Ableton Live 9 announced

[Mushy Mushy]

Congratulations on the Live 9 Announcement, @Ableton - the new controller looks dope!

[headquest]

It's funny, Ableton haven't even started beta testing yet, and people want to give them money.....bitwig Are beta testing (or so they say) and people say its vapourware !

It could be 5 months to the release of live 9 (end of q3 2013), lots can change in that time.

Um, ableton have been around forever. I tend to trust them and would not even consider this to be vapourware.

Bitwig was announced VERY prematurely.

Ableton have announced an actual release timeframe and did not announce live 9 on a whim to satisfy people's worries of it never coming (which they could have)

they have obviously waited till it's close to being ready.

Yes, the public beta starts on Monday.

Of course we now know the Live version that Bitwig will be competing against. Given that Ableton plan two releases ahead, give or take the odd feature, much of what we see here was planned in Ableton HQ four years ago during the Live 7 release phase. The Bitwig guys left after 8, so there's probably no surprises from their point of view, although I wonder if the audio to MIDI conversion is a recent innovation that has been bumped up the timeframe.

When you consider all the above, to me Bitwig looks even less innovative as a developer...

Either way, Live 9 Suite, including Max 4 Live, and the Push controller all adds up to a very mature product range, This time a year from you now we're going to be seeing Push everywhere .... potentially even a NI Maschine killer....

Certainly I admire the Bitwig guys for having a go, but I wonder how they really hope to take on Ableton (clearly their target...) given it is a product with well over a millioin users, training centres and user groups worldwide, hardware devices to die for, etc. Ableton's future ongoing dominance in their niche looks pretty secure right now ....

[Shabdahbriah]

... Certainly I admire the Bitwig guys for having a go, but I wonder how they really hope to take on Ableton (clearly their target...) given it is a product with well over a millioin users, training centres and user groups worldwide, hardware devices to die for, etc. Ableton's future ongoing dominance in their niche looks pretty secure right now ....

Perhaps by using a "Reaper" use/pricing model?

[headquest]

... Certainly I admire the Bitwig guys for having a go, but I wonder how they really hope to take on Ableton (clearly their target...) given it is a product with well over a millioin users, training centres and user groups worldwide, hardware devices to die for, etc. Ableton's future ongoing dominance in their niche looks pretty secure right now ....

Perhaps by using a "Reaper" use/pricing model?

Reaper hasn't exactly brought down AVID, Steinberg, Apple etc though has it? They still dominate, Reaper is still largely ignored in the Pro world, the media, etc. I get the impression that even many of its old advocates have moved on to other more prominent alternatives.

In any case, the rumoured prices for Bitwig are not far short of the price of Ableton, so I don't think they are deliberately opting for the "Poor Man's Ableton" epitaph just yet

[sl1914]

The Bitwig guys left after 8, so there's probably no surprises from their point of view, although I wonder if the audio to MIDI conversion is a recent innovation that has been bumped up the timeframe.

Well, audio to MIDI has been possible using VSTs for many years. Don't know if Live9 can do it better than what we've seen so far. Seemed to work well in the Live9 preview video.

[masstronaut]

Ableton's future ongoing dominance in their niche looks pretty secure right now ....

If they can work out how to actually sell their stuff at the correct prices.

They've supposedly just fixed a bug that meant the base price for upgrading to Suite 8 was set too low, but the upgrade prices still seem to make little sense even where an upgrade to Suite 8 isn't involved.

[masstronaut]

Seemed to work well in the Live9 preview video.

Funny that.

[pdxindy]

haven't read the whole thread, and i hate to spoil a good argument, but they say they'll announce the unannounced upgrade process at launch: https://forum.ableton.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=185933 "Existing Suite 8 owners will be offered an exclusive introductory discount on upgrades to Live 9 Suite, to be made available upon release."

BUT as others have pointed out, what is the logic of announcing SOME upgrade prices now and not others, and how can we decide whether to take advantage of a different offer now if we don't know the future price? This approach is a marketing fiasco....

Nobody ever knows the future... You might buy a synth a one price today and tomorrow they offer some special... That is how it always is...

Someone CAN purchase Suite 8 now... Nobody can purchase 9 yet...

Ableton said they would give Suite users a deal when 9 is actually available...

[pdxindy]

To answer my own question, the contents of Live 9 Suite is listed on their comparison page, and since there's no difference between Live 9 Suite Boxed and Download, it makes absolutely no sense for me (or anyone else) to spend an extra $50 now on the boxed version or Suite 8. Anyway, I'm mostly upgrading to get the Max.

the differences are the same as they have always been. 3GB vs lik3 40Gb for the boxed.

you get EIC in the boxed, you get the full drumkits also which are like 30GB of drums.

Can't see anywhere on abe's site where the DL is the same as the boxed.

Starting with Live 9 Suite the download will include everything (50GB or so)

[zerocrossing]

Reaper hasn't exactly brought down AVID...

http://wallstreetpr.com/avid-investors- ... -avid-3730

http://www.nasdaq.com/article/avid-sees ... IrNvMXA_h4

Looks like Avid's going down regardless. Not shocking.

[pwal]

haven't read the whole thread, and i hate to spoil a good argument, but they say they'll announce the unannounced upgrade process at launch: https://forum.ableton.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=185933 "Existing Suite 8 owners will be offered an exclusive introductory discount on upgrades to Live 9 Suite, to be made available upon release."

BUT as others have pointed out, what is the logic of announcing SOME upgrade prices now and not others, and how can we decide whether to take advantage of a different offer now if we don't know the future price? This approach is a marketing fiasco....

furry muff, i'll just be waiting myself

[Synthbuilder]

The upgrade prices have changed. The shop ones that is.

Yesterday I put the upgrade to Suite 8 into my cart. I already have Live 8, operator and sampler so I thought 164 euros seemed quite reasonable. So today I went to buy it and it's gone up to 224 euro with a little note saying 'the price has now changed'.

I think I'll wait until it actually comes out and then decide.

[Mushy Mushy]

The upgrade prices have changed. The shop ones that is.

Yesterday I put the upgrade to Suite 8 into my cart. I already have Live 8, operator and sampler so I thought 164 euros seemed quite reasonable. So today I went to buy it and it's gone up to 224 euro with a little note saying 'the price has now changed'.

I think I'll wait until it actually comes out and then decide.

I suspect the whole thing is completely screwed, and will be revised.
I also recommend anybody who likes their current pricing proposal to take advantage of it ASAP before it's amended upward.

[justin3am]

Reaper hasn't exactly brought down AVID...

http://wallstreetpr.com/avid-investors- ... -avid-3730

http://www.nasdaq.com/article/avid-sees ... IrNvMXA_h4

Looks like Avid's going down regardless. Not shocking.

But it's not because of Reaper... unless that's a nickname for Gary Greenfield.
Man, I've been holding on to that joke for like 3 years.

[sockofgold]

I suspect the whole thing is completely screwed, and will be revised.
I also recommend anybody who likes their current pricing proposal to take advantage of it ASAP before it's amended upward.

Yep, this is more or less par for the course with Ableton. They did this a few months ago too, with a summer sale on upgrade pricing that gave people the upgrade from Standard to Suite for something like 70% off, but only for people who jumped on it immediately. They fixed the price after a few hours, but honored the sales of everyone who purchased in time.

I grabbed my Standard-to-Suite upgrade (with the free upgrade to Suite 9) yesterday for $194 to lock it in. It was a little more money than I intended to spend when I woke up yesterday, but when Ableton publishes a pricing error, you gotta jump on that shit!