Ableton/Live/UG/02 First Steps/03 Live's Settings
- The Settings window customizes Live. Open it from the Live menu (Mac) or the Options menu (Win), or with
Cmd+, (Mac) / Ctrl+, (Win). See Ableton/Setting. - Settings are spread across the tabs below.
- Language and zoom for the main window, a second window and the Settings window.
- Display Options: "Outline View in Focus" draws a border around the selected view; scroll bar style; Follow behavior for Arrangement View and clips; interface labels.
- Navigation and Keyboard: Tab key focus movement, continuous Tab navigation within a section, and moving clips with the arrow keys.
- Mouse and Pen Input: Pen Tablet Mode, permanent scrub areas, and pitch-locked drawing for MIDI notes.
- Application Options restores "Don’t Show Again" warnings you switched off.
- Theme: color scheme; light, dark, or follow the operating system; warm, cool or neutral tone; high contrast.
- Customization: grid line opacity, brightness, and the color intensity and hue of the interface.
- Track and Clip Colors: automatic track colors on or off, a default track color, Reduced Automatic Colors, and whether new clips get random colors or the track's color.
- Connects Live to an audio interface: input and output devices, sample rate, latency, and a test section for calibrating the interface.
- On macOS, Live can use any CoreAudio device, and the Use System Device option follows whatever output macOS Sound settings select. On Windows, an ASIO driver is recommended, and devices are managed in the driver's own program.
- Create Analysis Files: whether Live writes Ableton/File/.asd files when it imports audio.
- Sample Editor: an external program for destructive sample editing.
- Temporary Folder: where recordings sit until their Set is saved.
- Max Application: the bundled Max or an external one. Max for Live comes with Live Suite and also works with Live Standard.
- Decoding Cache: where Live keeps decoded copies of compressed samples.
- Default locations for installed files such as Packs and the User Library, whether dependent files like samples are copied when clips, tracks or presets are dragged to the browser, and whether the Cloud, Push and Splice labels show in Places.
- Plug-in folder locations, which folders Live scans, and how plug-in windows behave.
- Default file type for new recordings, Warp and Fade defaults for samples, and settings for clip and scene launching, selection and recording.
- Authorization, automatic updates and usage data.