Press Release
September 12th, 2002
ABLETON LIVE NOMINATED FOR PRESTIGIOUS TEC AWARD
BERLIN, GERMANY — September 12, 2002 - Ableton, an innovative Berlin-based music software company, today announced that their first product Live has been nominated for a Technical Excellence and Creativity Award (TEC).
Presented by the Mix Foundation for Excellence in Audio, the 18th Annual Tec Awards will be held on Monday, October 7, 2002, at the Wilshire Grand Hotel in Los Angeles. Abletons sequencing instrument Live is nominated for outstanding technical achievement in the category Signal Processing Technology.
About Live
A new audio sequencer that is designed specifically for live performance, LIVE is unique in the way it handles loops and samples. Sound files are time-stretched and compressed in real time, while being read from the hard disk. Even long recordings with unstable tempos, play in perfect sync with the current session tempo or an external clock source. With Live, users can record, loop, effect, resample, and launch sounds without ever stopping the music.
About Ableton
At Ableton, artists, software specialists and business people have come together to create a new generation of music software. The company was founded by the Berlin-based computer music project Monolake in the fall of 1999. Since the company started, more than twenty developers and business professionals have joined Ableton--many of them active musicians or DJs--whose link is the common goal: To develop excellent software for making music.
Live User about Live
A small sampling of what our users and press are saying:
Richie Hawtin (Plastikman, Plus 8 Records)
"...a new piece of electronic music software specialised for live performance, which is definitely the most groundbreaking piece of software I've seen for the past decade."
Lol Tolhurst (Levinhurst, Founder of The Cure)
"Live is just what I have been looking for in music software, it's very intuitive, creative and really quite wonderful!"
Styrofoam, (Morr Music)
"absolutely no other software would allow you to do something like this - really play it like an instrument jamming along with an acoustic guitar and vocals (!)"
Claude Young, Producer & DJ
"Once again thank you Ableton for making life a little more exciting with Live!"
Fred Giannelli (Kooky Scientist)
"Performing with Live is like arranging on the fly - you can do everything spontaneously and interact with the computer more than ever before."
Andrew Coleman (Animals on Wheels)
"Live is loads of fun! It has given me the chance to actually do something really live! I keep getting really excited when i render a tracks parts to audio, mess with them in Live and create a whole new arrangement. It's a very creative tool."
Marc Leclair (Akufen)
"LIVE......make yourself at home, meaning that even on stage you can feel like you're at home in your studio making music."
"It meets exactly my needs by allowing me to load tons of complex sequences that I wouldn't have been able to reproduce live before. It gives me way more flexibility and combinations in terms of deconstructing and also gives me more confidence."
Taylor Deupree
"Live really filled a wide open gap in the macintosh music software market. we needed a tool like this. and because it's sample based it can sound like anything you want it to, so it's not really only for one sort of style or another. it's very flexible."
Steve Stoll
"It feels like the software is breathing"
Deadbeat
"I've been waiting for an application like this for a long time. I have never been particularly concerned with MIDI, so having something that is completely dedicated to mangling audio, AND that works as both a studio and performance application is more than I could have ever hoped for."
Luke (Ruff & Jam)
"It's Fast! Very Stable and we feel totally at home, The Effects are Huge! the concept is Awesome, and it WORKS ! While testing it we could remix some tracks of our LP in minutes...Stunning! The only thing we didn't like about Ableton Live is : It wasn't in our arsenal while producing the album!!! :)"
Coldcut/ninjatune (matt black)
"LIVE is the next generation digital sound instrument that Coldcut and many DJs and music makers have been waiting for. Possibly the most enjoyable program I have ever used. It's instant yet as deep as you want. I have put my record box away, because with a laptop and LIVE I can do more interesting sets and rock the house right. We love LIVE!"
Press about Live
Craig Anderton, musicplayer.com
"Every now and then, a program redefines what music software is all about, like Sound Designer, Acid, or Reason. Live is that kind of program. Its ability to record your performance for later editing successfully bridges the gap between stage and studio."
Computer Music Magazine, 01/02
"It's not very often that a company claims to have produced a truly new kind of sequencer, but Ableton's Live might just break the moulds."
Jeff Taylor and Jon Drukman, XLR8R, 03/02
"Hey DJs: prepare your pyrotechnic shows and get your back-up dancers in shape - a revolutionary new software application called Live allows club-minded producers to strut their stuff on stage without skiping a beat."
Orren Merton, Streamworksaudio.com
"Retro is everywhere. Virtual representation of physical hardware is everywhere. Trying to do what everyone else does, but better, is everywhere. What is difficult to find, however, is something completely new, innovative, that's trying to create an entire new paradigm of what audio software can do. Enter Live, the first program from young German software developer Ableton - a program that doesn't try to refine what other applications already do, but offer something unique. For that feat alone, these guys deserve credit. Luckily, the program itself delivers quite a bit more than simple novelty."
Darwin Grosse, Creative Synth
"I'm floored. This is one of the best sequencing packages to come down the block in ages, and frankly sprints ahead of Acid, Sonar and Phrazer as THE THING for loop sequencing and manipulation."
Ronan MacDonald, Computer Music UK 42/01
"... it's a truly amazing thing that I'd strongly urge anyone (particularly those with any interest in live work) to take a look at."
For more information, contact:
AbletonClaudia Weidner, PR
Schönhauser Allee 6/7
D - 10119 Berlin
T: +49-(0)30 288763-211
F: +49-(0)30 288763-11
press@ableton.com
www.ableton.com