SoundCloud, the online music service, has launched the first in a series of product integrations with professional music software makers which will enable producers to upload their tracks to the web direct from their favourite audio applications. The first partnerships, announced today at NAMM, are with Studio One from PreSonus and Audiofile Engineering’s Wave Editor, with Ableton Live to follow.

Following on from SoundCloud’s recent partnership with Abbey Road’s online mastering service, today’s announcement marks another step for the service towards its goal of enabling a fully integrated digital music ecosystem.

Studio One and Wave Editor users will be able to upload their tracks direct to their SoundCloud accounts from within the application, bypassing the need to bounce tracks to the desktop and then upload. These integrations were built using the SoundCloud API, which enables any developer to create a huge range of audio applications and services based on core SoundCloud functionality, like the streaming, uploading and downloading of music.

Matthew Foust, Co-Founder and Operations Manager, Audiofile Engineering, said: “Integration of the SoundCloud API in our iPhone and desktop apps not only fits our strategic vision, but is very simple and straightforward.”

Alexander Ljung, SoundCloud CEO, said: “We’re very excited to be launching the first of our music software integrations with PreSonus and Audiofile Engineering. With these upcoming partnerships it’s possible to imagine a production workflow in which you produce a track, upload it to SoundCloud, and send it direct to Abbey Road for mastering without any files hitting your desktop. We’re imagining a future where music professionals can seamlessly use the web together with their desktop tools in a fully integrated and extremely powerful combination. The SoundCloud platform and our open API, in combination with progressive companies like PreSonus and Audiofile Engineering, are making it possible for this future to arrive in 2010.”

PreSonus Studio One Product Manager Jonathan Hillman said: “With Studio One and SoundCloud, musicians can produce their music and share it with millions of listeners in a matter of minutes. We’re very happy to be the first DAW application to introduce the world to 21st-century music production and distribution. We believe this type of integration is critical as the digital-media distribution landscape evolves. And from a development viewpoint, integrating a SoundCloud client into our application took very little time. ”

SoundCloud partnerships with other key music software companies, including Ableton, are already scheduled and set to be released later in 2010.

soundcloud.com

Discuss SoundCloud in our Promotion forum, Wave Editor in our Audiofile Engineering forum, and Studio One in our Studio One forum.

Akai Professional has unveiled the APC20, the second control surface created by Akai for performance with Ableton Live software. Like the APC40, the APC20 promises to transform the user’s experience from one of constructing tracks with a keyboard and mouse to composing and performing with a seamless, fully integrated hardware/software musical system.

The APC20 retains many of the APC40’s most popular features and capabilities, while shrinking the physical footprint and adding interesting new capabilities. The smaller size enables musicians to perform in less space and makes setting up multiple controllers and devices easier. Power users can use the APC20 in conjunction with an APC40 to expand their track and clip controls.

Like the APC40, the APC20 centers on its five-by-eight Clip Launch grid. This bank of multicolor triggers not only start and stop clips playing in Live, they also show cells’ status in the software – whether a clip is loaded or not, whether it is playing or not, record-armed status and more. Clip Stop triggers, transport controls and faders round out the control surface. Users can switch the APC20’s faders between volume control, pan, sends and three different user-mapped modes. A new Note Mode enables musicians to use the Clip Launch buttons to control virtual instruments and Ableton Live’s Drum Rack.

Because Akai Professional and Ableton designed the APC20 for use with Ableton Live software, the system is truly plug and play, although advanced Live users will appreciate that the APC20 enables them to remap every one of its controls to suit their own style.

“The APC20 is perfect for performers who like to customize their setup with multiple controllers, or just want a more compact setup,” said Adam Cohen, Director of Business Development, Akai Professional. “You’ll spend less time looking at the computer screen, using a mouse and keyboard with the APC20”

Mac system requirements include a G4 CPU or higher, OS X 10.3.9 or later, 512 MB RAM, QuickTime 6.5 or later, a DVD-ROM drive, and a USB port. An Intel CPU and 1 GB RAM are recommended.

The APC20 will be available from pro audio and musical instrument retailers in January 2010. It has a U.S. Retail Price of $299.00 and an estimated street price of $199.00

www.akaipro.com/apc20

Discuss the APC20 in our Live forum.

Ableton and Cycling ‘74 have announced the release of Max for Live, essentially putting the power and potential of Max/MSP inside Live.

Create all the instruments, effects and extensions you’ve ever wanted. Go beyond the common and predictable, and transcend the limits that conventional tools impose. Build completely unique synths and effects, create algorithmic composition tools, or fuse Live and controller hardware into radical, new music machines. Join a society of makers and share ingenuity.

Basically, Max for Live is a tool kit for making new devices. Think of a diverse and comprehensive set of building blocks that you can use to build pretty much anything you can think of. These building blocks include basic objects such as “+”, audio elements such as filters and oscillators, user interface objects, and a set of objects that regulate access to Live and hardware devices. Max for Live also provides a canvas where you can place and connect these objects with virtual wires. Flowing through these wires are audio, MIDI or video signals, or any other kind of data. Max is essentially a visual programming environment where you build courses or tracks for these signals to run through.

You can build new devices from scratch, modify existing ones or simply use devices that others have made. Max for Live includes several ingenious example devices and plenty of tutorials to take you from using to tweaking, and then to building.

Key features

• Build your own audio effects, MIDI effects and instruments
• Use the API to control Live Sets, tracks, clips, devices, notes, loops, parameters etc.
• Extend your hardware’s feature set: provides objects to access any hardware controllers that are connected to Live
• Includes a specialized version of Max for creating and editing Max devices (Please note: does not run independently of Max for Live)
• Comes with a selection of MAX devices that are ready to use out of the box for audio and MIDI processing, algorithmic composition, real-time performance and hardware control
• Devices keep playing in Live while they are being edited in Max
• Flexible user interface design: the UI can look like Live or completely different
• Includes hundreds of built-in Max objects for logic, MIDI, scripting, audio and video processing
• Supports video synthesis and animation via “Jitter” objects
• Includes step-by-step tutorials for learning to program with Max for Live

Max for Live requires Ableton Live 8.1 or higher. It is available now for $299 / €249. If you already own Max 5, the crossgrade price is $99 / €79.

www.ableton.com/maxforlive

Discuss Max for Live in our Live forum.

Ableton is very happy to announce Launchpad, a new dedicated controller for Ableton Live, co-developed by Novation and Ableton. Launchpad features a multicolor, 64-button grid for launching clips, as well as dedicated scene-launch buttons. Despite the big grid, Launchpad is compact and portable: it’ll fit in your bag for gigs and won’t hog your desk space in the studio.

Launchpad doesn’t just launch clips. In mixer mode the button grid offers a unique way to control Ableton Live’s mixer. Two fully customizable user modes transform the grid into a drum pad controller, a DJ effect controller or anything else you can think of. These user modes make Launchpad the ideal hardware counterpart for the upcoming Max for Live.

Launchpad is Automap-enabled, and if 64 buttons aren’t enough, you can link up to six units together.

Launchpad comes with a special Live 8 Launchpad Edition and 1GB of sound content. It will be on sale worldwide starting in November. Pricing is expected to be around $199 / €149 (VAT not included).

www.novationmusic.com/launchpad

The (Ableton Performance Controller) APC40 is a dedicated controller for Ableton Live, co-designed by Ableton and the same engineering team responsible for Akai’s iconic MPC range of products. This is a dream come true for the Ableton Live community and an exciting first step into the world of Ableton Live for new users.

The APC40 features high quality controls for real-time mixing, remixing and production. 109 buttons, 16 endless encoders with LED rings, nine 45mm faders and a replaceable crossfader give musicians and producers complete control of Live’s Session View, effect devices and virtual instruments. Whether you’re in the studio or on stage, DJing, making beats, running backing tracks, firing MIDI loops or triggering sound effects, you can kiss your mouse goodbye.

Ableton Live Akai Professional APC Edition, a custom-tailored software package, comes with every APC40. This features eight audio and eight MIDI tracks plus twenty Session View scenes. It also includes all of Live’s effects and even allows custom mapping, making it a simple but adequate out-of-the-box solution for studio and stage.

The APC40 requires Ableton Live 7 or higher. The software requires any G4 Mac or faster (Intel Mac recommended), 512 MB RAM (1 GB recommended), Mac OS X 10.3.9 (10.4 or later recommended), QuickTime 6.5 or higher, and a DVD-ROM drive.

Ableton is also extending “special thanks to Jeroen van Garling, AKA djsynchro, for the APC40/Liberty image, and thanks to all forum members who posted some fantastic APC40 photoshopping and had us laughing all over the office. You know who you are, guys, thank you.”

Discuss the APC40 in our Live forum.

Ableton has announced the release of Ableton Live 8 and Live 8 Suite. Two new instruments, Collision and Latin Percussion are also available; both are included in Ableton Suite 8. Live 8 and Suite 8 enhance the Ableton vision of creative, real-time digital music with a wealth of new techniques, effects and most-wanted workflow improvements.

These include a new groove engine, revamped warping techniques, live looping, five new effects (including the Ableton Vocoder), crossfades in the Arrangement View, group tracks and a reworked MIDI editor. Ableton Suite 8 includes all that plus a massive, inspired sound library and all the instruments a musician could hope for, including a wide range of synths, a sampler, electric and acoustic drums (new: Latin percussion), mallets (new: Collision), numerous sampled instruments and a new, even mightier Operator.

New in Ableton Live 8:

• New groove engine: new groove library, extract grooves from audio or MIDI, real-time groove quantize. Includes grooves from the legendary Akai MPC and E-mu SP-1200 machines
• New warping engine: warp audio events by adjusting the events on the timeline, updated Beats Warp Mode, new Complex Warp Mode, slice audio files to MIDI tracks based on transients
• Looper: classic sound-on-sound looping without the limitations of a hardware device. Record, overdub, undo and more without touching the computer. “First loop sync,” simple loop management
• New effects: Vocoder, Multiband Dynamics, Overdrive, Limiter and Frequency Shifter
• Workflow enhancements: including real-time crossfades in the Arrangement View, enhanced MIDI editing, group tracks, multiple track selection, a screen magnifier and more

New in Ableton Suite 8:

• World-class sound library: completely new sound library with real-world “Sound Objects,” presets, grooves, templates and, above all, over 1,600 beautiful sounds
• Collision and Corpus: a unique physical-modeling instrument for authentic mallet sounds and creative percussion. Includes Corpus, a separate effect that reproduces Collision’s resonator section*
• Latin Percussion: a collection of acoustic percussion instruments from the worlds of Brazilian, Afro-Cuban and African music, plus a wide selection of clips and grooves for authentic usage*
• Operator, Ableton’s renowned do-it-all synthesizer, has been given a major overhaul. New filter types, more modulation routing options and additive wavetable synthesis with drawable partials make Operator more powerful and flexible than ever.
• Plus these existing Ableton instruments: Sampler, Electric, Tension, Analog, Drum Machines, Session Drums** and the Essential Instrument Collection 2**.

*Collision and Latin Percussion are also available separately. **Boxed version only.

Come on into the forum and join the discussion.