Gerhard Behles

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Gerhard Behles is a German music entrepreneur and electronic musician who is best known as a co-founder of Ableton. In 1999 he started that company in Berlin together with Robert Henke, with whom he also forms the group Monolake, and the software engineer Bernd Roggendorf. Behles had previously worked on granular synthesis for Native Instruments' Reaktor software and on programs of his own on a Silicon Graphics workstation at the Technische Universität Berlin. He is still the chief executive of Ableton.

Music and breakthrough

From that work came Ableton Live, which appeared as a commercial program in 2001. Live is a digital audio workstation built so that music can not only be made but also played live. Later came the controller Push and the synthesizer Operator, which were used by, among others, Skrillex and Monolake. The company worked with Cycling '74, the makers of Max/MSP, and acquired that firm in 2017.

Influence

For pop history Behles matters because of his tools. Live turned the studio from an expensive room full of equipment into a laptop, and gave producers in techno, hip hop and pop the same possibilities on stage as at home. A great deal of contemporary electronic music has been made with his software.

Listening

Mentioned in other articles

• Ableton Live TechnologyGerhard Behles and Robert Henke made techno in Berlin as Monolake.