ABLETON LIVE 5
Sep 1, 2005 12:00 PM, BY DOUG EISENGREIN
MASH UNIT >Ableton Live 5 now supports MP3, Ogg Vorbis and Flac files. The program also includes a new Warp mode called Complex that is designed for use with finished pieces of music. Now, you can apply Live's time-stretching and pitch-shifting to full tracks.
In the fall of 2001, a brand-new company came out of the blue (well, Berlin to be exact) and wowed just about every laptop-toting musician everywhere with the unveiling of its first and still-trademark music-creation, remix and audio-manipulation app: Live. Ableton's wunderkind has completed four version iterations during its four-and-a-half-year lifespan, and it was with a peculiar smile that I accepted the assignment to review the latest and greatest version, 5. I have been a Live user since version 2, and in my experience, it has consistently been an amazingly stable tool — which it should be, given that it is geared toward live use as its moniker suggests.
All of Live's positive attributes continue in version 5, but this time, the app has been turbocharged with more new features and upgrades than any version since the original. I downloaded and installed Live 5 on an Apple Mac G4 tower running Mac OS 10.4.1 and a Dell laptop running Windows XP SP2. I performed the majority of my testing on the Mac, the more robust of the two machines. Installation and online registration on both machines was a breeze. The Live 5 user interface is still familiar: The left panel hosts the File Browser; the large center window toggles between the Session and Arrangement views; below the File Browser is the Info view, which dynamically feeds descriptive information to the user; and below the Session view is the Track view, where you can hyperedit samples and engage and edit effects. For the new goodies, you have to take a peek under the hood.
HIT THE ROAD
Beginning with Live's heartbeat, the Session view, version 5 now offers MP3, Ogg Vorbis and Flac file support. You can import loops or entire songs just like standard WAV or AIFF files, including song-length and nonsequenced tracks (that is, songs with a natural, organic tempo and feel). I loaded entire MP3 and Ogg Vorbis songs and short loops without a hitch, and as expected, tempos and appropriate Warp Markers were indeed identified.
The new Track Freeze function is an absolute miracle for this program, especially for users with slower computers. Engaging it creates temporary files for all Clips in a chosen track, including all in-line effects. The temporary files are then played instead of the real-time Clips and effects, freeing up CPU power by a remarkable degree. I tried it out on a track that housed just a single dry Clip; with it engaged, I salvaged 3 percent of my CPU. This may not be a lot, but consider this: I disengaged the Freeze; added Vinyl Distortion, PingPong Delay and Reverb effects; and then re-engaged the freeze. In this case, I watched my CPU usage drop from an obtuse 32 percent down to a cool 8 percent. That's just one track. Best of all, while freezing tracks does disable the ability to tweak Clips and track effects, it doesn't stop you from using the mix controls or triggering Clips in Session mode. And you can even transfer the Live Set to another computer that is missing the relevant effects and Clips and still play them back in freeze mode. Sweet! The only big drawback is that you cannot freeze a track in real time; the sequencer must be stopped. However, you can disengage it in real time.
Creative use of Clips has received a major face-lift in Live 5. In the Clip display, you can now click anywhere in the top bar (where the speaker icon shows up) and move the play position of the Clip to the nearest corresponding Warp Marker. The Clip plays beautifully in sync, and trigger time is intuitively linked to the Global Quantization setting. If, for example, you want to repeat just a snare from a loop on every downbeat and do it in real time, this is the ticket. The flexibility just gets better. The start and end markers for Clips are not tied to loop markers, and four handy new buttons allow you to set Clip Start and End and Loop Start and End markers in real time regardless of the Clip's current playback position. These also are guided by Global Quantization and will ensure that your internal metronome will get a proper workout. I found this useful for transforming rhythmic loops into tight rolls — I predict that breaks, drum 'n' bass and epic dancefloor producers will dig this functionality.
The new Set buttons, like other Clip display functions, can easily be mapped to MIDI controllers. In my testing, MIDI response time (with an Evolution MK-249C keyboard controller) was excellent. Found in the same (Sample display) area, the Time Warp feature has received a much-desired new addition called Complex. This setting uses the exact same control set as the elder Re-Pitch, yet it speeds up and slows down a Clip's tempo independent of — wait for it — pitch. This is excellent news when it comes to using complex material, such as loops, with both rhythm and melodic content. Complex does its job beautifully well.
Similar in sheer usefulness to Track Freeze, individual Clips — including all of their Warp, Loop and other settings and their entire effects chains — can be exported to disk for later use. This new Live Clip format means that never again will you have to try to remember how you created that certain sound. Saving loops in the new format is as easy as a reverse drag-and-drop from the Session View to the File Browser. Live Clips use a different icon and suffix (.alc) than regular samples for easy identification, and before committing them to disk, Live prompts you for a custom name. It is simply a pleasure to create Clips with complex signal-processing chains, save them and open them later in a new song.
BEVY OF EFFECTS
For all of you tweakers out there, Live 5 ships chock-full of fresh new audio effects: Beat Repeat, Auto Pan, Phaser, Flanger, Saturator, Arpeggiator (a MIDI effect) and an updated Simpler. To describe Beat Repeat, Ableton's product information used the word addictive, and I couldn't agree more. It took a little work to get something interesting happening, but once I dialed it in a bit, I felt like I was 12 years old in front of a game of Pac-Man, incessantly pumping in quarters. Especially cool are the Filter, Pitch, Grid and No Triplet functions. Pitch allows you to drop just the repeated signal down an octave in semitones, but the control also affects tempo. I would have found it more useful to go up and down a few octaves instead of using semitones, but that's a personal preference. The Filter comprises a semiparametric-style bell curve and ranges from 50 Hz to 18 kHz. The curve can be stretched to fit almost the entire frequency band or confined to a fairly narrow, soft signal, and it can be engaged or disengaged with a button. The Grid control sets the repeat rate, and No Triplet does exactly what it sounds like. It rounds to the nearest even grid point; setting Grid to 1/6 or 1/3 and toggling this button on and off is a blast. The Auto Pan effect delivers control of a Clip's panning and amplitude with four different curve types that all can crossfade to a square shape. You can dial in Amount, Rate, Spin, Phase and Offset, and the Rate can be switched between LFO-style (in Hz) and note-length settings. The different shapes and the ability to control panning according to beats are cool, but I discovered my favorite effect by driving the Rate in Hz to max (90) and setting Spin to 0. This produced a subtle distortion that was nice and metallic.
Compared with older outboard effects processors, most plug-in flangers, in my opinion, just don't cut it. But Live's new Flanger makes the cut and then some. I found it to be as addictive, if not more so, than Beat Repeat. From the subtlest coloration to complete rubberized overlays, Flanger is powerful and delivers the goods. Like Auto Pan, it contains a Rate control that can be set to Hz or note length, and it has six different shapes as well as a nice variety of controls, including Hi-Pass (filter), Envelope, Phase, Offset and Spin. Almost equally impressive in my book to the Flanger is the new Phaser. Ableton describes both of these effects as classic, and, again, I have to agree. Phaser has a distinctive “plug-in” sound, as well; however, I would liken its quality to GRM Tools. Phaser shares many of Flanger's controls, but one notable original is its Space/Earth button. Space accentuates the higher frequencies and adds an almost ring-mod-like effect whereas Earth gives preference to the lows and low-mids and provides a thicker, less hollow sound. I simply love these two new effects.
Whenever a software manufacturer makes a claim (as Ableton has) that its product will deliver warmth to a signal, I am skeptical. Although I wouldn't personally use Ableton's word, warm, Live's new Saturator does indeed fatten things up nicely. Much like a tube amplifier, this new effect has the ability to act like a sonic maximizer or decimate with the meanest of distortion. Within just a short time of playing with it, I got Saturator to do all kinds of strange and subtle things. I'd have to vote for the Color control as my favorite aspect to this plug-in, and I predict that Saturator will please the experimental camp. Last but certainly not least in the new effects department is the Arpeggiator. As an instrument effect, it has the features of a typical arpeggiator, such as a variety of patterns, but it also has some great additional features not found on most arpeggiators, such as adjustable velocity control and user-definable repetition control. Adjustable velocity renders dynamic arpeggios that don't sound stiff and computerized. Repetition control means that if you only need eight bars of an arpeggio, for example, you just need to trigger the notes once and let Arpeggiator do the rest. This means no more trying to lay off the notes exactly on time in a live performance, and there is, of course, a setting for infinite loop. There are too many other controls to describe in detail here, but suffice it to say, I was impressed.
Live's Simpler has gotten enough of an upgrade to almost warrant a label of new instrument. The biggest upgrade is in the envelope section, which now contains separate ADSR controls for Amp, Filter and Pitch. The LFO section has received its share of the face-lift, as well; controls for Attack, Transp(ose), Detune, Env(elope), Glide (on/off), (glide) Time and Spread have been added. I found the Spread control to be especially pleasing. A few other smaller changes have been made, such as the LFO-type section displaying a picture of the shape instead of the names of waveform shapes. I find this more useful — I don't have to think about what a sine shape looks like during a live set. Although the DAW's functionality is still clean and easy, at the rate it's going, Ableton might have to change Simpler's name to Fancier.
FIND THOSE FILES
Like Spotlight in Mac OS X, the Search field in Live 5 is built in to the File/Device Browser section. With it, you can type in a word or phrase and Live will return a list of all matching samples, Clips and Sets. In addition, each Device also has a Browse button (they look like recycle signs) in the top right corner, which, when pressed, links the Browser to that Device and automatically jumps to that Device's relevant folder for instant preset surfing.
VINTAGE 2005
Everything discussed here is just the tip of the iceberg. I could fill double the space allotted to cover all of Live 5's new features, including Device Groups (which, like Live Clips, allow you to save entire effects and instrument chains for later use); Mackie Control control-surface support; plug-in delay compensation; right-click-enabled contextual menus; track-width resizing in the Session view; and the huge library with new Live Clips and Device Groups, new Impulse drum kits and a host of Simpler and Operator presets.
There are a few features that I wouldn't mind seeing added: The ability to detach a Session view into a separate window to enable users to either view both it and the Arrangement view side-by-side or to extend the number of simultaneously visible Session view tracks would be great. Aside from this, my experience with Live 5 was simple: It's a great program that, like a good bottle of vino, just keeps getting better with age. Best of all, despite all the new features packed in, Live retains its simple-to-learn and super-user-friendly UI. Version 5 is stable, efficient and a ton of fun to work with.
ABLETON
LIVE 5 > $499 (FULL VERSION); $49-$199 (UPGRADES)
Pros: A ton of useful new features with no price upgrade. Stable and efficient. Runs on a modest computer. Familiar interface. Simple to use. Creative, excellent-quality new effects. Supports most common audio-file types. Top-notch time-stretching tools.
Cons: May be finicky with certain MP3 files.
Contact: www.ableton.com
SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
Mac: G3 or faster; 512 MB RAM; Mac OS 10.2.8 or later
PC: Pentium III/600 or faster; 512 MB RAM; Windows 2000/XP; Windows-compatible soundcard
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