Ableton's Live 5.2 to support Intel Macs

Ableton today announced that Live 5.2, due in beta form shortly, will bring native support for Intel Macs. The company also announced that Live 6, due in the third quarter of 2006, will add support for multiple core processors. Both releases of the music production application leverage new processor technologies to provide Live users with significant gains in audio performance, such as the capacity to simultaneously run more tracks, virtual instruments, and effects. Live 5.2 will bring native support for Apple's new Intel-Macs and will be available as beta as soon as the new Intel Core Duo-equipped MacBook Pro is available. Ableton's Live 6, scheduled for release in Q3, will add support for multicore/multiprocessor architectures, which will bring another "large increase" in audio performance, according to the company.

The company said that both Mac and Windows users will be able to fully exploit the performance potential of the various available multicore/multiprocessor hardware solutions.

"One of our development goals for 2006 is to make Live faster. On the Mac side, this effort coincides nicely with the availability of the new Intel-based Macs. We welcome Apple's announcement with the imminent release of a Live version that supports the new machines. Ableton Live was the first professional audio application to run on OS X and we are happy to be in the vanguard once again," said Ableton CEO Gerhard Behles.

Live 5.2 is expected to be available, as a download, in February 2006. In addition to the new Intel-Mac support, Live 5.2 will also be released as a free bug-fix update for users running Live 5. Users that purchased Live after Steve Jobs announced the release of the new Intel-Macs (January 10, 2006) will receive the Intel-Mac support at no additional charge.

Due to the development costs associated with porting Live to the Intel-Mac platform, Abelton said that they would be charging for the Intel-native version of Live 5.2. Users can purchase a new Intel-native Live 5.2 serial number for $50 (€40); however, the additional fee is fully refunded to those customers who purchase the Live 6 upgrade, which is scheduled for release in third quarter. The company plans on release complete information on Live 6's specs, availability, and pricing later this summer.

Filed under: audio