Ableton Live 9 now available!
 

I just finished downloading the 9 suite & I am still reeling from the sheer volume of sounds, instruments & FX it comes with. At $250 for the upgrade from 8 suite it has got to be the deal of the year so far, unbelievably great value for money. I will probably not buy another piece of gear this year as it will probably take that long to get through it all. You can check it out here...

https://www.ableton.com/en/live/new-in-9/

I can see this really pissing off a LOT of plug-in/sample makers.;)

Been reading a lot of bugs and odd changes from 8-9. Was considering getting it as another creative tool and to get out of Cubase but I think ill be hanging on a few months until it gets a few new builds under its belt first.

I'm always thinking about Live as a possible next path.. I like that it's cross platform and seems to be gaining big in momentum. I wish I could just learn one fucking DAW and be done with it, it's been so long since I've actually written music that I feel like chucking the technology and getting a kazoo or something just to allow me to focus on what used to be important to me :) I get enough techlust satisfaction developing software, when I do music I mostly just want to unleash the creative side and minimize workflow.

Has it gotten any better with regard to hardware integration Berni? Every now and then I see people saying "works great except in ________" fill in the blank with Live, Pro Tools, Logic, Reaper whatever... Seems like Cubase + VST is the one thing nobody every complains about so I thought seriously about going that route.

Just consider the unique Ableton workflow. You can record let's say 40 different takes of different instruments, and reorder them with just a click (pushing play on single takes), listening to unlimited kinds of layer/orders of musical ideas. This for me is a creative potential with no boundaries.

All the other daws do recording in a linear way, from a to b.

I lost many hours with other daws until i discovered Live that changed my (music) life.

If the music ideas childbirth is what is very important for you, you should consider it.

@Berni,

maybe you could give us some input on how it is working right now... I'm mostly a Logic user, got the LE version of Live with my controller, and later got more and more into it... sometimes I use it in rewire as I find there's some good features on it that I find many uses for. true that it's gaining more and more producers every day, and I think it's fair - as it's build with a new philosophy and very intuitive. And I love the design of it as well, very easy to know what's going on at all times. That and the jam approach to music making. I still think, however, that mixing is it's weak point, maybe that's changed with this new version, honestly don't know. The audio to midi function appears to be magic. Sort like Melodyne (??? or is it different?)... I think Ableton and Maschine is probably an excellent combo for really intuitive music making on this digital age - the basic concept is somewhat similar, laying down ideas fast.

Did you get Push as well? Or thinking about it, Berni? Like the way it allows to play many scales with good visual feedback, that's the thing that got me more curious about it...

Cheers

That really appeals to me, the handling of takes. Logic handles takes pretty nicely I think, at least compared to FLStudio. One of these days I need to get the demo and start learning, I guess.

Well it's early days yet but so far so good. It has been out on beta for quite a while & ableton have a good rep. when it comes to software & are not the kind of company that puts out half finished, half arsed crap like a certain synth company I could mention but don't really need to.
Funnily enough it's because of access that I started to get really into Live. I have had it since Version 6, starting out with a freebie LE version but never really got that into it. I just used it to make a few DJ mixes & mess around with loops. I'm a long time pro tools user & know it like the back of my hand so it has always been my DAW just because I'm too lazy to learn another one properly. After many years of trying to get VC working in PT I gave up because it probably never will work properly & there is nothing I can do about it. The VST version in Live works fine for me however so a few months back I started to learn Live properly & now I'm totally into it. It was quite a bit to get my head around at first as it is NOTHING like pro tools (or any other DAW for that matter) but I did a ton of tutorials, joined some forums etc. & now I can honestly say that I will be using it for all my composition's & use PT for mixing down, mastering & any live recording.
I looked at the Push controller but decided not to bother for several reasons. 1. I already have a midi keyboard & the Maschine. 2. This is Ableton's first hardware controller which makes it a bit of an experiment & finally it looks a bit confusing & I don't want to have to learn ANOTHER thing.
Whats blowing me away right now are the max 4 Live devices, worth the asking price alone. I haven't tried out the audio to midi functions yet but they do what Melodyne does pretty much just not as many bells & whistles. Melodyne incidentally have been giving large discounts to people to upgrade there versions. I'll write another update as I get more into it but right now I'm like a kid at xmas with all this inspiring software. You can try it for free for 30 days so what have you got to lose if you are curious :wink:

True, will do that. Currently don't have my setup running. Moved in a few days ago, all my precious stuff is still in boxes. The world feels much more boring because of that :twisted:

and you're right about Push, except for the fact (I think) they're doing it with Akai - that's got much more experience on such matters and I think it will perform right from the start.

but all in all, it's good to see Ableton growing into a much more mature product that's got some unique arguments that should and probably will give competitors much to think about.

But it is working well with Virus Control for you as I understand? That's what I wanted to confirm.

It is saying a lot if so, because you've been one of the more vocal opponents of the TI's integration I've seen (and that opposition basically mirrors my brief experience with it). So, if they've got everything worked out, at least with regard to running stably in Live, maybe I should check out Live.

I could try the trial of Live for 30 days but I don't have a Virus TI to try it with so I'm more inclined to get as much feedback right now from those who have.

Long term I just want a DAW that works the same on either Mac or PC (obviously FLStudio is PC only and Logic is Mac only and that's what I use today) and is hardware integration friendly, specifically with the Virus and Ultranova plugins (although I'm somehow less concerned about the Ultranova plugin).

Do you use the VST format plugin inside Live or some other format?

Yes I finally got the VST version working at least BUT here's what I had to do to get there (I am not saying all these steps/equipment are necessary but this is just my set up)
I bought a brand new macbook pro, late 2011 model. Installed a solid state hard drive in place of the optical drive which just about triples the speed of the computer. I also bought a thunderbolt 27" display that has a hub on the back for all my usb stuff, mouse, keys etc. So now the ONLY thing in the usb port of my lap top is the virus. Depending on your set up your mileage may vary, but right now it plays great in Live. Arp's are synced & no pop's, crackles, or just plain flaking out like it used to.
It's only because I'm a stubborn SOAB that I've kept at it so long TBH.

Live works with VST & AU plug-ins so your Logic stuff should work with it :)