Since its initial launch in 2001, Live has become widely known as a powerful tool for remixing, live performance, and film and television composition. However, it seems that each time another individual takes hold of the program, a new use for it is born. Innovative Spanish composer Jaime Rosselló forges new territory by using Live to provide a sonic backdrop befitting an exotic parade of models at Jose Miro's runway show at Spain's Pasarela Cibeles. Rosselló takes a few minutes to describe the experience in his own words.

"Jose Miro asked me to compose some music for his summer collection 2004. His collection is inspired by Japan, Africa, Cuba and India. The models came out in such a way that Africa appeared first, followed by Cuba, Japan, futurist Japan, and finally India. In total, there were 36 models for whom I had to create music.

"I used the experience as a study in recording. The models backstage usually follow an order but each one has her own pace, and to put her to sounds previously recorded to CD would be practically impossible. Also, I needed to sync all the music through the percussion and instruments of each country, including electronics in the futuristic parts.

"The solution is to be able to do things in real time. Someone told me about a program that could sequence in real time, that quantizes and lets you add effects to every track. Eureka! Ableton Live allows me to unite apparently disparate percussive elements. Each country has a pad that fires off before the costumes from that country begin to appear-all synchronized!

"I work with loops in Logic and then I turn them around in Ableton Live. Every model has a sound. I have a photo of the model and an announcer tells me, "Model 6!" I look for her signature sound in the Live interface and two second before the model enters through the doorway, I trigger the loop so that the Japanese costume is greeted with a big "GOOONG!," and so on.

"I work with a monitor and the models pass in front of me four seconds before going on the runway. I see them through a little window (my friends joke, "concentrate on the Ableton window, not on the other!") and I trigger the sample. To the public eye it looks like perfect choreography, and the result was the L'Oreal prize for the best runway show in Pasarela Cibeles, the most important fashion event in Spain."

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