Feature:
You can produce. You can do multitrack recording. You can make mixes. You can make ambient textures with squeeky fart sounds, damnit! This is the kind of software you discover new things about all the time. You can record ANYTHING and sync it perfectly, and you can automate just about anything. I've had it for about a month and I've barely scratched the surface. Keep an eye on the tips and tricks section at the Ableton forums.. there's always amazing posts there from people who are literally insane.

Quality:
It seems to be made really well. It's easy on the eys and stable if your computer has good specs. If not, which is my case, it can be kinda slow. I've had the cpu reach 500%, but I'm certain that's because of bloody windows xp.

Value:
It boosts creativity and is easy to use. That's a 10 for me.

Desirability:
Not only can you produce electronic music; you can do multitrack recording and create mixes. It's extremely fun to use, like nothing else.

Sound:
I find it really easy to get cool sounds from it. The manipulation options and included effects are brilliant

Ease of Use:
It's slightly difficult to begin with, because of the unconvential way it's laid out. The included tutorials help quite a lot and once you get the hang of things, other DAWs seem awkward. I LOVE using this program, because it's so smooth.

Support:
You can always count on Ableton.

Overall:
It lacks note scores, track folders and a couple of other things which I would really like. I reckon this will come eventually, as Ableton listen to their users. I can see myself using this program a lot in the following years.

Feature:
I love the arranger because it's very easy to use. I just don't like the Midi Piano Roll right now. I prefer Cubase instead because it's more intuitive.

Quality:
I like the interface.

Value:
It's an investment so..

Desirability:
If your into loop base music then invest in this.

Sound:
If you render your tracks to wave and then open those to Cubase the sounds is more clearer and better.

Ease of Use:
the best. Get some DVD tutorials to get you started. Don't read the manuals because that will slow you down(inspirational in terms of) . I like the session view because I can try lots of samples to see if they would fit in my music.. Try to sample lots of things or get loops of cd's. It's like Acid but a little better.

Support:
I like the e-mail support. . They e-mail me within 24 hours.

Overall:
I use it everyday.. I average about 5 hours of use everytime I open it up.

Feature:
the piano roll editor is simple and easy to use, but not as powerful as other programs. Reason (standalone) users will feel right at home, though. The plug-ins include everything you expect: eq, dynamics (compression), delay, reverb, and chorus. There are also a few that you might not expect, such as the "resonator" and "grain delay," that allow you to radically reshape your sound, get some lo-fi grit or do just about whatever you please. All that's missing are more mastering oriented tools, although meticulously polishing a finished piece of music is not what Live is designed for.

Quality:
I've had some issues getting VST up and running, and this has caused some crashes. For a product designed for live use, I find this a little scary. It seems that once you get it working with your particular set-up, however, Live is solid.

Value:
without the live preformance abilities, it would still be a decent value. With its unmatched preformance capabilites its a steal.

Desirability:
If you want to use a computer to improv music, nothing else will do nearly as well as live. British DJ Sasha uses it, so there's some star appeal as well.

Sound:
sounds good, supports 24 bit resolution. The included plug-ins sound good and allow the user to quickly and easily tweak or completely warp a sound. I give it 9/10 only because the effects are more geared towards fun, quick results rather than sober, precise mastering type applications.

Support:
Good support website (if this is a big deal to you, you can check out their support site before buying the product: ableton.com). I have not personally contacted their service personnel, so I can't say how good they are/aren't.

Overall:
Whether or not you should buy Ableton Live depends on a few factors. First of all, if you want to add live remixing to your DJ sets, improv beats as a part of a "livetronica" band, or preform live solo sets, you won't find a better suited product anywhere. One could use more traditional sequencing (such as Logic) or loop-based (i.e. Acid) production software, but you won't be able to record audio or sequences (midi) while playing as easily as in live (if at all). If you just need production software, and don't plan on preforming live, then the choice is more difficult. Live does a good job at allowing you to use loops, sequences, and audio all together. That said, the sequencing in Live is quite limited compared to other programs such as logic. There is no score editor and the piano roll/ matrix editor isn't as powerful as Logic's (note: logic costs about twice as much, but includes a better collection of software instruments and mastering tools). If audio editing is more important to you, then Pro Tools LE might be a better fit for a similar price (with some hardware included). That said, if you don't want to spend $1000 on production software and are not comfortable with the limitations in "lite" versions of other products, Ableton Live definitlely deserves a look. Additionally, Live's layout is similar to Acid, so I would certainly recommend Live to Acid users looking to step up to something more powerful. I give it 8/10 only 1)because of the issues I've had with VST plug-ins and 2) the piano-roll sequence editor could be much better. Other than that, it is a unique piece of software that gets the job done easily and in style. If the sequence editing improves in subsequent versions, I may replace Logic with Live

yeah just buy it. if you work with samples/loops, any genre, you aint tried nothing like it. looks deceptively simple (and is to use) but the possibilities are ridiculous. just silly. it's like having an elastic studio at yr fingrtips

Feature:
I have used Cubase since about 1991. Using another program was very hard for me. I eased into Live over the course of a bout a year. This year I have jumped all the way in. I'm here to tell you: if you're doing loop-based music, don't even hesitate, GET LIVE. It is the best Loop based soft sequencer in existence. The browser makes it a breeze to drop material into your arrangement. There is context sensitive help (duh, every manufacturer should have this), etc etc

Quality:
It's got bugs. It crashes HARD----one example is when it can't read an Akai sample disk and freezes. Other times it freezes temporarily for no reason. All this in Windows Vista. IO have figured out you have to make a LOT of tweaks to Vista power savings so your drives don't go to "sleep" on Live.

Value:
Compare to the competition. Although you have to buy a lot of extras (which I don't recommend---3rd party VSTis far better than Ableton instruments)

Desirability:
Live is HOT.

Sound:
You get out what you put in. Don't believe any baseless drivel about the sound engine in Ableton; the majority of people making music in their bedrooms can't even tell you, e.g., what a band pass filter does, so it's unlikely they have a clue about why their Ableton Live real time output, or rendered output, is not "pristine." Ableton's audio engine is every bit as professional, clean, and pristine as its competitors' products. If it weren't it would not be used by thousands of award winning professional producers, DJs, and others across the globe. What do you do if you think your Ableton output is sub par? Learn the basics of music production, and stop thinking your mix is going to sound like Timbaland's just because you found some "dope sounds." It doesn't work like that.

Ease of Use:
It's a bit hard to learn. You have to read the manual, watch some YouTube videos, but you'll get the hang of it. Once you do, it's off to the races.

Support:
Really poor.

Overall:
As good as it gets for software sequencers right now--especially for loop based musicians

Feature:
The instrument rack and midi/audio effects are overwhelming at best. it providess limitless options reagarding editing a track - warping, rerecording at any spot, mixing, etc. virtually anything can be done.

Quality:
Its good until you find a bug. It seems to be well made, I just probably got a bad version.

Value:
If you pay $400 for recording software, you should get something that sounds great, has lots of feautres and has nothing less than exceptional customer support. This program is not worth the crap i have to put up with from this company

Sound:
The sound is incredible. There are no latency issues and it is basically crackle free. It responds to so many different playing styles and pitches.

Ease of Use:
When this program screws up, it really screws up. I found a bug which led to other bugs and now the software just doesnt work at all. And wait till you try to contact them for support....

Support:
ABSOLUTELY TERRIBLE. i paid so much for this expecting top notch support. Instead, a got an email reply saying that the company was in too deep with their recent success (shipping and whatnot) to respond to their customers, and they would help me with my problem when they found time. BULL****!!! It has been almost a month and I havent gotten any answers.

Feature:
At last, something that does everything i want to. lets me use midi controllers live for any parameter, and treats audio like some form of liquid elastic. once people start getting proficient, and building cutom controllers for it, this could be start of a whole new approch to live mixing

Quality:
it doesnt crash

Sound:
there has to be some sacrifice when you're timestretching this much in real time, but the gains are worth it. it you restrict yourself to keeping within a few % of your loops lource tempo then it sounds great though.