Review: Ableton Live 7 music software

An extremely powerful suite for recording, composing and performing

Ableton Live has won many awards and is the field leader in loop-based DAW (digital audio workstation) software.

Version 7 audio output is stunning - fidelity has been improved by redesigning the audio engine for 64-bit mix summing, POW-R (psychoacoustically optimised word length reduction) dithering and optimised sample-rate conversion.

Over time Ableton Live has expanded from the core product into a suite, which now includes three instrument collections, namely Tension (physical modelling string synthesiser), Electric (classic electric piano sounds) and Analogue (vintage analogue synthesisers), two drum collections, session drums and drum machines, a software synthesiser, operator and a software sampler.

Purchasing options allow users a choice of modules. There are quite a number of user requested new features in version 7, including time signature changes within an arrangement, export to file of warped and unwarped video, display and simultaneous edit of multiple automation lanes per track, simpler synchronisation to live musicians or DJs using a new nudge function. REX files can now also be dragged, dropped and played just like WAV or AIFF files.

A new compressor device has been added which features side-chaining capability and allows a choice of three compression models, one of which is based on the feedback design found in classic studio compressors.

Possibly because of its use of minimalist graphics, Ableton Live has always been quite lean and mean and the download of version 7 is still only 78.2MB, expanding to around 120MB on installation.

Installation requires the entry of a serial number followed by an unlocking process - completed online, via email or telephone challenge and response system.

Following installation Ableton displays a Lessons view in a vertical panel. The Lessons panel in Version 6 carries lots of information in small text. In version 7 this has been simplified and split into five bold categories - A Tour of Live, Recording Audio, Creating Beats, Playing Software Instruments and DJ-ing with Live.

There are also two large setup categories that explain how to set the various Audio I/O and Midi options accessed via the Preferences menu. Exploration of supplementary lessons is provided by the use of hypertext links within the main lessons.

Users of previous versions will feel right at home because there is little obvious change in the superbly designed user interface. It consists of a display window split into five panes. A left-hand vertical pane allows browsing for files or devices and below this is a small Information pane. A horizontal pane along the bottom displays selected device interfaces, waveforms or Midi note charts and a vertical panel on the right contains the lessons and tuition material.

The largest pane in the centre flips between two views: the Arrangement view, which resembles the ticker-tape multi-track view common to most DAW software, and the Session view, which looks a little like the side-by-side channels of a hardware mixer. The Tab key is used to toggle back and forth between these two.

Since its introduction in October 2001, Ableton Live has gone from strength to strength. Version 7 offers musicians a very powerful recording, composing and performing tool. Compared to other DAWs that are dedicated to recording and mixing, its mixing capabilities are still limited to only two sends and returns, and there’s also no provision for surround sound so it’s stereo only.