well, the ableton move OS hasn’t had any meaningful updates since the release of 1.8.0 beta 1 on October 15 2025 where they introduced auto pan-tremolo (and the latest beta release, Move 1.8.5b3, was released six weeks ago). really hoping we hear something substantial announced soon, which probably won’t happen until shortly after a stable release of 1.8.5.
I understand not wanting nitty gritty discussions of software mods in this thread, but at least some discussion of move-everything is warranted in the move user thread, in my opinion…
The metropolix sends 2 channels of monophonic melodies.
I’m looking for a box that has a wider range than the Circuit Tracks and is fun to tweak live. Would you rate any of the synth voices at great for mono or should I shut up and get a Typhon+Blackbox combo?
Metropolix Solo and Move are a good team, speaking from experience!
Move gives you full access to Drift, which is a killer synth all around. It has more than enough oomph in mono mode to keep you busy. There are also some very good mono sounds in the Wavetable presets, and you can always use the sampler if you have something ultra-specific in mind!
I bought and kept Move on its own merits, then bought Metropolix the following year and liked how they worked together. So I can’t comment whether it’s worth buying a Move and Metropolix instead of a Typhon and Blackbox.
Some potential downsides:
The Move doesn’t currently support CC input, so you can only tweak settings on one track at a time.
There’s currently no record arm or monitoring feature, so a) the Metropolix will continue triggering notes as long as it’s running, even if the Move is playing a clip on that track; and b) say you have Metropolix triggering tracks 2 and 3, and you want to live-record something on track 1, all three tracks will be captured.
Building off of that, there’s no way to record automation without also recording note data.
I love Move. It’s an incredible sound module, but in its current state, it wouldn’t necessarily be my first choice for live performance. Let me know if you have any questions!
Thank you for the thorough write-up. I really appreciate it.
Circuit Tracks all of the same recording limitations so no loss there. Tracks also has vaguely labeled macros for all presets so that’s another performance limitation.
One thing I dream about is slicing a long vocal sample that is in-key and sequencing with Track 2 on the metropolix to have surprising glitching vocals
accompany the main melody. I’ve heard the Move could do this but only as a percussion track, so that might be one draw back.
Lots to think about. The metropolix and the move are really special devices, I probably can’t go wrong owning a Move.
The move team themselves have said a big announcement is coming in februrary, so i’d keep your ears peeled the next few weeks. 1.8.5 final is out, tho! Was Jan 27
On both, Note 2.0 and Move 2.0, you can now use audio tracks to load samples from the library or record audio directly via microphone, plus line-in or USB-C on Move. Audio Tracks use a new warping algorithm that allows you to maintain the pitch of the original sound while altering the tempo, and vice versa. Any of Move’s four tracks can be used as an Audio Track.
Somebody call Florian
And Erosion, Auto Shift & Link Audio over Wifi… Damn.
This is amazing.
I’d been having an in depth conversation about all the devices I have that CAN’T just record audio tracks quickly against a sequence… and I switched on my Move this morning and saw this.
Brilliant work Ableton!!?
(I will need to figure out the resample side of Audio Tracks, but I’m over the moon to have one drum rack and 3 audio tracks to play with at this point.)
Then, I’ve just set the input to resample and recorded parts 1-3 directly into the pads in the Drum Rack.
New clip. Seq them.
Bosh, done.
It’s pretty easy.
I’m currently seeing it as 3 feeder tracks into a 16-track recorder… which is deceptively powerful for a device the size of Move.
AND the speed of integration into Live!
