Next to the new Live 8 and Suite 8 announcements, Ableton has a few other iniatives lined up for 2009.
– Share: effortless remote collaboration
Share Live Sets with others via the Web using this special feature in Live 8. Ableton’s simple and intelligent solution for online musical collaboration streamlines the sharing process with easy sharing and loading, a simple system of setting access permission, speedy transfers and no issues with external plug-ins and instruments.
– Extend: Max for Live
Max for Live is a new product, co-developed by Ableton and Cycling ’74. Quite simply, it puts the power and potential of Max/MSP inside Live. With Max for Live, it’s possible to create completely new instruments, effects and extensions that go beyond the common and predictable and transcend the limits that conventional tools impose. The possibilities
are virtually endless, from completely unique synths and effects, algorithmic composition tools or radical, new music machines fusing Live and controller hardware. Max for Live is a chance to join a society of makers and share ingenuity.
– Touch: dedicated controllers for Ableton Live
Ableton and Akai Professional are proud to announce the APC40, a new hardware controller specially designed for Ableton Live. The APC40 features high quality controls for real-time mixing, remixing and production. 109 buttons, 16 endless encoders with LED rings, nine 45mm faders and a replaceable crossfader give musicians and producers complete control of Live’s Session View, effect devices and virtual instruments. For anyone in the studio or on stage, DJing, making beats, running backing tracks, firing MIDI loops or triggering sound effects, it’s time to kiss the mouse goodbye.
These three initiatives combine in interesting ways:
Live 8 + Max for Live: Swap extensions, effects and instruments created with Max for Live using the sharing technology in Live 8. So Max for Live owners also get access to any number of additional instruments, effects and extensions created by the Max for Live
community.
Live 8 + Max for Live + APC40: with Max for Live, it’s possible to customize the APC40, turning its Clip Launch Matrix into a step sequencer, for instance. Live 8’s sharing features allow users to share APC40 mods with other APC40 users. And because communication is two-way, this also means access to all the other shared APC40 goodies that the Ableton community has to offer.
Max for Live will be available later this year. Max for Live is a separate product: it is not part of Ableton Live 8 or Ableton Suite 8. No price available yet.
The feature “Share Live Set” is initially included in Ableton Live 8. As the technology develops, Ableton may introduce new models for handling this feature.