Ableton Live 9 announced

[nickman]

They've addressed the suite pricing issue with a sticky on their forums:

Existing Suite 8 owners will be offered an exclusive introductory discount on upgrades to Live 9 Suite, to be made available upon release. This introductory discount is not yet shown on the website, as Live 9 Suite is not yet available. We apologize for any confusion or frustration from our oversight in not making this discount clear on ableton.com, and ask for your patience as we iron out the kinks in our new site.

Good news - but badly handled launch all round.

Maybe it was brought forward by the inadvertent YouTube leak?

First thing I heard if it was a tweet from Cycle 74 congratulating me on the M4L upgrade...

As a Suite 8 and M4L owner, Ableton should have emailed me first - explaining clearly their plans

Instead we've had three hours of total confusion!

It now looks like the "best price" upgrade for Suite owners is a nonsense - it would have been cheaper to downgrade (but not allowed) and then re-upgrade!

So someone like me who has bought Suite 8 and M4L in the last 12 months shouldn't have to pay more than 150 eur for an upgrade to Suite 9 and bundled M4L - say 100 for Suite and 50 for Max

Ideally the upgrade should be 100 - it was about 70 for the ver 7 to 8 upgrade

But a 250/200 (with M4L) Euro upgrade just goes down as a straight shafting for the previous customers who've given them the most money! - glad they seem to be fixing it..

... now about that PDC...?

[pdxindy]

Anyone who uses live, can you tell me what it's like on comparison to a linear DAW?

I am very happy with Cubase as a linear DAW, but really curious to work with clips and loops this way and launch them. The included effects and everything else look really neat too.

Can you tell me how live feels to use it everyday work? Does it really help inspiration or does it get in the way?

So many who produce dance use Ableton, it seems the right tool for the job.

Sami

Depends on what you do for every day work...

For composition, Live is excellent... It is a very creative tool that is fun, fluid and powerful...

[SWAN808]

I have called with the support in Berlin :

The support say that the Boxed and Download Version of Live 9 would be the same GB of sounds. That is also a new feature of the 9

ah so DEFINITELY not worth upgrading to the Live 8 suite (Download) to get Session Drums...I trust then Session Drums will be available in Live 9 Suite as Download?

[pdxindy]

Ok, now this is really odd pricing ... If someone owns Live 8 now, they can upgrade to Suite 8 now for 164 euros, and get Suite 9 for free upon release.

And if you (like me) own suite 8, then it seems the only option is to upgrade for 249 euros when its released. You've got to be kidding me. This has to be a mistake.

Yes, you are unlucky if you already have Live 8 Suite... Existing suite users get the worst deal

[justin3am]

I'm pretty stoked by this announcement. Lots of features that I've been looking forward to and I can't wait to try out the Push controller (it will probably replace my APC40, as I hate the placement of the faders).

That said, I'm a hopeless Ableton fanboy. I'll pay whatever, just gimme the new shiny.

[Echoes in the Attic]

Ok, now this is really odd pricing ... If someone owns Live 8 now, they can upgrade to Suite 8 now for 164 euros, and get Suite 9 for free upon release.

And if you (like me) own suite 8, then it seems the only option is to upgrade for 249 euros when its released. You've got to be kidding me. This has to be a mistake.

Yes, you are unlucky if you already have Live 8 Suite... Existing suite users get the worst deal

This is not known yet. This is exactly what they just clarified. Pricing for existing suite owners apparently will be posted upon release. It's strange, given that there are already personal upgrade prices shown when you're signed in, but this is Ableton's direct quote:

"Existing Suite 8 owners will be offered an exclusive introductory discount on upgrades to Live 9 Suite, to be made available upon release. This introductory discount is not yet shown on the website, as Live 9 Suite is not yet available."

[JoeCat]

Anyone who uses live, can you tell me what it's like on comparison to a linear DAW?

I am very happy with Cubase as a linear DAW, but really curious to work with clips and loops this way and launch them. The included effects and everything else look really neat too.

Can you tell me how live feels to use it everyday work? Does it really help inspiration or does it get in the way?

So many who produce dance use Ableton, it seems the right tool for the job.

Sami

IMHO it works just fine as a linear DAW (I'm coming from Logic), though like all DAWs it's got its quicks. You can certainly spend all your time in arrange view.

However, with clip automation and curves, they've filled a big gap in the workflow. I was surprised that, given Live's focus, you could not tweak your knobs in session view - automation was largely relegated to the arrangement view, and even drawing in clips was hampered by lack of curves.

Pricing SNAFU: I'm giving Ableton the benefit of the doubt in sorting this out. While their pricing's never been cheap (and sometimes far removed from value - witness Amp), so far I've never perceived them as treating their customers unfairly or flippantly, especially with regards to upgrades.

[nickman]

Ok, now this is really odd pricing ... If someone owns Live 8 now, they can upgrade to Suite 8 now for 164 euros, and get Suite 9 for free upon release.

And if you (like me) own suite 8, then it seems the only option is to upgrade for 249 euros when its released. You've got to be kidding me. This has to be a mistake.

Yes, you are unlucky if you already have Live 8 Suite... Existing suite users get the worst deal

Yes, the difference between Live 8 and Suite 8 is about 100 euros - so Live 8 owners have an upgrade cost of Suite 8 to Suite 9 of effectively 64 euros but an existing Suite 8 owner has to pay 249 euros to get Suite 9.. WTF?

This hasn't been thought through... by that logic, Suite owners shouldn't be charged more than 64 euro

I've had enough - they can come back when they've thought it out properly...

[pdxindy]

Ok, now this is really odd pricing ... If someone owns Live 8 now, they can upgrade to Suite 8 now for 164 euros, and get Suite 9 for free upon release.

And if you (like me) own suite 8, then it seems the only option is to upgrade for 249 euros when its released. You've got to be kidding me. This has to be a mistake.

Yes, you are unlucky if you already have Live 8 Suite... Existing suite users get the worst deal

This is not known yet. This is exactly what they just clarified. Pricing for existing suite owners apparently will be posted upon release. It's strange, given that there are already personal upgrade prices shown when you're signed in, but this is Ableton's direct quote:

"Existing Suite 8 owners will be offered an exclusive introductory discount on upgrades to Live 9 Suite, to be made available upon release. This introductory discount is not yet shown on the website, as Live 9 Suite is not yet available."

Yup... good enough for me... I'll be upgrading to 9 Suite at whatever that introductory discount is... there are enough new core features to make me purchase...

session automation being the biggest one... that and the mention that it is all around faster due to the re-write (if true) is almost enough right there! Add in the automation curves and I'm in All the rest is gravy

[pdxindy]

I'm pretty stoked by this announcement. Lots of features that I've been looking forward to and I can't wait to try out the Push controller (it will probably replace my APC40, as I hate the placement of the faders).

That said, I'm a hopeless Ableton fanboy. I'll pay whatever, just gimme the new shiny.

hehe... I'm pretty stoked too...

[headquest]

I'm pretty stoked by this announcement. Lots of features that I've been looking forward to and I can't wait to try out the Push controller (it will probably replace my APC40, as I hate the placement of the faders).

That said, I'm a hopeless Ableton fanboy. I'll pay whatever, just gimme the new shiny.

hehe... I'm pretty stoked too...

+1 same here

[Kaboom75]

You can upgrade Live 8 standard to Push + Live 9 Standard.

598 euros thats £498 in pounds.

Log into your Ableton account and it shows the upgrage options.

[whyterabbyt]

They've addressed the suite pricing issue with a sticky on their forums:

Existing Suite 8 owners will be offered an exclusive introductory discount on upgrades to Live 9 Suite, to be made available upon release. This introductory discount is not yet shown on the website, as Live 9 Suite is not yet available. We apologize for any confusion or frustration from our oversight in not making this discount clear on ableton.com, and ask for your patience as we iron out the kinks in our new site.

better, albeit still a bit nebulous, news, but seriously stupid way of doing things; they offer a 'custom upgrade price dependent on what you own' which it turns out isnt actually an upgrade price dependent on what we own. FFS, again.

so what they're saying is that we wont know if we're getting a decent upgrade price for Suite 8->Suite 9 for 3 or 4 months?? and meanwhile the misleadinglt higher 'best upgrade offer' price is still on the website? huh?

any comment from them on the 8 Suite -> 9 Standard 'downgrade' option we're seeing?

[SLiC]

They've addressed the suite pricing issue with a sticky on their forums:

Existing Suite 8 owners will be offered an exclusive introductory discount on upgrades to Live 9 Suite, to be made available upon release. This introductory discount is not yet shown on the website, as Live 9 Suite is not yet available. We apologize for any confusion or frustration from our oversight in not making this discount clear on ableton.com, and ask for your patience as we iron out the kinks in our new site.

better, albeit still a bit nebulous, news, but seriously stupid way of doing things; they offer a 'custom upgrade price dependent on what you own' which it turns out isnt actually an upgrade price dependent on what we own. FFS, again.

so what they're saying is that we wont know if we're getting a decent upgrade price for Suite 8->Suite 9 for 3 or 4 months?? and meanwhile the misleadinglt higher 'best upgrade offer' price is still on the website? huh?

any comment from them on the 8 Suite -> 9 Standard 'downgrade' option we're seeing?

I think it says bat is for a new (second) licence rather than for converting/ upgrading your existing licence?

Anyway, the Abes have put their hands up. The pricing (or wording) is wrong, The new site isn't working as it should (it's actually full of errors/problems such as no link to he forum and blind links). I suspect someone will be pulling an all-nighter

[wantoo]

If anyone like me has just purchased 8 suite (literally this past weekend), I called this morning and was told that I would qualify for the free upgrade to 9... He said anyone that has purchased in the past month if I understood correctly would have this upgrade available for free.