Ableton Live 8

Digital Audio Workstations (DAW) have been part of the PC world for many years now. The first big Digital Audio Workstation to hit big was Pro Tools, which was the standard for Digital Audio Workstations for many years and is still used today by many producers around the world. Years pass and more Digital Audio Workstation hit the market allowing users to have some choice in the program they use. Many of those earlier Digital Audio Workstations had lots of menu options, cluttered screen space, really bad help programs and just the overall complexity of the screen turned a lot of new producers away from the idea of making music on a Digital Audio Workstation.

Ableton Live 8 on the other hand has tried to make their product as easy , user friendly and clutter free as possible. The first time I turned on Ableton Live 8 I was not sure that it could even do everything I wanted it to do music wise, the screen just looked to simple. Sure enough Ableton Live 8 was able to do just about everything I could no on the older Digital Audio Workstations but with less stress, less tabs and menu options to scroll threw, best help options I have ever seen in a Digital Audio Workstation and overall ease of use for both studio and live settings.

Ableton can record and mix down live audio and instruments or be used as a sequencer for you midi based hardware synthesizers or software VST. The sequencer in Ableton Live 8 can be used and edited with the mouse or can be setup like a old school sequencer and set to step record mode. Each track has it's own volume slider which makes mixing on the fly a breeze, these sliders ( along with almost anything else in Ableton Live 8 ) have a midi learn feature which allows you to control the sliders with your hardware USB controllers. The track count is unlimited , only limited by how much your PC can handle at once.

DJ's can use Ableton Live 8 in very effect ways to bring a solid mix to a CD or live performance. Everything a DJ needs to beat match, add effects, or bring a new song into the mix is all on Ableton Live 8. Lots of DJ's use Ableton Live 8 and never have to lug turntables and a mixing board to a performance ever again.

Ableton Live 8 is great for someone just starting out in the producer/DJ world because of the very simple help that comes with the software. Anytime you put your mouse cursor over anything in Ableton Live 8 it will tell you everything and anything about that part of the program along with and short cuts or hot keys that might be available. If you are new and are considering Ableton Live 8 or any other Digital Audio Workstation will have to consider buying a decent sound card if you don't already own one. Almost any decent sound card brand with good ASIO driver will do. Without decent ASIO drivers recording or sequencing on a Digital Audio Workstation will not work well. ASIO are low latency audio drivers that are needed for these programs.

I would recommend Ableton Live 8 to anyone getting into music production or is interested in starting to DJ off their PC. Ableton Live 8 can be found at any local music store that has electronic gear in stock or anyplace that deals with similar stuff on line.