Since its introduction last year Ableton’s Link feature has gained momentum with the electronic music fraternity. If you haven’t heard of it, it is a very simple way to distribute tempo sync between compatible iOS apps over WiFi.

We’ve been able to sync applications and hardware together for a long time. MIDI beat clock is as old as the hills. Rewire is nearly 20 years old but it was the announcement that Link was being introduced to Propellerhead’s Reason which really caught my attention as Propellerhead developed Rewire and for them to embrace a technology as similar as Rewire signalled to me that Link is crossing over from the iOS world to serious desktop apps. Combine that with the news that Cycling74 are adopting it too in Max and it’s already showing some penetration.

Open Source And Coming To Desktop Apps

However the really interesting part is that Link has been made Open Source. I’m sure this will make it very popular in Universities. I have already seen plenty of evidence that the Cubase community are very keen to see it introduced in Cubase 9 and there are rumours that it might be included. Considering how it could drive sales of iOS apps there is an easy case to make for Apple to introduce it into Logic and Garageband.

If Audio over IP (AoIP) can change working practices and move multitrack audio onto IP networks as quickly as it has then moving MIDI beat clock onto WiFi networks seems trivially simple but so attractive.

Would we like to see this in Pro Tools?