Ableton Announces Live 9 and Push

Ableton has two big announcements today: 1) Live 9 will be out soon, and sooner in beta, and 2) with that, Ableton will launch their first ever hardware instrument for Live – called Push. Both releases are expected for first quarter of 2013.

According to Ableton’s announcement, the upgrade to Live 9 significantly expands the creative possibilities of the music production software. Here are the new features Ableton highlighted:

Live 9 – Arrangement Window

• Session automation: In Session View, automation can now be recorded in real time directly within clips. Automation can move together with clips between Arrangement and Session View.

• Find sounds fast: Live’s new browser puts all instruments, effects, samples, and plug-ins in one easy-to-navigate view. Drag and drop folders from anywhere on your computer, search as you type and navigate from the keyboard to find everything quickly.

• Discover new sounds: Live comes with a large selection (3,500 in the Suite edition) of production-ready sounds, which were carefully crafted with the help of over 40 artists, sound designers and engineers. All sounds feature Macro controls for fast access to their most meaningful, musical parameters.

• Get your sound right: Live’s studio effects have all been reworked for even better sound and usability. The Glue Compressor is a new effect – an authentic model of a legendary 1980s console bus compressor. EQ Eight has an audition mode for isolating frequencies and an expandable spectrum display. The Gate and Compressor effects feature a Gain Reduction view which shows changes in signal level over time.

• Extract music from samples: Live’s new Harmony, Melody and Drums to MIDI tools extract natural-feeling MIDI directly from the favorite parts of your music collection. You can also sing, tap a rhythm, play any solo instrument, then use Melody or Drums to MIDI to turn your recordings into MIDI clips that you can edit and reuse with any sound.

• Edit the details: Transpose, reverse and stretch MIDI notes or warp clip automation and add curves to automation envelopes. New tools and an improved workflow allow fast and flexible editing of musical ideas.

MaxForLive – Drumsynth + LFO + Convolution Reverb

• Max for Live – now in Suite: The Suite edition of Live 9 comes with Max for Live and its many unique instruments, effects and tools. Max for Live itself includes 24 new devices such as a convolution reverb, new drum synthesizer instruments, MIDI echo as well as reworked versions of classics such as Step Sequencer and Buffer Shuffler 2.

Live 9 prices will start at $99 (Live 9 Intro download version), $449 (Live 9 Standard download version) and $749 (Live 9 Suite download version). Starting today, Ableton Live 8 is available for 25% off the regular price and includes a free upgrade to Live 9 as soon as it is released.

Now, with their new Push product, Ableton presents a hardware instrument designed to solve an old problem: how to make a song from scratch.

Push – designed by Ableton, built by Akai Professional

Push – designed by Ableton, built by Akai Professional – provides direct, hands-on control of melody and harmony, beats, sounds and structure, powered by Ableton Live running on your computer. Dynamic pads, buttons, encoders and display allow you to play and compose musical ideas without the need to look at or touch your computer – without interrupting the musical flow.

Abelton highlighted the following features in its Push introduction:

• Play and sequence beats: Push’s 64 velocity- and pressure-sensitive multi-color pads can be used to play, step sequence, and navigate within rhythm patterns – all at the same time. The 11 touch-sensitive endless encoders can control device parameters, adjust velocity, nudge timing and more.

• Play melodies and chords in a new way: Push “folds” a keyboard’s worth of notes into its 64 pads, with different pad colors showing the key center and other notes in the key. This allows you to play in every key using the same finger patterns, move between keys at the touch of a button, and explore new harmonies and phrases.

Push fits in your backpack alongside your laptop

• Improvise with song structure: Push expands the scope of creation with its unique workflow. Using just a few buttons to trigger clips, overdub notes, move between song materials and variations lets Ableton Live itself become an intuitively playable instrument.

• Move smoothly from creation to arrangement: Push offers both the inspiring instrument to start creating music, and the full-featured software to finish off a track. Everything created with Push is laid out in Ableton Live on your computer – ready for fine-tuning, arrangement and export.

• Includes Ableton Live 9: Push includes Ableton Live 9 Intro and works with any edition of Ableton Live 9 (Intro, Standard, Suite). All the included instruments, effects and sounds, as well as your own libraries, are ready to be played, tweaked, and personalized.

Push will be available in the first quarter of 2013 for $599. It will come with Ableton Live 9 Intro and will work with any edition of Ableton Live 9.

Please note: When you buy products through links on this page, we may earn an affiliate commission.