Ableton Live, by German software company Ableton AG, is a suite of software used by mashup and remix artists the world round, as well as many professional working DJ artists. Live's strengths lie in its time stretching and multi-sampling abilities, as well as its uncanny ability to blend live tracks with MIDI, while using VST virtual instruments and effects all in one seamless process.

Since 2001, Ableton has released sequential releases of Live at a rate of about one "x.0" version per year. The company began as a developer for Native Instruments plug-ins, gradually developing the Live software from a simple sequencer to the most varied and preeminent live mixing and remixing software suite on the market.

Around version 4.0, support for hardware-based MIDI controllers was added, significantly opening up the performance capabilities for the software package.

Ableton has added a plethora of MIDI and VST-based software instruments that integrate directly into the software, including numerous drum machines and analog-sampled synthesizers.

As of version 8, Live Suite includes the complete pack of Ableton instruments for use with Live, as well as the full Live software.

Many DJs have quickly adopted the Akai APC40 hardware controller for use with Live. The rise of the laptop DJ has only increased the popularity of Live. Its MIDI-triggered hardware integration possibilities make it ever popular with the DJ set.

Ableton Live Lite: Optimized versions packed with several hardware controllers. Oct. 2009: Live 8 as of yet unreleased.

Ableton Live 8 LE: $139 download, $199 boxed copy

Ableton Live 8: $449 download, $549 boxed copy

Ableton Live 8 Suite (includes many Live-native instruments): $699 download, $849 boxed copy

• Akai Professional

• M-Audio