u/sp913

Guys... the entire community has wanted this feature for over a decade now and it would literally revolutionize audio/music production collaborations in one of the most meaningful ways in all of history.

It's time to do it!

Given the nicely engineered Ableton / MIDI project file format, the usage of a temporary file for edits vs the saved file (good choice), the existing collaboration tools within coding and google docs and other genres of file collaboration already existing, the great recovery feature Ableton already has in case of file corruption (works great, used it a million times), and last but not least the AI development tools that are available with Claude etc these days... there's really nothing stopping this from being done! How has this not been a top priority?

WE NEED THIS FEATURE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This would be a COMPLETE GAME CHANGER.

This would enable us as producers and musicians to collaborate on project files at the same time, in near-real-time. Not just piping in 1 track from another computer on wifi (which is cool, I do like this, but it's nowhere near what I'm talking about). ALL adjustments and editing capabilities within the project file need to be real-time collaborative. Moving knobs, updating plugin settings, playing a MIDI, whatever it might be, it shouldn't matter, it's all available to more than one user at the same time on different computers.

YES, all collaborators would need the same plugins / VSTs, all licensed on all computers participating - THATS OK! And I would expect that. That's already the case using dropbox or email manually sending project files back and forth a million times like everyone is doing now.

But sitting around in the studio with multiple producers while ONE GUY drives the main computer the entire time SUCKS!

Like it's holding back an entire world of collaboration that would break free and flourish and become the defacto go-to software for all producers since other software does not offer this, but though all the technology exists to do it - it's just not there? Why!?

Think GOOGLE DOCS editing, but in Ableton. One person adds a layer, adds some MIDI and effects, plugins, whatever - it shows up in the other producers' Abletons within seconds (ideally within less than a second if it's just settings adjustments or MIDI without any recorded autio or file transfer).

Maybe it requires a dropbox or google drive or something to make it happen? OK, so? Or if you want it to be a profitable business model thing, launch Ableton Cloud Storage and host it all for everyone and require a subscription to do it if that's what needs to make it business viable. I don't care, I would pay it in a heartbeat (if it was a reasonable price, like $20/mo for some gigs). But it would be cooler to allow existing file sharing services so we can use our existing ones.

But FFS I'm so sick of trying to find workarounds to make collaboration happen in the absence of this feature. Cables strung between computers, the new collab features that only allow audio to input audio in to one layer, adding two wireless mice and two keyboards to control my computer but only if we're all in the same room... and even then when one person moves the mouse while I move my mouse it's absolute insanity? Emailing project files and stems back and forth... and back and forth... constantly sharing and downloading dropbox files... honestly it all sucks!

As a developer myself, I can see how we're literally already there with all the tech and everything needed to make this happen already, so what's holding this back?

I assumed in the past it was development cost, but man, now that we have Claude just ripping thru dev tasks 10x faster than before, this is no longer a barrier to great features. Honestly AI could probably develop this whole feature for you in < 1 week with testing and iteration and we could have this in beta.

So, what's holding this back? Are you waiting for someone to do this as a max for live device or something? Please don't let the community do a half ass version of this, do it right!

One computer is the "master", and that can be given to other computers if needed, collaborators can be invited to any Ableton project, it syncs files, changes, settings, etc.... maybe a panel you can open to see how many collaborators are invites / active on a project, with some toggles for what they can edit (Everything / Audio / Plugins / Settings)

Can we please get this?

This would be one of the most massive breakthroughs in DAWs EVER.

I know you can do it! You're THE best DAW out there and the ones who can do it better than anyone.

SO LFG!