Modulate This! - Electronic & Experimental Music Tech, Technique, & People

Abelton Announces a Powerful New Sampling Instrument - Sampler

Ableton announced a new sampling instrument called Sampler. According to Ableton - "Sampler also goes deep in the sound design department, bringing powerful sample manipulation and brilliant synthesis capabilities, all with the intuitive usability familiar to Live users."

Sampler will come with a multisample library and support import of "popular" formats such as: AKAI S1000, S3000, GigaStudio, EXS, SoundFont and (non-encrypted) Kontakt.

Sampler will allow you to create your own mutlsamples (unlimited number of zones). Each zone supports  looping, key velocity ranges, and crossfades using a graphical editor.

Sampler's "Live's disk preloading technology" help to prevent RAM memory shortages and long load times.

Sampler sports some serious programmability as well as many modulation options including sample start and loop position as well as loop length.

Pricing. A serial number for the full version of Sampler (requires Live 6) will be available for EUR 169/USD 199 from the Ableton webshop.

Availability. Sampler will be available with the release of Live 6. Sampler is currently in beta testing with Live 6.

 
For more information, visit this page http://www.ableton.com/sampler.

Dimension Pro 1.2 - Free Update

There is a free update to Dimension Pro - Version 1.2. Registered users can get it here http://www.cakewalk.com/Support/kb/kb2005302.asp.

 

According to the Cakewalk's web site, features include:

New Configurations

• Intel Enabled Mac Support — A new AU package file provides full compatibility on Intel-based Mac Systems.
• RTAS Support — RTAS package provides native plug-in support through RTAS for Pro Tools 7.0 and above (Mac) and Pro Tools 6.0 and above (Windows).

Ableton Live 6 New Feature - Deep Freeze

Freezing a tracks has been a great way to save CPU load. The down side was you had to un-freeze tracks to edit them. Ablteon 6 will introduce Deep Freeze, which will allow you to do the following even if the track is frozen*:

• Edit, cut, copy, paste, duplicate and trim clips

• Draw/edit mixer automation and mixer clip envelopes
• Consolidate
• Record Session View clip launches into the Arrangement
• Create, move and duplicate Session View scenes
• Drag frozen MIDI clips into audio tracks

Now that's cool!

Ableton Live 6 - Coming in September 2006

Ableton has announced they will release Ableton Live 6 in September 2006.

Free upgrades to Live 6 are available to those who purchased Live 5 between July 14 and October 31. Information on this offer and general pricing is available here http://www.ableton.com/live6-pricing.

Here is a list of the big new features:

• Multicore and Multiprocessor Support
• Movie Import
• Essential Instrument Collection
• Instrument and Effect Racks
• New and Improved Devices
• Deep Freeze
• Project Management Tools
• Important Improvement
• Essential Instrument Selection (multi-gigabyte library of sounds). Note: The Essential Instrument Collection will not be included with downloadable purchases. Download customers can choose, however, to have the Live 6 box including the Essential Instrument Collection shipped to them later for an additional fee.

Go here for more details on what's new: http://www.ableton.com/pages/live_6/whats_new/home

I'll be posting more on this upgrade soon.