Ableton + Serato = Friends

Basically, this was bound to happen. Ableton (aka the most efficient and reliable sequencer for across the board production and DJing) has always led the race in innovative, new ideas for electronic music. DJ sets have always been possible within the program, and integrating plugins and fx racks for manipulation is simple. They recently introduced a new component to the program allowing for MAX/MSP production with Ableton. Now they've come out with a way to include your own songs/patterns into your DJ sets. By enabling the Ableton view within Serato, a new rack displays something very similar to Live's session view, allowing the DJ to trigger beats/phrases/samples on the fly. What will they come up with next?

Ableton Live on tour

Berlin-based software company Ableton, responsible for one of today's most popular DAWs, is taking its updated flagship product Live 8 on tour. Supported by DJ/production team DubSpot, Ableton is set host educational workshops in 8 cities in the US, kicking off in San Francisco and leading through Boston, Chicago, LA and DC, among other cities. The tour, which will take place throughout the month of May, aims to display new features to those that have used previous versions of the software, as well as introduce the program and its revolutionary capabilities to people that haven't worked with it before. While interactive learning sessions are to take place during the day, the nights will be filled with some sweet live performances. Tickets will be $125 for a single day, $225 for the entire weekend. Sounds like a lot of cash, but it's pennies well spent for those interested in audio production or DJing.
Check out Dubspot's website for more info on schedules, participating artists and purchasing tickets.