Ableton Live

Ableton Live is Ableton's computer program for musicians, used both for studio work (arranging, mixing) and for live play (improvising, DJing).

Ableton was founded in 1999. Ableton co-founders Gerhard Behles, Robert Henke, and Bernd Roggendorf developed Live based on homemade software that Behles and Henke created to facilitate their live music performances for the Monolake project. They released the first version of Live in 2001 as commercial software. Ableton Live is written in C++. Live itself was not prototyped in Max, although most of its audio devices were.

Live 1 had no MIDI playback or recording functions, and was adapted solely for looped audio and sample manipulation. The basic idea of the developers: a computer is a musical instrument, and a man is the conductor and performer for that instrument.

Live 4

Released on July 28, 2004 was a significant revision of the program since its introduction. A new feature was the introduction of the MIDI sequencer. For the first time, Live began to support virtual instruments (VST for Windows, VST and AU for Mac), and to record and edit MIDI notes.

Live 5

Released on July 24, 2005. Starting with this version, Ableton Live has a feature called Clip Freeze, which is used to reduce the load on the processor. "Frozen" tracks cannot be edited, but they no longer put a lot of load on the CPU. In addition, new effects have been added: Phaser, Flanger, Auto Pan, Saturator, Arpeggiator and Beat Repeat. In addition to WAV and AIFF, MP3 files can also be imported.

Live 5.2 (April 10, 2006) integrates built-in support for the Intel Apple-Macintosh.

Live 6

Released on September 29, 2006. Added Sampler tool, Dynamic Tube effect. Live can now edit frozen tracks without defrosting them (Deep Freeze). Live 6 offers not only the ability to group built-in and external instruments and effects, but also to organize them into virtual racks and thus manage them centrally. Support for multiple processors and multi-core CPUs, the ability to import QuickTime movies and thus voice them, export audio tracks as separate files, and direct support for multiple MIDI controllers are announced. Version 6 can come with an extensive library of Essential Instrument Collection instrumental sounds samples.

Live 7

Released on November 29, 2007. A Suite option has appeared, offering users access to a multitude of add-ons, including additional plug-ins, instruments, and loops. A Drum Rack has been added. Sidesharing became possible, REX Loops got support for importing and slicing. Suite version included new instruments Analog, Electric and Tension.

Live 8

This version was released on April 2, 2009. The warping of audio clips has been improved, new features have been introduced: Groove, the ability to combine tracks into groups, a vocoder effect, Looper, Limiter, Multiband compressor, Overdrive and Frequency Shifter effects, and many other minor changes. A new Collision instrument for percussion sounds and the Latin Percussion sample library are included or for an additional fee. The Live user interface has been localized into different languages.

Starting with version 8.2.6, Live is compatible with Mac OS X 10.7 Lion and supports the Impulse series of controllers from Novation. Version 8.3 was released on April 2, 2012; from this version the program is updated automatically. You can now upload audio files directly from the program to your SoundCloud account. Compatibility with OS X Mountain Lion has been addressed during the upgrade to 8.3.1.

Live 9.

Released on March 5, 2013. Provided support for the native Push hardware controller, the ability to record clip automation curves, an updated browser, added support for multiple monitors (version 9.1, November 20, 2013), a new Glue Compressor, and the ability to convert audio clips to MIDI.

Live 10.

Released February 6, 2018. Contains a Wavetable synthesizer, two new effects, and improved interaction with Push, allowing you to visualize effects and MIDI notes.

Live 11.

Released February 23, 2021. Contains new features such as Comping, support for MIDI Polyphonic Expression (MPE), and new sound effects, instruments, and enhancements to various features.