Ableton Live is a music and audio production program that allows users to spontaneously compose, capture, remix, improvise and edit your musical ideas. Live allows users to mix in electronic, acoustic and virtual instruments, as well as digital audio recordings and samples, together in one intuitive interface. With Live, users can focus more on music instead of the gears. The Ableton Live Demo is available for download, it allows for a 30 day trial that users can use as long as they have internet connection.

An Ableton Live Mac version is also available.

Click to see the Ableton Live 8 Manual

Capture and cut samples on the fly, mix and match audio with differing tempo, and audio effects, all while the music is playing. The whole music making process can happen in real time. Ableton Live allows users to focus on inspiration and creativity instead of focusing on setting up gear for performance or recording.

The latest version of Live, includes revamped warping, reworked MIDI editor, a new groove engine, live looping, new effects and crossfades in the Arrangement View.

Ableton Live is also featured in our rouudup of the best Music Production Software

Features:

• Up to 32-bit/192kHz of Multi Track recording.
• With built in MIDI sequencing software and virtual instruments
• Unlimited undo and Nondestructive editing
• With built-in audio effects, including filters, delays, studio compressors, distortions and EQs
• Real-time stretching and warping of WAV, Ogg Vorbis, AIFF, FLAC and MP3 files, for live improvisation and instant remixing
• Video export and import for scoring to picture, or molding picture to music
• Effect Racks for managing live setups, multi-effects and drum kits
• Full ReWire is supported
• Native sliced audio file creation and REX support
• Instant software instruments
• On the fly control with any MIDI controller, ,most popular supported controllers allow for instant mapping
• VST and AU instruments and effects support; with plug-in delay compensation
• Single-screen graphical interface for focused operation
• Multiprocessor and Multi Core support

Related Hardware:
USB Audio Interface Roundup

Changes in 8.3.4:

• Now shows word size in splash screen
• Email address of user now shown on About window
• Improved the authorization dialogue
• Various bugfixes
• (8.3.3)Minor changes for usage data reporting.

Changes in Ableton Live 8.4 Beta:

• 64-bit native support

Changes in Ableton Live 8.3.1:

• Improved performance when recording many MIDI CC data into MIDI clips.
• The default takeover mode for control surfaces has been changed to "none" (this will only affect new installations).
• Minor changes for usage data reporting.
• Bugfix for issue which could lead to degraded resolution of automation data when recording automation for VST plugins running in Novation's Automap shell.
• Bugfix for issue which prevented samples from being opened in an external sample editor.
• Fixed a crash which could occur when importing two identical audio files into Live.
• Bugfix for issue which could lead to two undo steps when freezing a track.
• Bugfix for issue which could cause the save dialogue to disappear in OS X Lion.
• Under certain conditions, Live's splash screen wouldn't appear on OS X Lion.
• Opening an alias file of a Live set wouldn't work on OS X Lion.
• Bugfix for login problems in the SoundCloud uploader on Windows.
• Bugfix for a rare crash which could occur with automatic updates on certain Windows computers.

Changes in Ableton Live 8.2.8:

• Added Ableton Improvement Program Participation
• Bugfix for "Beats" warp mode which could lead to unwanted clicks in rare cases.

Changes in Ableton Live 8.2.5:

• To prevent Live from crashing, users are prevented from choosing the Windows root folder for their plugins location.
• MIDI sync was improved when Live is used as a MIDI clock slave.
• The Takeover default mode in MIDI Preferences is now set to Value Scaling and not Pick-up.
• Tracks are now routed properly when imported.
• Other bugfixes are available at AbletonLive's latest release information.

Changes in Ableton Live 8.2.1:

• Improvements to Amp presets including better folder organization, additional guitar and bass amp presets and various other changes.
• Improvements to sound quality in Drum Machines.
• Performance optimizations on many Rack presets.
• Many delay devices now use the "Fade" Delay Transition mode, to avoid clicks.
• All Latin Percussion sounds are additionally available as chromatically tuned Simpler presets.

Bug fixes:

• Amp is now available in the trial version of Ableton Suite.
• Removed duplicate Amp presets.
• Fixed Hot-Swap behavior for a number of Session Drums and Drum Machines presets.
• Fixed a bug that prevented the use of soundcards with only one input on OS X.
• Fixed a crash that occurred when using a ReWire slave such as Reason and manipulating devices in the slave that were referred to by clips in Live.

Related Hardware:

• DAW Controller
• DJ Controller