Ableton Live 6 is now out in beta, but now that you’re reading this, you’re too late: the beta rosters are already full. As with previous upgrades to Live, Ableton is rolling out the beta in waves, and the first wave is the smallest. If you missed the boat, though, previous experience suggests you won’t have to wait long. You can also install the beta alongside an existing release, making testing much safer.

Along with the beta release, Ableton has informally “announced” a ship date — or at least they’ve got one listed in the image on their homepage, as shown below. September sounds about right, giving up to two months for the beta and possibly less.

Beta testers, I’d love to know what you think of the new release, whether you find gripes or power tips; drop us a line. I think we’re all particularly anxious to try some benchmarking, given promises of better multithreading and overall optimization; that could be interesting on PowerPC Macs, Intel Macs, and PCs alike.