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Ableton Live 8.0

Music Production Software

• Comprehensive Non-Linear Music Production Software Application
• 32 BIT 192Khz Audio Resolution
• Matrix Grid Based Concept with Session View, Arrangement View and Live screens
• Includes loops, virtual instruments and built-in audio & MIDI Effects

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Product Information

Ableton Live 8 Non-Linear Music Production Software

It's been a few years now since Ableton elbowed its way onto the music production software market and started to create an industry buzz with their innovative non-linear approach to music creation and recording. For those of you that are unfamiliar with the concept, Ableton Live is radically different to most other mainstream music production software applications in that it uses a matrix grid populated by cells that contain drum or music loops, samples, MIDI files or sections of MIDI files - all of which usually playback at the same tempo and by clicking on each cell you can randomly choose which sections/sounds/drum or music loops/MIDI files play back and in what particular order ...

Traditionally music software applications have used a more conventional approach where the monitor screen depicts a linear track listing which when in record or playback mode scrolls the tracks horizontally from left to right stacked one above the other and the control settings are usually similar (albeit more sophisticated) to those on a hardware based multi-track tape recorder. The Ableton concept is much more random - and some would argue therefore more creative, there are thousands of drum and music loops that can be purchased and/or imported into Ableton and consequently the Ableton music production method is perhaps preferred by dance music writers/producers as it suits that style of work-flow production ...

So, after that lengthy explanation lets look at the latest version of Ableton ... Namely Ableton Live 8.0, the first thing to be aware of is that this application is suitable for both Windows and Mac based computers (check the Ableton site for minimum specifications & O/S suitability) and has audio resolution at 32 BIT/192Khz which is twice the quality of your average CD. It has 3 main Windows, firstly the Session View, which is the grid matrix that I mentioned earlier that contains the cells that have the music snippets within. The next window is called the Arrangement View and bizzarely this depicts the sequence of music snippets in a linear format - presumably to pacify/encapture all those users who are migrating to Ableton from a linear based product and the window displays the cells in the sequential order that they are being played back thereby allowing the user to format an arrangement ...

The final window is the Live window which can be used in a live situation and is championed by DJ's who like the freedom, creativity and simplicity of being able to create a "performance" on-the -fly so to speak simply by choosing a random selection of cells to playback. However beneath its relatively simple concept actually lies a feature-rich, sophisticated music production application that can match most of the other competitive packages on the market. Application features such as quantize, comprehensive editing and sampling and the ability to integrate with 3rd party software plug-ins means that Ableton Live 8.0 provides a myriad of creative options, and unlike other applications you don't actually have to be a musician to use this package. That said, musicians will be glad to hear that you can actually create and then record your own loops/music in real-time  and thereafter populate the grid matrix with some or all of the music that you have created.

Ableton comes with its own set of virtual instruments that also includes drums and effects racks and offers a comprehensive range of built-in audio and MIDI effects, it has a newly designed "Groove Engine" which allows the user to apply and extract grooves in real-time. Ableton Live 8.0 supports VST and AU software plug-ins along with REX support and integrated audio to MIDI slicing, it uses simple MIDI mapping plus dedicated instant mapping for a specific list of approved hardware and lastly but by no means least it will support both single and multi-core processors ...

If you've never tried music production software before, or if you're not actually a musician then Ableton Live 8.0 is probably a good starting point for you and on their website you can download a trial - time locked version to see if it's something you may like. There's also something called Ableton Live Light 8.0 which is a kind of scaled down version of this application with some of the bells and whistles removed  ... Equally this is a fully functioning DAW (Digital Audi Workstation) package and will easily pacify hardened and experienced music production software users. The only way you can decide if it's for you is to check it out ... See the latest version of Ableton now down at the Nevada Music Warehouse ... 

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