Our friend Jeane Poole, who hails from the island continent pictured in the screen grab, has a terrific overview review of Live 7 — the upgraded app and suite. And, bonus, there’s some good resources for plug-ins and learning, to boot. The verdict:
The Ableton Berlin kids are still slaying with this release. They’ve refined and extended the features of the application, integrated new instruments and processes, allowed ever more complex workflows and at the same time have managed to retain a smooth and consistent interface. When it comes to real-time audio – there’s really nothing else in town.
The “nothing else in town” bit is important — there are lots of other good apps for making music, but none quite as complete for, as the name implies, being Live — at least not without a lot of DIY work. Ableton co-founder Robert Henke once complained that reviewers were being so uncritical of Ableton, but I think the reason is that no one has really offered a strong competitor. In the meantime, we keep using and loving the tool.
But the best part of this review is a handy little set of links to tutorials, plug-ins, and (as Jeane Poole doubles as one of Oz’s leading VJs) commentary on live visual capabilities. And if CDM ever has a softball (Ultimate Frisbee?) team, it will be the Create Digital Mutants — thanks, Jeane.
The Sweet Ableton Live 7 Suite : Review [Skynoise]