Ableton Live 7 is now one of the premier sequencing tools for the electronic music producer. If you currently use another sequencer and wish to see what Live has to offer without spending the full asking price you now can with Live LE. Stripping down some of the features of the full version, Live LE offers a cheaper alternative to the Ableton experience. Depending on what you need for your sessions, Live LE may or may be satisfactory. Let's take a look at what you miss from the full version.

The first area where Ableton cut down Live's functionality is with the maximum amount of tracks available. 64 tracks are available and for most projects should not pose a problem. Next up we see that two stereo inputs and two stereo outs are available at any one time. Thankfully this is enough for DJing (as you would send two stereo outs to the DJ mixer for analog mixing if preferred over mixing internally). So far so good…

"All in all LE seems crippled so who would benefit from using it? The most obvious answer would be DJs. The required number of audio outs are available and the lack of total amount of effects would not pose too much of a problem"

Next we come to the effects, something that Live is renowned for as they are of excellent quality and unique for making electronic based music. Unfortunately this is where LE starts to go a bit downhill. The only two instruments that are included are Simpler and Impulse. This means we miss the very useful Drum Rack that was introduced with version 7 of the full Live package. This also means the new loop slicing is not available either. In addition only eight instances per project are supported. For the rest of the effects like reverbs and delays all 23 are included which is welcome. But now in LE there is a limit of only 12 total instances per project with is poor. Often I find myself stacking two to three effects per track. With only 12 total available this means you would reach the limit after only 3-4 tracks.

"One of Lives best features is the scene mode where song arrangement ideas can be tried out intuitively"

VST plug-ins for both instrument and effect types are also limited in LE. Two instrument and two effects are possible per project as well, further restricting the creative potential for a particular session. Version 7 added external instruments, but as you can guess by now they are no present in LE. Lastly track freezing is nowhere to be found, which makes dealing with the plug-in limit even harder, as the only solution would be to export a part and re-import with the needed plug-ins.
Luckily, sidechaining by the new compressor and other plug-ins is supported so not all is lost.

One of Lives best features is the scene mode where song arrangement ideas can be tried out intuitively. This is also area though where LE doesn't have the same advantage as its bigger sibling. With LE only 8 scenes can be used. Finally one of the biggest functions, ReWire capability is also lost.

All in all LE seems crippled so who would benefit from using it? The most obvious answer would be DJs. The required number of audio outs are available and the lack of total amount of effects would not pose too much of a problem. For someone interested in quickly making a mash-up remix LE would also be enough. For the more serious producer though LE would most likely end up becoming a frustrating experience. Luckily it can be upgraded to the full version and this is its saving grace for those wanting to taste the Live flavor and get their feet wet. If you then like what you see you can spend further and enjoy Live the way it was meant to be, a flexible and full featured sequencer for today's music.