Ableton Live for Windows

User Reviews

• The Ultimate for Electronic Dance Music

  3507ERICAugust 28, 2012

  Pros

  unique session view naturally and intuitively unlocks worlds of possibility, live, for the dj/controllerist.

  Cons

  a big mama to get ones arms around, but easy is for dates, not music

  Summary

  no competition for dj/controllerist/e dance composer

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• The most innovative DAW on the market. Mainly for

  Hans_SanitizerJuly 26, 2011

  Pros

  So many I couldn't hope to list them all here. To sum it up it's a DAW that you can use like an instrument.

  Cons

  Not 64-bit. Not for people who don't want to try something new.

  Summary

  If you're looking for a program that requires little work to get a generic sound out of it go for FL-Studio. If you're looking for a real program that requires you to grow some balls to use it, that you can take with you from the composition stage to the stage you perform on, that's reliable cross platform from a company that's main focus is making music software for musicians (rather than FL asking you to rat out any site that has illegal copies of it, and your friends that have copies of it, includes spyware that tracks you and spends a lot of money on a legal team that "gets results" - from FL's webpage) use Ableton Live. Also Ableton has many midi controllers specifically designed for it. This is the future of music production, don't take my word for it ask Justice or Daft Punk among many others.

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• NOT RECOMMENDED FOR IDIOTS OR THE LAZY

  jwarvAugust 2, 2009

  Pros

  It's pretty.

  Cons

  See summary.

  Summary

  I consider myself both (see review title) whenever I start to fiddle with this madness that is Ableton Live. I have yet to actually see a project to fruition. I ALWAYS end up going back to hardware recording after using this program. I must be stupid, but I HATE, HATE, HATE that I cannot conquer this program. Any gurus out there who might want to camp out at my house when I'm ready to use it? Anyone? Anyone?

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• Exceptionally complete. But DJ's be warned!

  **w**January 4, 2009

  Pros

  There are so many options. This piece of software is the most complete package I've ever got my hands on. Remixing and creating music on the go has never been so easy.

  Cons

  A whole lot of options requires a whole lot of learning :) It doesn't work with 2 sound cards!!!! If you're a DJ and you want to mix with Ableton, prepare yourself for a whole lot of head scratching and frustration. Why, you ask?

  Summary

  Because just setting op the cue is a nightmare. Like I said, Ableton doesn't support working with 2 soundcards simultaneously. If you want to listen to your cue with a headphone, your soundcard needs at least 2 stereo out. Even though most soundcard have thjis feature nowadays, setting it up in your preferences is guaranteed to give you a headache. But...... If you succeed in doing this, Ableton is magic! Unlimited numbers of effects can be be applied on your tracks. Creating your own loops is easy. Warping, time-stretching, pitching and using the equalizer feel so fluid and intuitive. Mixing 6 tracks at the same time while playing a tune with your midi keyboard linked with some vst's just works. Simple as that. As far as producing music goes, I recon some people might prefer other software for the creation of the samples itself, but when it comes arranging them nothing beats ableton. I would advise everyone to give it a go. It may be bit too much for some people, but if you have a good basic understanding about loop based music, you'll get the hang of this in no time.

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• they have great performances

  hopyguyDecember 6, 2008

  Pros

  to help to use a live for a remix as necessary.

  Cons

  if i'm not sure to do how to use that, i'll try this soon.

  Summary

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• Easiest, most intuitive DAW ever

  scricharOctober 15, 2008

  Pros

  The clips, the warping, the easy object-oriented interface... How can I say enough about this software?

  Cons

  I don't like that I can't change time signatures within my song file (!!!) Also plugins are a little crappy but what do you expect from free preloaded effects?

  Summary

  I've used a few different tools over the years. Digital Performer, Cakewalk, Logic, Protools. By far, this one is the friendliest, if not the most powerful. If you are a tekkie or gear head, go with one of the more feature-heavy DAW's. If you're a songwriter, though, and you want something that is easy to use and sounds great, Live is for you. As other reviewers have posted, it does eat up RAM, so make sure you've dedicated enough resources.

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• Not for Low-Ram computers.

  MarioMan94November 10, 2007

  Pros

  Seems to have a lot of options for music creation

  Cons

  Freezes after about a minute. No sound and I could not fix with new/different sound drivers. Eats up CPU. FLstudio/Reason both work fine on my computer. <p> <p>-note: I'm using an AMD athlon XP 1600+ (1.4 gh) with 512mb of Ram, so if you have anything less powerful than that, you'll probably have problems.

  Summary

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• ondapunchipunchiAugust 26, 2007

  Pros

  no nada

  Cons

  no nda

  Summary

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• Terrible, whats the point if you can't save?

  matty1manMay 21, 2007

  Pros

  You can record your own music and it has a great looking layout.

  Cons

  You can't save anything and the gadgets arn't great, i have seen alot of better programs!

  Summary

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• Very intuitive and powerful tool to publish and to execute live performances

  PelidaDecember 12, 2006

  Pros

  More than a tool to record sound, Live is an application for live performances, which provides to total functionality to control in real time the parameters that other software. Definitively, Live revolutionized the form to edit, to compose and to execute music in addition to being very intuitive.

  Cons

  Summary

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