Ableton has announced the releases of Life 9 without giving an exact date, yet. It could be soon because they already offering updates to full versions of live 8 with a free update to version 9.
I checked the website and found some very cool features in V9 (nice web design, too). Up ’til now I don’t use the full-blown version of live 8 but the intro version which has some limitations in the feature set. I do this partly because of the money, partly because I think that there’s creativity in limitations. In the new V9, the difference between full-blown and intro will be more harsh (like only 16 tracks, instead of 64 in V8), so the question is if I should go full-blown or not.
I’m trying to figure out if I update now, so if you have something to say about that I appreciate any input. Feel free to comment this post.
My personal must-have-features are (details and videos here):
- New Sound Browser: I’m clicking a lot in V8 until I found what I’m looking for. So, I’m eager for this improvement
- New Sounds: Depending on your personal taste you may be thrilled or bored, but I think that a little refresher is due.
- Glue Compressor: Sounds cool, because it’s easy to handle, even for a non-professional like me.
- Convert Audio to MIDI: THAT’S AWESOME! MIDI RULES! So cool! That’s my killer-feature. Saves lots of time. YEAH!
Interesting is, that I was thinking about switching over to Propellerheads Reason for a while (lite version, again). The announcement was therefore perfectly timed to prevent this.
So, what do you think? Are you an Ableton Live user? Will you order V9? Do you use Intro or the full version?
productivemonkey 
I found the Live 9 faq and there the release is announced for Q1/2013 = max of 5 months…
I asked support if dual screen mode will be supported. Answer was “no dual screen support”, a pity.