Ableton Live
Review of Version 3 and Version 5
Version 3
 |
|
Ableton LIVE 24-Bit Recording Software (Macintosh and Windows) |
| Ableton Live is the music-production
solution that allows you to spontaneously compose, record,
remix, improvise and edit your musical ideas. Live brings
your acoustic, electronic and virtual instruments, as well
as your digital audio recordings, together in a single interface
with unparalleled ease of use.
|
|
Version 3 of the Ableton Live added even
more. At first I was skeptical and when I first booted I was more
so. But that that quickly diminished when i tried my hand at some
of the new features in Live 3.0.
I have Live 3.0 running on a Mac powerbook
G4. The application is almost perfectly suited for it and it looks
great on the Mac in OS 10.3.
New Features:
While Live 1.5 was good at modifying the
loop from the outside, with effects, filters, and envelopes, Live 3.0 goes
a huge step further by letting you control your samples and loops from the
inside. You get a number of tools that can be used in the sample editor
to warp and transform them. Ableton says you can make hundreds of
variations for a single sample, so i tried my hand at this. Its as
easy as can be. Perhaps the most powerful is transpose. You
can select a region of the sample and draw a pitch envelope over it, making
it rise and fall the way you want it to. You can also mute or attenuate
regions of a sample or re-arrange the hits in a beat.
Into the Glitch?
One of the hottest areas of sound development
is one that i call "glitch sampling". Buzzes, stutters, dropouts,
extreme aliasing, scrambling, granulating are becoming more and more popular
in today's music. While there are many ways to make an interesting
glitch, the better ones typically take a lot of work (forget those "stutter
plugins" if you want to sound original). The Ableton live gives you some
powerful glitch tools
Listen to a few of them. You'll never think of your old loop collection
the same way again. And guess what, all these strange sounds can be
made in real-time with the song playing and are non-destructive. You
are not going to do this kind of sample warpage in Acid, Fruity, Forge,
Sonar or any of the usual editors.
There's more coolness to Live 3.0, but
I can't get to everything right now. I just wanted to convey how a
great program just got greater. Its worth the upgrade.
Of course there is more to the program
than I mentioned, but hey, it's late and I have tweaking to do. If
you want your loop based compositions to stand out from the rest, the Live
is a must have, even if you have and like Acid ( I certainly fit in that
group). If you are on the Mac, it's one of the few loop constructors
in town. If you are a DJ and want a tool to use real time on gigs,
don't hesitate. Get it now, before everyone else does. My bet
is that the Ableton live will be here for a while. And with all the
new audio editing features, it's bound to be the secret weapon in many a
loop constructionist's arsenal.
Novation Remote 25SL 25-Key USB Controller Keyboard with
AutoMap
Tweak: works
great with Live 5
Version 5
I skipped V4 of the Ableton live after
running the demo and not liking it. But with version 5, I was ready,
and i am happy to report, its smooth running and, of course, much more powerful.
The main thing is the ability to use MIDI and software synthesizers in the
Live as seamlessly as you can in the big sequencers like Logic, Sonar, Cubase,
etc. I was impressed on how fast I could get working with these and
how easy midi editing was.
Live 5 also now works with Control surfaces
such as the Novation ReMOTE SL series keyboards and with Mackie Control
Universal. Live 5.21 also added support for Frontier's Tranzport controller.
Version 6 is due for release in Sept of
2006 and adds Multicore support, movie import, "Deep Freeze", instrument
and rack effects and a new essential instrument collection.
In sum, the Live offers the ability to
produce tracks fast with audio loops and midi, unique effects, and do it
all on the fly. I think it is an excellent tool for hip hop beat creation
and adding vocals and mixing it all down. DJ's doing shows, if they
take the time to learn the intricacies of the GUI, will be rewarded with
performance far beyond what can be done with CDs. Yet the hardcore
tweakers will like the Live as well with its extensive non destructive editing
of audio. If you want to get weird, the Live will help!
All the best!
Rich the Tweakmeister
Bias Peak 2-Track Editing Software (Macintosh)
Peak, the world's most popular audio editing/processing/mastering
application for the Mac, is now fully OS X native - and includes
support for BIAS’ new SoundSoap™ noise reduction plug-in. Peak 3.2
is still fully compatible with Apple's latest OS upgrade - Mac OS
X v10.2 Jaguar and the OS 10.2.3 update. Peak 3.2 is even faster
on OS X now, as it is a native Mach-O application. A version of
Peak 3.2 for Mac OS 8.6 - 9.x is also available. The update is available
free of charge for owners of Peak 3 as a download from the BIAS
web site. Using SoundSoap as a OS X compatible VST plug-in for Peak
3.2 gives Mac OS X users access to one of the most powerful yet
easy-to-use audio restoration solutions out there.
back to page 1
Go to the
Next Class
Other Articles on Sequencers by Tweak
Sequencers and DAWS Index
Review of Cubase 5
Logic Studio 9
Pro Tools LE 8.1
Logic Studio 8
Review of Sonar
Review of Reason
Reason (1st review)
Ableton Live
Logic Pro 7
Logic Pro 6
Logic Platinum 6
Logic Platinum 5
Digital Performer
GarageBand
Sony's Acid
Vintage Sequencers
Early History of Logic
Mac vs PC for Music?
Project 5
Sequencer City!
Cubase SX (original)
Cubase SX3
Using a Mac Pro as your DAW
Using Notebooks as your DAW
Which Sequencer is Best?
MIDI Time Code and Sync Issues
Custom Bank Select Methods in Logic
Write a Sonar Instrument Definition File
Sequencers Price List
zZounds Sequencer Store
|
