Ableton Forum

There is so much info on this board about plugin's, it would seem absurd to try to use Live without them. However, I am wondering, is there anyone who works with only Ableton instruments and specifically avoids plugins? What are your experiences? Is your music lacking anything?

i'm addicted to plugins. there, i said it.

live's plugins are perfectly nice though.

I usually try to get by with the included plugins in Live and Logic, plus one or two extra if it's REALLY necessary.

If I'm using LIVE from beginning to end than I'll create sounds with various hardware and software but then bounce to audio. Leaving the mix and creative/live stage to just the LIVE included effects/instruemtns. This leaves me the option of opening the project on various computers with no issues what so ever. For me, this ability is the #1 advantage of LIVE over other DAWS. Excellent included tools and samplers that bring referenced samples into the project folder. It's a beautiful thing!

I avoid autofilter, EQ8 most of the time and the reverb, they sound crap to me.

i got sick of waiting for stuff to work on intel macs and tired of compatibility issues and keeping track of versions etc and i'm just generally a lazy bastard so i chucked every single plug i had (mostly fx, couple synths though) and am now using only the hardware instruments i own and Live's fx and instruments. i make mostly ambient/sleep shit anyway so the Ableton plugs work great and it doesn't quite matter much.

Thanks for the feedback. Looks like a few people have this idea.

What about saving all VST synth sounds as samples & using simpler to play them in Live? That's probably just crazy, but I'm interested to know if someone has a successful workflow like this.

In my experience there is only one thing to consider when using only hw synths.
As a sometimes lazy one, I find too much work having to bounce the MIDI tracks to audio. That's why I use internal Live instruments, especially Impulse even if I'm going crazy about tons of GM MIDI drum clips...


- Best
- Pasha

THANX, this is a fantastic point, nice that you spoke it out.
to be honest, i have some high quality plugs, i have 2 Poco, 1 UAD, both with mostly all optional plugs you can get. Aslo i have some nice VSTi's from Arturia, NI, Linplug, Spectrasonic, etc....

Now to Live!
I am Live - user since the first version and that time when this update came out, which made live able to use third party plugs i was amazed. But than? i never started to use them much. Honestly. The way i work with live,i don't miss external Plugs. But i have to say, that i use Live more as an instrument on itself, not as my recording or master Software. For this i use Samplitude, Wavelab and still sometimes Cubase SX3, but want to get rid of it.

Anyway, i love Operator and also bought the new Sampler from Ableton but don't know why. Normaly i never use Sampler, and when i use Independence from YellowTools or Kontakt. But i like how Ableton integrate their own Plugs into their main Software, so...
I like Live's including EFX very much, they sound exactly the way they have to for my needs when jamming with live, so...
...sometimes i plug some enhancments from UAD to the drums or the Sony Oxford EQ, but only because i have them, on my notebook i do not miss them.
So, for Live7 i wish some VideoEFX from Ableton, some more Templates for Midicontrols would be helpfull (i am sooo lazy in this stuff)

the only plug-in I use is melodyne. otherwise, it's live-only stuff.

i have a wierd philosophy about software ... when i used fruity, it was fruity-only plugs. whe i occasionally use audiomulch, it's mulch-only contraptions. don't know why i approach it that way....

Sometimes I feel the need to create limitations to excite my creativity. When I can do ANYTHING, I get stuck thinking about what I should do...