At the NAMM 2010 conference back in mid-January,  Ableton and Serato introduced their much rumored collaboration project, the Bridge. This was something that definitely got all the heads worked up in giddy anticipation. But first, what is the Bridge?

The Bridge spans the gap between music production and DJing, creating a natural link between Ableton Live and Scratch Live or ITCH. The Bridge provides a powerful fusion of DJ and production tools, opening a world of opportunities for DJing, remixing and live performance.

You can cross the Bridge in either direction: export Ableton productions into Serato for live DJ playback. Or go the other way, taking a DJ performance into Ableton with 100% production control over the recording.

While trying to find a good demonstration of The Bridge this snippet of Ski Beatz, the producer behind some of Jay-Z’s great early tracks, using Ableton was too good not show. Watch what he does here then imagine what can be done when you take this a step further into a live DJ scratch setup.

The Bridge is still in Beta and not on full release as yet. When it is released it will be free to anyone who owns a registered copy of both Serato Scratch Live (or Serato ITCH) and Ableton Live 8. Sure this a high end entry point but what it means to the average punter is that you can expect to see your favorite musical talents breaking new ground in the very near future.

For me ?uestlove says it best, with a somewhat dazed look on his face,

“Now that we have the opportunity to play with the actual files… and use them in DJ gigs and live shows, the possibilities are absolutely 100% endless. Being as I just saw [The Bridge], my mind is racing with endless ideas…”