The forthcoming Ableton Live 9 contains an enhanced set of audio effect devices for mixing and mastering. We sat down with Daniel Büttner, the head of our Sound Team, to discuss the improvements to these new devices, and how they came to be.

What is the ultimate goal of these new devices in Live 9? In what scenario do you think they are best used?

The ultimate goal is to help musicians and producers get great sound out of Live more quickly. That's it. EQ and Compressor are some of the most often used devices, across all genres. We want the new studio effects be the go-to devices for any musician or producer working in Live. They offer precision, great sound and modern visualization while keeping the CPU usage down.

EQ8 has been redesigned – can you talk about the new spectrum and new pop out view?

EQ8 as a precision tool was lacking the interface to make precise adjustments. The breakout view with FFT spectrum display provides more real estate to edit EQ bands conveniently. We also added a few touches like multi-selection for bands and an audition mode that solos the band you're editing. We worked closely with Andrew Simper at Cytomic on Glue Compressor and the new SVF filters in EQ8.