Ableton Forum

Hello,

I guess the subject sums up my questions well. Now that MFL will come with Live Suite 9, i'm very interested in it as soon as it'll be released. Because as Ableton makes you understand it, MFL lets you build your own tools for Live : synths, arpeggiators, turn any data input to a sound generator (in short), etc. Is that so ? I wonder because a friend of mine think MFL may need Max in order to run, as MFL would be nothing but an interface between Max and Live. But for my part I understood the name "Max For Live" as what it sounds, a version of Max made for Live. So, no need for Max. Where is the truth ?

You do have to have the separate Max app installed in order for M4L to run. However you only need to open the app itself if you're going to edit or create devices yourself. When you edit a device the Max app is launched but it will only edit M4L patches. If you try to run the Max app without going through Live–>M4L then Max will ask for an authorization code for a full Max license.

ElGregos wrote: I guess the subject sums up my questions well. Now that MFL will come with Live Suite 9, i'm very interested in it as soon as it'll be released. Because as Ableton makes you understand it, MFL lets you build your own tools for Live : synths, arpeggiators, turn any data input to a sound generator (in short), etc. Is that so ?

Yes! Or use the 1000 free things out there that other people have built.

ElGregos wrote: I wonder because a friend of mine think MFL may need Max in order to run, as MFL would be nothing but an interface between Max and Live.

In short, you do not need to OWN Max, but you DO have to have it installed.

Thank you both for your replies, but I'm not sure I got it : in short, will I have to buy Max and spend between $224 and $300 ("small" prices for Max for Live owners : http://cycling74.com/shop/crossgrades/) above the Live 9 Suite upgrade (and maybe the Push device) ? How can I have it installed without owning it ? I'm only considering legal means of course. I know there's a 30 days demo, but I guess its use with MFL won't go beyond this demo time.

ElGregos wrote:Thank you both for your replies, but I'm not sure I got it : in short, will I have to buy Max and spend between $224 and $300 ("small" prices for Max for Live owners : http://cycling74.com/shop/crossgrades/) above the Live 9 Suite upgrade (and maybe the Push device) ? How can I have it installed without owning it ? I'm only considering legal means of course. I know there's a 30 days demo, but I guess its use with MFL won't go beyond this demo time.

When I said you do not have to own it, i certainly also meant you don't have to pay for Max. When you get Max for Live (either buy buying that, or by buying Live 9 Suite) you will get the right to use Max as your editor for Max for Live.

It's much simpler than you're making it. Install full Max on your machine but to not buy Max. Then Ableton Live has the bits it needs to have Max for Live work. You just wont be able to open Max as a standalone application (i.e. outside of Live).

Just upgraded to Suite 8, so looking forward to MFL. Does anyone know if I will need a dongle to use MFL?

yeahyeahwahwah wrote:Just upgraded to Suite 8, so looking forward to MFL. Does anyone know if I will need a dongle to use MFL?

No

So if you have M4L but not Max, can you use the M4L plugins ? Do you need Max only to create M4L devices ?

SBRK wrote:So if you have M4L but not Max, can you use the M4L plugins ? Do you need Max only to create M4L devices ?

You do not need to buy Max to either use M4L plugins, nor to create them. You get that ability from buying M4L. You need Max INSTALLED though.

Max for live is a combined programming environment and runtime environment. It is based on the MAX system which is also a programming environment and runtime environment, but it is limited to only working when you have Live running on your machine. So, you can write programs in the programming envrironment (they call them patches), and you can run patches that you or others have made, but only when Live is running.