Instruments

Max for Live lets you create Instruments which receive MIDI information from the Live application and use that information to generate audio output which can be sent back to the Live application or be further processed by any number of Audio effects devices.

The Max for Live Essentials Live Pack contains a collection of audio effects, MIDI effects, drum synthesizers and control devices for Ableton Live you can try, study, and modify.

Live Suite owners can download this Live Pack by choosing Your Account > Your Packs when logged in to the Ableton website and clicking on the download button to the Live Pack. To install the Live Pack, double-click on the .alp file

The Max for Live Essentials pack contains the following example instruments:

• Bass: a bass synthesizer with multi-oscillator mixing and integrated distortion voicing
• Poli: a virtual analog polysynth with detunable oscillators and a built-in chorus effect
• Multi: a multi-voiced synthesize with unique randomized voicing system
• DrumSynth: a collection of 13 Max for Live instruments that use synthesis to produce a wide variety of electronic drum and percussion sounds.

In addition, the Max for Live Pluggo for Live Live Pack is a collection of Max for Live devices derived from Cycling '74's Pluggo plug-in collection. Several instruments are included there.

You can also download copies of instruments from the original "Big Three" devices originally released with Max For Live 1.0 as individual Live packs. You may find them to be useful programming examples in addition to being a lot of fun.

The instrument included with the "Big Three" is:

• The Max for Live 1.0 Loops Shifter

The Max programming environment itself provides you with some helpful tools for one of the classic challenges of synth creation - the management of polyphony. The Max poly~ object is created specifically to efficiently manage polyphony in the context of synthesizer design. The MSP tutorials also include a section on using the poly~ object .

You can use any MIDI input object to receive MIDI data from Live application. You'll use the plugout~ object for audio output.