Ableton Live 5.2 Brings Immediate Native Intel-Mac Support and an Additional Speed Increase Arrives in Q3 with Live 6

Ableton is pleased to announce Live 5.2, bringing native support for Apple's new Intel-Macs. One of Ableton's major development goals for 2006 is to deliver faster audio performance to Live users. On the Mac side, this goal coincides nicely with the announcement of the new Intel-based Macs. The upcoming Live 5.2 is the first step in providing Live users support for the Intel-Mac platform and significant gains in audio performance.

Live 5.2 will enter beta as soon as the new Intel Core Duo-equipped MacBook Pro is available, and expected to be released in February. Thanks to Live 5.2, early MacBook Pro buyers will be able to run Live immediately and enjoy substantially higher audio performance than on today's fastest Mac notebook.

Live 6, scheduled for release in Q3, will bring—among other features yet to be disclosed—support for multicore/multiprocessor architectures, to the benefit of both Windows and Mac OS users. This feature will bring users of Intel Core Duo-equipped Macs another large increase in audio performance, and Windows users will be able to fully exploit the speedup potential of the various available multicore/multiprocessor hardware solutions the market offers.

Pricing and availability

Live 5.2 is expected to be available, as a download, in February 2006.

Non Intel-Mac users: 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 on non-Intel Macs or Windows computers.

Intel-Mac users: In light of development costs associated with porting Live to the Intel-Mac platform, users wishing to take advantage of the new Intel-Mac support can purchase a new serial number for 49 USD/39 EUR. This additional fee will be fully refunded to those customers who buy the Live 6 upgrade, which is scheduled for release in Q3. Complete information on Live 6's specs, availability, and pricing will be made available this summer.

Accommodation for recent buyers of Live 5: Users who 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.