Why doesn,t Ableton make a iphone/ipad (controller)app?

[Machinesworking]

You must have read something I didn't say, because I was talking about the "hooks". No there isn't OSC support, but the fact there are like half a dozen applications providing that support, I'd argue that the hooks for Ableton to do this are there.

As for the whole MFL and we are doomed rant... Name one time that Ableton did something that could be considered finished. Every upgrade of Live feels like we get the other half of the features that are already there. MFL is the same thing, its only half there.
And everything that gets added to the Live API can be used natively, with scripts (OSC) and in MFL.

And using "these days".. Apart from bug fixes, what really changed in the last 2 years? At least wait till NAMM/Messe to rant about the direction Live is going in, figuring nobody has a clue what that direction is yet.
You can probably fit all MFL developers in a rather small room. I wouldn't be too worried about us geeks somehow overpowering like 99.5% of the other paying customers.

Rant and argue all you want, there's definitely one thing we can agree on. Live 9 is going to clear up a lot of questions and we'll know what the hell they've been up to for the past 2 years.
A few years ago people wouldn't have even be surprised by the notion that the next upgrade was already being made while the latest is being shipped. I think they even complained about that.
Even taking Bridge, the bug fixing and MFL into account.. 2 years is a lot of development cycles.

No, you're not reading what I'm writing at all, you're just responding to a perceived rant etc. Take what I say for what it is, and we can have a pretty cool conversation I would think.

Again, IMO Ableton are are starting to bog down Live with work arounds for features, basically user interface faux pas's that require again less coding to implement. Racks are a great example, there are so many UI flops in Racks it's not funny. I don't think this is a great direction to take Live in, but it's been going that way for a while.

Did you even bother to watch the video for the DP Control? my guess is you didn't, or you would at least know I'm not directing my critique at Live having tech play ground tools, but at the lack of straight forward UI tools like we see with DP Control. I do think Ableton are in danger of becoming bi polar, basically trying to serve two masters at once:

1. The intuitive UI, being able to find features without hardly breaking out the manual. Ergonomics as important etc. Everything as logically designed as possible etc.

2. The flexible expandable adaptable DAW that can be configured to work the way you want it to, with toolkits like M4L and third party hardware etc.

It's much the same point you made at me years ago when I was asking for Event lists and SysEx, that Live needed to march to it's own drummer in your mind, that it shouldn't become a bloated DAW. The roles are slightly reversed though, as I'm the one now saying that Live IMO needs to go back and adhere to it's earlier hardcore UI standards. Though I suspect you're not against that, just getting hung up on the perception that I'm just ranting etc.

Hell you're even agreeing that older concepts don't seem complete!
This is what I hope for Live 9, basically a bunch of GUI and UI improvements, like what MOTU did with DP7. I'm not counting on it though, glad if it comes of course.

{edited to get rid of all the IMOs... bleh! }

[hoffman2k]

You must have read something I didn't say, because I was talking about the "hooks". No there isn't OSC support, but the fact there are like half a dozen applications providing that support, I'd argue that the hooks for Ableton to do this are there.

As for the whole MFL and we are doomed rant... Name one time that Ableton did something that could be considered finished. Every upgrade of Live feels like we get the other half of the features that are already there. MFL is the same thing, its only half there.
And everything that gets added to the Live API can be used natively, with scripts (OSC) and in MFL.

And using "these days".. Apart from bug fixes, what really changed in the last 2 years? At least wait till NAMM/Messe to rant about the direction Live is going in, figuring nobody has a clue what that direction is yet.
You can probably fit all MFL developers in a rather small room. I wouldn't be too worried about us geeks somehow overpowering like 99.5% of the other paying customers.

Rant and argue all you want, there's definitely one thing we can agree on. Live 9 is going to clear up a lot of questions and we'll know what the hell they've been up to for the past 2 years.
A few years ago people wouldn't have even be surprised by the notion that the next upgrade was already being made while the latest is being shipped. I think they even complained about that.
Even taking Bridge, the bug fixing and MFL into account.. 2 years is a lot of development cycles.

No, you're not reading what I'm writing at all, you're just responding to a perceived rant etc. Take what I say for what it is, and we can have a pretty cool conversation I would think.

Again, IMO Ableton are are starting to bog down Live with work arounds for features, basically user interface faux pas's that require again less coding to implement. Racks are a great example, there are so many UI flops in Racks it's not funny. I don't think this is a great direction to take Live in, but it's been going that way for a while.

Did you even bother to watch the video for the DP Control? my guess is you didn't, or you would at least know I'm not directing my critique at Live having tech play ground tools, but at the lack of straight forward UI tools like we see with DP Control. I do think Ableton are in danger of becoming bi polar, basically trying to serve two masters at once:

1. The intuitive UI, being able to find features without hardly breaking out the manual. Ergonomics as important etc. Everything as logically designed as possible etc.

2. The flexible expandable adaptable DAW that can be configured to work the way you want it to, with toolkits like M4L and third party hardware etc.

It's much the same point you made at me years ago when I was asking for Event lists and SysEx, that Live needed to march to it's own drummer in your mind, that it shouldn't become a bloated DAW. The roles are slightly reversed though, as I'm the one now saying that Live IMO needs to go back and adhere to it's earlier hardcore UI standards. Though I suspect you're not against that, just getting hung up on the perception that I'm just ranting etc.

Hell you're even agreeing that older concepts don't seem complete!
This is what I hope for Live 9, basically a bunch of GUI and UI improvements, like what MOTU did with DP7. I'm not counting on it though, glad if it comes of course.

{edited to get rid of all the IMOs... bleh! }

It gets very easy after a while to get touchy about MFL criticism. Mainly because people treat it like its the root of all evil in Live. My bad, its just the way I read it I suppose.

Racks are a perfect example of unfinished features. First we got groups (.adg), then we got racks and then Rack chains became pseudo tracks. Topped off with Group Tracks. This happened over 4 upgrades. And it still feels incomplete.

As for my views on things getting bloated.. With MFL I got like 90% of all the feature requests I ever made. And its invisible to users who don't care for those features. I'd say my views on Live getting bloated have significantly changed since our last arguments in this area.
Now the problem has become that not everybody can enjoy these granted feature requests. And there seems to be some fear that MFL will be the answer to every future feature request.

Nothing could be further from the truth (I hope). Its not because my wishes are granted that they won't grant the wishes of over a million other users.
I did watch the DP control video and I stand by what I said. Half of the things needed to make such an application are already there. The things we don't have yet are the editing features. You can do things like that Marker editing feature. But that's about it. You can't move/create/delete tracks/clips/scenes.
Another way to look at it: If Ableton implement more hooks, you'll have more than a DP control clone. You'll have the choice between like 10 different iApps. Not to mention whatever comes out on Android and new possible MIDI Controllers.

As for the Live application itself. If Live 9 doesn't have Session Automation recording, I'm gonna bust a cap in somebodies ass! Beyond that I'm clueless what Live 9 might bring.
As I'm like a handful of features removed from almost never having to look at the Live interface again, I can't say I'm really bothered by future changes to its interface anymore. And if I did still care about such a thing, I'd be running the Reaper 4 alpha as we speak.
MFL shut the likes of me up. I have nothing to stand on when it comes to arguing features now. And I couldn't be happier about it really.

[ze2be]

Nice posts guys. I agree with you both, and see your points. Btw you shold check out the new Sonar X1! Seriously. Im a Live facist, but hell this is....

[Machinesworking]

It gets very easy after a while to get touchy about MFL criticism. Mainly because people treat it like its the root of all evil in Live. My bad, its just the way I read it I suppose.

Well Ableton didn't help with the way they introduced it. "We can't meet all feature requests, but maybe you can build it in M4L?"

Racks are a perfect example of unfinished features. First we got groups (.adg), then we got racks and then Rack chains became pseudo tracks. Topped off with Group Tracks. This happened over 4 upgrades. And it still feels incomplete.

Here's two just clunky things I'm dealing with right now.
Kore and Guitar Rig are the two plug ins I use live, the rest is triggering Live clips etc. I use either/or, not both at the same time. With a 4GB Set you want to allocate resources well, which means turning off the plug in you're not currently using, there is no way in Live that I'm aware of to turn off a plug in, in the Session View, without using a Rack and a knob.
Putting it in a chain doesn't give the CPU back etc. Now each track is needing a separate MIDI track to deal with program change messages, because Racks are somehow interfering with program change messages to Kore/Guitar Rig. This makes sense as the MIDI clip on the track is sending messages to the Rack to turn off the Kore plug in. None of this would be necessary if Racks worked more like Kore, or if you could automate the turning off of a plug in in Session View in Racks or otherwise. That's just the start, I rarely use Racks as the ultra basics of wanting to switch between live instruments is/was missing or convoluted from the beginning. Great idea, I'm sure a lot of people get a lot of use out of them, but it's not set up in a way that works for my needs.

As for my views on things getting bloated.. With MFL I got like 90% of all the feature requests I ever made. And its invisible to users who don't care for those features. I'd say my views on Live getting bloated have significantly changed since our last arguments in this area.
Now the problem has become that not everybody can enjoy these granted feature requests. And there seems to be some fear that MFL will be the answer to every future feature request.

Yeah, my needs are different than yours, that's the beauty of software and DAWs eh? I would love a live performance host that was geared towards that, that put hosting virtual instruments for performance in the forefront, I think Live is still geared towards playing 'the interface' of Live though. Things like program change messages for all embedded plug ins, CPU saving features and a stricter adherence to their 'intuitive' ideology. It probably seems like a little thing to people but turning a knob to shut something on or off is not acceptable if your selling point is intuitive and natural GUI concepts. It's little things like this that add up to what people call feature bloat IMO. You could have a ton of features, but if they're all easy, don't cause instability, and not invasive to the interface then no one cares. With introducing things like a knob = a button you veer towards awesome GUI/UI messes like the way you add multiple instruments in Logics Environment or the Transform Window in Logic.

I did watch the DP control video and I stand by what I said. Half of the things needed to make such an application are already there. The things we don't have yet are the editing features. You can do things like that Marker editing feature. But that's about it. You can't move/create/delete tracks/clips/scenes.
Another way to look at it: If Ableton implement more hooks, you'll have more than a DP control clone. You'll have the choice between like 10 different iApps. Not to mention whatever comes out on Android and new possible MIDI Controllers.

That's the point though isn't it? As it stands there are 10 different Apps that bring in 70% of what DP Control can do, not as thoroughly and not as easily. No OSC support in Live, which I thought Live would be the first to introduce, as it's probably easier that adding full fledged MIDIl, then a few years later adding OSC to compete with Logic, Cubase, Sonar, DP when they get OSC support. It's looking like ReNoise will get full support first, and if the app is any indication DP8 might just have full support.

As for the Live application itself. If Live 9 doesn't have Session Automation recording, I'm gonna bust a cap in somebodies ass! Beyond that I'm clueless what Live 9 might bring.

I'm under the impression it causes instability every time they try it. I really see no other reason why they wouldn't have put it in v6 or so otherwise? I'm not counting on it, I'll be happy if it comes, but it seems to be a HUGE task, larger than even they said it would be years ago.

As I'm like a handful of features removed from almost never having to look at the Live interface again, I can't say I'm really bothered by future changes to its interface anymore. And if I did still care about such a thing, I'd be running the Reaper 4 alpha as we speak.
MFL shut the likes of me up. I have nothing to stand on when it comes to arguing features now. And I couldn't be happier about it really.

That's cool, glad for you. I'm again more interested in the features that M4L cannot give to Live. Things like dual monitor support, global keyboard shortcuts, UI improvements and the like. Though I bet you can get a MIDI event editor in M4L huh?

[machine+1]

Ableton should really be thinking not only about an ipad controller, but also an ipad/ios version of Live.

As the ipad becomes more and more capable over time, it only makes sense.

Maybe not Live 9, but within 5 years- count on it.

[LoopStationZebra]

Well Ableton didn't help with the way they introduced it. "We can't meet all feature requests, but maybe you can spend $300 more and build it in M4L?"

A little fixie wixie going on here.

[Machinesworking]

Well Ableton didn't help with the way they introduced it. "We can't meet all feature requests, but maybe you can spend $300 more and build it in M4L?"

A little fixie wixie going on here.

perfect!

[hoffman2k]

Here's two just clunky things I'm dealing with right now.
Kore and Guitar Rig are the two plug ins I use live, the rest is triggering Live clips etc. I use either/or, not both at the same time. With a 4GB Set you want to allocate resources well, which means turning off the plug in you're not currently using, there is no way in Live that I'm aware of to turn off a plug in, in the Session View, without using a Rack and a knob.
Putting it in a chain doesn't give the CPU back etc. Now each track is needing a separate MIDI track to deal with program change messages, because Racks are somehow interfering with program change messages to Kore/Guitar Rig. This makes sense as the MIDI clip on the track is sending messages to the Rack to turn off the Kore plug in. None of this would be necessary if Racks worked more like Kore, or if you could automate the turning off of a plug in in Session View in Racks or otherwise. That's just the start, I rarely use Racks as the ultra basics of wanting to switch between live instruments is/was missing or convoluted from the beginning. Great idea, I'm sure a lot of people get a lot of use out of them, but it's not set up in a way that works for my needs.

I'm with you on Racks. You know what one of the most absent and requested features in MFL is? API access inside Racks. And you know why we want it? To work around all the issues and limitations we have with Racks. Racks are bound to get an overhaul, they can't keep shoving features in context menu's. That way we'll never be able to access them from something like global shortcuts.

Yeah, my needs are different than yours, that's the beauty of software and DAWs eh? I would love a live performance host that was geared towards that, that put hosting virtual instruments for performance in the forefront, I think Live is still geared towards playing 'the interface' of Live though. Things like program change messages for all embedded plug ins, CPU saving features and a stricter adherence to their 'intuitive' ideology. It probably seems like a little thing to people but turning a knob to shut something on or off is not acceptable if your selling point is intuitive and natural GUI concepts. It's little things like this that add up to what people call feature bloat IMO. You could have a ton of features, but if they're all easy, don't cause instability, and not invasive to the interface then no one cares. With introducing things like a knob = a button you veer towards awesome GUI/UI messes like the way you add multiple instruments in Logics Environment or the Transform Window in Logic.

Not sure how you seem to think all of the above doesn't fit with my needs. And I don't disagree.
Personally I wasn't all that bothered before with how VST's behave in Live as I make a lot of use of the native devices which are a bit more CPU friendly. But more and more are seeping in these days and its only a matter of time till Komplete gets added.
No arguments against more CPU efficiency here.

That's the point though isn't it? As it stands there are 10 different Apps that bring in 70% of what DP Control can do, not as thoroughly and not as easily. No OSC support in Live, which I thought Live would be the first to introduce, as it's probably easier that adding full fledged MIDIl, then a few years later adding OSC to compete with Logic, Cubase, Sonar, DP when they get OSC support. It's looking like ReNoise will get full support first, and if the app is any indication DP8 might just have full support.

With Ableton its more a story of resources. Why they haven't hired all these python hackers is beyond me, but its definitely a fact that there are less than a handful of people at Ableton that know how to work these scripts. And their time is better spent making sure we can access that other 30% of the API that isn't hooked up yet.
It probably takes them less than a month to add OSC support, but without all the hooks in place, its a bit of a waste of time. Why aren't the hooks in Live 8 updates? I'll bet that is because they're in the Live 9 builds.

I'm under the impression it causes instability every time they try it. I really see no other reason why they wouldn't have put it in v6 or so otherwise? I'm not counting on it, I'll be happy if it comes, but it seems to be a HUGE task, larger than even they said it would be years ago.

Actually there might have been a bit of a breakthrough there. There's an often used quote from Robert Henke saying that Live would need a rewrite for this. This was before MFL. And even when MFL just got out this wasn't possible yet. But they figured out a way to "lock" parameters for automation which in MFL's case means fast LFO's.
The locking kinda works like assigning a parameter to a Macro. Its locked for editing in the device, but you can control the macro.
I imagine Ableton can solve the whole absolute/relative thing by using this locking method. The only question then is: How do you record to a locked parameter? Maybe the overdub button will decide that.

That's cool, glad for you. I'm again more interested in the features that M4L cannot give to Live. Things like dual monitor support, global keyboard shortcuts, UI improvements and the like. Though I bet you can get a MIDI event editor in M4L huh?

Yeah, I'll gladly take those features too. Add surround sound and multichannel MIDI Tracks.
And you can indeed make a MIDI event editor with MFL. ST8's LiveControl script allows this in the form of a step sequencer touch interface that edits straight into a MIDI Clip.

Well Ableton didn't help with the way they introduced it. "We can't meet all feature requests, but maybe you can spend $300 more and build it in M4L?"

A little fixie wixie going on here.

perfect!

Never been a big fan of how Ableton markets things. This whole argument here wouldn't exist if we knew more about a free/cheap runtime.
Nobody is forcing people to buy MFL and Ableton definitely didn't mean that all future Live development is going to be centered around MFL.
But look at it from a realistic angle. With all the current limitations and there being no development community, if they released a runtime when they released MFL, judging by the content most of you would have called it shit. MFL 2.0 is where things should start getting interesting for everybody. The developer community will have grown, there will be hundreds of devices/workflows/enhancements and possibly everybody will get to benefit from that.

Why should you pay 300$? Unless you're interested in developing, there's no reason at all.
This isn't the end off the line. Ableton are notoriously slow. At the moment they're so slow it seems they've come to a grinding halt. In about 2 or 3 months we'll either be laughing or crying. Or both... Maybe I'm too optimistic in thinking Live 9 will be HUGE. But plenty of time has past to do some serious thinking about how they wish to proceed.

[fx23]

seriously, 300$ is acceptable, even quite cheap, if you are an hardcore geek patcher, aware of dsp designing and modular midi or other, but most of Live Users aren't nerds. I Feel Hoffman pain even if im am often on the 'shitting on max' front (as defending my beloved free Usine). one must admit it's not a bad thing, the goal is extend Live, wich, at start, has chosen to be 'user friendly', so it can't be 'modular as hell', two paradoxal concepts not fitting right together. M4L is a solution for that.

Where they missed the boat is by not providing free runtime, so it has clealy separated the two side of pro and haters,
pro could have designed free patchs users could run and understand more the potential of Max, while not having to spend
300$ for two weird half working high cpu bizarre plugz or complex 'could be simple native' workaroundz, like ie presets
store/recalls . Imo that would have had a completely different impact on overall quite noticeable growing M4L anger.

Users just won't accept any highly requested native feature via 'workaround' using Max.
but to retake hoffman wordz, we didn't yet heard Abes officially saying
" if you wanna have autom to session or OSC, buy MFL guys ", (mind ya hopefuly or that would be 3rd world war)
so as said let's wait and see the direction they take with L9, but i think they are smart enough to be aware of what we are awaiting or not, and felt the tensions relating hot topics like autom to session, that they can't keep on skipping forever.

if booth those two features are there in L9 they would have chosen the hard but good way.
we ll all get a much natural cool workflow, with extra highly integrated OSC Touch UI Remotes very easyly, M4L or not.
if not,... ouch

[23kon]

Within a few years we'll see more powerful pc's and mac's being as portable as ipads anyway so theres not much need for programming the whole of ableton live as an app for the current kow powered ipads. Maybe a cut down version yes, like a "lite" version.

I've not tried touchable but i did try touchOSC for iphone when it first was lauched and i could never get it to work so i just gave up. Im guessing the wifi setup is maybe easier these days.
It would be good if apple allowed docking of the ipads with third party software apps cos then we'd be directly wired-in and not have to worry about wifi malarky.

[Machinesworking]

@hoffman,

Why aren't the hooks in Live 8 updates? I'll bet that is because they're in the Live 9 builds.

Hopefully, and hopefully OSC is in Live 9. I don't want any new "features" per say, more like improvements on the features Live already has, I think we're in agreement on this. Though if features means detachable MIDI edit windows, improved Follow Actions (Scene based Follow Actions for one), and improved UI etc. I'm for it.

Personally I wasn't all that bothered before with how VST's behave in Live as I make a lot of use of the native devices which are a bit more CPU friendly.

I have never found Live devices to be more CPU friendly, less likely to cause issues and the sample based ones automatically can save their samples in a Project, but the CPU consumption is on par with NI, Ohm Force and U-He products. Actually I think the Nomad Factory stuff I have uses less CPU? I have always been perplexed by this, but embedded plug ins aren't really doing anything that differently than AU/VST when it comes to the actual code, (an FM synth is an FM synth etc.) it's the interfacing that's different. Not talking efficiency as much as little things like being able to turn off a plug in inside Session View ( I don't use Arrangement View live ), without having to use a Rack which then requires a second MIDI track for program change messages, which all adds up to more CPU used to try to conserve CPU?? Don't think this is any different for embedded plug ins, but I could be wrong, only use Drum racks AFA Lives included plug ins, and not live.
One reason not to get M4L for me is I need to dive into building in Reactor first.

Yeah, I'll gladly take those features too. Add surround sound and multichannel MIDI Tracks.
And you can indeed make a MIDI event editor with MFL. ST8's LiveControl script allows this in the form of a step sequencer touch interface that edits straight into a MIDI Clip

What I meant is an editor that shows the position of a MIDI Clip in bars/beats/ticks and length in beats/ticks, that allows you to get medieval on your MIDI. That what your talking about?

Never been a big fan of how Ableton markets things. This whole argument here wouldn't exist if we knew more about a free/cheap runtime.
Nobody is forcing people to buy MFL and Ableton definitely didn't mean that all future Live development is going to be centered around MFL.
But look at it from a realistic angle. With all the current limitations and there being no development community, if they released a runtime when they released MFL, judging by the content most of you would have called it shit. MFL 2.0 is where things should start getting interesting for everybody. The developer community will have grown, there will be hundreds of devices/workflows/enhancements and possibly everybody will get to benefit from that.

Why should you pay 300$? Unless you're interested in developing, there's no reason at all.
This isn't the end off the line. Ableton are notoriously slow. At the moment they're so slow it seems they've come to a grinding halt. In about 2 or 3 months we'll either be laughing or crying. Or both... Maybe I'm too optimistic in thinking Live 9 will be HUGE. But plenty of time has past to do some serious thinking about how they wish to proceed.

Couple things here. M4L from Cycling 74's perspective is brutally cheap. I don't know if this is going to help them be convinced to allow Ableton to go with a free Runtime? I'm OK with a $75-100 Runtime, this makes sense.
Max/MSP is expensive and kind of covers the cost of a Runtime that way I think, M4L is cheaper, and the Runtime version will be immensely more useful to people. Probably not a popular opinion, and personally I'm brutally broke these days, but I get that businesses need to thrive.

I agree about Live 9. I'm skipping 8 almost completely, I'll buy 8 when 9's announced, then use 8 until 9 is considered dead stable. In day to day life I'm not as fussy about Live and have convinced plenty of people to use it over Logic etc. so I'm not too concerned about their bottom dollar, I'm directly responsable for at least 4 sales. . 8 was buggy for me during the beta phase, I mentioned it but was pretty much ignored, maybe not by Ableton, but I did get the impression that a letter to the beta address would fall on ears that weren't going to notice what with the general positive praise for 8 at the time. You can count on me raising more of a stink if the 9 beta crashes as often for me as the 8 did.
That said I have high hopes, a little failure gets the blood going and that makes me think 9 is destined to be a game changer. <-- Hopefully in Ableton's favor, I have a suspicion that we could easily see a DAW from NI pop up that's performance oriented in the next couple years. Maschine, Reactor, and Kore are already geared that way. If not from NI, then at some point developers are going to notice that people very regularly own a standard old fashioned DAW like DP, Cubase etc. and Live. = nice market share! = room for competition.

[delicioso]

Within a few years we'll see more powerful pc's and mac's being as portable as ipads anyway so theres not much need for programming the whole of ableton live as an app for the current kow powered ipads. Maybe a cut down version yes, like a "lite" version.

Doesn't matter if Ableton never makes one. It's already happening:
http://www.electrifyme.net/

* 8-track sequencer with individual track lengths
* 2 chainable effect buses with 8 different effects (more to come soon)
* direct access to the track's main parameters
* Easy to use step sequencer
* Per step automation of up to 6 parameters
* Professional Sample Library comprising more than 600 high quality samples provided by Mutekki Media
* Import of own samples (wav/aif)
* Clip Matrix for creative pattern work
* Export (Bounce) or copy to and paste from other iPad Apps
* Bounce the pattern as a .wav file
* switch between one shot and loop mode
* Sample editing including truncate / normalize / timestretch


The upcoming update to Electrify will feature "an improved clip matrix with clip naming, a keyboard view, "save as" and several bugfixes as well as performance improvements."

[machine+1]

Within a few years we'll see more powerful pc's and mac's being as portable as ipads anyway so theres not much need for programming the whole of ableton live as an app for the current kow powered ipads. Maybe a cut down version yes, like a "lite" version.

Doesn't matter if Ableton never makes one. It's already happening:
http://www.electrifyme.net/

* 8-track sequencer with individual track lengths
* 2 chainable effect buses with 8 different effects (more to come soon)
* direct access to the track's main parameters
* Easy to use step sequencer
* Per step automation of up to 6 parameters
* Professional Sample Library comprising more than 600 high quality samples provided by Mutekki Media
* Import of own samples (wav/aif)
* Clip Matrix for creative pattern work
* Export (Bounce) or copy to and paste from other iPad Apps
* Bounce the pattern as a .wav file
* switch between one shot and loop mode
* Sample editing including truncate / normalize / timestretch


The upcoming update to Electrify will feature "an improved clip matrix with clip naming, a keyboard view, "save as" and several bugfixes as well as performance improvements."

<5 years.

like it or not, these portable devices will replace our computers as we know them.

ableton better get on it or someone else will.

[fx23]

slates might replace laptops, indeed, but i don't think that will change that much the deal for ableton
because slates will still remain running shitty cpu and ram vs desktop, and pro audio will still be produced on desktop.
all serious buisness, being Video editing, 3D, servers, Pro Audio ect won't run on hypad, even in 5 years. don't dream too much.

slates should more be used as remotes, osc wireless controllers, or if manufacturers would atlast make some wireless videoIN protocol then they ll make wonderful universal remotes to be used with any softs, on any OS as a standart monitor.

what's the point for ableton to go in a build of ableton on ios, or android, or webos, or chrom, or what else if they simply implemented OSC in live9 and can provide, or let 3rdParty do for virtually free a fully dedicaced multitouch UI controller for a
fraction of what cost an host port and dev, you see the actual mess you want them to spread on X hosts???

they won't be outselled by such new emerging appz in serious buisness, maybe a part of mass market that make music occasionaly will
produce on ipad, you ll see some advertising with "here is the new tune i produced in my train with my nu hypad II"
but serious producers will keep their Ableton Live X on powered desktop, runing CPU hog cutting edge VSTs, and gigabytes
of samples banks, with a real keyboard, and eventualy simply use a slate as remote, buying a 15$ app the dude has approved i more tend to think.

[humnumb]

all serious buisness, being Video editing, 3D, servers, Pro Audio ect won't run on hypad, even in 5 years. don't dream too much.

It's inevitable actually. And all of the "serious" tasks like the ones you mentioned will be doable with the latest multitouch tablets of that time regardless whether you call it "hypad" or not. On the other hand, you seem to be the only one constantly posting annoying hype about usine all over the interwebz. There is a reason no one else gets excited about a Windows-only multitouch software that costs 120 Euros for the full version.