Ableton Live 10 - First Impressions

I was very excited to read the announcement of Ableton Live 10 recently, and have since gotten my grubby hands on a beta copy. Here are my first impressions...

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I hadn't realized how long it has been since Live 9 was released. Turns out it's been four years already. Compared to previous years, the Ableton forums haven't been chock-a-block with people begging for new features for the next version of Live. This speaks volumes for how refined and rounded the software has become. I've been using Live since version four, and I didn't think I needed any new features, until I tried them!

There is a lot of hype about the new Wavetable synth. I've been playing around with it and while extremely powerful and easy to use, it is extremely CPU intensive, so much so that I will be reluctant to use it spontaneously. Some of the presets push my Core i7 processor past 50% by holding down just one note. Yikes! There are other new devices too, such as the fantastic new Pedal effect, and Drum Bus, among others.

When you open Live 10, the first thing that stands out is the slightly tweaked interface. A new font and color scheme combine with crisper vector graphics and a higher frame rate to bring the GUI bang up to date on modern high res screens. The browser has been given a welcome overhaul too. The color coded shortcuts will prove very handy indeed.

Arrangement View has been tweaked with dozens of great workflow enhancements, including scroll-wheel support for zooming and resizing. New Push controller features have also been added, but keep in mind, most of these are for Push 2, so it might be time for an upgrade.

Another interesting new feature is called "Capture". I didn't think I would bother with it until I tried it out. It's great. If you're jamming without recording and happen upon something cool, you can click the Capture button and it will give you a midi clip with the latest couple of bars of your jamming.

Overall, I don't think there is much to set the world on fire, but there are tons of small improvements here and there. Certainly enough that I jumped on the chance to pre-order my upgrade, while the 20% sale is on.

Check out Abletons promo video for more: