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ToolshedAbleton Live 8 Suite: Seriously‘Warped’ DAW PlatformAbleton Live burst onto the scene in 2001 andchanged the way a lot of peoplethink about what aDAW can and shoulddo. What’s more, thecompany has relentlesslydelivered majorupdates every year inan industry marked byincreasingly long developmentcycles andplagued by delayedreleases—and this yearis no exception. Onceconsidered an upstartDJ tool with somerecording capabilities,Ableton has transformedinto a fully featuredand mature DAWplatform that continuesto find ways to make majorimprovements without sacrificing stability.The Ableton Suite includes the Live 8 program, as well as a corelibrary of presets, loops and samples. You also get all of Ableton’ssoftware instruments, a comprehensive set of orchestral samples,the new Latin Percussion library, version 2 of the EssentialInstruments Collection, a huge two-DVD set of their Session Drumsand a sizable set of third party content. All in all, this will take upalmost 50 gigs of space when installed, but you have the option toonly install certain components if you want to save space, or youcould set up the library on an external drive if you use a laptop withlimited space available.The Live 8 program gets a revamped Warp engine. Warping hasalways been the signature feature of this program; it is the methodthat Live uses to detect and manipulate the tempo of sound clips.Live has always excelled at this, and the new version has aredesigned Warping Engine, as well as a new interface. SeasonedLive users may find it a little disorienting at first, as now clips aredragged to fit a static timeline, which is the opposite of the way Livehas previously worked. It is more intuitive, though, and makes moresense—especially for new users. Live also automatically assignsWarp makers to transients, so it’s simple to move around individualelements within a clip. A new Complex Pro mode gives you evenmore control of intricate polyphonic material.Also new to the program is the Groove Pool, a sophisticated set oftools for applying grooves to MIDI and audio clips on your projects.Grooves are templates that contain tempo and feel information. Thecoolest thing about this is it is a real-time process, so you can dragdifferent grooves onto your track and audition them before committingthem to the clip. You can also extract groove information fromany audio clip by just dragging it into the pool, which you can thenre-use in any other project you wish. I found this to be pretty amazingwith audio clips when it worked, but a little inconsistent. It was, ofcourse, spot-on with MIDI. Add to this the new audio quantizationfeatures and you have a robust set of tools to create exactly the feelsyou want.There have also been some significant improvements in the interface,including Group Tracks. Using this feature it is simple to createsubmixes and apply effects to subsets of your tracks. You can alsocollapse them with a press of a button to preserve screen realestate—a nice touch. You can now preview audio and MIDI clips inthe file browser, and you can zoom the interface up to 200 percent tomake things clearer in crowded projects. Multiple tracks can beselected and adjusted at once—nice if you want to bring down thevolume on five or six tracks at once. These, in addition to many moreadjustments, continue to improve the workflow.New to the suite is Collision, an acoustic modeling synth designedto model mallet and bell instruments. This may sound kind of boring,but when you dive in, you’ll find that you can create some interestingtimbres. Not only that, but it’s easy to use for a modeling synth, andthat will help you with some of Live’s other offerings. Also added isthe new Latin Percussion library, an incredibly comprehensive collectionof loops and samples that sound great. There has also been amajor upgrade to Ableton’s premier synth, Operator. The new versionallows you to draw in your own waveforms, which makes forsome truly outrageous sound design possibilities. I’ve only scratchedthe surface of the new release, but I can already tell that I’m going tospend a lot of time with this one.I’ve been a Live user since version 1.5, and I can tell you this is asolid upgrade. If you are already a Live user, it is well worth the price.If you have not given Ableton a try yet, it’s an eye-opening experience.It is unlike any workflow you’re used to, and can be very inspiringbased on that alone. I have also found that people new to computerrecording find it easy to use, as they have no preconcievednotions about how a DAW should look. Ableton is also a customerorientedcompany with a strong user community. You can downloada full featured time-limited version (for free) that will give you allfunctions for 14 days, or you can download a demo version that doesnot save but will not expire. A host of other new features include alooper, online collaboration and coming MAX support, so check outthe latest version for yourself.—Chris Neville»Ordering info: ableton.com62 DOWNBEAT August 2009