Remix magazine has reviewed Ableton Live 5 and say it’s the best version yet. The Track Freeze feature is an “absolute miracle,” and Clip handling also receives top marks for simplicity and usefulness. Even the included effects get a glowing description: “For all of you tweakers out there, Live 5 ships chock-full of fresh new audio effects: Beat Repeat, Auto Pan, Phaser, Flanger, Saturator, Arpeggiator (a MIDI effect) and an updated Simpler. To describe Beat Repeat, Ableton’s product information used the word addictive, and I couldn’t agree more.”

The review is quite detailed in its descriptions of Live 5’s new features. Two of the effects in particular get a mention: “Live’s new Flanger makes the cut and then some. I found it to be as addictive, if not more so, than Beat Repeat. … Almost equally impressive in my book to the Flanger is the new Phaser. … I simply love these two new effects.” They also describe the upgraded Simpler sampler , saying that it’s now more powerful yet still as easy to use as the name suggests.

Overall, they say that Ableton Live 5 is both stable and efficient, with excellent-quality new effects and top-notch time-stretching tools. Importantly, it’s still simple to use. “It’s a great program that, like a good bottle of vino, just keeps getting better with age. Best of all, despite all the new features packed in, Live retains its simple-to-learn and super-user-friendly UI. Version 5 is stable, efficient and a ton of fun to work with.”

Buy Live at SameDayMusic.com