The hoopla surrounding the new Ableton release has been bigger than ever. No surprise, as the package has bravely conquered market share from the good old Technics 1210's, while eating in the realm of the almighty Pioneer CD Player. More and more DJ's appear onstage with a computer instead of their weighty vinyl bags, especially when playing live.

Pioneers such as Sasha and Richie Hawtin have helped to give DJ's the guts to actually 'check their e-mail on stage', as some criticasters still tend to remark. Nevertheless, through performances by the likes of James Zabiela and Speedy J among others, who have integrated the application in their multi-format sets its is hard to condemn the choice of icons of the scene, opening the door to new segments in the market.

What is Ableton Live precisely?
For all people that have been living under a rock or if you are just picking up production, Ableton Live is a software tool that ingeniously links production to live performance. At its core lie its time stretching capabilities or warping in Ableton lingo, allowing users to stretch audio, allowing playback at any (reasonable) speed, in any key. This renders it an excellent tool for both DJing and production, as samples, and entire tracks can be sped up and tuned so that they fit together nicely.

Through intuitive views, arrangement and live view, Live is optimized as an intuitive live tool offering a clear overview of all snippets, samples (both midi and audio) and effects, or a more traditional sequencer view, which can be employed simultaneously. Moreover, it is a full fledged VST, audio unit and Rewire slave/host, allowing it to work with most other sound applications. It features built in FX, both for editing sound and midi and can be controlled with a host of different midi controllers. Moreover, it has a very uncluttered and customizable interface, accessible to both PC and (Intel and Power PC) Mac Users.

What makes Live 6.0 worthwhile?
But what is all the fuss about? Ableton has thus far released a new version every year, but after MP3 support in Live 5.0, a host of new effects and added user friendliness, the necessity for a new version seemed lesser than before, apart from a few bug fixes. At least that's what we initially thought. However, as the first beta versions revealed, the new version has a new engine under the hood that are bound to cause a stir among the performance and (post)-production community.

Processing power
When running Ableton back in the days of the slow (Apple) G4 processor, 'live' production was a bit of a pain. Especially when employing hefty plugins, such as Rob Papen's Albino 3, or for instance Native Instrument's Absynth, chopping, slowing and disruption were a daily reality. Even on my G5, with a comfortable stash of ram, real-time performance of both the Ableton client and the installed plugins would leave a lot to be desired. With a whole new generation of PC's and Mac's (employing often the same Intel chip technology) entering the realm of multiprocessor computing, something had to be done.

Before even delving into the discussion of the new features of the application, my most valued improvement is already the multi-processor support. As my all new Macbook, like most mid-market notebooks ships with a core duo dual core processor, the speed improvements are almost alarming, emphasizing the necessity of a decent computer when playing live. No longer will the application stutter and struggle, as mastering tools and VST's can be used on the fly. Now why is this so important? Look at the name of the application. It is supposed to be running real-time, allowing it to be the spontaneous, intuitive 'Live' tool that we have always wanted it to be. Whereas other packages already offer a rock solid but clinical production canvas, its the dirty live feel that makes Live the creative tool that actually holds the middle between performance, production and composition. With 8-core computing around the corner for the winter, the timing is absolutely right, as the time of single-CPU computing is almost over.

Put your ideas in the fridge
Nevertheless, also for the non-power user there is room for a cheer. The previous installment of Live, version 5 already packed a feature called Freeze, essentially a render of a midi track, cutting down CPU-usage. Installment 6 brings Deep Freeze, allowing many parameters to be edited, while retaining the low CPU-usage. Even in the power user realm, this might be useful, as the switch to 5.1 audio potentially triples CPU load.

More sounds, and visual support
Of course, this is not the only innovation. The complaint that the built-in synths and FX did not feature real life or at best low rez samples of instruments has been battled with the all new essential instrument collection, a comprehensive selection of sampled instruments that ship with the slightly more expensive boxed version of the application (which we will review separately).

More important for the media/production side of the spectrum is perhaps the all new video support, allowing footage in the MPEG format to be synced to the sound. Although this should not be mistaken for a real-time VJ-tool, which it isn't, its a step in this direction, a clever move in a world that is moving from audio-only into the realms of multi-media and surround sound. Most certainly will this feature be enjoyed by documentary and film makers, looking for a quick tool to painlessly stretch audio to their imagery (as there are no video stretching tools in the program yet).

Upgraded effects, organization tools
a few interface tweaks aside, there is the whole new option of Instrument and Effect Racks, an easy tool to save combinations of FX, define key parameters and save the whole mumbo jumbo under one name. Reminiscent of a feature in Reason (the Combinator), this is offers excellent recycling possibilities, saving precious time and making live drag and drop less of a hassle.

More novelties, interface wise are the new way in which sets are saved. Various Ableton live sets can be part of the same project when they employ (some of) the same files. If one of these files gets lost, retrieving and replacing them has been made a lot easier. In the past, lost files had to be replaced one by one (a tough job when dealing with 200+ files in a lost liveset). Although the search engine isn't the fastest yet, the program can do this for you, while you sit back and think about why you moved the files in the first place.

Powerful addons
In the past, operator was the smaller brother of the Ableton package. Offering built-in instruments simpler and impulse, another 99 Euros would buy one Operator, the brainchild of Robert Henke a.k.a. Monolake, offering a simple yet powerful modular virtual analog synth design. Now, the essential instrument collection and sampler are offered as well, adding to the customizability of the program, and bringing the package's sampling capacities up to par with some of the best employed hardware samplers out in the open. We will also review sampler, but separately.

How does it work in practice?
Installing Ableton is still done in no time, and in my personal case, all effect presets are working fine (something that was not the case with the 5.2 release, necessary for Mac Intel usage). The subtle interface improvements are a bliss, especially the 'missing file' search feature, the overview of midi controls (allowing for quick and comprehensive midi control editing), copy pasting envelopesand the new FX and instrument racks.

It seems that the most mature release coming from Ableton's Berlin headquarters thus far, offers an eye for detail and a degree of completion that leaves other programs far behind. Although one might have to invest a little extra for sampling capabilities, full fledged samples and virtual analogue synthesis, the core functionality offers a lot of bang for one's buck if compared to for instance a dual Pioneer CDJ and mixer setup, which will require at least three times the purchasing power compared to a license of live, leaving the production department out of the equation.

Stability issues, something that has plagued previous Ableton versions before, seem to have lessened, although the few problems that I have experienced render perhaps vinyl still the most stable option. The prospect, however, of traveling casually with two laptops and a controller in one piece of hand luggage rather than two cases of vinyl, an effects unit and a wallet of CD's in the luggage compartment is yet another dimension of why Ableton is set to become a leading tool in the years if not months to come. An essential release, especially for multi-core PC owners.