8. Live’s Instruments

In addition to a plethora of MIDI capabilities, Live features eight software-based virtual instruments: Collision is brand new to Live 8, while Impulse, Simpler, Operator, Sampler, Analog, Electric, and Tension have all been around since earlier versions. Impulse and Simpler come free for all Live users, while the others are included in the Live Suite or must be purchased separately.

You may have noticed that the box of your Live Suite actually claims 11 virtual instruments. While this isn’t exactly false, it is a piece of market-speak. Three of the instruments—Drum Machines, Session Drums, and Latin Percussion—are really sample libraries customized for use with Drum Racks. That said, these are some mighty powerful, highly usable sounds, so I am certainly not disparaging them at all. However, I won’t be devoting the same time to them as the other instruments, all of which have completely unique interfaces and capabilities.