Musikmesse 2009Ableton releases Live 8 and Suite 8

Ableton has announced that Live 8 and Ableton Suite 8 are out now. Two new instruments, Collision and Latin Percussion are also available; both are included in Ableton Suite 8.

Live 8 and Suite 8 enhance the Ableton vision of creative, real-time digital music with a wealth of new techniques, effects and most-wanted workflow improvements. These include a new groove engine, revamped warping techniques, live looping, five new effects (including the Ableton Vocoder), crossfades in the Arrangement View, group tracks and a reworked MIDI editor. Ableton Suite 8 includes all that plus a massive sound library and all the instruments a musician could hope for, including a wide range of synths, a sampler, electric and acoustic drums (new: Latin percussion), mallets (new: Collision), numerous sampled instruments and a new, even mightier, Operator.

New in Ableton Live 8:

• New groove engine: new groove library, extract grooves from audio or MIDI, real-time groove quantize. Includes grooves from the legendary Akai MPC and E-mu SP-1200 machines.
• New warping engine: warp audio events by adjusting the events on the timeline, updated Beats Warp Mode, new Complex Warp Mode, slice audio files to MIDI tracks based on transients.
• Looper: classic sound-on-sound looping without the limitations of a hardware device. Record, overdub, undo and more without touching the computer. "First loop sync," simple loop management.
• New effects: Vocoder, Multiband Dynamics, Overdrive, Limiter and Frequency Shifter.
• Workflow enhancements: including real-time crossfades in the Arrangement View, enhanced MIDI editing, group tracks, multiple track selection, a screen magnifier and more.

New in Ableton Suite 8:

• "World-class" sound library: completely new sound library with real-world "Sound Objects," presets, grooves, templates and, above all, over 1,600 beautiful sounds.
• Collision and Corpus: a unique physical-modeling instrument for authentic mallet sounds and creative percussion. Includes Corpus, a separate effect that reproduces Collision's resonator section*.
• Latin Percussion: a collection of acoustic percussion instruments from the worlds of Brazilian, Afro-Cuban and African music, plus a wide selection of clips and grooves for authentic usage.
• Operator, Ableton's renowned do-it-all synthesizer, has been given a major overhaul. New filter types, more modulation routing options and additive wavetable synthesis with drawable partials make Operator more powerful and flexible than ever.
• Plus these existing Ableton instruments: Sampler, Electric, Tension, Analog, Drum Machines, Session Drums** and the Essential Instrument Collection 2**.

*Collision and Latin Percussion are also available separately.
**Boxed version only.

Pricing & Availability

Ableton Live 8 and Suite 8 are available today from your local retailer and at www.ableton.com.

Ableton Suite 8:

• Boxed version: €699 / $849 (includes Ableton Live 8, sound library, 10 Ableton instruments including Session Drums and Essential Instrument Collection 2, printed manual).
• Download version: €549 / $699 (includes Ableton Live 8, sound library, 8 Ableton instruments).

Ableton Live 8:

• Boxed version: €449 / $549 (includes the Essential Instrument Collection 2, printed manual).
• Download version: €349 / $449.

Upgrades:

• Upgrades to Suite 8 / Live 8 vary in price, depending on the Ableton products you already own. More details here.

Collision: €129 / $159.

Latin Percussion: €79 / $99.