Ableton Live 9 Review – The Ultimate Stage Performer

Design:
Features:
Performance:
Value:

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If live performance is your focus, Ableton Live 9 is definitely the DAW for you. This thing is easily among the best digital audio workstations you can get right now, and the new version only makes it better. Today we're going to take a closer look and see for ourselves.

Design

The moment you fire up Ableton Live 9, it becomes apparent that the entire DAW was setup for live use. With that said, user interface is very clean and customizable. Ableton went with a rather basic aesthetic, which we can attribute to them wanting to keep Live 9 as easy to use as possible. The last thing you want to happen when triggering samples live, is a crowded work space. Live 9 version has been four years in the making. To some, this lack of tangible change might be a turn off, however we absolutely love the simple appeal this DAW has. What we really appreciate is how good this DAW scales. You can start it up on just about any screen size and retain that beautiful clarity. Sure,, it may not look as modern as some other DAWs out there, but Ableton Live 9 is all about pure performance.

Features

When it comes to features, Ableton really took their time figuring out what upgrades to include with Live 9. Due to how specific they were in this process, some may think that Live 9 doesn't feel like a product of four years of development. The most important new feature is definitely the enhance and reworked browser. Right off the bat, it is much more intuitive, with its two columns. Everything about it is built for speed and unhindered work flow. As always, the recording and mixing aspect of Live are its strongest features. Built in EQ is easily one of the best for live use, while its automation suite works borderline flawlessly. Overall, it is very hard to find a flaw in this setup. Ableton managed to distill Live to a very potent configuration of tools, all of which work together with zero friction.

Performance

If there is one way to describe the performance of Ableton Live 9, it is smooth. As a matter of fact, Live is now smoother than ever, thanks to the much more intuitive browser. Pulling samples and effects from the library is simple to a point where you can get what you need in a matter of seconds. Previous Ableton Live versions had almost no stability issues, but Live 9 pushes that level of integration and consistency to a whole new level. This DAW allows for an incredibly smooth work flow, even in live environments where you have to get things done on the fly. It essentially allows you to be as creative as you want to, without hindering you with a cumbersome user interface or complicated control panels. Instead of working for you, Live 9 works with you. Overall, there are only a few other DAWs that can compare.

Conclusion

Ableton Live 9 brings that core performance the community is used to seeing. However, the new and redesigned browser really makes life easier for anyone with large libraries. Did it meet the expectations after four years of development? In our opinion, it definitely did considering what it's meant to do.

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