Max for Live, potentially offers endless new MIDI and Audio Effects, Instruments and Video Devices .

Since Ableton Live 9. Max for Live is bundled with the Suite version of Live.

If you are not already using Max for Live you should first check out the Max for Live Essentials Pack which includes very useful tools for your production including a the brand new Convolution Reverb.

Max is a visual programming language designed for media artists. You can start building your own devices and edit other’s

Shortly after Max for Live was introduces maxforlive.com started. There you can find hundreds of free and paid M4L devices and library is growing everyday!

I always love finding new Max for Live devices and I’ll start posting the ones that stand out which I find myself using more regularly.

Palmas

I’ve been using Palmas for a while now. It makes a very realistic clap sounds. It’s really simple and just works. It allows you do decide how many people are clapping and even automate it.

So you can go from one person clapping to a big group of 32 people clapping.

You can even change how accurately timed the claps are. You can change the pitch and even the sound across the stereo field.

If you’re looking for more live sounding organic claps, Look no further.

Download Palmas (Free)

Palmas is part of a pack of devices created by Beyond-Digital. The included instruments are more focused on ethnic scales called Maqams. All the devices share a very unique and beautiful design.

J74 Harmotools

I’ve always envied Logic‘s built-in chord detector you can find in the global transport bar. Finally you can have one just like that with Max for Live.

J74 Harmotools are a collection of Max MIDI effects to help you with your compositions. Inside the pack you can find the HarmoChord J74. Simply load it into a MIDI track and start playing, it will tell you which chord you playing or which chord is being played from the MIDI clip.

Download J74 Harmotools (Free)

Stereo Imager

You can achieve stereo widening effect in various ways in Ableton Live (Utility, Frequency Shifter, Filter Delay etc.) but this Stereo Imager from Calvin Lanz just works straight out of the box. Drop it on any track and you’ll instantly hear the sounds completely spread across the stereo field. Really great on Pads, Noise, Textures, Arpeggios and Backing Vocals.

Download Stereo Imager  (Free)

Track Stereo Pan Enabler

Ableton’s lack of a true stereo panning is hardly talked about. In Live the Pan knobs only function as a Stereo Balance. Meaning that they only turn down one side as much as you turn the Pan knob.

To get true stereo panning you can use Faint Response – Track Stereo Pan Enabler a free Max Audio Effect from Marc Sprecher.

Place the device on any Audio track and instantly it will take over that Track’s panning. Now using the regular Pan knob you used all along you can achieve true stereo panning that will more naturally change the perceived sonic angel of the sound and not just turn down the left or the right channel. Valuable on the stereo sounds of your tune. It might even solve you some mixing problems.

Download Track Stereo Pan Enabler (Free)

For more details on the panning limitation in Live check out the very informative video from Urple Eeple.

One

Might be the most simple yet useful Max for Live device out there. Created by Certified Trainer Yehezkel Raz out of Israel.

This Device has only one knob. You map this knob to one of the knobs/faders on your MIDI controller. Then every parameter in Live that you click with your mouse will be controller by that one knob/fader on your MIDI controller! So you can basically use one knob to control any parameter in Ableton Live!

Download One

You can get a lot more free and useful Max for Live devices like this on Yehezkel’s blog 4live.me

Max Devices Installation

Drag the downloaded file to:

Max Instruments: User Library -> Presets -> Instruments -> Max Instruments

Max MIDI Effects: User Library -> Presets -> MIDI Effects -> Max MIDI Effects

Max Audio Effects: User Library -> Presets -> Audio Effects -> Max Audio Effects

Do you know of any must have Max for Live devices? Let me know, Would love to check them out.