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Key Features
Create, produce and perform. Create ideas, make changes without stopping, and capture everything as you work. Ableton's new software Live 9 has a ton of new features for music creation and production. Ableton is bundled with the Novation SL 49 controller keyboard, which I designed to work seamlessly to speed up workflow and capture your creativity.
Product Ref: 45625
If you've used music software before, you're already familiar with one half of Ableton Live. Live's Arrangement View is a familiar working space: time moves from left to right, while tracks are stacked vertically.
But Live also features the revolutionary Session View: a unique sketchpad for improvising, playing and performing with musical ideas, without the constraints of the timeline. Freely and independently start and stop any number of audio or MIDI loops - everything stays in sync. Almost everything in Live works in real-time - add, reorder or remove devices, play with Live's flexible track routing and more - all without interrupting your creative flow.
The new Ableton Live 9 has a host of new features. Record automation into clips. Edit automation with curves. Session View automation lets you capture your performance or add movement to your loops. Use curves to make automation more musical.
Live's unique Session View makes it easy to improvise with musical ideas. In Live 9, you can now record parameter changes directly into Session View for even more flexibility. Edit automation curves with the mouse to create smooth mix transitions or radical parameter changes in your clips.
In one click, create new Session View scenes from your Arrangement tracks, or drag and copy individual clips from Arrangement to Session. The automation comes with them, making it easier than ever to move from improvising to arranging and back.
With Live's new browser, spend less time finding sounds and more time making music. Live's new browser puts all of your instruments and effects, samples, Packs and VST/Audio Units plug-ins in one easy-to-navigate view. Drag and drop folders into the browser from anywhere on your computer. Search as you type, navigate from the keyboard and sort items by various categories.
Play new sounds.
Live's library includes new Instrument Racks and sounds to get you going fast. Live 9 Suite comes with more than 3000 production-ready sounds that give you the full range of vintage synthesizers, drum kits and one-shot samples, acoustic instruments and loops - all powered by Live's built-in synthesizers and effects so they can be tweaked and personalized. All sounds are organized for Live 9's new browser and work seamlessly with all common hardware controllers.
SL Mk II has been designed to equip the modern DAW user with every dimension of hardware control, enabling a hands-on approach to navigating software, mixing and controlling plug-ins. It represents extraordinary value as a controller, integrating a DAW control surface with a quality semi-weighted keyboard (with after-touch) and the most intuitive plug-in mapping capabilities available - presided over by Automap 3 PRO; unquestionably the most advanced control software on the market.
SL Mk II upholds Novation's reputation for building quality hardware (like the SL Mk I, they will also appeal to performers who need a well-constructed keyboard on stage). Quality is not just reflected in their robustness, but more importantly in the way the SL Mk II has been designed with every detail calculated to maximise workflow. The SL Mk II's visually feeds back all controller information to the user with back lit buttons and encoder LED rings.
The difficulty with other control surfaces is knowing what is assigned to what. SL Mk II has a giant 144-character ultra-bright LCD screen that displays all the parameter names and values for the currently selected row of controllers. All 8 faders and 16 knobs are touch sensitive, so the moment one is touched, the display shows the names and values on that row and puts brackets around the controller that is currently being touched. This enables the user to see which parameter is assigned to the controller without having to change the value, or refer to their software. SL Mk II also has a dedicated 'Speed Dial' knob, which can be used to change the value of any parameter the cursor is positioned over without making any assignments whatsoever.
The 8 continuous rotary encoders have 11 segment LED rings around each of them, allowing encoders to behave like pots so the user can see the value before moving them. All the buttons have LEDs underneath them so users can instantly see their status without having to press them. There are 8 soft-feel drum pads, a pitch/modulation wheel and an X/Y Xpression touchpad which (along with footswitch and sustain pedal inputs), are all fully assignable to any parameter with the Automap software
The SL Mk II has been designed to draw minimum current so it can be used as a USB buss-powered device, and an optional 9V DC power supply can be added for stand-alone use. As well as USB interfacing, the SL Mk II has 1 MIDI in, 1 MIDI thru and 2 MIDI outs.
The power behind SL Mk II's unique ability to map controllers at the touch of a button, is contained within the included Automap software. Automap 3 PRO enables users to map controllers with incredible speed and ease - no more digging through MIDI continuous controller numbers, the Automap server takes care of it all. Automap's GUI gives the user a visual representation of all the current mappings on screen, as well as the ability to save and manage mappings across different projects. There is also an option to only bring up the GUI when a controller on the SL Mk II has been touched!