Live 8 from Ableton is music production software that provides the ability to spontaneously compose, record, remix, improvise and edit musical ideas in a seamless audio/MIDI environment. The software integrates loop-based and linear production methods, includes unique virtual instruments and effects and presents them together in a single interface.
Enhancements to Live 8 include a Groove Engine that can apply groove patterns in real time, extract grooves from audio or MIDI sources, quantize audio and MIDI in real time, and also comes with a new groove library. Warp Mode has been enhanced to allow adjusting the events themselves directly on the timeline. An integrated Looper delivers classic tape style sound-on-sound looping with one-touch operation. An optional footswitch allows for remote operation of the module. Multiple Loopers can run simultaneously without any synchronization issues.
Live 8 includes 5 new effects - Vocoder, Multiband Dynamics, Overdrive, Limiter and Frequency Shifter. Workflow enhancements include real-time crossfades in the Arrangement view, a MIDI editor that features step recording and editing improvements, and track grouping, among many other workflow improvements.
- Multi-track recording up to 32-bit/192kHz
- Complete nondestructive editing with unlimited undo
- Powerful and creative MIDI sequencing of software and hardware instruments
- Real-time time-stretching and warping of AIFF, WAV, Ogg Vorbis, FLAC and MP3 files, for improvisation and instant remixing
- Provides the ability to "Freeze" tracks to conserve CPU resources. The tracks can still be edited while frozen, including automation, cut, copy, paste, duplicate and trim
- A comprehensive selection of built-in audio effects, including a host of creative delays, filters, distortions, studio compressors and EQs
- Groove patterns can be applied to any audio or MIDI clips in real time. Change the feel of the whole piece or just selected clips
- Extract groove patterns from any audio or MIDI source to build a custom groove library from favorite tracks
- Intuitive warping allows for adjusting events on the timeline instead of stretching and squeezing the timeline around the events
- Live analyzes and assigns handles to the transients in audio files automatically
- Looper brings the creative power of classic, tape based sound-on-sound looping
- Provides instrument, drum and effect racks for creating and managing complex performance setups, drum kits and multi-effects
- VST and Audio Units effects and instruments support plus automatic plug-in delay compensation
- REX file support and native sliced audio file creation
- Video import and export for scoring to picture or warping picture to music
- Real-time control of parameters with any MIDI controller
- Full ReWire support
- Multi-core and multi-processor support
- Multi-gigabyte library of meticulously sampled and selected instruments created in cooperation with SONiVOX and Chocolate Audio
- Offers a choice selection of acoustic and electric pianos, guitars, bass, drums, orchestral strings, brass, woodwinds and more
- All instruments are meticulously multi-sampled in a variety of velocities and articulations
- All instruments are perfectly integrated into Ableton Live's workflow
- All instruments take advantage of SmartPriming, a resource-efficient sample engine, allowing users to work with an impressive number of instruments by off-loading unused samples in a particular instrument
- Each instrument includes both a version for high-quality production and a version for CPU conservation