Ableton Live 9’s release was a big deal, but rocking new features that the community has wanted for quite some time apparently wasn’t enough. Alongside with the release of the software came a brand new piece of hardware called Push, which works hand-in-hand with Live 9 almost flawlessly to create [...]
Ableton’s slightly oddball Clip View interface is a pretty unique approach to computer based music creation, it shares more in common with a hardware sampler or Groovebox. It makes sense then, that there are several controls that mirror that same setup. There’s a lot of emphasis on making your computer [...]
Getting Hands-On If you've ever used any other DAW or performance software, you’ll know how valuable a MIDI controller can be in creating fluidity and style when controlling your instruments. Because Ableton is meant for Live use, the addition of a MIDI controller can completely transform your Live performances. It’s possible to [...]
Love the hype or loathe it, the iPad is happily changing the way a generation of musicians interacts with sound. From new implementations of classics, like Korg’s iMS-20, to mainstays like GarageBand, to a growing number of interfaces for existing performance software, the touchscreen input is redefining our [...]
The awkwardly named iXiMix is a UK based development team specializing in iOS control interfaces for your favorite music software. At the time of writing, they’ve released touch controllers for Traktor, Access Virus and, of course, Ableton. This last one pits them against some increasingly stiff competition, but if there’s one [...]
From humble beginnings nearly a decade ago, Ableton Live has matured into a very serious DAW and performance platform with an army of slavering fans worldwide. On stage, it’s used by a breathtaking roll call of diverse artists from Sasha, Daft Punk and Deadmau5 to Jan Jalinek, Jamie Lidell and [...]
Right from their earliest days, Apple's iDevices have been seen as potential tools for new media applications. Music apps were among the first available and, thanks to some runaway successes and great innovations, have grown in number and sophistication in the years since. It's no surprise, then, to see some [...]
In 2009, when Ableton announced a partnership with legendary, if under-recognized software lab Cycling '74, music tech nerds the world round (including, shamelessly, yours truly) rejoiced: here were two forward thinking and proven developers collaborating in what might just be the next great evolution of music software: user modifiable, native [...]
Live has offered native support of both proprietary third party hardware, and custom user scripts for generic controllers, for many generations. More recently we’ve seen Ableton partner with a handful of manufacturers to produce some long-awaited controllers dedicated to launching clips and handling channel and macro controls. Since opening up [...]