In this special episode Dan Giffin highlights his favorite native Ableton Live Packs, as well as Packs suggested by Ableton Certified Trainers and online forums. After exploring over 100 Packs, Dan discovered many useful effect racks, sample libraries, instruments, and more.
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All of the Packs below are mentioned in this episode, and are native to Ableton Live. You can download them directly in the Browser under the Packs folder. Keep in mind, some of these Packs are free and others are paid. Also consider whether you're using Live Suite (which includes Max For Live, the Standard and Lite versions do not). Many of these packs include Max for Live devices.
PRO TIP:
If you’re in Live’s Browser and are curious about a Pack, right-click and select “Learn more about this Pack on Ableton.com”.
If you download and try a Live Pack, but you don’t want it to take up hard drive space anymore, just right-click it and choose “Uninstall Live Pack”. Make sure you save any samples used from that Pack in another location so it's not deleted/ uninstalled.
The Packs mentioned below are separated into 2 categories - Instruments & Effects and Utility.
Instruments & Effects
Chop & Swing
Ableton’s homage to the style that made sampling an art form and put a new kind of groove on the musical map. Chop and Swing comes loaded with inspired recordings and presets perfect for cutting up and re-combining into fresh new tracks.
Suggested In This Pack:
MIDI Clips folder → Drums and Tonal
Drum Racks
Effects Racks → Modulation & Rhythmic
Instant Haus by Alexkid
Producer Alexkid is a master of house music. He's put that knowledge into his 'Instant Haus' Max for Live device, which instantly generates drum patterns to craft into your own house track.
Instantly generates drum patterns to craft into your own house track.
Voice box
(New in Live 11)
Voice Box invites you to get inventive with vocals. This Pack features a comprehensive collection of contemporary vocal samples from multiple voices, a set of playable vocal instruments, and Effect Racks designed for vocal processing.
Suggested In This Pack
Try all the Audio Effects Racks
Basic Vocal Effect Racks folder - great for quick vocal mixing cleanup + colorful effects; try Telephone.
Try the MIDI Clips
Samples folder includes some fun one-shot vocal samples.
Mood Reel
Set the scene with a collection of sounds for making music with a modern narrative feel. Evocative layered instruments combine organic and synthetic sounds with textural elements to add mood, space and movement to productions.
Suggested In This Pack:
MIDI Clips - Tonal folder - Scroll through Instrument Presets/ Sounds
Construction Kits
Audio Effects Racks → Transformative folder → Alien Landscape
Beat Tools
With more than 120 Drum and Instrument Racks, over 180 loops for slicing, tweakable effects chains and more, Beat Tools has all the sounds you need for hands-on beatmaking – especially with Push.
Suggested In This Pack:
Effects Rack folder
MIDI Clips
Samples → Drum Loops → HH Repeats
Lofi Hip Hop by Comakid
This extensive collection of lo-fi sounds, samples and loops is all about texture and feel. Build beats peppered with tape hiss, clicks and pops with a laid-back, less quantized groove.
Suggested In This Pack:
FX Racks folder → Distortion and Space effects
See Sliced Loops folder
See MIDI Clips folder
Drum Racks folder
Filmscape by Puremagnetik
A comprehensive toolkit of otherworldly strikes, atmospheres and textures for game, film and television scoring, and experimental music production.
Suggested In This Pack:
Scroll through the many Drum Rack presets and one-shot samples to find what you like
Studio Bass by E-Instruments
Studio Bass is four instruments in one and delivers the powerful, expressive sound of a classic electric bass guitar. With four different characters to choose from it covers all the typical articulations, string types and amplifier/ effects combinations.