Today AKAI released the APC 40 – Ableton Performance Controller. Ableton and Akai worked in a joint partnership to create the APC40, a Controller specifically designed as Ableton Live control surface.

To me this new Ableton controller looks very intresting and I really want to get my hands on it!

The price of this new controller should be around 499 EUR/USD.

Check out the following vids to get an impression on the APC40:

APC40 Ableton Performance Controller

The APC40 Ableton Performance Controller in action!

You can find lots of information and overviews on the official APC40 page…

more info at:
http://www.apc40.com
http://www.akaipro.com/apc40
http://twitter.com/Akai_Pro

I am very excited about this news and can’t wait to get my hands on the new version of Ableton.

I already took a sneak into the beta version of the software but didn’t really got to get into all the new functions and improvements.

I will do my first steps with the new version within the next weeks to get a feeling what has changed and what new functions are really interesting for my setup.

Also I am a little anxious about migrating my setup from Version 7 to 8. I hope I will get everything of my setup running in the new versoin without having to much work and trubble with it. I will post my first impressions and experiences on the new version here on my page.

Official Ableton Live 8 product information:

New in Ableton Live 8
Version 8 enhances the Ableton vision of creative, real-time digital music with a wealth of new techniques, effects and most-wanted workflow improvements.

Groove patterns can add life and swing to straight sequences. Live 8′s new groove engine lets you apply groove patterns in real time, extract grooves from audio or MIDI sources, quantize audio and MIDI in real time. It also comes with a new groove library.

New ways of working with warping and important Warp Mode enhancements. Audio events can be warped by adjusting the events on the timeline. Beats Mode has been updated, and there’s a new Complex Warp Mode. Also slice audio files to MIDI tracks based on transients.

A much-requested feature, the Ableton Looper effect gives you classic sound-on-sound looping without the limitations of a hardware device. Looper is set up for remote operation, so you can record, overdub, undo and more without touching the computer.

Live 8 includes five powerful new effects: Vocoder, Multiband Dynamics, Overdrive, Limiter and Frequency Shifter. These effects cover all the known aspects of these devices, but really shine due to some innovative features and enhancements from Ableton labs.

Version 8 makes Live easier with a number of most-wanted enhancements and some deceptively simple detail work including real-time crossfades in the Arrangement View, enhanced MIDI editing, group tracks, a screen magnifier and more.

New in Ableton Suite 8
Ableton Suite 8 is a package which gives you a rich world of sound, perfectly complementing the tools and features in Live 8. Suite 8 provides all the instruments a musician could hope for, including a wide range of synths, a powerful sampler, electric and acoustic drums, mallets, numerous sampled instruments: 10 instruments in all. Here’s what’s new in Suite 8.

Ableton Suite 8′s library completely surpasses everything that Ableton has ever offered before. With the creative professional in mind, Ableton has put together a well-balanced and comprehensive tool set and, above all, a wide-ranging set of beautiful sounds.

Collision is a unique instrument for mallet sounds and creative percussion. Co-developed with AAS, it uses physical modeling technology to reproduce real-world instruments such as xylophones, but also provides enough depth to create new instruments and sounds.

Latin Percussion is a collection of acoustic percussion instruments from the worlds of Brazilian, Afro-Cuban and African music. It also comes with clips and grooves, so you don’t only get the drums, you also get the drummer.

Operator, Ableton’s renowned do-it-all synthesizer, has been given a major overhaul.
New filter types, more modulation routing options and additive wavetable synthesis with drawable partials make Operator more powerful and flexible than ever.

Pricing:
Ableton Live 8 and Suite 8 are available immediately by the following pricing:

Ableton Live 8

• Boxed version: EUR 449 / USD 549
  (includes the Essential Instrument Collection 2, printed manual)

• Download version: EUR 349 / USD 449

Ableton Suite 8

• Boxed version: EUR 699 / USD 849
  (includes Ableton Live 8, sound library, 10 Ableton instruments including Session Drums and Essential Instrument Collection 2, printed manual)

• Download version: EUR 549 / USD 699
  (includes Ableton Live 8, sound library, 8 Ableton instruments)

Upgrades to Suite 8/Live 8 vary in price, depending on the Ableton products you already own.

more information at:

http://www.ableton.com

Also you can find a bunch of Ableton 8 preview and introduction videos at youtube, myvideo or whatever video side you are prefer…

Here some introduction vids:
Ableton Live 8 Preview – Part 1 – by sonicacademy.com
Ableton Live 8 Preview – Part 2 – by sonicacademy.com

What’s new in Ableton Live 8