Thought it was worth its own thread…
Life by XLN Audio lets you generate infinite beats with the unique sounds from your life’s favorite moments. Capture anything, anywhere, anytime with Life’s accompanying mobile Field Recorder and DAW Recorder apps.
The audio demos with that breathy “life!” as it flips from recording to what it can do sure does feel like pure satire 
Its a pretty disappointing, seems like a lot of fun for about 10 minutes them you realise there are just a set number of pre-programed rhythms in those circles…I thought at first it was some sort of Euclidian thing, but as far as I can tell its just a handful of set patterns as far as I can tell (that you can then edit with XOs fairly limited drum editor). A massive miss for me- this is a $10 iPad app at best (bit there are already better!)
P.S. Before you start uploading your samples, make sure you read the legal terms, this gives them the rights to your uploaded samples! (someone posted on KVR)
…the Customer grants to XLN Audio… a license to …use…all Created Music Work… generated by the Customer in connection with the use of the Software.
its a bit over the top yes.
this should not be a huge issue if you just record random sounds from the streets or from random places, and if you use the sample generated by life in a track as a percussive topper of some sorts.
I for one like the idea, and tested it out and it works nicely.
the pricing is a bit high, yes, but maybe worth it for some
I read the blurb for this and wasn’t really impressed at all.
This seems like the kind of thing you can already do with something like Koala, or some other iPad sampler.
Yup- or Live or Bitwig in a DAW etc Its just an instant gratification device and like most of these types of things you soon see the limitations. I may be wrong but isn’t using any sort of AI or algorithms for making drums, its just pre-programed drums bets that randomly selects the drum (sample sound) it plays…you cold drop any sample (you recorded on your phone with voice memo!) in to sampler in Live in a drum rack and do this. I see smoke and mirrors…but if people like it who am I to say what cool!
I’d say try the demo. Ive tried many of these apps, and the ease of use and musical/rhytmic stuff you get out of this by just a simple drag and drop is quite amazing.
What I wonder is: why is everyone worrying about the copyright/license issue?
You are allowed to publish a track with an XLN life rhytmic sample in it right?
What if you don’t have a life?
Yes, but be careful if you buy a sound pack from them, it may be all of your own samples 
well, i’ve been trying out the vst, and my ‘samples’ are just random shit, recorded with my phone.
i hardly see them selling that. and even if they do, i wouldnt buy it haha
Like someone mentioned before, i think this plugin needs to be seen as a timesaver and quick idea generator to get some rhytmic loops from random recordings of the environment with a phone, to get some inspiration.
In that sense; its not like they have the rights to use your ‘work’ as it was not any work at all.
As long as you don’t use a recording of your wife moaning during sex, I don’t see the big problem.
(apart from the price, max 75 usd would have been more realistic)
Yes, I thought that too… but, are you going to do it really?
I thought something similar about the Octatrack yesterday, that I could simulate it’s scenes/crossfader functions in Ableton… I still haven’t done it though.
It’s funny, there are always pessimistic/negative comments when something new comes out and people haven’t tried it… it’s like the default stance.
Personally, I think Life at it’s v1 stage is interesting and shows potential. I’ve found XO really valuable over the last couple of years, so I’m interested in seeing where/how I can use Life.
exactly my point.
its like that guy making video’s on youtube showing how you can do all the stuff an op-1 field can do with a laptop for ‘free’. Totally not the point.
You pay for user experience here, and for fun, easyness of use, timesaving, etc.
ps: at JRRshop, with code ‘group’ , its 90 usd
Yeah it’s a bit of a downer for me… I don’t get it. Is it because people suffer from such intense GAS that they feel the need to publicly bash new instruments as a defense mechanism?
I thought we were all enthusiasts with a deep and nerdy interest in these kind of things
It’s a little pricey for the current v1 (in my opinion) and the demos mid way down the page did make me scoff a little but I do like the concept. My only worry is with what @SLiC mentioned. From what I had seen, I had in my head that it did something fancier with the sample in creating the beat and not kind of just chop up and overlay on pre programmed rhythms. But maybe I was setting my bar too high.
But there is definitely something in this that appeals. I’m not one for field recording and don’t sample a great deal at all really because it’s too much of a faff but the thought of some app/vst that could take any old shite I record and turn into something else is interesting.
There wasn’t much talk online about this when I got the email through a few days back but hopefully we get some more examples not it’s out in the open.
I think the initial constant criticism is pretty tiresome, especially when many of those same people haven’t even tried it.
I’ll copy/paste my post from the other thread since it has to do with actually using the app. I’ve added a little extra at the end to respond to some other comments made above…
I’ve been using Life for the last day and it’s quite different than a normal beat mangler, regardless of where it initially stores its data. I’m especially enjoying it’s ability to mess with tonal content in ways that I simply wouldn’t have arrived at. The ability to work through infinite variations, find one that feels good and then go in and fine tune things in the “Edit” window is really wonderful. I think there’s ways that XLN can improve it, but at the moment it’s a blast.
With regards to the usefulness of the phone app and the cloud upload, I think the usefulness is that you don’t have to remember to do anything. You can be out in the world, capture something, forget all about it and then, when you’re in Life, you look and it’s just there, waiting to be messed with. The intention to capture only needs to be there on the front end and then the Admin aspect of the process happens in the background, which suits me just fine. I’ve got enough admin to do when I make music with a computer. Anything that streamlines those tasks and deals with them for me is a plus.
Yesterday I just went through my kitchen with a chopstick clicking against things and got a brilliant set of instant rhythms out of it.
I’ll also note that the controls feel a lot like Logic’s “Drummer” app to me, which I’ve longer to have replicated and available in Ableton. For me, I hear when things click, so the way Drummer allows you to drag the dot along the axis and refine things until it works is perfect. Life feels a lot like that to me.
Additionally, I don’t feel like this is a bunch of preset rhythms at all, but rather a very fast generator with a thoughtful GUI that allows instant modification when you feel like things are moving in the right direction. Could you create something similar with Ableton’s Drummer? Not without loading up Drummer with the sounds you’d like to use, setting up some sort of sequencer (m4l or some other sort of plugin) that you manually edit and then tweaking things repeatedly to try and get to where you want to be. That still wouldn’t be swapping out which samples get triggered as the sequence plays, editing pitch and velocities and create very new sounding loops for you to check out.
Personally, I think the Drummer comparison is sort of Apples and Oranges. If you enjoy creating those systems in Ableton and spending time working through those processes to see what sort of result you might end up with, more power to you. For me, when I’ve got a sound in my head or want to keep moving forward with creating, setting up those sorts of things is a distraction. It can be fun at the start of something, but mid-song when I’m focused, it’s the last thing I want to do if I’m in a groove with the music. I struggle with distraction enough in my life. Tools that help things move forward are very valuable to me.
I’d say if you’re at all curious, definitely try and demo. And if you like it, definitely take advantage of the discount mentioned a few posts above.
I do really like the idea of a phone app that drops field recordings straight into my Ableton library, but I don’t think I need a €100 plugin for that.
Great write up - convinced me to try the demo!
…instant creation of remangling audio slices and midigrooves…?..cool…
…make ur phone a “fieldrecorder” to catch now, process later…?..cool…
…no matter from where u pick ur audio to do so, u ALWAYS need to upload, see a CLOUD, first…?..
…not cool at all…
whats the main gripe you have with this? needing an internet connection? afraid xln will monetize your amazing content you put in it?