14 DAY TRIAL // Ableton is offering a new and improved version of its Live music production software for Macintosh computers, delivering improvements and feature changes, changes for push, and assorted bug fixes across the board. The update is free for all existing users.
Improvements and feature changes noted by Ableton include control surface support for Akai APC40 MKII, APC Key 25, and APC mini controllers, updated control surface documentation, and improved readability of text in clips, tracks, chains, and macro controls. Users will notice that the text color is now inverted automatically, but remains dependent on the color of the background.
Some changes for push are included as well. Before the 9.1.2 update, users could not edit device parameters if a track's input routing was set to “No Input,” and Live would record MIDI notes at the wrong position when using the Note Repeat function with the track's monitoring switch set to “No Input.” These two aspects are fixed.
Some users reported that audio clip recording was interrupted when choosing another track with Push. This would happen even if Exclusive Arm was deactivated in Live's preferences. Such instances should no longer occur. Finally, when selecting a track, the Melodic Step Sequencer should no longer fail to select a page in the currently playing clip.
Dozens more code corrections are implemented in this release. Ableton says, “Live would show cryptic error messages in case it detects and repairs a corrupt database. Now it shows something more meaningful.”
Another addressed issue involves looped clip envelopes exhibiting incorrect length after the envelope is unlinked, and yet another bug caused MIDI data from the computer MIDI keyboard or an external MIDI input to have a huge delay after connecting a jack plug. This affected Mac users only, according to the documentation.
Moreover, the developer notes that “When overdubbing a MIDI clip in the Arrangement View, the resulting clip would not be cropped to the correct content, but would contain all other notes of the track.” This bug is fixed now, allowing musicians to focus on adding more notes, rather than repairing the damage done by this flaw.
Existing customers can download Ableton Live 9.1.2 for free, while newcomers can also grab the software and try it in trial mode free of charge for 30 full days. Requirements include a multi-core processor, at least 2GB of RAM, and around 3GB of disk space. A broadband Internet connection is also needed for some features.