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.

• User: a customer from yahoo.com
• Submitted: 3/10/2008
• Style of Music: Electronic Dance Music
• Location: Los Angeles

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

• Submitted: 2/24/2008

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.

• User: a customer from hotmail.com
• Submitted: 1/23/2008
• Style of Music: Acoustic
• Location: Kingston, Ontario, Canada

Feature:
From the perspective of manipulating audio, I'd say Live is very potent. How potent? Okay, I'll say "extremely" potent to set the emphasis right. Loop manipulation is heavenly, and given the various plugins for shaping audio, your creativities are endless. But, midi features is where the program takes a serious hit. I think that the piano roll is a joke, and so are the midi editing features. This is where one see the lack of quality product engineering. Live's fundamental ground was architectured around audio manipulation, not handling midi. At a later stage when this got added, it somehow doesn't fit the program very nicely. Ableton has a way to go before coming up to the standards of Cubase and Sonar when it comes to midi and piano roll/score editors. If you are the type that deals with midi and score editing heavily (I do, since I compose a lot through instruments), then I'm afraid that Live will disappoint you severely.

Quality:
Seriously seriously impressive. I think Live has crashed only twice or thrice during my entire encounter span with it, that too when I was breaking the older versions in half using tons of cpu crunching VST plugins and massive (I mean massive) arrangements with ultra high quality audio. But one thing I've noticed is that Live lacks the responsiveness of Sonar, Logic and ProTools. In those packages, if you have a powerful machine, everything is really slick smooth. Things happens as you click. No load times no wait times. But this is not the case with Live. Even with a seriously powerful machine, the startup time is not impressive (that too without a vst directory), and the application is physically irresponsive at times during a heavy session.

Value:
A definite addition to your studio. Price is a bit steep and I don't see any justification there. I mean Sonar, which will whip Live's ass like no tomorrow, is priced similarly. And another nifty tool called FlStudio can do everything which Live can. It comes for $150 or so. So the people at Ableton should bring it down to more realistic levels for its worth.

Desirability:
Yes, a pretty desirable thing to have, but once again, price should be revised.

Sound:
Often I've heard people complaining (or hinting) that the sound engine of Live has problems, in the sense that the final rendered audio quality is not as pristine as the rendered versions from other software packages like Cubase, Logic and ProTools. I strongly feel this is incorrect and the reason for such rumors going around is the fact that people use low quality plugins, cheap audio material and low-end hardware. What can any software package do if you are using low resolution audio streams and pathetic free plugins? Try samples from a decent audio library and run it through the bundled Live plugins and see for yourself what it sounds like. And also, mastering skills come into play here. If you can't make a production sound good, 90% chances are it's you, not the software or hardware. Using Live, I've managed to mix up some of the tightest mixes I've ever done, stuff you can call "eye-candy for the ear".

Ease of Use:
I say, 1 week if you are a noob. And if you go through the bundled tutorials, then after a week you should be able to produce some "good" arrangements. Full mixes will take time, and they do with all other tools. Take a Cubase veteran for example. Ask him/her how much time it took to push out the first full mix and you'll know. Workflow is outstanding in Live and the interface is extremely well thought out. I didn't have any issues with the file navigator, although I feel they should provide more file tabs for sample monsters like me.

Support:
No idea. Didn't talk to them ever.

Overall:
One can be satisfied for quite long actually. But let me assure you that Live cannot take the hotseat in a studio. Sorry, for that, Logic, Cubase, Sonar and ProTools rule. It's just not upto that standard yet. But as a creative addition, it's definitely an awesome companion.

• User: a customer from gmail.com
• Submitted: 5/22/2007
• Style of Music: Electronic, Ambient and HipHop
• Location: India

Feature:
What can I say? This thing is loaded with effects, most of which are really amazing to my ears. I also use NI Intakt as a VST Instruments and that works pretty flawlessly. Many people say that this program is desgined too much around "hip hop"-type music, but upon looking at it, it should be any musicians dream. Unlike Logic though, this wont come with stellar VST synths. It does have a little instrument called the "Operator" which needs to be purchased and its a synth type instrument. You should check it out on your own as I'm not a piano player or anything so I dont know jack about synths.

Quality:
Beautiful quality, beautiful interface.

Value:
I feel the price could be a bit lower (cause im poor), but for what it does and the amount of fun you'll have with this, soon it wont really matter. A tip for some. I purchased the Axiom 49 and it came with Ableton Live Lite. Using the Live Lite, I was able to purchase the full version of Live for about 150 dollars less.

Desirability:
I wouldnt be able to live without this program. I started using Ableton with the Padkontrol and Axiom 49 and felt as if hardware might be better to make music on. I ended up buying an MPC 2000xl, used Yamaha RS7000, used Roland MV 8000, used SP 808EX, KORG ES1 and ESX. After buying all of that crap, none of it can come close to replicating Ableton Live.

Sound:
The sounds are coming out of my motherboard soundcard, and its pretty damn good, though I dont have em hooked up to professional monitors yet. I use this with an M-Audio Axiom 49 and a Korg Padkontrol. Its as expressive as anything else I guess.

Ease of Use:
I didnt give it a 10 becuase NO ONE HAS CREATED A DAMN GOOD DAW CONTROLLER FOR THIS AND THAT WOULD BE SO COOL. Other than that, most of the other reviewers are on the dot about this thing being FUN FUN FUN! There are enough assignable sliders and buttons on my Axiom to keep me happy, but I could always use about 20 sliders and 60 Buttons.

Support:
Have not had to deal with them, but if ur charging ur customers US$400, you better have top notch support.

Overall:
I stand by this product like it was my favortie MC. If this product was a woman, I would marry it (yes I'm very lonely rofl). Screw all the others, Ableton Live is the shizniiit.

• User: a customer from gmail.com
• Submitted: 1/31/2007
• Style of Music: I tend to gravitate towards dark and gritty sounds.
• Location: Bangladesh

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.

• User: a customer from gmail.com
• Submitted: 1/28/2007
• Style of Music: Breaks, Trance, misc. electronic
• Location: Egersund, Rogaland, Norway

Feature:
Ableton has everything you would want from a Digital Workstation and more. The warp features are simply fantastic and having the choice between a session window and arrangement window makes it a joy to work in. The whole process of creating is simplified. EVERYTHING is automatable which gives you the ultimate flexibilty. Also the screen is set up so that windows never get lost, you always hav immediate access at the click of a button. I can't think of anything I wish this program had that other programs have. With a little creativity you can easily make any kind of music you like. I use it for both Dance Music as well as for mixing and recording live bands. It can handle it all well and is also quite stable and cpu friendly.

Quality:
These guys are simply quality and make a fantastic product. There may be a couple things you think you need, but you'll soon realize they found an easier way to get the job done.

Value:
You couldn't ask for a better price for what you get. nuff said!

Desirability:
This is a very sleek design and doesnt tire your eyes after hours and hours of use. This can't be said for soem other digital audio workstations.

Sound:
The Sound is great and in most cases does the job from start to finish. With the versatility and ease of use it doesn't take long to get the sound you're looking for. It also works very well as a rewire instrument slave or master. Works well with Reason, Cubase, Logic, Fruity loops and Pro Tools. It also sounds amazing as a Live Performaance tool whether DJ'ing or doing live edits on the fly. A good tip when warping sounds is to not overdo it on the tempo or pitch changing and choose the warping options wisely. They have different setting for beats, vocals or full tracks. Try them all out.

Ease of Use:
This program mayt take people a little time to get used to the way Ableton works, but once you get it you will wish every program worked this way. It's easy, intuitive and immediate. There is also some great tutorials straight out of the box and thier website has some very informative forums. As far as using virtual synths it is flawless if you have an asio capable sound card.

Support:
I havent dealt with the company but most people who have are pretty happy with how they are treated. This is a company that really listens to their users and when they make an upgrade it is usually a huge leep forward.

Overall:
I think this product is just going to get better! You already see many a Pro Tools user switching to Ableton or at least incorporating it into regular use. I feel ableton will be on top of the game for quite a while. It has Literally changed the way peopel are able to make music... for the better!

• User: a customer from gmail.com
• Submitted: 7/18/2006
• Style of Music: Underground House Music, Indie, Electro
• Location: Hollywood, CA. USA

Feature:
Maybe not everyone's cup of tea, but the modular capability for working with loops is really really great! I've used Sonar (producer) and I like this program much better. It doesn't appear to be set up for scoring to video--but if I were doing that, I'd just use another program--though I would seriously consider doing my initial sketches in Ableton.

Quality:
Again, compared to Sonar, I've found this product to be very bug-free. Set-up procedures and audio calibration procedures are much clearer. The graphics are a bit primative--something like Reason or Spectrasonics graphics would be nice. But hey--I'm working with SOUND! The graphics are functional and accurate. I would like to see some more detail on meters.

Value:
I find this program very very functional. Which was the whole idea to begin with! I spent a lot more for Sonar but Ableton is what I use. The functionality for the price is really outstanding.

Desirability:
I was just too frustrated with Sonar and the Ableton Lite that I got with my Line 6 UX1 was really functional, easy to use and bug-free by comparison. Once I figured out what the 2 views/modes of Ableton were about I had to have it. Most programs are one dimensional--things are laid out in on one axis (horizontal). Ableton has one view that does this and one view that is two dimensional (horizontal and vertical). This is a unique and very very cool innovation.

Sound:
Sound, of course, will depend on your computer's power and your soundcard. If you skimp on these you lose the full effect of the program. I've run it with the computer's Realtek system (OK, not great), with a Line 6 Toneport UX1 (MUCH better, ASIO) and with Audigy (OUTSTANDING).

Ease of Use:
Again, I've used Sonar Producer and I find this program MUCH easier to use. There are a lot of features to work with, not as many as Sonar. The on-screen tutorials from the Help menu are exceptional. The pdf user manual is one of the best I've encountered. Very well cross-referenced (a "back" function would be nice once you've checked a cross reference, but this may not be possible in Adobe). There are a couple of instances such as track muting (= disable track) where the illustration is not clear.

Support:
I haven't really had to use them yet, but if the manual and on-screen tutorials are any indication, the company is very strongly oriented toward functionality--they realize that when we're doing music things have to WORK!!

Overall:
So far it does everything I want it to--it records live and electronic instruments. It records multiple tracks of vocals. It works with (and creates) loops/clips and allows multiple vocal tracking over such loops/clips. What it does, it does better than any other program I've tried (Sonar, Sony ACID). The only thing it doesn't do is video scoring--but the program was created by performing musicians for performing musicians. As such, you get the kind of functionality performing musicians need which then is also available for studio recording. It wasn't created for film work and I really hope Ableton doesn't try to be everything to everyone but continues to provide the high level of functionality in music creation and recording and sound design.

• User: a customer from rocketmail.com
• Submitted: 7/12/2006
• Style of Music: folk, blues, looping
• Location: Hudson, Ohio

Feature:
I don't know where to begin with the features... this product is both a great toy for musicians of any level and it also features some extreemly powerful plug-ins for signal processing. Compared SoundForge and Sonar (these are my two reference points) Live 5 doesn't have all that many out of the box plug-ins, but it has the ones that count. The product is designed to accomodate the traveling producer, it's paired well with a laptop, but it holds it's own and is my choice for audio recording and mixing. I have not used Live 5 to MIDI sequence, but the product does support sequencing, VST plug-ins, etc... seems to be very capable.

Quality:
If only all software products could meet this type of standard.

Value:
It's about average for this type of software.

Desirability:
I got a Lite version of this software with my M-Audio MoblePre USB, I think m-Audio is distributing this software in the US, anyway... I'm very glad I loaded the Lite version, because I quickly found it to be the most inviting sequencer I've worked with. Much work went into putting togeather this user interface and the payoff is time you save and the fun you have using this product. I perfect 10!

Sound:
I've teamed it up with an M-Audio MoblePre USB on my laptop as well as an EMU 0404 on desktop, the sound quality is quite good and the software seems solid. No slow-down or crashes. I've gone up to six tracks and was trying to stress test it, so I had about three effects applied to each channel during recording and EQ added to the master, using just digital audio (no MIDI sequencing). I've managed to break Sony's SoundForge and Sonar 4 with this kind of stress, Ableton's Live handled it with no problem, no pops or cracks in the mix. I'm very impressed.

Overall:
I like how this product is designed to be both a scratch pad and a professional production tool, because it allows your music to grow from demo to finished product in a way that other applications just don't. I suppose it should be classified somewhere between entry level and professional toolset, I'm not sure how to classify it. I know some people will probably not like it's approach, but for those just starting out this is the way to go and I think this sort app represents where audio production software is headed. I still have SoundForge and Sonar, I still make use of them for some applications, but Live is my favorite app to fire up.

• Submitted: 2/7/2006

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

• User: a customer from du.edu
• Submitted: 7/2/2005
• Style of Music: livetronica when using this product, house/progressive dance music as well
• Location: Denver, CO, United States