We’ve received several press announcements about interesting free Ableton Live packs last month, so we’ve decided to roll them all into one bigger article which you can come back to and re-visit whenever you need some new tools to boost your workflow in this popular live performance oriented DAW.
Nowadays, the Ableton Live sound pack scene seems more lively than ever and it’s amazing to see how many different instruments can be built in this digital audio workstation, as well as how many people are building awesome packs for it and sharing them for free. We’ve recently covered a free set of 10 free Ableton Live templates by Subaqueous and this time we’re bringing you a collection of five different Live racks to help you get more creative in the weeks to come.
Aurex ERX-1 by Aurex Music
We’re kicking it off with Aurex ERX-1, an impressive sample based emulation of the Korg EMX-1 synthesizer/sequencer module coming from Aurex Music. This is one of the more complex Ableton Live packs we’ve seen lately, sporting several different playback modes (single oscillator, dual oscillator and unison), FM synthesis and three multi-FX sections. Take a look ad the demo video embedded above to see the instrument in action and also check out the Aurex MFX effects rack which is offered as a free download on the same page.
More info: Aurex ERX-1 (30.9 MB download size, ZIP archive, contains 1 Ableton Live instrument in ALS format, 65 audio samples in 24-bit WAV format)
Vinyl Scratch by AfroDJMac
Coming from our friend AfroDJMac who has already published over 100 free Ableton Live packs (this is the 119th one!), the Vinyl Scratch rack is a free utility built to make vinyl scratch style noises without a turntable. Of course, an emulation such a this one will never sound exactly like a skilled turntablist’s performance, but it’s an easy way to add a bit of that vinyl flavor to your Ableton projects. The rack is based on Ableton’s native ping pong delay effect which was cleverly used to recreate the classic scratching effect. As always, AfroDJMac has added a bunch of useful FX controls to the rack in order to make it even cooler and easy to make interesting sounds with.
More info: Vinyl Scratch by AfroDJMac (6.81 KB download size, ZIP archive, ALP file format for Ableton Live)
Puck by SirenAudio
Puck is a simple free MIDI utility for Max for Live, made by SirenAudio. The concept behind this free tool is to allow the user to trigger full chords with just a single note. By default, C1 is used as the trigger note, meaning that all other notes being held in any given moment will be triggered whenever C1 is pressed (the default note value can be changed of course). It’s a cool way to improvise rhythmic variations of a programmed chord sequence, while still being able to tweak knobs and sliders with your other hand. Please note that Puck was built with Max for Live which is required in order to use this free utility on your machine (Java runtime is also required).
More info: Puck by Siren Audio (135 KB download size, AMXF file format for Max for Live)
NoisR by Audio Outlaw
Next up is NoisR by Audio Outlow, a rhythmic noise generator which automatically adapts to the tempo of your audio project. The developers descripe NoisR as a noise designer and pulse generator instrument, capable of adding rhythmic white noise sequences to any given audio track. The effect can be controlled with a MIDI keyboard and paired up with any iOS device. It is currently available as a completely free download over at Isotonik Studios, an awesome website which features dozens of other free and affordable utilities for Ableton Live.
More info: NoisR by Audio Outlaw (5.5 MB download size, ALP file format for Ableton Live)
Free Future Bass Rack by Joshua Casper
Our friend Joshua Casper has recently released yet another free Ableton Live goodie, this time a neat NI Massive powered instrument rack for future house production. The new Free Future Bass Rack is based on two instances on NI Massive (you’ll need to have NI Massive installed on your machine in order for this rack to work) and a bunch of built-in effects which are mapped to the macro knobs for easy control. The rack is completely free to download and use, however you’ll need to share it socially in order to get the download link.
More info: Free Future Bass Rack (21.44 KB download size, ZIP archive, ALP file format for Ableton Live)
