Ableton Forum

The Live Intro / Standard / Suite dichotomy is INCREDIBLY frustrating when collaborating with other users who don't have the same version of Live as you.

If I open up a friend's project with Suite and I have Standard, first thing I'm greeted with is "This set contains features that are limited in Live Standard." Then the sidebar opens up and tells me what I already know – "You don't have Wavetable" – and then everything else in Live panics, including Preferences thinking that I don't have a valid Live license (I do), save AND save-as is disabled.

If I want to work on the same MIDI notes, samples, and automation and use my own sounds and plugins, the logical and annoying way to fix this would be to hunt around in every track and find things that aren't in my version of Live, remove them, and then "Save As" a new project. Nope. Doesn't work.

On top of that, I can only have one Live project open at a time, so I can't even have my broken project open while copying over MIDI clips to my new unbroken project without the missing devices.

This whole workflow is completely broken and useless. If I'm missing a third-party plugin a friend has, the whole Live set doesn't become a paperweight – I just don't get sounds for that track. This is how it should work between editions.

We need a way to open a project and not have everything break between editions. Propose a "Open Live Set Without Missing Devices" option – this is a crucial flaw when collaborating with others.

Only way is for you all to have the same suite version/plugins, or just use the same devices that intro uses. Simple.

You cannot expect to be able to use the devices/third party plugins that others use when you try to open that project. Live just tells you that device/plugin is missing, you can still use the midi/change the device.

Other option is to bounce the tracks down to Audio only.

Indeed that would be helpful.

It also could be useful to have it work like the file management. If a plugin is missing, an orange bar appears at the bottom, making you aware of the fact. Then you can click it, a sidebar opens up, and there you can select which plugins to remove or where to scan for the plugins.

This would mainly help with third-party vsts, but this way you would be able to remove the Ableton vsts that are not available in your edition of Live.