Ableton Live is about making music; for composition, songwriting, recording, production, remixing and live performance. Live's nonlinear, intuitive flow, alongside powerful real-time editing and flexible performance options, make it a unique studio tool and a favorite with live performers. If you'd rather be "making music" than just "using music software," Ableton Live is for you. Live 8, the latest version, includes a wealth of new techniques and improvements with a new groove engine, revamped warping, live looping, new effects, crossfades in the Arrangement View and a reworked MIDI editor.

Session View

Live is the only music production software with the "Session View": a unique grid for recording and playing musical ideas and phrases. The Session View is non-linear, so you can record and play back your ideas in any order you want. When you're working on a new track, this is a smart, flexible way to write and record. If you're performing music live, it gives you complete flexibility and freedom to improvise.

Arrangement View

Live also has a second view: the "Arrangement View," a complete music production environment. This is the linear counterpart to the Session View and is well-suited to "traditional" recording, arranging and mixing. These two views interact with one another, each with its own strengths and intricacies. Both views are based on the single principle of creative, intuitive music-making.

Uninterrupted creative flow

In Live, you never have to stop the music. Record audio and MIDI on the fly, drop in loops and samples, add effects and swap sounds without ever hitting the stop button: everything happens in real time. You're free to improvise and the computer actually becomes a musical instrument--an expressive and creative tool, perfectly at home on stage or in the studio.

Beats made easy

Live's unique Drum Rack combines drag-and-drop simplicity in a familiar pad-style interface. Each of the 128 drum pads can have its own instrument or sample plus effects. Slice beats, loops or REX files to MIDI for additional control options and use the new groove feature (which includes grooves from the legendary MPC and SP1200 machines) to add swing to your beats.

Creative expression for DJs

Mix and match tracks and loops automatically, remix on the fly, capture audio loops in real time from decks and other external sources, incorporate your own productions into the mix, and much more. Whether it's the centerpiece of the DJ rig or just a creative sidearm, Live gives DJs entirely new worlds of creative expression.

Looping with Live

Not only for guitarists, the Ableton Looper gives you classic sound-on-sound looping without the limitations of a hardware device. Looper is set up for remote operation, so you can record, overdub, undo and more without touching the computer.

Totally compatible

Live works seamlessly with controller hardware and assigning custom MIDI controls is simple. Live supports AIFF, WAV, MP3, Ogg Vorbis and FLAC files, VST and AU effects and instruments. Live can handle REX files and runs as a ReWire Master or Slave, so it works nicely alongside other DAWs like Pro Tools, Logic, Cubase or Reason. And if you have a multicore or multiprocessor system, Live supports that, too.

Key features

• Multitrack recording up to 32-bit/192 kHz
• Nondestructive editing with unlimited undo
• Powerful and creative MIDI sequencing of software and hardware instruments
• Advanced warping and real-time time-stretching
• Supports AIFF, WAV, MP3, Ogg Vorbis and FLAC files
• A comprehensive selection of built-in audio and MIDI effects
• Built-in instruments: Simpler for sample-based synthesis, Impulse for sampled drums
• Instrument, Drum and Effect Racks
• New groove engine; apply and extract grooves in real time
• VST and AU support; automatic plug-in delay compensation
• REX file support plus built-in audio to MIDI slicing
• Video import and export for scoring, video warping
• Simple MIDI mapping plus instant mapping for selected hardware
• Full ReWire support; runs as Slave or Master
• Single-screen user interface for simple, creativity-focused operation
• Multicore and multiprocessor support
• Support for The Bridge, Ableton's collaboration with Serato

Also includes

• A selection of loops (box only)
• Essential Instrument Collection 2: a wide range of sampled instruments (box only)
• Printed reference manual in English, French, German or Japanese (box only)
• Built-in interactive lessons
• Localized software menus, tutorials and PDF reference manuals in English, Spanish, French, German and Japanese

System requirements

Mac: 1.8 GHz G4/G5 or faster (Intel® Mac recommended), 2 GB RAM (4 GB recommended, if supported by your computer), Mac OS X 10.4.11 (10.5 or later recommended), DVD-ROM drive

Windows: 2 GHz Pentium® 4 or Celeron® compatible CPU or faster (multicore CPU recommended), 2 GB RAM (4 GB recommended on Windows Vista and Windows 7), Windows XP (home or Pro), Windows Vista or Windows 7, sound card (ASIO driver support recommended), DVD-ROM drive, QuickTime recommended

The installation size of the Essential Instrument Collection 2 is 15 GB.