Ableton Forum

Hi everyone.

So I just purchased Live Suite last week and immediately started using the DL version. I expected to be very satisfied with the quality of the samples, but I have found that even through headphones the electric key patches were not what I had anticipated.

I had expected there to be sweet sounding rhodes, nice wurlizter, funky keyboard, etc. amongst the factory loaded samples, samples that sound good through headphones without tweeking. I found the electric key patches to be rather harsh and punchy.

Does anyone else have experience with this? Am I missing something? Is it just that these patches require tweaking? I can understand them needed some tweaking to get it sounding good through your particular amp or monitors, but since I was using headphones, I thought they would sound good as is.

thanks, i appreciate your feedback

I have been underwhelmed with most of the instrument samples and wish I had spent the money on NI's Komplete rather than upgrading to Live Suite.

I reckon you want to take a look at Kontakt. The library is good, and there are loads of quality third-party libraries.

The live library has a very raw feel to some of the presets. I know what you are saying about the sharpness, but it has it's uses. For me they seem to come alive when I'm mixing w/ other tracks

Thanks everyone, I appreciate your input. Def helps me understand what I'm gonna need, cuz my primary goal is playing keys live. Originally I was gonna get komplete 7 since I already hav Logic studio, but I opted for Ableton instead bc everyone raves about its capabilities for production and live use. The thing about Komplete 7 is that it's so huge, it's almost too big (dont wanna overwhelm my laptop). It still seems like Komplete 7 is the way to go AFA getting the most bang for your buck.

Does anyone know if you get komplete 7, if there are ways to install only some of the software to your hard drive?

megzie wrote: Does anyone know if you get komplete 7, if there are ways to install only some of the software to your hard drive?

You do not have to install all 90GB of samples. Although if you do, be prepared to spent some 12 hours installing it!

I bought Komplete 7, and it's awesome. But if your main machine is a laptop, you might run into some memory issue in trying to load a Kontakt instance in Live. I really can't speak to memory usage of a Kontakt VST vs. an Ableton Live preset, but I'd be surprised if Kontakt was slimmer than internal Ableton stuff.

Have you tried slapping a little reverb on some of the keys presets in Live? Maybe a little velocity compression?

btw, the electric pianos addons for Pianoteq are really nice sounding, and great to play...

I think Suite is a waste of money myself, but if your primary focus is playing keys live then I don't know if you need Komplete. I would either do as fishmonkey suggests and look at Pianoteq with the Epiano add on or get the Scarbee Vintage Keys set from NI. I have both Pianoteq and Scarbee. Pianoteq weighs next to nothing as it's modelled, but Scarbee sounds better.

megzie wrote:Hi everyone.

So I just purchased Live Suite last week and immediately started using the DL version. I expected to be very satisfied with the quality of the samples, but I have found that even through headphones the electric key patches were not what I had anticipated.

I had expected there to be sweet sounding rhodes, nice wurlizter, funky keyboard, etc. amongst the factory loaded samples, samples that sound good through headphones without tweeking. I found the electric key patches to be rather harsh and punchy.

Does anyone else have experience with this? Am I missing something? Is it just that these patches require tweaking? I can understand them needed some tweaking to get it sounding good through your particular amp or monitors, but since I was using headphones, I thought they would sound good as is.

thanks, i appreciate your feedback

Why would you play the sampled keyboards if you have the Suite? Play Electric! Its LoungeLizard in a different jacket.

polyslax wrote:I think Suite is a waste of money myself

yep. figured as well, lately. was tempted by the < 200EUR upgrade price but it's indeed a little bit disappointing.

hoffman2k wrote:Why would you play the sampled keyboards if you have the Suite? Play Electric! Its LoungeLizard in a different jacket.

Oh sure, if you want to be all logical 'n' everything!

hoffman is way correct. You've already got quite a decent modelled epiano in your toolkit. No need to lay out more $.

but if your serious about keys and you don't want to fill up your hard drive, there's only one way to go:

http://www.pianoteq.com/

piano, electric pianos, clavinet, xylophones, vibes etc....

not cheap, but totally awesome.