Ableton Live 8 Upgrade from Live Lite

Live 8 by 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.

Non-Linear Music Composition Will Spark Your Imagination
Live operates in two basic views: Session and Arrange. Arrange view is the standard, timeline-based view you'll find in any multitrack recording software or DAW. Where Live is truly different--and where it will revolutionize the way you think about composition--is the Session view. Live looks at music in segments called clips. Clips can be any length, from an entire song or a verse or a four-bar figure. From session view you're able to launch any clip in your project at any time and in perfect synch with what's already playing. You don't even have to stop playback while creating new clips, or parts. You'll be generating themes, rhythmic variations, counterpoints, harmonies, and melodic ideas and developments faster than ever before. Freed from a timeline approach to composition, you don't even have think about where in the ultimate composition your germinating idea will end up. It could be an intro, a chorus, a verse, or any sonic idea that sparks your creativity. It's not hard to see how this method of creation will facilitate remixing as well, and how Session view makes Ableton Live such a sophisticated performance tool. They don't call it "Live" for nothing.

Advanced Support For Your Favorite VST And AudioUnit Pulg-ins
Lest you think Live is designed for only electronic music or live remixing, think again. Live supports all your favorite VST and AudioUnit plug-ins which can be applied to MIDI as well as Audio clips. Live also features deep MIDI automation over plug-ins that's easier to edit and access than on most DAWs. Anything a traditional multitrack recording platform can do, Live can do too, only with more flexibility.

In-Line Help And Info
While Ableton Live is a deep and sophisticated program, anyone can quickly scale its learning curve, thanks to a couple of built-in support and training features. The Info Box is a dedicated window that provides instant feedback on whatever button or display your mouse cursor is hovering over, a boon to anyone who likes to dive headfirst into a new program. For the more linear training approach, Live offers an extensive help function with a number of tutorials to help familiarize you with the main features and functions of Live.

Near Universal Hardware Support
Support for just about every audio interface and hardware controller on the market makes the switch to Live even easier. If you're in love with the sound of your FireWire interface, keep it. If your workflow is tied to a certain controller, no need to switch. The intuitive mapping and learning functions within Live mean you'll not only be able to hang on to your beloved hardware, but you'll probably get even more use out of it. Plus, there's an ever-growing selection of controllers being made exclusively for use with Live that'll improve your studio and composition workflow and give you even deeper tactile control over effects and mixing functions on stage.