Ableton has been on the forefront of developing innovative technology for today’s electronic musicians and producers since its conception in 2001. Its flagship Live software was originally developed by a team including esteemed sound artist Robert Henke (aka Monolake), and it quickly became the ideal digital audio workstation for those seeking to integrate innovative sound design into loop-based compositions. Ableton announced the ninth version of Live last October, along with a cutting-edge ‘instrument’ called Push, Ableton’s first foray into hardware. After a long beta testing period, both Live 9 and Push are finally available to the public. Last Tuesday, Live gurus Ben Cantil (aka Encanti) of the Zebbler Encanti Experience and Loudon Stearns of Berklee College of Music’s Contemporary Writing and Production department demonstrated features of each to an open session at Mmmmaven.

Encanti dominated the first half hour, showing off all the new features in Live 9. He called the updated program “a game changer,” and quickly proved that this was not an overstatement. An updated layout which includes a two-column browser system makes navigation of sounds, instruments, and presets much cleaner, and Live now has a built-in SSL-style compresser called The Glue, developed in tandem with Cytomic. The Glue is essentially the same plug-in as Cytomic’s third-party plug-in of the same name, just reconfigured with a new GUI and native to Live. Live’s EQ Eight now contains an embedded spectrum, making those hard-to-tame frequencies easy to find and eliminate, and expands into a large pullout view similar to the Spectrum in previous versions. The compressor now has three views; the first is the standard transfer view available in all previous editions of Live’s compressor, where one can easily adjust the knee. The second is a collapsed view that displays the main controls only (imagine an Ableton version of Waves’ Renaissance Compressor), and the third is an advanced activity view which displays, in real time, the amount of compression being applied to the audio, much like Fabfilter’s Pro-C plug-in.

One can now record automation directly into clips, something that was previously possible only by manually adjusting envelopes within the clip. Live now features automation curves, allowing for more expressive, dynamic automation, or, as Encanti put it, to “hit those sweet spots.” Also new in Live 9 is a feature that lets users set back-to-automation settings for individual tracks. In previous versions of live one could only go back-to-automation for the entire session as a whole. The most impressive features, however, have to be the new convert to MIDI options. Live can now analyze a piece of audio and convert either the harmony, melody, or drum pattern to MIDI information. Encanti put the convert-to-harmony and convert-to-melody features to the test with a Japanese club track that sported massive synth pads multiple octaves in range. When converting the harmony of the song, a few odd notes were rendered (Encanti jokingly referred to this as ‘jazz’), but mostly the MIDI representation was surprisingly accurate. With a simple scale MIDI effect and a few quick adjustments, the data sounded super clean. This feature will surely usher in a new era in resampling; now producers with little to no formal music training can sample the chords progressions from songs they love without figuring it out on an instrument or sampling the track itself. The convert-to-melody function is strange because it actually take the lowest notes in the audio, not the melody, and converts them to MIDI. Perhaps a better name for this feature would be convert to bass line or convert to root note. Regardless, the MIDI representation of the audio was spot-on. Finally Encanti demonstrated the convert-to-drums feature, which breaks sounds down into three categories: kick, snare, and hat. Sid Lees, head of Boston’s Ableton Live User Group, was invited to record himself beatboxing into Encanti’s Live session. Live quickly rendered a perfect representation of the beat and automatically loaded the MIDI information onto a new Drum Rack channel. One quick hit of command + U (quantize) and the beat was ready to be used for production. This feature will be immensely handy for IDM producers, allowing them to virtually bypass complex drum programming with a bit of beatboxing skill, or anyone looking for an quick, efficient way to sketch some grooves for their next production.

After Encanti’s half-hour of mind-blowing, Loudon Stearns took the stage to demonstrate Ableton’s new Push device. It is a very interesting piece of equipment, mainly because despite looking like a controller, Ableton is marketing it as an instrument. Mr. Stearns said at first he was skeptical about the statement, but after using it for some weeks he now empathizes with the company’s initiative. The Push is compliant with Live and works immediately, no drivers needed. Unlike a conventional MIDI controller like the APC or Launchpad, the Push is designed more for producers than performers, giving them a hands-free approach to writing and coming up with ideas. Virtually any button, knob, or fader in Live is accessible somehow on the Push, and it seems that Ableton’s ultimate goal with the instrument is for users to not have to look at their Live session at all to create music. Mr. Stearns demonstrated many features of the push, but some highlights included a step-sequencer and drum machine view makes writing drum loops quick and interactive, and another view that allows users to play the Push like a kind of keyboard instrument. This setting include all sorts of modes and strange Western scales, or, for the daring, a chromatic mode. With some practice, the Push could be a viable instrument for musicians to jam or even perform with. The pads contain RGB LED’s and are velocity and pressure sensitive, giving it a hybrid APC/MPC feel. An LCD display screen notifies the user exactly what parameters they are controlling at any given time, and a touch strip containing twenty-four LED’s allows users to perform pitch shifts or navigate through a drum rack. All of the knobs on the Push are endless encoded and feel sturdy and playable.

It is truly exciting to see a music technology company creating such forward-thinking products, and Mmmmaven is honored to be the first host of such a demonstration in Boston. For more information on Live 9 and the Push visit Ableton.com. For information on classes and seminars at Mmmmaven please sign up for our email list.