Standard to Suite upgrade: can't make up my mind

[fedx]

I'm having a hard time trying to decide if the Standard to Suite upgrade is worth it.
Having the amp instrument would be nice I guess (I am mainly a guitarist but have an interest in electronic music) but I'm not really convinced by the need for Max for live, I can't find any killer apps which impress me eg would it be possible to create the equivalent of a chord track as found in the latest Cubase versions. In short, can someone really sell me the idea of buying the Suite upgrade eg has anyone upgraded and felt it was really worth doing ?
Hope u can help, thanks.

[Schmidi]

As someone who has been using Live since V1, I held out until V9 for the Suite upgrade.

The things (IMOP) for you to consider:

Do you already have a decent collection of 3rd party VST plug ins?
If you already do, then I'm not sure it would be worth it.
If you don't, the Suite is potentially a very nice upgrade IF you intend on focusing on your own sound design and synth programming. I say this because the presets are rather hit or miss in most people's opinion.

IF you just want a lot of new presets to flip through, I think your best bet is to buy Native Instruments Komplete.

If you want the most tightly integrated Live instruments out there, AND you want to program your own unique sounds/learn synthesis...
- Upgrading to Suite will give you access to a very nice set of built in instruments.
Tension = 90% of AAS String Studio and can make for very nice stringed instrument and experimental tones.
Collision = 90% of AAS Chromaphone, a very cool sounding physical modeling synth that sounds very realistic (IE can make real bells and wooden drums) and experimental tones are very possible.
Electric = AAS Lounge Lizard. Very easy to generate nice electric piano tones (Rhodes to DX) in no time.
Operator = a very powerful and well regarded FM synth. This one is very deep!
Amp = Must admit, I have barely used this one, but it seems to provide some nice solid state, tube, and fuzz distortion.
Glue Compressor =(perhaps this in part of Live standard too?) EXCELLENT compressor!
Sampler = a nice sampler instrument that lends itself very well to layering and generating your own unique sounds. Also has some additive synthesis to add synth tones to your samples.
Analog = 90% of AAS Ultra Analog synth. A very straight forward interface to learn subtractive synthesis with. Can produce some nice sounds with a little effort.
Cabinet = guitar cabinet simulator (I haven't used this much either)
Corpus = A resonator effect. Can be nice to generate new frequencies in sounds.
Max For Live = Opens a HUGE realm of possibilities within Live: synth creation, sample manipulation, GUI tweaking, making your own instruments and FX and midi utilities, you name it. You gotta put the effort in to study it though. It's approachable for the newbie, but extremely deep to fully learn.
numerous Live Packs = varying quality, but a ton of variety that can aid in compositions and sound design.

IMOP If I could go back and not have purchased many other 3rd party plugs, Suite would be all I need. It has the tools to make nearly any sound IF you take the time to learn it and it has the best integration with Live by a mile. Again, the presets that are supplied are so-so, so it's about making your own sound that counts here!

[Garry Knight]

I went from Lite to Standard to Suite over the course of a couple of weeks because I wanted Sampler and the synths, Glue Compressor, and Convolution Reverb plus other things. But this is because I do synth music and wanted to incorporate more sampled stuff in my work.

If I were doing, say, guitar-based rock I'd be looking at 3rd-party stuff like the Softube vintage amps or Guitar Rig.

[fedx]

very useful info,thanks for replies guys.

[TomViolenz]

Sampler and Operator alone are already worth it IMO.

But if Amp is the only thing that interests you from all the Suite material, then something like Guitar Rig gets you much more for your money.

[kitekrazy]

If you have Kontakt you really don't need Sampler but you can use it in unique ways. See video The Last Drum Rack You'll Ever Need on Youtube.

All Suite items are proprietary.

Max4Live included.

Buy if on sale.

[fedx]

If you have Kontakt you really don't need Sampler but you can use it in unique ways. See video The Last Drum Rack You'll Ever Need on Youtube.

All Suite items are proprietary.

Max4Live included.

Buy if on sale.

yeah there's load of different ways to put drum kits together in Live but what about the high level stuff ie drum patterns and whole drum tracks? Reason to be fair has Dr Octorex which is brilliant for putting drum tracks together using a bunch of matched drum patterns and pattern lanes in the sequencer but I'm not seeing that type of thing in Live. Everything is very low level and fiddly and you either know how to do it or u don't. This is the main stumbling block for me wrt upgrading, I can't see anything which really grabs me in the upgrade packs.