Ableton Live 8 Suite Software

Having been a live user ever since version 6 live has certainly come a fair way but is also lacking in a few features commonly found in alot of DAW's.
Live 8 adds alot of simple functions that make you wonder why they wern't in the original versions in the first place (ie, moving multiple track faders at the same time, audio fades, track grouping.) You wouldn't think that these upgrades would make that much of a difference but they really do and you wonder how you managed to work without them before. Unfortunately despite these upgrades Live still falls behind other DAW's in sequencing department.

But what Live lacks in production tools it definately makes up for in performance and useability. Not alot has been done to improve the capabilities of Live as a performance tool as most of the upgrades are geared towards the production side of things. However the audio warping tools have been improved so that they are easier to use and the new 'complex pro' time stretching algorithm is quite useful on polyphonic material and I also find it to be extremely useful when time stretching vocals. Ableton have also added a Live looping plug-in however it's pretty much useless for production and everything the plug in does you were pretty much able to do with previous versions of Live anyway.

The rest of the new plug ins however are rather fantastic. The vocoder is definately one of the best i've ever used and has alot of options to craft your sounds which makes it easier to make the words in the vocals that are being fed into the vocoder to actually be understandable.
The Overdrive plug sounds great and it's simple interface lets you come up with a great sound in a matter of seconds and if you want to delve a little deeper you can.
The Limiter is quite nice, however it does distort the audio when pushed a little too hard unlike some better limiters and compressors out there.

Overall I would strongly recommend the upgrade because it is a big step from Live 7 to 8. The new plug-ins sound great, functionality has been significantly improved and if this is your first DAW purchase or if you've considered changing from your original DAW to Live then i'd highly recommend it as it is a very easy to use DAW that is actually alot of fun to use unlike most other DAW's and seems more like an instrument than a piece of software. There is little learning as Live is very easy to pick up and understand. Live would definately be a solid investment towards your studio.

Until last week, I had been using the same DAW for 10 years. Being familiar and comfortable with it, I was loathe to switch to another. Then I bought a Virus TI Snow, and my DAW just wouldn't sync up to it, (latency would change, clicks and pops wouldn't go away, even with the buffer set to max). After re-reading the manual for the 50th time, and trying everything possible, I switched to Ableton Live.

This was the best thing that could have possibly happened. I was a afraid of lengthy teething period, getting the program to work with my gear and system, a steep learning curve etc.. but this was not the case.

Picking up the basics was an absolute doddle. The user interface is logical, and the session and sequencer modes are perfect for performance and composing. Setting it all up to work with my keyboard and Virus was just a few simple, logical clicks in the preference menu, and it worked immediately. The video tutorials included in the package were great, but almost unnecessary, if you've used another DAW.

The speed of the workflow is the best aspect of this package, (apart from the awesome performance abilities), getting ideas together and playing around with them couldn't be easier. This gives you more time to actually 'make music', rather than farting about working around limitations.

Assigning MIDI channels and routing mixer tracks is straightforward and logical, setting up a side-chain compressor is as easy as dragging the compressor onto a track, clicking the side-chain button and selecting a side-chain track. My old DAW made this process a massive headache.

Using third-party VSTs is a snap, automating their parameters is as simple as right clicking a knob or slider and selecting, 'automate'.

The included sounds, fx, and instruments are all top notch, and not tacked on like many other DAWs. Switching between banks and patches on external synths and VSTs is brilliantly simple, eliminating the need to have multiple instances of a vst open, and reducing CPU load. This was a huge plus for me.

This is the standard that all DAWs should be held to. Production and performance without compromise. Stability and flexibilty with a logical layout, simple but powerful latency correction that automatically gets all your hardware and virtual toys playing in sync.

I would recommend this to everyone, beginner or pro.

10/10

8 years of new features and none of the original simplicity and ease of use has left Ableton Live. Recent releases have seen major steps forward in workflow and the underlying sound processing engine. With 8 bringing new advanced warp algorithms, Groove, sample handling and an even easier interface, Live is really closing the gap between other more expensive DAW's.

External plugin handling is also now more streamlined with less limitations but with new plugins like Multiband Dynamics having such exceptionally good sound quality, I find myself relying on less external programs in favor Lives own integrated tools. Indeed Live 8 Suite is fully self contained with a huge sound library and many effects, samplers and synths. Live Suite 8 is the definitive version of Ableton Live.