Max For Live, a collaboration between Ableton and Cycling ‘74, is now available.

The video above offers an introduction to Max For Live and what you get with it.

Here are some more Max For Live coverage highlights:

• Max For Live Sneak Preview
• Free Max For Live Tutorial
• Getting Started With Max
• Robert Henke on Max For Live

Max for Live retails for USD 299/EUR 249. If you already own Max 5, the discounted price is USD 99/EUR 79.

See our previous Max For Live coverage for more info!

Ableton Live: Tom Cosm does a “power run” through 10 Ableton Live tips.

Cosm’s tips cover:

1. Resetting a parameter to its default value
2. Moving everything in the piano roll up or down an octave.
3. Drawing lines freehand with the pencil tool
4. Changing the grid size intro triplets, or off completely using key commands.
5. Moving just a few notes in the piano roll, select them by holding down Shift and clicking.
6. Playing back the audio exactly where you last stopped it.
7. Duplicating a loop AND it’s automation.
8. Consolidate chopped loops into a neatly timed loop.
9. Zooming everything out to 100%
10. Using the virtual keyboard to trigger samples in the drum rack.

See Cosm’s post on this video for more details on the tips he covers here.

We do our best to avoid “cute kitty with music gear” photos at Synthtopia. You can only get so excited about another shot of somebody’s cat peaking out of their Buchla modular synth or sleeping on their Korg OASYS.

Jaded as we may be, though, this is the cutest kitty DJ in the world.

Ohhhh, kitteh so cute!

We’ll try to redeem this post by linking to the source of this photo, the blog of Ryan Gruss – a drummer who says that “the world has been overrun by shitty producers with their 808 samples and re-mixed Ableton Live schlock.”

Gruss is drummer on a mission to put more groove in your mix, and he’s doing it by blogging a free professionally recorded drum loop every day. He includes MP3 previews, but also multitracked Logic sessions and mixed down WAV, AIFF and REX2 files.

They’re Creative Commons licensed, so you can slap it up, flip it and rub it down as long as you give Gruss credit.

Special Secret Groove Sauce: Gruss’s RSS feed has MP3 enclosures – which means it’s a podcast and you can subscribe to it with iTunes and get the free loops delivered to your ears automatically.

In iTunes, navigate to Advanced – Subscribe to Podcast and paste in his feed URL: http://feeds2.feedburner.com/ryangrusscom

Ableton’s Robert Henke (Monolake) discusses Max For Live and his history with Max.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Henke is one of the original architects of Ableton Live and now acts as part of the specification team, determining the direction for the future of Live.

via cycling74com

Steven Ness is working on a version of Terry Riley’s minimalist classic In C, using Max For Live and Ableton Live 8.

In C consists of 53 musical phrases, lasting from half a beat to 32 beats that should be played in order, but can be repeated any number of times.

In this video demo, Ness explains how he’s using Max For Live to recreate the logic of In C using the capabilities of Max For Live.

Best quote: “Oh my god! Max For Live Is Going To Blow Your Mind!”

This video demonstrates using Max For Live with a Wacom Tablet to control the Analog synth instrument in Ableton Live 8.

The “Wacom Theremin” offers a lot of expressive musical potential, with 5 degrees of control over the sound.

Details below.

via rerunnermusic:

The live.remote~ object passes data at many times the resolution of MIDI (one of the great things about the Wacom tablet and sample accurate modulation from MSP to Ableton Live using the API objects in Max for Live).

The Wacom tablet has 5 degrees of hi-res expressive freedom (see below for mappings). Very promising, this is just a quick little study… Cheers.

x axis = pitch (tempered)
y axis = volume
pen pressure =vibrato amount
tilt axis y = vibrato rate
tilt axis x = detune +/- semitone.

Michael Una looks at using the $44.95 Highly Liquid MD24 MIDI decoder kit to control a handmade analog bass line sequencer and drum machine via Ableton Live.

This video shows you how to use Ableton Live like an MPC to chop and play your samples so that they can cut each other off.

The video also shows how to setup your own custom drum racks in Ableton so this chop and cut off setting is done automatically when you slice a new sample.

via SoundsAndGear

Sunday Synth Jam: This video demonstrates jamming with the JazzMutant Lemur and Ableton Live.

It starts with a demo jam and then digs into the set up of the Lemur with Live.

via tonvibration:

playing a ableton live set with my current live control surface on the jazzmutant lemur.
(the soundquality is a little poor – sorry – next time i shouldn´t record it directly with the cam…. but it is only for demonstration purpose anyway…)
i talk a little about the controls at the end.

Sunday Synth Jam: This track was done using only the Novation Launchpad and Ableton Live 8. Plugins used were Native Instruments Massive, Discovery DSP and ABL2.

It would have been nice to get an inset of the screen on this.

via SuicideServer:

The idea to this video came after someone asked me here on Youtube if i need all of my machines to make music – so you guys are the judge now Cheers

Matthew Davidson (stretta) put together this demo video for obo – a Max For Live app that turns Ableton Live 8 into a matrix synth, inspired by the addictive-like-crack ToneMatrix synth:

I’ve adapted obo for use in maxforlive, added monome 128/256 support (not required for operation), 16 pattern memory, edit while play, copy/paste patterns and a scale generator (whew).

Check it out and let me know what you think!

Because it was there: Ableton Live 8 does Twitter, with a bit of help from Max for Live, MXJ and Jython.

“I sat and watched fifteen minutes of the Twitter public timeline while recording this video,” says Nick Rothwell, “and have now lost the will to live.”

Maybe if we could just use the Twitter stream to trigger events based on keywords in tweets……

Changes Ableton Live 7.0.18:

• Support for the Novation LaunchPad controller.
• Support for the AKAI MPD-18, MPK-25, MPK-61 and MPK-88 controllers.
• Support for OpenLabs devices.
• Several improvements for the AKAI APC.

Bug fixes since v7.0.16:

• Putting third party plug-in with MIDI out ports on the master track and route the MIDI output of the master track into a MIDI track would crash Live.
• Opening a particular set would crash as soon as the clip detail view of a particular clip would be opened.
• Deleting temp folder would not always work properly.
• Ctrl + Z on modal dialog on a modal dialog could crash Live.
• The display representation of the Axiom Pro’s endless encoders would not update when the knobs itself are turned.
• The state of the tempo nudge up/down would be saved within a Live set by mistake.
• Select on launch would not working when using the APC.
• Locked user remote script would not be locked after re-loading the Live set.
• On Mac OS X, switching on the APC 40 or the Remote SL after Live is already started could still not allow to use the controller until its MIDI port was closed and reopened.
• On Mac OS X 10.6.0, using the Complex warper could crash Live.
• Playing MIDI could crash Live when multi-core support is enabled.
• Switching on track-solo would not work properly in exclusive mode when switching via the APC.
• On Mac OS X 10.6.x, starting Live with a template set that contains audio clips, and with another CoreAudio client running at the same time (e.g. iTunes), would freeze Live. Also, changing sample rates in Live would not work properly.

Image: Tech Star

A nice shot of the new Novation Launchpad.

Tech Star calls the Launchpad “one of the best purchases I have made so far.”

via the Synthtopia Flickr Group

This video, via synthjunk, is a celebration of all that is good – with an emphasis on the pure analog electronica power, using classic synths, sequencers and drum machines.

via synthjunk:

Influenced by electronic music of the 70’s 80’s & 90’s.

Recorded using Ableton live with minimal overdubbing.

Robot featured is home made.

Ableton Live tips: This set of videos, via Bjorn Vayner, shows “features in Live you may have overlooked or forgotten about.”

Part 1 looks at ways to resize multiple tracks in the Session View and how you can continue a stopped Session from where you left off.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Part 2 looks at how you can change the tempo and/or time signature by triggering a scene, how you can expand the Mixer View and how to capture and insert a scene.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Part 3 looks at how to make custom names for notes or ranges of notes appear in the MIDI editor.
The second trick shows a quick way to double the output of your computer keyboard.

Matthew Davidson has put together a couple of videos demonstrating how you can run monome apps in Ableton Live 8 with the help of Max For Live.

Davidson notes:

maxforlive simplifies monome workflow.

For example, if you want to use polygomé with a DAW, you must open your DAW software, open polygomé, set up sync in polygomé, set up sync in your host app, set up MIDI output routings from polygomé, set up MIDI routings in your DAW. There is a lot of overhead.

With maxforlive, you simply drag polygomé into your track as a MIDI effect. Then you can start playing immediately. There is no setup. Everything is in sync.

Here’s another video, by Davidson, that demonstrates a stepfilter audio effect he created for Ma For Live.

If you’re working with the monome + Max For Live combination, leave a comment with your thoughts on it!

This Ableton Live tutorial looks at using sends and returns.

via PrimeLoops:

The sends and returns in Ableton are often overlooked, they are very simple to use, and save you CPU power, plus give you more control over a bunch of channels effects, this ones simple yet effective!

Stay Creative!

Ableton Live: Dubspot Instructor, Michael Hatsis, shows how to add Space and Dimension to Minimal Techno style drums.

Topics covered include using Drum Rack’s Send and Return tracks, as well as Creating and using a Plate and a Room style reverb in Ableton Live.

via DubSpot:

If you’re excited about Max For Live, but don’t know anything about Max, check out max4live’s video tutorials.

This video looks at message ordering in Max. There’s a beginning Max video also.