In this Ableton Live Review, we’ll be looking at my favorite DAW. Live Suite is a complete software studio and includes 17 instruments, 60 audio effects and over 70GB of sounds. In addition you’ll find 16 midi effects as well as Max for Live. This is a great tool to create your own instruments and effects. The Ableton 11 upgrade brings a whole host of new features including MPE support and workflow improvements, which we’ll look at below.
Notable Features
Beyond the standard features you would expect in a DAW, Live has certain aspects which can assist you with writing and production. There’s “Capture MIDI” which I use very frequently. This will create midi clips of what you have just been playing – even when you weren’t recording. So if you like to tinkle on the MIDI piano but don’t want to leave Live recording all the time, you can now save that great sequence you just came up with while experimenting.
Another impressive feature is Live’s warping ability for audio clips. Preserving or altering the timing and pitch of audio is a breeze in Live, and with the advanced parameters it can lead to creative sound design possibilities. With the Suite version of Live, you receive a vast collection of soundpacks and instruments, including a selection from Spitfire Audio such as “String Quartet”. Last of all, Ableton Live now runs natively on Apple silicon with multicore support.
MIDI controllers map quickly and easily with Ableton Live. After hours of fiddling around on other DAWs this is truly a welcome relief. MIDI editing itself now permits you to select multiple MIDI clips at once and edit notes within that view. However, it’s important to know that at the time of writing this Ableton Live Review, it isn’t yet possible to select and move notes from multiple clips simultaneously. You may find Cubase’s MIDI editing more powerful in certain situations.
Support and Tutorials
Writing music with MIDI, synthesizers and acoustic instruments can lead to unique challenges, but Ableton Live makes the process straightforward. The Session View is a flexible way to experiment and get creative, especially when combining loops and ideas. However, this Ableton Live review is based primarily on my experience with the Arrangement View, which will be familiar to users of other DAWs. I work better in this format and appreciate having the choice to use the program either way. The Help menu provides lessons and examples of how to use each of the features. There’s also a useful box in the bottom left which will describe the function of almost anything you hover your mouse over.
Product support is extremely important to me and there is a wealth of resources available through both the Ableton forum as well as the many video tutorials available on their YouTube channel. These provide inspiring and useful ideas with step by step directions.
New in Live 11
With the release of Live 11, there are some significant improvements. Among the most exciting of these are MPE support, comping (multiple takes) and MIDI randomization. This last feature includes “Note Chance” and “Velocity Chance”, which you can use to humanize your MIDI writing. You could even use this to let Ableton Live run wild and generate unexpected results.
A recent development with a great deal of potential is the new app for iOS called Note. You can start ideas in this app and then easily transfer them over to Live to continue working on them. Perhaps as the Note app evolves and receives updates, this will become an even better way to work on ideas on the go or while out of the studio.
As you would expect, there are new devices and new sounds in Live 11. Within the new effects is one named Pitchloop89, which was designed with Robert Henke and took its inspiration from the Publison DHM 89. The last time we checked, the original hardware analog device was for sale at around $2,500. That would make Pitchloop89 a rather affordable alternative! Essentially the plugin is a pitch shifting delay and is excellent for experimentation. There are a wide range of parameters and routing to create unusual sounds from drones to intricate feedbacks and delays.
Conclusion
We hope you’ve found our Ableton Live review helpful. Remember, you can find a handy comparison table for the different versions of Ableton Live here: https://www.ableton.com/en/live/compare-editions. Note that Max for Live only comes with the Suite version of Live, not the Intro or Standard versions. If you own any previous version of Ableton Live, be sure to check your Ableton 11 upgrade price. Also be aware that there may be deals from time to time, especially around Black Friday. Lastly, Ableton currently offers a 90 day free trial of Live Suite, so go ahead and give it a test drive!
To join the discussion on Ableton Live and Push, check out https://musiclibraryreport.com/forums/topic/ableton-live-9-and-push/.
Article updated March 4, 2023.
Article written by Mercer Lincoln.
I’ve had Live 8 sitting on my PC for several weeks waiting for me to have enough time to mess with it (hopefully this week I’ll get the chance). I’ve briefly used Ableton before and I’ve found that working in Session View provides a different way to approach my arranging skills. Live 8 should be just as cool.