| Type | AG |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1999 |
| Headquarters | Berlin, Germany |
| Key people | Gerhard Behles (CEO), Bernd Roggendorf (CTO), Jan Bohl (COO/CFO) |
| Products | Ableton Live, Operator, Analog, Electric, Sampler, Tension |
| Employees | ~130 |
| Subsidiaries | Ableton, Inc. (US Subsidiary) |
| Website | www.ableton.com |
Ableton AG is a Berlin-based music software company that produces and distributes the production and performance suite Ableton Live and a collection of related instruments and sample libraries.
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Ableton was founded in 1999 by Gerhard Behles and Robert Henke of Monolake and Bernd Roggendorf. After Behles' work on granular synthesis features for Native Instruments' Reaktor, as well as earlier software using a Silicon Graphics workstation at the Technical University of Berlin, Live was first released as commercial software in 2001. Behles remains the chief executive officer of Ableton, while Henke remains in a role of technical leadership and focuses on Live's included effects and instruments. Ableton's office is located in the Prenzlauer Berg district of Berlin, Germany.
In March 2007, Ableton announced it was beginning a collaboration with Cycling '74, producers of Max/MSP. This collaboration will not be directly based on Live or Max/MSP, rather will combine the two companies' strengths in a new product.
In January 2009 the Ableton/Cycling '74 product "Max for Live" was announced. "Max for Live" makes it possible to create Max/MSP patches directly inside of Live. The patches will act like other plug-ins in Live do, supporting preset saving, automation, and other features. It will be possible to create both customized hardware plug-ins and patches as well as actions within those plug-ins that control every aspect of Live, essentially anything that can be clicked with a mouse.
Ableton Live is currently in its eighth version. There are three versions of the software available for purchase: Ableton Live (the core software for music performance and creation), Ableton Suite (Ableton Live + all of Ableton's software instruments/effects) and Ableton Live Intro (an introductory version of Live with less track and effect slots). Ableton Live is designed to be used with a wide range of USB and MIDI controllers, as well as instruments and virtual instruments.
Ableton holds many music production sessions and seminars to learn to use their software.