I bought live when it was version 4.1.4 and it was so solid I couldn't have been happier.
Having tried live 2 and 3 I thought that the imminent upgrade path to 5 would take the software to new heights, becoming more stable, efficient and flexible.
I wish I had never saved my songs in live 5 format. i can't finish them because live has slowed down so much. Even bouncing everything down and halving the number of tracks hasn't helped much. Audio glitches, lockups and a very slow response are the most regular features of live 5 it would seem. I'm facing a very real possibility of reconstructing the songs in version 4!
It simply isn't acceptable after so many people have invested in the software that it degenerate so much in quality, both in terms of resource efficiency and poor half baked implementation of promised features.
The implementation of freeze is laughable and shows a complete lack of insight into the practical uses of such a feature.
The new flanger and phaser are cold and unmusical and that is the nicest thing i can say about them, they certainly don't belong sonically with the other live fx.
And frankly, basic stuff like the amount of wasted grey area above the timeline, i could get 2 more tracks on screen with live 4 in the arrange view. Why can't you turn off the overview or tuck the transport neatly into the corner to free up more room for tracks? i could go on like this listing (to me) obvious flaws for another 2 hours if i had the time!
Earlier in the thread someone expressed annoyance at the small group of people defending ableton as if they were relatives or something. I quite agree, and after reading oddtones001 post you wonder if they are not also under abletons payroll!
It is quite right and reasonable to expect an old set saved from 4.1.4 to play back fine in version 5. if anything it should use less cpu etc not nearly twice the amount.
Ableton should upgrade Live 5 to 5.99 if necessary so that it is AT LEAST as efficient playing identical sets as Live 4.1.4 was. This goes for the Slow arrange response as well! Asking us to pay for 6 when 5 never worked well is asking too much imo. Come on Ableton we are waiting for a response! It is for you to restore your user's faith in the product.
I will not pay for 6 if version 5 is not as stable as version 4 was in it's last incarnation. As it stands, Live 5 is relegated to studio toy for messing with a couple of loops. A real shame as i thought it was all i was going to need.