At NAMM 2023, Sonic State caught up with Tim Chandler to see a live integration demo of Nektar's Aruba, which enhances the beat-making experience with Ableton Live using Max for Live devices. Tim demonstrated the integration by showing Ableton Live and Aruba running side by side. He explained how five settings within the integration need to be enabled, particularly the Clip Record mode and Auto Trim Recorded Clips feature, which trims the empty space at the start and end of a clip. Tim went on to demonstrate the basic DAW integration with Ableton Live, including controlling the arranger loops, track selection, and scene selection.

The demonstration moved on to where Aruba excels with Live, which is controlling the drum rack. Tim showed how Aruba automatically updates to give slices on the rack when loading a loop, with the bank up and down buttons moving up and down the rack. He then showed how to switch slices to be simple one-shots and change the color of pads using the pad coloring feature.

More information on Aruba can be found on their official websites.

Aruba Price: £269.00

More info:

• https://nektartech.com/aruba-beat-composer/

Nektar Technologies Social

• NAMM 2023: Nektar Aruba 13-Apr-23
• Nektar Updates Aruba (was Aura) Beat Composer - Live Integration And more 23-Mar-23
• Nektar Launches New Wireless MIDI Solutions 16-Aug-22
• AURA Becomes A Complete Beatmaking Environment 13-Jun-22
• NAMM 22: Nektar Aura Pad Controller OS Update Adds Plenty 04-Jun-22