Ableton has announced the next version of its professional sequencing software, Live 8. Upgrades include a new groove engine, able to extract grooves from audio or MIDI elements, and apply patterns or quantize in real-time. A new warping engine, meanwhile, allows control of effects through the timeline, and incorporates a new Complex Warp Mode.

The software also attaches a built-in looping function -- meant to eliminate memory and other limitations of dedicated hardware -- and five new effects, including the Limiter, Vocoder, Overdrive, Frequency Shifter and Multiband Dynamics. A variety of minor enhancements are said to include improved MIDI editing, group tracks, a screen magnifier and real-time crossfades within the Arrangement view.

Ableton has also announced Suite 8, which bundles Live 8 with 10 different instrument components, including a sampler, Latin percussion instruments, simulated mallet-based instruments and a new synthesizer. The synthesizer has been enhanced with new filter and modulation routing options, as well as additive wavetable synthesis with drawable partials.

Both Live 8 and Suite 8 should ship in the second quarter of 2009, at costs of $449 and $699 for direct downloads. Separate from Suite 8, the Collision (mallet) and Latin Percussion instruments will cost $159 and $99. A public beta test of Live 8 is expected to begin by the end of January.