Ableton has announced Live 5, which presents a wealth of new sought-after features and enhancements including:

• Clip Freeze serves two purposes: freeing up CPU power and easing the transfer of projects between computers. "Frozen" clips retain their real-time launch capabilities, allowing for improvisation, performance or song arrangement. A project with frozen tracks can also be transferred from your main computer and run easily on one with less-than-optimal CPU specs.
• Plug-In Delay Compensation automatically delays tracks to compensate for latencies caused by effects and plug-ins, including those on the return tracks. In addition, both audio and MIDI tracks have a manual delay setting to compensate for human, acoustic, hardware and other real-world delays.
• Launchable Arrangement Locators offer arrangement/song-position markers with MIDI mapping and quantized recall. Using the mouse, computer keys or MIDI messages, you can drop locators on the fly during playback or recording. Each locator can be named and assigned to a computer key or MIDI message. Jumping to a locator is subject to real-time quantization, just like launching Session View clips and scenes. Previous/Next buttons allow you to jump from locator to locator.
• Mackie Control Support enables full implementation of compatible mixer surfaces such as Tascam's FW-1082/1884, Yamaha's 01X and Mackie Control, allowing for mouse-free program operation. Easily navigate arrangements and the Session View grid; launch clips, scenes and locators; and access instruments and effects.

Live 5 ships with a host of new remix-minded features:

• MP3 support makes your entire music library available for use in Live.
• Automatic Tempo-Matching tracks the tempo of imported songs and sets Warp Markers for you-instantly synchronizing your files to the project tempo.
• Complex Warp Mode is a frequency-domain warping method specifically designed to accommodate composite signals such as mixed-down music.
• New Clip Transport allows for performance-enhancing looping, editing and shuffling on the fly for any clip in Live. Click anywhere in a waveform to jump there-in sync and subject to real-time quantization.

Live 5 features simple tools for saving, previewing and accessing any idea on your hard drive:

• Live Clips. Clips can now be exported to disk for easy retrieval and reuse in any project. The exported Live Clip not only retains MIDI, audio, envelopes, warping and other clip settings but also the associated instrument, effects and plug-ins. In Live's Browser, Live Clips are as easy to browse and preview as samples.
• Better Browsing. Live's built-in Browser now features a search field and standard file organization capabilities such as creating folders and dragging files into folders. In the Browser, Live Sets (.als files) can be "unfolded" to reveal their tracks and clips - which can then be selectively previewed and dragged in. It is also possible to drag a Live Set from the Browser into the currently open Set to merge the two.
• New Preset Management. Presets for Ableton instruments and effects are now managed through the Browser as well. You can organize presets in folders at will and search for presets across folders using the search field. A new "browse" button on every device temporarily links the Browser to the device, allowing for easy preset recall.
• Device Groups allow you to save powerful multi-effect creations, effectively adding all the capabilities of Ableton's MIDI and audio effects to Simpler, Impulse and Operator presets.

Live 5 introduces a selection of new effects, bringing even more creative possibilities:

• Beat Repeat - An inspirational, expressive and addictive audio effect useful for subtle-to-extreme reorganization of beats and vocals. Create short loops on the fly and control their lengths either manually or via random functions for endless variations of grooves and stutter effects.
• Phaser and Flanger - These are both modeled after popular ‘70s guitar effects and augmented with a beat-synced LFO (with variable waveforms) and a unique envelope follower function. Results range from classic phasing and flanging to drastic sound manipulation.
• Auto Pan - Offers LFO-driven manipulation of amplitude and panning. It can create everything from automatic panning with various curves to tremolo and amplitude modulation and beat-synchronized chopping effects.
• Saturator - Add dirt, punch or warmth to your sound with five different shapes and a set of powerful tone controls for creating subtle-to-drastic distortion effects.
• Arpeggiator - Offers all the classic arpeggiator applications and more-strum notes like a guitarist, morph velocities and create scale-corrected pitch progressions.

Other new Live 5 features:

• Count-in recording.
• Right-click context menus.
• Change settings in multiple clips at once.
• Resize tracks in Session View.
• VST MIDI effect support.
• New Live Clips sound library.
  New preset library for Live devices.
• New and improved Live 5 lessons.
• Simpler now includes independent envelopes for filter, pitch and more.

Live 5 will be available for 499 EUR/USD (MSRP) from dealers worldwide and from the Ableton webshop. The release is scheduled for late July 2005.

Upgrading from Live 4:

• For customers who purchased Live 4 before May 1, 2005, downloadable upgrades to Live 5 will be available for 119 EUR/USD from the Ableton webshop.
• Boxed upgrades will be available for 149 EUR/USD (MSRP) from dealers worldwide and from the Ableton webshop.

Accommodation for recent buyers of Live 4:

• For customers who purchased Live 4 between May 1, 2005 and May 31, 2005, downloadable upgrades to Live 5 will be available for 49 EUR/USD from the Ableton webshop.
• All customers who unlock Live 4 for the first time from June 1, 2005 until the final release day of Live 5 will receive a version 5 serial number on release day at no charge.

Upgrading from Live 1, 2 and 3:

• Downloadable upgrades from Live 1, 2 or 3 to Live 5 will be available for 169 EUR/USD from the Ableton webshop.
• Boxed upgrades from Live 1, 2 or 3 to Live 5 will be available for 199 EUR/USD from the Ableton webshop.

Beta testing for Live 5 will begin in June. This is an opportunity to get a firsthand look at what Live 5 has to offer. Sign up to receive the Ableton newsletter and keep informed of the latest details.