Ableton Live 8 – Superb Music Software

Ableton Live 8 – The Franchise Marches On

Ableton Live 8 released in 2009 continues the now 10 year old series high standards of incredibly high standard software for music recording, production and performance. It has long been an industry standard winning plaudits from all of the usual suspects as well as a number of notable musicians in electronic, rock and a number of other circles. It’s intuitive interface has made it a massive hit since it’s release in 2001, and it remains an impressive piece of software. In it’s field Live 8 has dominated it’s competitors in an incredibly tough field.

The music production aspect of the software remains it’s most widely used and praised function. Tending to lean more towards loop based production it nevertheless provides an incredibly impressive sequencer alongside, allowing professionals and amateurs alike to express themselves creatively through the incredibly intuitive interface which has long been Ableton’s pride and joy.

This ability to easily include software synthesizers and effects from other developers is one of Abletons key strengths. Compatibility issues are virtually unheard of and no special software is needed to use plugins be they VST, Reason, Cubase or any of the other major formats. Again the process is incredibly simple and knowledge of computers or music software is not required at all.

Additionally, ReWire can be easily used with Ableton, working as either a slave or master device is no problem. External controllers, sound cards and so on are also highly unlikely to experience compatibility issues. This is not something that users need to worry about for any type of music or music production. It’s simplicity is at times deceptive.

Recording music is also not only simple but also provides excellent quality playback allowing you to get the perfect take. Sound recordings are quickly and automatically converted into audio files allowing artists to view and record their editing digitally with ease. Recording music or sounds and then arranging them or simply reproducing a live performance and rendering it to a sound file with ease.

Perhaps the main strength of Ableton is it’s incredibly simple interface allowing users to learn the basics in under an hour even without any experience of music software. The tutorial is very well put together and it will only take a couple of afternoons to learn all of the basics of recording and editing.

The live performance aspect is almost a spin off of the software’s original intention, but it has taken on a life of it’s own, becoming one of the program’s most celebrated features. With excellent beatmatching and looping capabilities as well as a fully functioning mixer, DJs can use it either to play songs as they would with turntables, or get more in depth and create more original mixes on the fly using the programs impressive controller.

Ableton Live 8 keeps up the series rich tradition of providing incredibly intuitive DJ Software for a wide range of purposes. It remains and will for some time one of the leaders in it’s field. You can search online for other DJ equipment.