this is the first time I ever wanted to sign up for beta, usually I’m fully comfortable to wait for the stable release but would love to try the Drift…
Drift reminds me of the Fors M4L instruments. its easy UI with a lot of sonic potential is so good for getting great sounds fast. its just fun to use!!
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Indeed. It seems this is being rediscovered in the industry. I’ve always felt like somewhere along the way things turned into a battle of who could add more flash or parameters to something.
I have nothing against UI that provides useful graphical feedback; for things like EQ this is extremely helpful. But the primary purpose shouldn’t be ‘pretty rainbow shape generator’, it should be sound generator first and foremost, with UI not getting into the territory of distraction 
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The beta installs as a separate app (in Mac at least) so I don’t believe there’s any way it can upset your main install, all their files are separate. Obviously if this is critical you might want to check this or use a different computer but I’ve always had both release and beta installed and changed between them without issue.
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Looks and sounds pretty interesting:
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Sometimes when I hear a new products demo sounds, they’re so unlike what they get built up to that I like to mentally replace the audio with rubber duckies quaking and whoopee cushions busting.
Not saying this isn’t a really cool synth, but rather a mental disorder I think I’ve recently developed hanging out here.
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Apologies if this is a dumb/obvious question, but do we think Drift will be available for Live 10 users when it’s officially released? I can’t tell if this is a Live 11 exclusive — it kind of seems like it, but I figured I’d ask just in case since I’m still on 10.
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No dumb questions here, and that one is anything but. I’m assuming as this is an update for 11, it’s going to be an 11 thing only BUT, I’m just talking out my ass. A quick search did not reveal anything.
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You’re probably right, they might make it available to buy like they seem to do with Wavetable.
I should probably just update to 11 anyway.
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I just had to leave it a little while and it appeared 
Must have to refresh the library.
Cool little synth. Pretty basic (e.g. limited selection of mod destinations) but sounds great and some nice modular inspired features such as the cycling envelope
The Drift synth is rad! It’s simple but that makes it easier to experiment and see what’s happening. I already got a Kraftwerk Radioactivity vocal synth thing going on by accident.
Could do with more mod destinations, but whatever. It’s really fun.
Edit: Drift reminds me a lot of the Moog Grandmother. Two oscillators plus noise, some interesting mod routings, and that analog sound. It’s also super immediate, just like the Moog Grandmother.
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Personally I’m quite sick of these so-called software “super-synths” that have 200 controls so I’m all for anything simple and fun. I’m currently playing with building my own “macro” synths in Bitwig Grid because it’s fun to quickly dial in a sound and start making something.
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It is with all versions of Live 11.3 (in beta release now, not GA yet) and up. It is MPE capable as well, which is a Live 11-only thing.
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Totally. Focus on machines with wide sweet spots imo
I think it is nice to have both. Like System-8 and Hydrasynth complement eachother perfectly S8 is massive sweetspot. Hydrasynth is endless possibilities.
Finally got my Centercode account and got everything set up. Drift is just as nice in person as it looked in the video – the UI really is a delight and there’s something that feels very hardware-like about it, paradoxically more so than some plugins that emulate real hardware. I think it’s a combination of how economically designed the UI is and the fact that this is its native element.
One early observation: while Drift sounds great on its own, it also layers fantastically in an instrument rack.
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I am having so much fun playing the Drift presets from my LinnStrument 
I’ve been looking for some reason to get back into sequencing on a “real computer” and this might be it…
(finding it funny the other posts that show up when I search for “ableton drift” btw)
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Marketing Team: “These drift issues are giving us a bad rep, how can we address this?”
Engineers: “Let’s make a new instrument and call it ‘Drift’, so when people search for ‘Ableton Drift’ the results say ‘Ableton Drift is awesome!’”
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I dont think you did. I am on the latest stable release of Live11 and I get the orange bar no matter what, when i switch out my interface or laptop headphones. The fact that they fixed this is good news.
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I’m getting the same behaviour with windows 11. I have a sneaking suspicion that this is something that has worked seamlessly for a while with mac, but can’t guarantee it.