lights are on Link - point at it to see how many of them are on the beat.
The lamp follows the session and never changes it: it does not set the tempo, and Link programs do not count it among their peers.
Link works inside one local network. The lamp has to be on the same Wi-Fi or network as the program that plays Link - it does not go through the cloud, and it does not work while the lamp runs its own hotspot.