Ableton Live 8 Power! Paperback – 25 Nov. 2010

Probably the most comprehensive guide to Ableton Live 8 that you'll find. I've learned a lot about Ableton having read this book from cover to cover but, if I'm absolutely honest (and without taking anything away from the other Amazon reviews), having read many similar guides on other Digital Audio Workstations, this book could be much, much better and the tutorials are an absolute waste of time.1) This book is NOT for beginners. I'm not a beginner but can imagine beginners struggling with some of the terminology that this book uses and the acute lack of detailed explanation in some cases. For example, the author makes no excuses for not explaining the basics of subtractive synthesis (THE most popular type of synthesis used in software synthesizers) and therefore, if you're not clued up on sythesizers then you're really going to struggle to get your head around Ableton's "Operator" synth. This surprised me somewhat because I recently read the 'Reason 5 Power!' guide (which covers Propellerhead's Reason production software) which is published by the same company (Course Technology Cengage Learning) and is a great foundation for anyone who is just getting into music production as it covers the basics very well whilst successfully tacking advanced topics too.2) The tutorials and accopanying project files in this book are nothing short of AWFUL. I really hope that the author and publisher read this and take note... The best way readers can learn is through doing. The easiest way to alienate your readers is by blinding them with large chunks of uninvolving text. This book falls firmly under the latter description and I genuinely wonder who gave the green light for it to be printed.100 pages in, I realised I hadn't come across a single tutorial. And when one finally does come along (and there are only approximately 10-15 hands on tutorials in this FOUR HUNDRED page book) it's ruined either because of a lack of explanation (in the worst case the project file is merely referenced in passing at the end of the chapter without any attempt to involve the reader) or because the accompanying project file is missing associated media files which means the project doesn't work properly OR the referenced project file is simply missing in its entirety!Further to this, you have to locate and download the project files from the publisher's website. It's a nice idea, except I know that this publisher has a very bad habit of screwing this up (from past experience with Reason 5 Power!, published by the same company, the project files hadn't even been uploaded to the website!). On first download, it appears as if someone has forgotten to include half the files, or perhaps some of them are corrupt. Either way, I have no way of verifying whether or not this is the case because the book does such a bad job of referencing them anyway.If you want to see how a great Digital Audio Workstation guide should be written, try getting a copy of Apple's Certified training guide to Logic Pro.In all fairness I'm being extremely hard on the author. And in his defence, he does claim early on that this book is a COMPANION to Ableton's great built in tutorials (despite the book's misleading title; "Ableton Live Power! The COMPREHENSIVE Guide"). Undoubtedly a lot of time and effort was spent producing the book which, for the most part, is a great guide for those who want to get to grips with Ableton Live, assuming that they have some prior knowledge of music production. It's just a shame that it's let down badly by utterly useless and downright angering tutorials.Ultimately though, you have to look beyond this. You learn to become a good producer through trial, error and experimentation and not through a perfectly crafted guide book or great companion tutorials. Reading this book will give you the tools to begin that journey. As it states boldy on its first page, it was written for "music makers and dreamers of dreams. You know who you are."End of.

This is a very good book for anyone who uses Ableton Live 8, be they musician, D.J. or budding record production engineer. It is easy to follow and well structured and there is something here for everyone from absolute beginner to consumate professional.Far superior to the manual which comes with the software.It is easy to follow and well laid out with excellent diagrams to support each of the topics.Brilliant!

No offence intended to the author but the Manual is actually much more useful and practical than this book which is written in a hyped-up style geared towards people who apparently need that sort of thing in their creativity ( was certainly sucked in by it) So sorry but this book looks like a cool read but actually offers a disappointing amount of real useful technical information. Read the Ableton Live Manual and feel the real "power" instead is my feedback.

Great book...well laid out...simply explained. , for the most part, ..gives a good grip on the learning curve.

This is an excellent book which sets out in a simple way how to get started with Abelton 8.

As a relative novice to this area I found this book extremely helpful - particularly compared to the manual that comes with the software

the item ordered was as stated in the decription and was obviously posted as soon as the order arrived. Was well wrapped

As described!