Ableton Live 8 & Novation Launchpad Controller

Create, real-time digital music with a wealth of new techniques, effects and most-wanted workflow improvements.

Ableton Live is about making music; for composition, songwriting, recording, production, remixing and live performance. Live's nonlinear, intuitive flow, alongside powerful real-time editing and flexible performance options, make it a unique studio tool and a favorite with live performers. If you'd rather be "making music" than just "using music software," Ableton Live is for you. Live 8, the latest version, includes a wealth of new techniques and improvements with a new groove engine, revamped warping, live looping, new effects, crossfades in the Arrangement View and a reworked MIDI editor.

• Session View - Live is the only music production software with the "Session View": a unique grid for recording and playing musical ideas and phrases. The Session View is non-linear, so you can record and play back your ideas in any order you want. When you're working on a new track, this is a smart, flexible way to write and record. If you're performing music live, it gives you complete flexibility and freedom to improvise.
• Arrangement View - Live also has a second view: the "Arrangement View," a complete music production environment. This is the linear counterpart to the Session View and is well-suited to "traditional" recording, arranging and mixing. These two views interact with one another, each with its own strengths and intricacies. Both views are based on the single principle of creative, intuitive music-making.
• Uninterrupted creative flow - In Live, you never have to stop the music. Record audio and MIDI on the fly, drop in loops and samples, add effects and swap sounds without ever hitting the stop button: everything happens in real time. You're free to improvise and the computer actually becomes a musical instrument—an expressive and creative tool, perfectly at home on stage or in the studio.
• Beats made easy - Live's unique Drum Rack combines drag-and-drop simplicity in a familiar pad-style interface. Each of the 128 drum pads can have its own instrument or sample plus effects. Slice beats, loops or REX files to MIDI for additional control options and use the new groove feature (which includes grooves from the legendary MPC and SP1200 machines) to add swing to your beats
• Creative expression for DJs - Mix and match tracks and loops automatically, remix on the fly, capture audio loops in real time from decks and other external sources, incorporate your own productions into the mix, and much more. Whether it's the centerpiece of the DJ rig or just a creative sidearm, Live gives DJs entirely new worlds of creative expression.
• Looping with Live - Not only for guitarists, the Ableton Looper gives you classic sound-on-sound looping without the limitations of a hardware device. Looper is set up for remote operation, so you can record, overdub, undo and more without touching the computer.
• Totally compatible - Live works seamlessly with controller hardware and assigning custom MIDI controls is simple. Live supports AIFF, WAV, MP3, Ogg Vorbis and FLAC files, VST and AU effects and instruments. Live can handle REX files and runs as a ReWire Master or Slave, so it works nicely alongside other DAWs like Pro Tools, Logic, Cubase or Reason. And if you have a multicore or multiprocessor system, Live supports that, too.
• Dedicated controller, co-developed by Novation and Ableton - Perfect for DJing, performing live or working in the studio, Launchpad features a multi-color, 64-button grid, control modes for the Session View and Live's mixer, two fully-programmable User Modes and dedicated scene-launch/function buttons. Despite the big grid, Launchpad is neat, compact and portable: 239 x 239 mm with a slim 24 mm profile and weighing only 717 g.

Features

• Software
  • Multitrack recording up to 32-bit/192 kHz
  • Nondestructive editing with unlimited undo
  • Powerful and creative MIDI sequencing of software and hardware instruments
  • Advanced warping and real-time time-stretching
  • Supports AIFF, WAV, MP3, Ogg Vorbis and FLAC files
  • A comprehensive selection of built-in audio and MIDI effects
  • Built-in instruments: Simpler for sample-based synthesis, Impulse for sampled drums
  • Instrument, Drum and Effect Racks
  • New groove engine; apply and extract grooves in real time
  • VST and AU support; automatic plug-in delay compensation
  • REX file support plus built-in audio to MIDI slicing
  • Video import and export for scoring, video warping
  • Simple MIDI mapping plus instant mapping for selected hardware
  • Full ReWire support; runs as Slave or Master
  • Single-screen user interface for simple, creativity-focused operation
  • Multicore and multiprocessor support
• Hardware
  • Launchpad features a multi-color, 64-button grid for launching clips plus eight dedicated scene-launch buttons. The buttons are lit by LEDs displaying clip status so you can see at a glance what's loaded (orange), what's playing (green), and what's being recorded (red).
  • Despite the big grid, Launchpad is compact and portable: it'll fit in your bag for gigs and won't hog your desk space in the studio. It's slim, sturdy, weighs less than a hardback book and it's USB powered, so there's no power adapter to drag around.
  •  It's not just about launching clips: as well as the Session Mode, Launchpad offers Mixer Mode—a unique way to control Ableton Live's mixer—and two fully-customizable User Modes.
  • In Mixer Mode, the rows and columns of the grid become virtual faders, sliders and knobs controlling track volume, pan, sends, mute, solo, Clip Stop Buttons and record arm, depending on the function selected. Use the scene launch/mixer function buttons to select the function you want to control.
  • The two fully-customizable User Modes transform the grid into a drum pad controller, DJ effect controller or anything else you can think of. The default state for User Mode 1 provides drum pad control for Live's Drum Racks—great for sketching out beats. Using Live's simple MIDI mapping, it's easy to create custom control environments, whatever devices you're using and however your Live Sets are configured.
  •  The User Modes make Launchpad the ideal hardware counterpart for Max for Live. Launchpad is flexible enough to deal with even the most detailed Max for Live devices and can handle generic parameters and controls with ease. Eleven LED states provide visual feedback that's precise enough for complex devices. Launchpad users will soon be able to download a Max for Live step sequencer patch from Novation and more Max for Live patches are planned for the future.
  • Live and Launchpad are in a constant, two-way, hardware-software dialog. The back-lit grid buttons show what's happening in Live and Live, in turn, shows which section of the Session View is currently under Launchpad control: a red border around the current clip group let's you see where you are with a just a cursory glance at your screen.
  • Obviously, you're not limited to controlling only 64 clips. The arrow buttons move the grid up, down, left and right one track or scene at a time. Hold down the 'Session' button in Session Mode, and you can use the arrow keys to jump eight tracks or rows at a time—very useful for navigating around large, complex Live Sets.
  • Want more buttons? Launchpads are designed to work together, with up to six units at once. That's more than 400 assignable buttons! Launchpads running on the same system can run in different modes, so you can control the Session View, mixer and custom setups all at once, with one Launchpad for each.

System Requirements

• Mac
  • 1.25 GHz G4/G5 or faster (Intel Mac recommended)
  • 1 GB RAM (2 GB recommended)
  • Mac OS X 10.4.11 (10.5 or later recommended)
  • QuickTime 6.5 or higher
  • DVD-ROM drive
• PC
  • 1.5 GHz Pentium 4 or Celeron compatible CPU or faster (multicore CPU recommended)
  • 1 GB RAM (2 GB recommended)
  • Windows XP or Windows Vista
  • Windows compatible sound card (ASIO driver support recommended)
  • DVD-ROM drive
  • QuickTime recommended
• The installation size of the Essential Instrument Collection 2 is 15 GB

* This package includes an upgrade from Live Lite to the full version of Live 8.