Saltado Sessions vs Audyn
Audyn and Saltado Sessions are the two closest tools in this space. Both are
Ableton-first project managers, both read BPM, key, plugins and samples straight out of your
.als files, and both are a one-time purchase that runs offline (Sessions is $44,
Audyn $49). The honest difference is one feature each way: Audyn keeps a version timeline you
can walk back through, which Sessions has no equivalent of today, and Sessions handles everything
after the bounce (playing your exports without opening Live, a book of record labels, and a record
of every demo you send), which Audyn does not. Pick by which of those two problems is louder in
your week.
Start with the overlap, because it is most of the page
On the core job these two are close enough that a feature list barely separates them. Both scan
your drives, both read BPM, key, plugins and samples out of the .als itself, both
draw an arrangement view, both run offline, and both charge once rather than monthly. If you
only need an Ableton library that stops you opening ten projects to find one, either will do
that well, and you should pick on price or on which interface you prefer.
So the useful comparison is not the overlap. It is the two places the tools genuinely diverge, one in each direction.
What Audyn does that Sessions does not: version snapshots
Audyn keeps a version history of a project over time, so you can look back at what a track was
three weeks ago and recover a state you have since mixed away. Sessions has nothing that does that
job. It shows you every .als in a project folder with its Live version, size, length
and track count, and it will tell you which one is the main set, but it does not put a project on a
timeline.
One thing is coming that sits near this, and it is worth drawing the line precisely rather than letting it sound like a match. The Vault, the encrypted off-machine backup subscription Sessions is building, keeps 30 days of file version history: you can open a folder's history, see each backup that changed it, and download any earlier version of a file from inside that window. That genuinely covers "I mixed away something good last Tuesday". It is not a project timeline. It is keyed to when backups ran rather than to your edits, it stops at 30 days, and it does not model a project as a sequence of states the way Audyn does. It is also a separate subscription.
So the answer does not change: if versioning is the problem you have today, Audyn is the honest recommendation. A backup with history is a safety net, and a timeline you can walk is a working tool, and it would be a cheat to file them under the same heading.
What Sessions does that Audyn does not: everything after the bounce
Sessions treats a finished track as the start of a second job rather than the end of the first. It keeps a book of record labels with their submission routes, genres and your own research notes, and it tracks every demo you send from sent, through no reply, to accepted or released, flagging anything that has gone quiet for 30 days. It also plays your bounces without opening Live, and exports a Plugin Passport so you and a collaborator can see whose plugins cross over before you swap a session. None of that exists in Audyn, which is deliberate: it is a library tool, and it is a good one.
That side has grown since this comparison was first written, and mostly in the same direction. Tracks can be grouped into releases, so an EP is one thing with a running order and a readiness roll-up rather than four rows you hold in your head. Auditioning a bounce now puts a full metering console on the waveform, loudness, true peak, correlation and a goniometer, which is the check you want before a track goes anywhere. And the library itself has a grid view with cover artwork, per-collection colour themes, and a quiet count of the studio time you have spent in each project while the app was running.
Feature by feature
| Saltado Sessions | Audyn | |
|---|---|---|
| Focus | Ableton Live | Ableton Live |
| Price | $44 one-time | $49 one-time |
| Free tier | Unlimited (core features) | Unlimited (core features) |
| BPM, key, plugin & sample reading | Yes | Yes |
| Version history / snapshots | No project timeline. 30-day file history comes with the Vault subscription. | Yes |
| Arrangement view | Yes | Yes |
| Bounce previews (play a track without opening Live) | Yes | Not advertised |
| Label book & demo-submission tracking | Yes | No |
| Plugin Passport (compare collections with a collaborator) | Yes | No |
| Split a shared folder into one project per song | Yes, samples copied so each folder is self-contained, nothing deleted | Not advertised |
| Releases (group tracks into an EP or album) | Yes | No |
| Loudness metering on your bounces | Yes | Not advertised |
| Import auto-organizer | Yes | Not advertised |
| Local-first, offline | Yes | Yes |
Pick by which problem is louder
Choose Sessions if your problem is downstream
The library is tidy enough, but you have finished tracks that are not out anywhere, no record of who you sent what to, and no way to hear an old bounce without loading Live.
Choose Audyn if your problem is upstream
Your tracks get finished and placed fine, but you keep losing versions of a project to your own edits and want a timeline you can walk back through.
Try Saltado Sessions free. No account, nothing leaves your machine. Keep the library free as long as you like; Pro is a one-time $44 when you want the power tools.
Audyn details are drawn from Audyn's public website and are accurate to the best of our knowledge at the time of writing; features and pricing on either product can change, so check both sites for the latest. Audyn is a trademark of its respective owner and this comparison is not affiliated with or endorsed by them.