[Houdini]

LIVE 8 http://www.ableton.com/

Max for Live http://www.ableton.com/extend

Can't wait for the first cracks.   

[Houdini]

Check out the new Akai 40 Ableton controller.

http://www.akaipro.com/apc40

The APC40 is the world’s finest Ableton Live control surface. Ableton and Akai Professional worked in a joint partnership to make the APC40 the perfect Ableton Live control surface. Whether you are an electronic-music performance artist and Live is your canvass, a DJ using Live to mix tracks, or a traditional musician using Live on stage or in the studio, the APC40 is designed for intuitive, powerful control.

[Bubba]

And the Vestax VCM 600

[Houdini]

The Vestax looks to be a fine MIDI controller.  But, it also looks like it's built w/ compatabiltity w/ Ableton in mind rather than w/ Ableton in mind.

Just look at the stack of buttons on the top left of the akai controller, they mimic the lay out of the session view of the program perfectly.  As a PA controller it looks perfect.

I'm hazy on a few of the basic points as a DJ track controller.  This is £400 / $500.

[Houdini]

Just bought Live 8.0.8 after a harrowing previous evening failing to reinstall 7.0.3 after a vista reinstall.

The affair irritated me enough to buy a €350 program after sleeping on the fiasco; cracks save you cash but they're a ball-ache.

Bit weirded-out by it at the moment, a few of the basic functions have changed (no doubt for the better) and there's a whole bunch of new stuff to take on board:  new warp engine where one can stretch the track over the time not just time over the track; new complex warping mode; and the mysterious new window known as "the groove pool" - gotta be good, gimme a year and I might even understand wtf that is, harrrrrrrrrr!

Best of all, Ableton allow you to install the program on a 2nd PC which meant I could give a genuine copy of live 8 to a friend, which is phenomenal, as I really need his help   

Take back what I said about the Vestax - it's clearly a champion controller, though I handled an APC40 recently and was blown away by the build quality (but mostly the flashing lights).