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Beam for Live 2

The lighting engine for Ableton Live

Full control over lighting, without sacrificing creativity. Beam gives you lighting composition directly from the musical grid and makes lights react to your playing. Turn Ableton Live into your lighting console.
Try Beam for Live for free

Lights for Live, and Live for lights

Use Live's automation, MIDI and signal flow features to control your lights. If you don't want to stop there, create your own Max for Live lighting devices using the Beam SDK.

Control complex lighting patches

Control lights from various manufacturers with a single instrument. Perform on a new lighting rig without making changes to your Live Set; your set is decoupled from the lighting patch for maximum flexibility.

A direct connection

Connect Beam directly to your lighting setup without the need of a lighting desk. Send out unlimited universes over Art-Net, or connect with a range of supported USB-DMX devices.

New in Beam for Live 2

Windows support

Beam for Live 2 marks the first release for the Windows platform, offering a fully-featured application identical to its macOS counterpart.

Increased performance

Beam for Live is now more efficient, allowing you to work with an even larger number fixtures with a lower CPU load.

New user interface

Introducing a new, streamlined user interface for both Windows and macOS. This elegantly designed interface brings together all essential settings into one convenient window, providing a smoother user experience.

New fixture profile schema

Now supporting the advanced SBF v3 format, Beam enables expanded fixture compatibility, improved color handling, and multi-mode support within a single profile. Enhanced cell support consolidates complex fixture data, and the Test function now activates any channel for setup.

Extended connectivity options

New connectivity options include Art-Net Input, more flexible DMX routing, and CITP output for seamless visualizer integration. Additionally, the new External In device enables smooth handling of DMX input from external consoles and software.

Playground visualizer

Now bundled with two demo projects, Beam for Live lets you get started without extra hardware. The Demo Project offers a virtual stage with a pre-made composition, while the Playground provides a flexible setup with common lighting fixtures. Both are accessible from the Beam menu.

Full Release Notes

Instruments and effects

Core instruments
Use the three core instruments to access essential features for common fixtures, or as building blocks to create your own custom lighting instruments.
Generic instrument
Control specific fixture types with the Par, MovingHead, and Strobe devices, or use the Generic device for an out-of-the-box solution that works with a wide variety of fixtures, regardless of their parameters.
Effects
Apply effects to modify lighting signals on fixture groups introduced by Instruments. Use the dropdown to select the parameter you want to control, and apply them to multiple groups by placing the effect on a group track or after an instrument rack.
External In
Route lighting signals from external hardware or other Live tracks into Beam using the External In device, and manipulate them with Beam's effects.
"I recommend Showsync on every live show I work on. Anyone that uses Ableton frequently will be able to pick this up super quickly and run with it. Showsync has been a complete game changer for me and the artists that I work with because it lets us do things that we thought were previously not possible."

Tony Friend
Musical Director, Flawless Playback

"Beam gives me the ability to create all kinds of moods I want, without the help of a lighting designer and without knowledge of lighting techniques. It's like composing music but for the eyes. This is a real game changer for live performances."

O D Y S S E E

"The Feed Me With Teeth show is built entirely on Videosync and Beam. We use no other lighting desks or media servers. This has served us very well for multiple USA tours and various festival shows all over the world."

Auke Kruithof
Founder of Studio Rewind

"With Videosync and Beam, building visuals and lighting together with my audio feels most like sculpting. I mix, blend and layer until what I see matches exactly with what I feel."

Nikki Hock
Audiovisual performer, lighting designer and installation artist

"Beam is a game changer when it comes to musical lighting control. Designing a unique lighting counterpart for every note in every clip of the Feed Me show might sound daunting, but with Beam it was truly fun and the synergy with Videosync is unparalleled."

Michel Suk
Senior lighting engineer and show
designer at Ampco-Flashlight

Fixture profiles
The amount of supported fixtures increases with every update, but in case you are still missing one or more fixture profiles in Beam, you can submit a fixture profile request, or create your own using the web fixture editor.

Learn

Curious how Beam works? Watch SoundSuite's Getting started tutorial to help you take your first steps. And if you don't have any lights lying around you can test Beam out with a visualizer.

Buy Beam for Live

Beam for Live

Regular Price

Current Price

  • Play with lights in Session View and Arrangement View
  • 8 Lighting instruments and effects
  • Plugin SDK
  • Automatic translation to DMX via fixture profiles
  • RGB, RBGW, and CMY color mixing
  • High-performance lighting signal chain
  • DMX Out and in via Art-Net and USB interfaces
  • Unlimited number of IO universes
  • Effortlessly connect to visualizers via CITP
  • Networked Mode
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Educational discounts available. Click here for more information.

Looking to control lights with Cycling '74's Max instead?
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