Search

Type what you remember.

A plugin, a sample, a track name, a tempo. Als Preview searches every set in your library, Live’s backups included, and shows you the projects that match.

The project list in Als Preview searched for plugin:serum bpm:120-128: 11 out of 37 projects, each with the plugin and tempo it matched, its length, detected key, tracks, versions and when it was last saved and worked on.

The search field in Als Preview with its filter suggestions: tempo, Live’s key, detected key, plugin, track name, sample name, Live version, status, saved within, favorites, recorded audio, missing files and collection.

Filters when you need them.

Click into the search field and pick one: bpm:120-128, key:"A Minor", plugin:serum, a track, a sample, a status or a collection.

Quick on big libraries.

Thousands of Live Sets narrow down in a fraction of a second, without opening a single one.

Always up to date.

Tempo, key, tracks, plugins and samples are read in the background. New saves show up on their own.

See the arrangement. Skip the loading screen.

Select a set and its Arrangement View is right there: track colors, clips, MIDI notes and waveforms. Live doesn’t have to open, and no plugin has to load.

A set’s arrangement in Als Preview: colored tracks and groups with clips, MIDI notes and audio waveforms.

Pinch or ⌘-scroll to zoom
Click a group to fold it
Press A for automation lanes
Drag a track straight into Live

Hear any set. No bouncing needed.

Put the Als Preview plugin on the Main track, and that’s it. It records whatever you play in Live and stitches the newest takes together under the arrangement, ready to play from any bar.

The bottom of an arrangement in Als Preview: the last tracks, then the Recording lane with the plugin’s takes as waveforms. Older takes are paler, newer ones solid, and the playhead runs through clips and recording at the same position.

Play in Live.

Every stretch you play is recorded in the background. No export, no bounce, no extra step.
Newest takes on top.

Play a part again and the new take replaces the old one there. Seams are crossfaded, and older takes are drawn paler.
In time with the arrangement.

Click a bar to set the start marker and press Space. The playhead runs along the clips, through tempo changes too.

One plugin, set up once.

It comes with the app, passes your audio through untouched, and gives every set:

Audio previewPlay the set from any bar.
Time trackingOpen and playing time.
Exact versionsWhich save each one came from.
Exports, foundBounces matched to their set.

Latency from devices on the Main track is compensated, and the audio is saved compressed, about 85 MB per hour. With the optional Remote Script, recording pauses while you solo a track. Set up the plugin · How recording works

Approximate previews

Sets you never played, too.

Where the plugin hasn’t recorded a set, Als Preview renders an approximate preview of it, without Live. It plays in blue, and wherever you played the set in Live, your takes win.

The Recording lane of a set the plugin recorded only in part: two green takes, and the bars before, between and after them filled with the blue approximate preview.

From your clips and samples.

Audio clips, frozen tracks and the samples in Simpler, Sampler and Drum Racks, mixed with the set’s volume, pan and automation, plus the reverbs and delays on its return tracks.

Ready before you look.

The newest set of each project you changed lately is rendered in the background, so it plays at once, in Quick Look too. Pause it any time from the toolbar.

A sketch, not a bounce.

Plug-in instruments play as a simple stand-in synth, and other effects are left out. For the real sound, put the plugin on the Main track.

Previews stay on your Mac and take about 70 MB per hour of music, 2 GB at most. Choose what’s rendered in Settings. How approximate previews work

Every save, in order.

Your sets, their Save As copies and Live’s backups line up in one graph. Click a save to open it, or step through them with the arrow keys.

The History card of a project with five sets saved from one another between 2024 and 2026. Dashed curves are guessed origins, the solid curve to the radio edit was recorded by the plugin.

Each save at a glance.

The Info card sums up what’s different from the save before: tempo, tracks, clips, length and the plugins that came or went. With the plugin, the graph knows exactly which save a version came from.

Hear any version.

Takes belong to the version of the set they were played on. Select an older save and hear how the song sounded back then.

The Info card of a save: the tempo went from 120 to 124, two tracks and 36 clips were added, the length went from 3:20 to 3:13 and Diva was added. Detected key D# Major.

Compare

See what changed.

Compare a set with the save before, or with any other set. The arrangement marks new and deleted tracks, moved clips, edited notes, changed automation and every parameter you turned.

A set’s arrangement in Als Preview compared with the save before it: unchanged clips dimmed, two new bass tracks outlined in green, a deleted clip as a red dashed outline, a moved clip, three automation lanes, and the list of all 20 changes opened from the top bar.

From the whole song to a single knob.

Each track with changes shows how many on its header. Click it for the list: the device, the parameter, and its value before and after. Click a change to jump to it.

Automation, before and after.

Press A to show automation lanes, like in Live. A changed lane draws the earlier curve dashed behind the new one and marks the bars that changed.

Any two sets.

Pick another save of the project, one of Live’s backups or any set on your Mac. In History, Option-click a save to compare with it.

Hear A and B.

With the plugin’s recordings of both versions, switch between them and keep listening from the same bar. A save without a recording plays its approximate preview.

The changes on a vocal track: volume from −3.3 dB to −2 dB, reverb decay time from 1.20 s to 1.90 s, and the delay’s Dry/Wet automation with its earlier curve dashed under the new one.

The changes in a MIDI clip: two notes added, one removed and one edited, drawn as a small piano roll.

Comparing stays off until you click ± Compare above the arrangement. Plugins that store their settings without names show that something changed, but not what.

Momentum

Keep your songs moving.

Rings show what you made, shaped and finished this week, month or year, against goals you choose. Momentum is the first thing you see when Als Preview opens.

Momentum for this week: the Make ring closed with 8 hours 56 minutes of working time against 5 hours, Shape 4 of 4 project days with a save, Finish 3 against 1, an 11-week streak, the projects worked on lately, two Next Moves and two projects not touched for months.

Make, Shape, Finish.

Make fills with the time you worked in Live, Shape with the days you saved a project, Finish with exports and songs marked finished. Or pick up to six of 14 goals.

A streak that forgives.

A week counts once one ring closes. Days off never break it.

Next moves.

Spots the loop you’ve worked on for hours without an arrangement, the mix that has waited for weeks, the master never exported.

Long time no play.

Brings back an old project worth another listen, with its export or approximate preview ready to play.

Time Tracking

Know where the hours went.

The plugin and the Remote Script note how long each set is open in Live, how long you really work in it and how long it plays. See it for each set, each project and your whole week.

The Time Spent card: open, working and playing time, the share spent in Arrangement and Session View, the tracks with the most time, a note that 30 minutes of work weren’t saved, last worked, sessions and a chart of the last two weeks.

Open, working and playing.: Open time counts while the set is loaded in Live, working time while you actually edit, play or record, playing time while the transport runs.
Every set, with the Remote Script.: The small script that comes with the app sees every set Live 11.3.25 or later opens, with or without the plugin: the views and tracks you spent your time on, Save As and Save a Copy, and work that was never saved.
Sessions and last worked.: Every project shows when you last had it open and how many sessions it took to get where it is. The Timeline puts them all on one time axis.
Stays on your Mac.: Your time is recorded locally by the plugin and the Remote Script, which come with the app. Nothing is uploaded.

Views

Your library, arranged your way.

Save any search as a view in the sidebar, with its own columns, sort order and layout. Group your views and collections into sections, and name your own statuses.

The library window with the Warm-Up Set view selected in the sidebar: eight recorded projects between 118 and 124 BPM, one of them shown beside the list with its history, arrangement and time spent. The sidebar lists Momentum, All Projects, All Views and All Collections, the views Recents, Favorites, Recorded, Exported and Warm-Up Set, and a Status section with Idea to Finished and a status of one’s own, Released.

A search that stays.

Type a search, choose File › New View, and it lives in the sidebar with an icon of your choice. It always shows what matches now.

Every place remembers.

Each view, collection and folder keeps its own layout: projects, sets, folders or the timeline, with its columns and sort order.

Your own statuses.

Idea to Finished to start with. Rename them, add your own, put them in the order your songs go through. Drop a project on a status to set it.

The Edit View sheet for Warm-Up Set: it lists All Projects rather than Exports, its search is bpm:118-124 is:recorded, buttons and the Collection and Location menus add filters, the headphones icon is picked, and 8 projects match now.

Made for a Mac full of sessions.

Timeline

Every project on one time axis, from a single day to the years a song took. Expand one to see its versions branch off.

space

Quick Look in Finder.

Select any .als file in Finder and press Space to see its arrangement. Double-click it to hear the recording or the approximate preview.

Detected Key.

Live often keeps its default key, C Major. Als Preview looks at the notes you played and detects the real one.

Spotlight and Shortcuts.

Find a project from Spotlight by name, tempo, key or plugin, and open it with Shortcuts.

Idea
In Progress
Mixing
Mastering
Finished

Status, favorites, collections, notes.

Mark where each song stands, star the ones that matter and group them into collections, each with an icon. The statuses are yours to name and order.

Your exports, found.

With the plugin on the Main track, every file you export shows up with its set, even after you rename or move it.

Missing files, before Live asks.

Shows which samples and plug-ins a set needs that aren’t on your Mac, before you open it. is:missing finds them all.

Several projects at once.

Select a few projects, or none, and see their time, plug-ins, samples and missing files added up.

Related projects.

Spots the other projects that share samples or a song name with the one you’re looking at.

Inside Live, too.

The plugin window shows the set’s history, status and notes without leaving Live.

Live’s backups, included.

The saves Live keeps in each project’s Backup folder are part of your library: search them, play them, compare them.

Coming later: making music together.

Collaboration is in the works for a future update.

Have an idea or found a bug? Write to contact@als-preview.de.

Questions and answers

Before you download.

What is Als Preview?

A Mac app for producers who make music in Ableton Live. It reads the Live Sets in the folders you choose, so you can find any of them by name, track, plugin, sample, tempo or key, see the arrangement and hear it without opening Live. It also keeps the history of every save, compares versions, finds your exports and tracks the time you spend on each song.

Does Live have to be open?

No. Searching, the arrangement and playback work without Live; it doesn’t even have to be installed. Live is only needed for what happens inside it: the plugin that records what you play (Live 11.2 or later) and the optional Remote Script that tracks your time (Live 11.3.25 or later).

Which Macs and versions of Live?

Als Preview runs on macOS 15 Sequoia or later and reads sets saved with Ableton Live 10, 11 and 12. It’s Mac only; there’s no Windows version.

How much does it cost?

It’s free to download, and everything works for 14 days. After that, one Lifetime purchase unlocks it for good on all your Macs with the same Apple Account. No subscription. The free download comes with version 2.0 on 1 November 2026; until then, the App Store offers the paid version 1.3.

Does it change my sets or upload anything?

No. Als Preview only reads your sets and never saves into them, moves or renames them. Your library, recordings and time stay on your Mac. There’s no account, and the app sends nothing about you or your music to anyone.

How do I hear a set without bouncing it?

Put the Als Preview plugin on the Main track of your sets once. While you work, it records what Live plays and lines the newest takes up under the arrangement, ready to play from any bar. Where it hasn’t recorded anything, Als Preview renders an approximate preview from the set’s clips and samples.

How is it different from Live’s browser?

Live’s browser finds files by name and tags, and Live opens one set at a time. Als Preview looks inside all your sets at once: their plugins, samples, tempo, key and tracks, every saved version, and how they sound. The two work side by side. How Als Preview compares with Live’s browser and other apps

Can I preview .als files in Finder?

Yes. Select a Live Set in Finder and press Space, and Quick Look shows its arrangement. Double-click it to hear the recording or the approximate preview.

Als Preview

Free to download. Try everything for 14 days, then unlock it with a one-time purchase. No subscription.

For macOS 15 or later. Reads sets from Ableton Live 10, 11 and 12.

How Als Preview compares with Live’s browser and other apps

Version 2.0 with the free trial is available from 1 November 2026. Until then, the App Store offers the paid version 1.3.

Find any Live Set. Preview it without opening Live.