ShelLuser wrote:Shameless self promotion in progress; I
blogged about it (link).
Basically I think Live 9 (Suite) is a big improvement over Live 8 on several aspects. For example the new workflow where all your own setups won't find their way into the library but your user library instead, this is bound to make your whole setup more portable.
The inclusion of several new devices and instruments is IMO also quite good; things like the Glue compressor and the Orchestral Instrument Collection (I'm quite excited about those).
And then there's of course the set of new features. Like, for example, being able to extract harmony, melody or drums directly to MIDI.
But to be very honest the whole thing feels a bit unfinished to me. As if it was released before the intended date. For example; you pick up the included PDF manual, check the section about Max for Live only to see it filled with examples and scenario's which address the previous version.
And although all the sound presets are neatly sorted into categories (Bass, Brass, Pads, Strings..) the drums section is basically one big pile of presets, topped by the Drum rack.
That looks sloppy and feels unfinished to me. Especially when taken the clear separation of the sound presets into account, combined with the fact that this kind of separation was present in the Live 8 library. There I have a folder "Cymbal", "Hihat", "Snare" and even "Kit" which contains full drum kits.
Now I click "Drums" and end up with one big pile of percussion presets.
Sure; there is some separation when you collapse the "Drum hits" section. Just too bad that most of my presets seem to have ended up outside of that structure. It makes no sense; "Bongo A.adg" from Latin Percussion sits outside the structure, "Bongo A H Heel.adg" inside and under the "Bongo" section.
Same applies to Max for Live; that section has also become one big pile of devices. Which, IMO, makes it much harder to use. Especially since you can't easily start sorting it out yourself (you can't create new folders here).
So that is; not without copying stuff to your user library. But why would you want to copy files for the sole intention of sorting? As if keeping 2 (sample) libraries wasn't enough...
That's the other issue; the way they handled the Live 8 library. I know my way around all this, but I still say the lack of documentation on upgrading from 8 to 9 is boggling. I seriously wonder how many people basically (re-)install their livesets without realizing that they now actually keep the same samples in two locations at the same time (eating up precious diskspace). I'm of course referring to the Live 8 library in contrast to the new "Factory packs" folder.
Now, this may sound a little more negative than intended. In the overall I enjoy Live 9 and I think they made some serious progress on several fronts. Some of the new devices really add up to the workflow, the sound collection has been heavily enhanced, and in general the whole program seems to perform much better (start Live, turn APC40 on, continue working..).
Its really good. But, as mentioned, at some points it simply feels unfinished to me.
