The Live Concept
Live offers two main views—the Session View and the Arrangement View—that interact in a powerful and unique way, allowing you to create, produce and perform your music all in a single application. Here is the principle behind each view:
Live's unique Session View acts as a powerful musical sketch and launch pad, allowing you to try out new ideas easily and improvise freely. Each cell in the Session View grid can hold a recording, MIDI file, or any other musical idea. These ideas can be recorded on the fly or dragged in from the Browser and played in any order and at any time you wish.
The Arrangement View offers a timeline-based approach for traditional multitrack recording, MIDI sequencing and other music production tasks. You can even improvise in the Session View, and all of your actions will be recorded into the Arrangement View, where they can be edited whenever you like.
What's New in 7
Ableton Live 7 renews the core of Live, with enhancements to the audio engine including 64-bit mix summing, new and improved devices with side-chaining capability, better MIDI timing, and hardware integration. We have also included the most-requested features, such as time signature changes, video export, multiple automation lanes and much more. Version 7 marks the arrival of the new "Drum Rack" which streamlines beat production via an easy drag-and-drop interface and offers native sliced audio and REX file support, bringing endless creative possibilities to beat lovers.
Enhanced Audio Engine
Live 7's enhanced audio engine improves fidelity with precision 64-bit summing at all mix points throughout the program, POW-r dithering, optimized sample-rate conversion and other advances.
New Compressor
The new compressor device integrates the compression models of Compressor I and II, and offers a new model based on a feedback design commonly found in the most praised vintage compressors.
Sidechaining
Fully integrated side-chaining capability is available for the new Compressor as well as Gate and Auto Filter.
Device High-Quality Modes
Operator, Dynamic Tube and Saturator now feature optional High-Quality modes for anti-aliased processing, reducing typical "digital" artifacts.
EQ Eight—New and Improved
EQ Eight sports an improved user interface and a new 64-bit mode for increased accuracy and fidelity.
Introducing Spectrum
The new Spectrum device is an analyzer that provides real-time visual feedback for any audio signals within Live (and it looks really cool!).
Improved MIDI Timing
The MIDI engine has been reworked, and we were able to significantly reduce timing error (jitter) of recorded MIDI.
Easy Hardware Integration
Hardware integration has been streamlined with the addition of two new devices—External Instrument and External Audio Effect—allowing hardware synthesizers and effects to be inserted into device chains just like software plug-ins.
Enhanced Memory Management
New memory management technology allows users of large sample libraries, such as Ableton's new sampled instruments or third-party libraries imported via Sampler, to run an impressive number of instruments at the same time. This happens automatically, with no setup changes required.
Time Signature Changes
Live 7 allows the use of multiple time signatures within a single Live Set in the Arrangement View timeline and Session View scenes.
Video Export
Video that has been edited or warped in Live can be exported to a new file.
Easier Automation
Multiple automation lanes per track can be displayed and edited at the same time.
Tempo Nudge
A new "tempo nudge" function makes it easier to synchronize to live musicians or DJs.
REX Support
REX files can be dragged, dropped and played just like WAV or AIFF files.
Many Other Important Improvements
Live, Operator and Sampler have received many important improvements and additions based on user requests.
Introducing the New Drum Rack
The new "Drum Rack" streamlines beat production via an easy drag-and-drop interface and brings endless creative possibilities.
Easy Interface
A familiar drum pad interface allows dragging and dropping of samples, instruments and effects. Each pad has its own device chain and can be shown as a mixer channel in the Session View. Each Drum Rack also has its own sends, returns and sub-mixes.
Slice and Dice
The slicing feature fills a Drum Rack with the individual hits from REX or audio loops. The original sequence is represented as a MIDI clip, making it easy to replace, reshuffle or re-record the events and process them individually.
system Requirements:
Mac: Any G4 or faster, (Intel Mac recommended) 512 MB RAM (1 GB recommended), Mac OS X 10.3.9 (10.4 or later recommended), QuickTime 6.5 or higher, DVD-ROM drive
Windows: 1.5 GHz CPU or faster, 512 MB RAM (1 GB recommended), Windows XP or Windows Vista, Windows compatible sound card (ASIO driver support recommended), QuickTime 6.5 or higher, DVD-ROM drive
