MusicRadar

Ableton Live 8 is expected in the spring

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Ableton hit the NAMM show hard this year, blitzing the world's music-making press with product announcements left, right and centre.

The most significant of these, of course, was Live 8: the latest update to Ableton's DAW and the first since Live 7 was released in November 2007.

Six weeks later, and with the new version slated for release some time in the second quarter, Ableton is busily beta-testing its new baby – with the help of the eager Live community and (after getting our hands on a beta version) MusicRadar.

Live 8 promises a plethora of new features – some of which look very tasty indeed – so here, then, are our first impressions of the best of the new stuff.

New warping engine

This one's a biggie. The new warping engine enables you to create warp markers assigned to a specific point in an audio file, meaning you can warp within a single clip by dragging the markers forward or backward. Warping is aided by Live 8's new transient analysis, which scoots through each clip and identifies transients automatically – you can then get warp markers to snap to the nearest transient without having to zoom right in and do it manually. Ideal for plenty of applications, but we found it particularly useful for getting vocal samples in time.

Groove templates

Live 8's groove engine lets you assign preset grooves (you can make your own, too) to both MIDI and audio clips. A groove can be applied subtly or rigidly, and you can randomise, adjust velocity and more. We haven't yet pushed the groove engine to its limits, but we got some decent results from applying a drum groove to a synth bassline to get a super-tight lock-in. It's undoubtedly a powerful tool, and while the number of controls makes it seem slightly fiddly by Ableton standards, it's a fair trade-off for the amount of control over the groove you're offered.

Crossfades

At last, the new version of Live will offer audio crossfade functionality – an essential feature if you want to do more 'traditional' audio editing. It's been implemented well here – crossfades have multiple 'handles' (see the red lines above) which offer huge flexibility without over-complicating things.

Overdrive

A small, simple addition but a very welcome one. Thanks to Overdrive's Bandpass display, a surprising range of sounds can be coaxed from this little device, and in combination with the dry/wet control (not something you usually find on an overdrive unit), it works wonders for beefing up drum parts.

Multiband Dynamics

MusicRadar's favourite addition is probably Live 8's new three-band compressor/expander, dubbed Multiband Dynamics. True to its usual ethic, Ableton has made the device surprisingly simple to use (a plus for what is usually seen as a fairly complicated processor), and after just a couple of minutes our mix was pumping twice as hard. Multiband Dynamics really comes into its own at the bass end of the spectrum – believe us, once you try it on a drum sound, you won't go back…

MIDI editor

Live 8 has a revamped MIDI editor, with the most significant feature being a step record mode. With the 'insert marker' in position, arrow key input moves the marker to the next beat division, recording any keys you're playing in the process at each step. We found it a quicker alternative to simply clicking notes in for parts with even note length, such as arpeggiated synths and busy drum parts.

Group tracks

Grouping tracks is obviously useful for mixing – but we found the best use of the new feature was to launch groups of clips at the same time. Very handy if you're playing live.

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