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Effects

There are six new effects plug-ins in Live 8. Multiband Dynamics offers three bands of compression/ expansion, and the results, though not comparable to a top-end processor, are certainly ample for no-nonsense problem solving.

However, the interface is the real stand-out aspect, as it makes it very easy to visualise what's going on. It's also deceptively powerful, thanks to some unusual but useful modes.

Hear the Multiband Dynamics plug-in restore some punch:

If multiband dynamics manipulation seems like overkill, you can use the new Limiter instead, which is another brickwall solution for your main output that will be particularly useful for DJs and live performers. Live's audio engine does unpleasant things if you let your signals stray into the red, so this will keep them under control.

The rest of the new plug-ins are creative tools, including Frequency Shifter, for some ring-modulated goodness; a distortion plug-in named Overdrive that won't replace your Big Muff but still has its uses; and the rather awesome and versatile Vocoder (which is a cross between a vocoder and a talk-box, in many ways).

Listen to Frequency Shifter and Overdrive in action:

The coolest of the bunch has to be Looper, which is a phrase sampler, the likes of which guitarists have been using for years, but with the added bonus of automatic loop calculation and retriggering. This is an absolutely amazing live tool, as well as a compositional aid, and is our favourite new Live plug-in by far.

Instruments

Although you don't get them as standard with Live 8 (unless you buy the Suite), the updates to the Live instruments are part and parcel of the version update.

For a start, Operator has a load of new filter types (for a total of 14) and, even more excitingly, the facility to draw in your own waveform, which will no doubt delight intrepid sonic explorers. On the sampled instrument side of things, there's now Latin Percussion to complement Drum Machine and Session Drums.

Most fascinating of all, though, is Collision. Brought to us by AAS – the same third-party partner that created Analog, Electric and Tension – this synth uses physical modelling to recreate the sound of percussive instruments, such as xylophones and glockenspiels. You also get the resonator section of Collision as an independent effects plug-in, named Corpus. This can be used to generate modelled resonance patterns on any sound you like. It's unconventional, yes, but very cool when you get it right with an off-the-wall source.

And that's about it for Suite additions, apart from the ever-growing sound and preset library. In truth, we don't think the library is quite good enough to be your only sound source, but it's still pretty good, albeit not as radically changed from version 7 as pre-release marketing suggested.

And whether it's in the range and quality of sounds (Zero-G and Cycling '74 count themselves amongst the contributors), or the carefully crafted presets, with all of the main controls pre-mapped via macros, nobody could deny Ableton's comprehensive approach.

Summary

Little tweaks and additions notwithstanding, that, ladies and gentlemen, is Live 8. It's the biggest overhaul in years.

Buying into the Live experience is still a touch daunting, due to the ever-bulging Ableton product line. The standard edition of Live has the exact same functionality as the version in the full-on Suite bundle, but lacks most of the extra instruments and vast audio library.

If you produce music for media, or don't have many instruments already, then Suite offers a massive saving over buying the component elements separately, these being the Essential Instrument Collection, Sampler, Operator, Drum Machines, Session Drums, Analog, Electric, Tension, Latin Percussion, World Class Library and Collision.

If you use Live for DJing or producing albums, or if you tend to make music in one specific genre and already have decent software instruments, then we'd suggest giving Suite a miss. Instruments like Sampler, Operator and Drum Machines are great for almost any type of electronic music, but they're not vital, and you can always buy them separately later on.

We haven't even had time to talk properly about forthcoming Live 8-requiring products, like Max For Live (for designing your own devices) and Akai's APC-40 (the best Live controller we've ever tried). While these are optional extras, they're bound to make Live an even more appealing platform.

Live 8 isn't perfect, though. Some of the new features haven't been implemented as well as they could've, and there are things we'd still like to see (multi-screen support, for example). We've also been experiencing more crashes and audio glitches than with previous versions when adding plug-ins (though not when performing with a pre-prepared set, which is the main thing). Hopefully, this will be resolved with an update.

Ultimately, none of this takes away from what is an awesome leap forward in terms of both features and workflow. File this under 'essential upgrade' and start saving those pennies.