Drift - A Deep Dive into Ableton's All New (and free) Synth

[@ElectronicMusicTips]

After ten years of using Ableton Live I’m more in love with it now than ever. This synth is simple and sounds absolutely amazing.

[@guidosc3470]

Same here .. 🙂 New Dark skin, colors and readability is actually amazing for the FIRST time 🤪

[@79Glitch]

Idk. It sounds like a stock Logic synth from 5 years ago. I guess it’s nice to have that for Ableton to, but don’t most people just use their go-to third party synths anyway? I think they would be better off trying to compete with Logic by imitating the spatial audio/Dolby Atmos stuff Apple is doing? That’s what it would take to get me to switch back, I think. It seems like that kind of sound innovation that Apple is invested in is the future. But maybe AI changes the game anyway?

[@guidosc3470]

@@79Glitch I don’t think so ! I associate it a lot with the new PolyMax by Universal Audio ! .. But even better! Sounds are great and UI is extremely simple/user friendly

[@mdihero]

@@79Glitch atmos is a fad. I use Ableton stock plugins more often than not

[@79Glitch]

@@guidosc3470 Okay. Well, it’s not always accurate to base an opinion on KZbin. It’s certainly not too impressive in this format. That funny thing is, pretty much everything in every DAW sounds good enough today to make good music with, so it’s just another tool to use.

[@SvintMvrcus]

I followed along in Drift and the first few minutes I was like I'm probably not really going to use but by the end (and multiple hours later) I have like 3 song ideas and 9 presets. Love it!

[@aterix]

Drift has so much depth and personality for how simple it is, and it's so refreshing to see a synth with opinionated / tasteful tweaks and stacking. It's so much better IMO than a typical synth that needs a ton of tweaking and automating to get it to sound ok. Thanks for sharing!

[@lyva]

That's the same reason I like digitone. Since it's an FM synth it can go into some pretty crazy directions, but these small decisions they make like having the detune not affect the harmonic fundamental of the sound you're creating just allows for a lot more pleasant and "safe" synthesis journey

[@WarpedBlinds]

I can't believe I haven't seen this until now. The sounds this is producing is amazing, and its free??? Geeeeeez

[@DBTHEPLUG]

I mean, you already pay for your updates, while I'm getting lifetime free updates from you know who.

[@Yeahrightttt]

​@@DBTHEPLUGVoldermort?

[@DBTHEPLUG]

@@Yeahrightttt Image-Line

[@_banja]

This is probably a weird comment to write as a random video, but this is the first video of yours I have seen in a while, and the quality seems to be on a whole new level. The mic, your tone and overall presenting style are just great.

[@manemusic]

It feels like the developers' modus operandi with this one was 'MUSICALITY', I am incredibly impressed with how musical this is. Can't wait for it to come out of beta!

[@au5music]

Excellent review and concise knowledge

[@remyvegamedia]

The self oscillating behavior of the filter and how it changes when you modify the gain of the oscillator is so cool. Wooooow.

[@nebula_M42]

I like the format of this video. Absolute focus on the synth panel with the waveforms banners on top and bottom. I subbed

[@Bthelick]

I've been researching synth history for some videos I'm making soon, and most of the classic , famous synths from the first couple decades of the golden era of analog aside from the mini, were 2 oscillator. It was the strive to making a 2 osc stand out at a competitive price that brought us innovations like pulse width modulation and sync.

[@tobeyforsman]

All my favorite hardware analog synthesizer tricks …. Drift does it.

[@JoelLinus]

This Video really sells me on upgrading to 11 from 10. Thank you for this great and literal Deep Dive.

[@DokterRyConn]

Seed to Stage is the most useful and efficient channel the internet has ever known. Thank you for being you, Professor Thogmartin!

[@bitbotrecords]

Titling shapes looks bananas 🎉 first thing in the morning I will sign ✍️ up to beta.

[@mindstuff417]

Awesome video. I just started using it last night and without knowing half of what you just showed in this video I got some great sounds out of it that were surprisingly full. I have a prophet rev2 and a moog sub37 and I can tell you this instrument sounds just as warm and analog as those instruments do. Bravo to Ableton and thank you for this great demonstration. Cheer.

[@remyvegamedia]

I have the Prophet 08, probably my favorite synth I've ever owned. Played with Drift for 45 mins with my Push 2 and I can honestly agree with this.

[@michaelnasser3521]

Thanks!

[@JediMobius]

Oh yeah, instant subscribe. I was onboard with using this synth as soon as you started explaining how it models the OG analog synths. Then the way you dig into all the specifics so that it's easy to follow along is just fantastic. Love it.

[@HybridCult]

Making a synth hard to sound bad is such a great idea. Makes a synth super reliable.

[@hrvstmusic]

The whole premise of the Juno. To quote Dave Smith on synth design - “if I have two oscillators and a filter, and x amount of modulation, it’ll probably sound pretty cool”

[@smatchimo55]

might as well get auto tune and quantize everything perfectly too I guess?

[@JoelLinus]

@@smatchimo55 No, but it's possible to blow up your speakers with badly made synths.

[@dwil2123]

It sounds really nice and warm. Ableton just nailed it! and it's free!! ...No paid subscription BS too.

[@heddshot87]

I have ableton live 10, and this is exactly what I'm looking for in a synth. I'll seriously consider upgrading.

[@theoryofthirds]

Thank you for what you do! The amount of time, research, experimentation, and thoughtful post-production that you put into each of your videos is absolutely seen and appreciated. You’re a true educator who allows curiosity to lead your exploration and discovery. Incredibly generous knowledge sharing. Plus rad sonics! 🎹

[@UnriftMusic]

Great video Anthony! Super excited to dig into drift when it releases. Just curious, how did you visualize the output waveform of the synth in this video?

[@AnonDe71]

Oh, I like your style of teaching! Thanks for the news on update, that's a nice synth! Can't wait to try drift!

[@davidbaker231]

I like the design philosophy here. It doesn't try to do everything you can imagine a synth could do, like Pigments or Omnisphere. I own those and like them, but I don't really tend to just sit down and make sounds from scratch with those. The enormous feature-sets make the UIs a bit less inviting. Drift takes a fairly simple architecture and gives you some great hardware-like stuff like free-running oscillators, a filter that doesn't try to be every filter ever conceived but sounds good and saturates beautifully, and inherent instability as a central concept rather than something grafted on at the end. So far to my ear this captures a lot about analog hardware more successfully than most emulations... and yet it's not an emulation. I like that. And sophisticated mod stuff is quickly accessible, but not in a way that clutters the UI. Very elegant.

[@yourgoodpalmatt]

Thanks so much! There is a lot going on in the plugin that I don't think I would've found on my own. Well explained, too.

[@ShishioMakoto00]

They finally made a move over the old v1. 2007 analog device! This sounds like how an expensive Moog staked with extra features. This is the way to go in the digital realm.

[@remyvegamedia]

Back again and blown away all over again. I've been using Ableton Intro on my laptop with a Launchkey Mini for on-the-go sound design and idea sketching. I have an SP404MK2 and I kept thinking, "dang, I wish I could get a Hydrasynth Explorer or something to have synth to mess with on-the-go." Turns out I have everything I need with this Macbook air and a midi controller and I'm overjoyed because this video is making me feel very confident about getting the exact sounds I want from this minimal setup. Thanks!

[@static-san]

Every setting sounds good - that's truly an incredible achievement. I want this on a hardware synth; and yes a MicroFreak comes close...

[@yebii_]

Dude the Microfreak is just awesome. I bought one a while back and I absolutely love it

[@thealexxxxor]

The OG Korg Minilogue comes pretty close to this.

[@duster8373]

@@thealexxxxor and the microKorg

[@valdir7426]

you'd want to look maybe to either novation peak or udo super 6

[@synthoelectro]

it sounds very musical.

[@LoftyAssertions]

It's honestly getting to a point that you don't need anything more than the stock plugins, Roar is incredible, Hybrid Reverb, this too...

[@BIG_PASTA]

Awesome overview thanks! Out of all the vids out I came back to yours to watch it twice bc It was so well done!

[@HoraceMakeMusic]

Yes ! As a Ableton Live Lite user, That’s 2 years I wait for that ! Having a way to create exactly the sound in my mind with a synth AND incredibly original sample-based sounds ! Ableton You are the best !

[@colinoconnor3587]

Wicked journey through this synths capabilities. I'm using it in my track soon to be released cheers

[@douglasfisher4875]

Amazing! This is a great surprise...and will teach me to read the release notes with every update. 🙂 Excited to start using Drift right away. Thanks for all your hard work getting this out there!

[@JayVucci]

Thanks. I used FL and tried Live 8 times over 10 years! At the end of 2023 I finally felt comfortable Ableton live! I just got my head around Serum. Music is fun again 🔊

[@pixelrancher]

Picking up all kinds of Kraftwerk Autobahn. And that's a good thing. Thanks for the presets!

[@mishaoosterhuis5260]

Oh yes that Stereo mode IS so pleasing, what a sound!

[@d3tuned378]

It always amazes me nobody comes out with more unique takes on modulation envelopes and lfo shapes. The minifreak is great in this regard - I made an LFO that turns a held note into this really interesting arpeggiated sounding rhythm

[@josipvulic5471]

Beautifully done, Anthony. You are such a force in our Ableton world... Thanks for this!

[@jaysoniq]

Excellent tutorial, thanks! Just subbed 🙂👍 Also just updated to Live Suite 11.3.4 ...hopefully V3.4 has all the bugs fixed that so many folks have been experiencing with other 11.3 updates 😬 ...but I didn't overwrite my previous version of Live; so now I simply have both versions in my Mac's apps 👍

[@devonhansen7705]

there's something so cool about a softsynth that models the most subtle quirks/nonlinearities/"flaws" of an analogue synth without trying too hard to be a full-blown emulation of one. reminds me of a lot of things that were said in mylarmelodies' interview with Sean Costello of Valhalla DSP.

[@owizlo]

the stereo percent is like the hydrasynths stereo spread. add in the drift fluctuations or analog feel or whatever they call it in the hydra and the magic happens. that is such a good implementation of it on drift

[@BobBell.]

Sounds wicked and couldn’t think of anyone better to demo it, nice one Ableton 🙌

[@madastrota]

Honestly, I've actually been waiting for an Ableton device like this that is super simple and authentically behaves more like a classic analog synth. It looks like it will be very intuitive to map the different controls in such a way that you can do stuff like lead synth manipulations on the fly ala Jan Hammer and Bernie Worrell. I'm gonna have a lot of fun with this!

[@cytocache1238]

This synth is like if you mixed the prophet’s oscillator section with a Moog or prophet filter. The work flows are super similar in Drift compared to the real synths. The lfo modulation is one of my favorite features on this synth because it’s like a macro modulation for the LFO. 1:1 just makes so much sense

[@SeedtoStage]

YES exactly. My OB6 is over in the corner getting nervous ;)

[@avx_snd6067]

Was going to say the oscillators remind me of a prophet!

[@go-away-5555]

One filter is MS20 based, the other is a VA filter not modeled after any specific synthesizer but it's 12db

[@ob1quixote]

This seems pretty cool. Before you got to the FM possibilities, I was thinking the signal paths and parameters kind of reminded me of a Neutron.

[@jasonnicholas4336]

Thank you for the comprehensive overview; what a wonderful teaching tool this will be to learn synthesis. Very simple but all the basic functions of synthesis are there to dive into and explore….plus is sounds great. Bravo, Ableton.

[@PittsMultiPass]

Very excited to get back to the studio and get into this one! Wonderful overview!!! Your videos are always well planned and informative!👍👍👍👍

[@a3igner]

Thanks for showing how to use this. It really creates some analog style of the sound quite well. like your preseta too.

[@tolpo7]

DAMN. I’ve been thinking of a gear upgrade and switching my DAW but this further cements the idea

[@martinhubrich]

Oh wow, this was coming out of nowhere for me and man what a nice synth! I learned to understand Ableton and the only thing I was missing was this kind of drifting mod. Always did a workaround with CV tools but this here is much easier to dial in. Like always a great video and intro tune. Can't wait to get my hands on it. :)

[@earl3736]

What I'm hoping for Ableton to do was update the Analog interface just like what they did with Electric and Collision to make it more accessible and easier to program. But having a new synth is better I guess. Drift would be nice for a Boards of Canada type of sound.

[@joshriley2574]

Fantastic video, thank you. Look forward to checking out the rest of your channel.

[@RJasonKlein]

This was a great demo, and I can’t wait to use this as tool to learn the fundamentals of synthesis! The stereo sounds are huge, and you really did a nice job running through the software.

[@googleuser318]

Excellent thorough but to the point demo... Thank you! Fantastic sounding synth, nothing out of the ordinary in terms of features but the fact it sounds so good and it's in such a simple fun interface that is hard to mess up is a very smart and refreshing choice. Excited to explore Drift.

[@mathumphreys]

Nice of Ableton to make it available to a Live Lite nobody like me. I'm not a designer but I do like to tweak so I'm looking forward to seeing what presets other people come up with!

[@julians7785]

haven't been excited in a synth since i got phase plant. Looks cooL!

[@victornico]

I think this is the best intro to a synth I’ve ever watched

[@zachary963]

Excited to check this out! The arms race idea is kind of funny. I started with virtual synths and got used to have six oscillators and fifty LFOs and nine built in reverbs, etc etc on every synth. Then I got a Behringer Crave for Christmas, which has exactly one oscillator. And I was excited about the synth but a little disappointed at the one oscillator until I actually started using the thing. The amount of sound design potential with just an envelope and an oscillator is crazy. My go-to sound at the moment is to use the envelope generator to modulate the pulse width of the oscillator, and just by messing with the depth of the modulation I can get crazy and very very different sounds. Then it took very little time to create a heavenly floating glittering arp. And I realized that one oscillator is absolutely enough - if you figure out how to actually use it!!

[@Durosai]

Wow im so excited for this instrument. Sounds amazing

[@foodforthegods]

The fact that this is in all editions is kinda nuts. I could totally see myself buying Intro instead of Suite when Live 12 comes out. I'm on the 11 Suite right now but I miss the constraints of Intro in a weird way.

[@zachary963]

Agreed. I might actually get to use this but I’m on Live Lite lol

[@imgoingtobuygoogle]

I made some cool stuff on Intro, which I installed for some reason when I already owned standard. Being limited to 8 tracks helped my compositions a lot.

[@reesetyra902]

This is what we needdddd. Easy way to get all the classic sounds we associate w analog sound design

[@rosekennedy9744]

I am unbelievably excited for this. It’s so beautiful and will be very fun to use I think.

[@frandevereaux]

Drift sounds great, what Ableton has been needing. Really nice sounds. 👌🏻

[@naokukiah]

It seems like the Shape function sometimes act as the phase distortion synthesis technique of a Casio CZ.

[@SiliconPrairie]

This is almost a 1:1 software imitation of the Korg Minilogue. Wow! It sounds identical, and all the effects and logic layouts are suspiciously similar. The one thing the Minilogue doesn't have is the FM capabilities. I wouldn't be surprised if the Minilogue was their inspiration here...

[@boonewallace]

Reminds me so much of what i like about my Korg Prologue. Just the right amount of limitation which translates to a harmonious workflow and tons of sweet spots! Great vid. Also think this single handedly helped me understand FM better

[@gaberica]

messed around with it and it's amazing what kind of sounds you can come up with super easily.

[@alexv4907]

Great overview. Looking forward to this update.

[@barrycole5930]

Love this intro to a synth i had no idea was coming, wasn’t looking forward to, had no expectations of and yet am blown away by. Great instruction as always 👍🏻

[@madstation]

Unreal. Can't remember last time I've been so excited about oscillators lol

[@Tuariq1]

Damn! That synth is sick!

[@TranscendingVibrations]

I tried to check it out but for some reason, I don't have it still, even with automatic updates turned. By the time they add it, I will have forgotten about it already. Bad job Ableton.

[@johnnylucid]

Drift sounds great. Thanks for the preview. I'm looking forward to this being released with the non-beta versions of Live.

[@jonathandaniel9031]

thanks for so much detailed video about DRIFT ! Liked That Very much and the synth is sound amazing ! Embrace the trend of minimilasim and the asthetic of the sound !

[@kbmusic885]

Some awesome low end sounds there, you made my day with the vid and synth. Thanks.

[@Darushiokan]

Great present, thanks! It's always nice to get simple yet not simplistic quality stock plugins! As usual, very informative and well made video, mr seed to stage.

[@treesforzoe4655]

The transient on the attack of every time ya hit a note is punchy sounds great

[@scottiemark4596]

Phwoar that little tune demo was fucking phat!!! Proper banger!

[@mimisaiko]

Live is always the king when it comes to workflow.

[@justingoers]

This feels like the update to abelton's Analog that's we've been needing for a while.

[@justingoers]

I get major Moog vibes from this.

[@DJ2109]

I HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS FOR SO LONG THANK GOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[@kush9308]

just upgraded to Live 11 & this for sure is single handedly the most exciting thing. It cant sound bad for real!!

[@goat-of-neptune]

great overview over drift, Ill check out the beta immediately. Just one thing for the sound quality of your video: Your mic catches a lot of low frequency structure borne sound each time when you click anything on your table, which you can hear when listend with headphones. please turn on a high pass filter on your voice recording channel to get ridd of this. :)

[@danielgreen2348]

The waveshape window is really a wonderful inclusion!

[@wolfetrax]

Great video! I was looking for some demos of this, and yours did the trick!

[@andyziko]

Maby someday they work on user experience and interface not only on devices. Hotkey management, navigation with pressed mouse and things from LES and other stuf will be great to have.

[@vicenterojasortiz7852]

Man, this sounds amazing.... and love the relative simplicity of use! Really reminds me of my Microfreak, but I'm sure in certain situations it will be awesome to have something similar with the greater degree of control of a virtual synth. It seems absolutely perfect for Melodic Techno, will try it out tomorrow!

[@christofferkarlsson2841]

Looks great! Gives me kind of Organelle-y vibes.

[@justdope1963]

Shape instantly reminded me of the Matrixbrute I recently sold. Nice.

[@fernandocastromusica]

Yeah! This Synth is my new love SZ

[@MauricioVives]

The new Ableton Move has Drift (or at least a version of it) built-in... any idea if your four-part intro will play on the Move?

[@heidorgen]

This looks really fun to play around with!! Thanks for the video and for showing plus explaining what you're doing and why things are happening the way they are! Super informative :)

[@JoshHumble]

Just getting into PhasePlant and what a beast! One thing that concerns me - CPU use is often prob more than any other vst I work with. Trying to tame that issue.

[@odinhonour2170]

Including a whole new device in a patch is so rad of them

[@thebeetbandit1732]

Ableton's plugins are underrated. I get that you have to do a lot of work to make them sound great but it is all there

[@aerotekmusic]

oh, fantastic review. can't wait to get my hands on this one. and you just earned a new. subscriber ;)

[@RSKT_music]

Man, this is such wonderful news! Thankyou for your overview Anthony :)

[@radpix]

Main Key is The Key. Simple surface with intelligent interconnectivity makes things easy and sound montrous at the same time - just listened KZbin with iPad but cant wait to grap it in the ever amazing Ableton Live with not to forget the never ending poss in MfL

[@HeathHolme]

Awesome addition to Ableton's synth family!! Sounds Lush!! along with Drift - Live 11.3 will also add MPE capability to Analog, Collision, Electric and Tension 🙌

[@watercolourmark]

Wow! That is big. EDIT: got me beta testing now, say goodbye to my setup.