Suite 8 - Focal Press: Book companions

In this chapter 

1 Overview of Suite 8 3 

2 Analog 4 

3 Collision 6 

4 Electric 9 

5 Operator 10 

6 Sampler 11 

7 Tension 14 

8 Drum Machines 16 

9 Session Drums 17 

10 Latin Percussion 18 

11 Zero-G, Cycling ’74, Sound 

Objects Lite, Designer Drums 19 

12 Essential Instrument 

Collection 2 20 

13 Construction Kits and 

Templates 20

Suite 8 

Suite 8 is a monster! Creatively and practically, it’s my go to piece of software. 

Steve Ferlazzo, Producer and Programmer, 

Keyboardist for Avril Lavigne 

1 Overview of Suite 8 

Suite 8 is an Ableton’s flagship “XL” software package that includes Live 8, the 

large compliment of Ableton Software Instruments, and sample-based instrument 

collections. This includes items such as a full-fledged sampler instrument, 

five virtual software synths, three sample-based drum, and percussion instruments 

covering the essential acoustic and electronic instruments created in 

cooperation with SONiVOX, Chocolate Audio, Puremagnetik, and a selection 

of custom clips and sounds by Zero-G, Cycling ’74, and SoneArte. Suite 8 bolsters 

an enormously expanded instrument preset sound library of over 1600 

customized presets created by top sound designers, and additional Construction 

Kits, Effects Racks, and user templates. Above all, Suite 8’s large black box 

holds the 480-page hardbound reference manual. 

After that, we must still emphasize that Suite 8 is strictly a bundle that includes 

Live 8 as a part of its all-in-one package. This means that when you buy Suite 

8, it also comes with Live 8. Live 8 is also sold separately and comes with a 

basic set of instruments and samples. For an additional cost, you can buy or 

upgrade to Suite 8. You can also purchase individual Ableton instruments to 

enhance your experience with Live 8. These are available for individual purchase 

from Ableton’s Website. Suite 8, on the other hand, conveniently combines all 

these Ableton Instruments (Analog, Collision, Electric, Latin Percussion, Operator, 

Sampler, Tension) and sample collections (Drum Machines, Session Drums, 

Essential Instrument Collection 2 [EIC 2]) along with Live 8 in one box as 

mentioned above. 

Be aware that Suite 8 is also available for download from the official Ableton 

Website but does not include Session Drums or the EIC2 as of this writing. These 

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Ableton Live 8 and Suite 8: Create, Produce, Perform 

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Figure 1.1 Analog. 

sample libraries are contained on a separate DVD package and are currently only 

included in the boxed version of Suite 8. Of course, you can buy them later if 

you want. Boxed up or downloaded, this bundle is truly ready to be used for 

creating, producing, and performing your music! 

In the following sections, we’ll cover a general overview of the instruments 

included in Suite 8, which when purchased will appear in the Device Browser 

just like the included instruments found in Live 8. Understand that this scene 

does not attempt to cover every aspect of each Suite 8 device. For additional and 

specific information on how to program and operate these instruments, refer 

to the Live 8 documentation. Now that you are salivating at all the excitement 

packed in Suite 8, download the 14-day trail while it’s still available and have a 

taste of some of these fantastic instruments! www.ableton.com. 

2 Analog 

As the product of collaboration between Ableton and Applied Acoustic Systems 

(AAS), Analog is a fully integrated virtual analog software synth that emulates 

the “classic” analog synthesizers through physical modeling. Physical modeling 

is an advanced synthesis technique where, through mathematical analysis, it 

is possible to emulate the physical properties of an analog circuit or acoustic 

behavior, more specifically, emulate the way a real-world instrument behaves 

and responds to the way it is played. Analog is not limited to the reproduction of 

vintage analog synths, and it is fully customizable for new, rich, warm sounding 

synth creations and a variety of percussives, keys, pad, leads, and effects. 

Live’s Analog is what an analog synthesizer should be; powerful and robust with 

lots of control at your fingertips. There are no hidden and confusing menu pages 

or windows to navigate through. Analog efficiently offers editable features right 

in the front panel for almost every knob and slider. 

The user interface consists of two parts: the shell and the display. The shell is 

made up of two main oscillators, a noise generator, two filters, two amplifiers, 

two low-frequency oscillators (LFOs), and global controls. These take up the

Figure 1.2 Analog Display. 


outer lining areas of the interface that surrounds the display. Each has dedicated 

selectable parameters. In the center area of the interface is the instrument 

parameter display, which shows currently selected shell parameter settings, and 

updates as different shell parameters are selected. 

For example, when Analog’s Osc1 section is selected, its parameters will be visible 

in the display. Click on an individual shell section to bring up its parameters 

at any time. As with analog synthesizers, these parameters are routable to Analog’s 

filter section and other parameters including the amplifier, providing many 

sound-shaping options. It is also possible to route its oscillator signal or signals 

in series or in parallel, allowing you to create big sounding instruments that will 

inspire further interest into the sound-shaping world of synthesis. 

The individual shell’s window will turn from gray to white when selected. You 

can see what we mean by clicking on the various shell sections located around 

the outside of the central display area found in the middle. 

Figure 1.3 Analog Oscillator shell section. 

Each oscillator can be used independently or in conjunction with the other. 

Analog also has an incredible amount of routing flexibility in regards to both 

the balance and filtering of the oscillator’s sound. You’ll find a shape chooser 

window that displays Analog’s four oscillator waveform types: Sine, Sawtooth, 

Rectangular, and Noise. Part of Analog’s implementation is designed around 

what Ableton calls “routing schemes.” These routing parameter schemes are 

preset, ready to load, and are specific to the oscillator, filter, and amp. They can 

be found in the display area by clicking on the global volume shell on the far 

right side of the interface. The onboard filters, LFO’s, pitch/filter envelopes, and 

multiple tuning parameters make sound design and patch creation a lot of fun 

and addictive once you get the hang of it all. 

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Figure 1.4 Collision. 

Figure 1.5 Collision 

Excitator Tab. 

Using Rack Devices, you can create multiple Analog device chains, which can 

result in new and gratifying timbres. Try retuning, panning, and layering them in 

a Rack Device, and you’ll find that the sonic possibilities are yours for the making! 

3 Collision 

The result of another Ableton and AAS collaboration is Collision, a software synth 

designed to reproduce acoustic mallet-based percussion instruments through 

physical modeling. This includes wooden and metallic instruments, such as 

xylophones, marimbas, and glockenspiels. Of course, it is also capable of creating 

plenty of new custom instruments. The overall concept and design of 

Collision is quite powerful. It uses physical modeling to simulate a mallet striking 

a surface, meaning that it models the resonant characteristics and properties 

of various objects. Its sound is generated by two oscillators that create its initial 

attack sound (acting as mallets), which then feeds two unique resonators that 

create the character of the overall sound. We’ll come back to this in a moment. 

The user interface consists of six tabs: Excitator, LFO, MIDI, Resonator 1, Resonator 

2, and Link. Each tab accesses different parameters of the instrument 

except Link, which allows you to address both resonator parameters at the same 

time. At the far right-hand side of Collision’s interface is the Global Section.


Resonator 1 tab. 


The Excitator tab handles the parameters for the Mallet and Noise (oscillators) 

sections, which determines the characteristic of the initial attack of the instrument, 

creating a physical model of the mallet. Note that the Noise section also 

generates white noise as part of its characteristic. You can use either excitator or 

both excitators as the initial attack sound source to be fed into the resonator(s), 

resulting in Collision’s characteristic sound. 

The Resonator tabs handle the parameters of each resonator and determine what 

object is used as the physical model (the strike surface) for the instrument’s 

timbral characteristics. There are several resonator objects available for each 

Resonator located in the Resonance Type chooser window (just below and to 

the left of the Resonator 2 tab). Each of these resonant objects – beam, marimba, 

string, plate, pipe, and tube – posses a distinct sonic quality that can dramatically 

alter the Mallet and/or Noise excitator being used as the initial attack. Once you 

start to adjust the variable resonator parameters – harmonics, tuning, decay, 

and velocity – this will become very obvious. In addition, each resonator has an 

independent X-Y controller and a mixer section. The Resonator Mixer contains 

Volume, Bleed (dry/wet mix), and Pan knobs. 

The LFO tab provides access to the routing and parameters for two lowfrequency 

oscillators. These are used to modulate various parameters of the 

excitators and resonators, or are used to modulate each other. Routings are 

assigned by choosing a listed parameter in the Destination chooser. 

The MIDI tab is for internally assigning Pitch Bend, Mod Wheel, and Aftertouch 

data to Collisions parameters. Collision naturally works well with MIDI-assigned 

control parameters, adding a real-time flexibility to the process of creating sound 

design elements. 

The Global section handles overall behavior and performance parameters for the 

instrument. For example, you can use Resonator Structure to control how signal 

flows through the resonators, by setting it to either Serial mode or Parallel mode. 

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LFO Tab. 


MIDI Tab. 

Figure 1.9 Corpus. 

In Serial mode, each excitator signal is sent to Resonator 1, then its mixed output 

is sent to Resonator 2 and to its own mixer. In Parallel mode, each excitator is 

mixed first, then sent to both resonators at the same time. 

Note! Corpus is a stand-alone audio effect integrated into the Suite 8 Library 

that originates from Collision, adapting its powerful resonator section to create 

Corpus. Corpus can also be purchased separately as part of bundle with Collision. 

For more on Corpus, launch to .

Figure 1.10 Electric. 

4 Electric 


Yet another Ableton and AAS product, Electric is a software synth designed 

to emulate the “classic” Rhodes and Wurlitzer electric pianos through physical 

modeling. By modeling all the distinct traits and mechanics of these electric 

pianos (all phases of their sound generation), including their mallet strike, tone 

fork, damper, and the pickup, electric pianos are able to produce some very 

unique and flexible signature timbres. 

The Electric interface is designed around the four principle characteristics of the 

modeled sound and their related parameters. These are sectioned off within the 

interface starting from left to right: Mallet, Fork, Damper, and Pickup. The Mallet 

section handles the parameters of the modeled mallet. From there, you can 

control how hard the simulated striking surface is (Stiffness) and the intensity of 

the impact made by the mallet on the surface (Force). The Fork section handles 

the resonating characteristics of simulating a mallet striking a fork. Here you can 

control Tine, the portion that is struck, and Tone, the subsequent resonance of 

the Fork’s simulated tone bar. The Damper section handles the modeled characteristics 

of an electric piano’s dampers, how dampers create their own noise 

when they are applied and released when responding to the action of a piano 

key. The Pickup section acts as a virtual pickup similar to an electric guitar’s coil 

pickup. Adjusting the different parameters within this section changes the sound 

dramatically as the various knobs allow changes for distance, input amount, symmetry, 

and pickup types. The pickup types modeled are electro-dynamic-R and 

electro-static-W. 

Each one of Electric’s sections is ultimately fed into the Global section, which 

controls overall instrument functions, including tuning, pitch bend, and volume. 

We recommend experimenting using Electric within a Rack Device and taking 

full advantage of Live’s audio effects to enhance Electric’s “classic” sound and 

character. Electric can be purchased separately for those of you who do not own 

Suite 8. 

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Figure 1.11 Electric Pickup 

section. 

Figure 1.12 Operator. 

5 Operator 

Operator has been refreshed and rebuilt for Suite 8. This legendary instrument 

has been part of the Ableton legacy for several versions now. It is a user-definable 

FM (frequency modulation) software synth inspired by the classic digital FM 

hardware synthesizers. Operator combines traditional FM synthesis (the amplitude 

of one signal modulating the frequency of another signal) with Additive 

synthesis (combining partials/sinewaves) and Subtractive synthesis techniques 

(the filtering out of frequencies/harmonics) to create an easy-to-use customizable 

software synthesizer for Live. In addition, Operator contains four oscillators 

that can be mixed together along with a large number of included waveforms, 

which are multiplied together to create unique sounds. 

The interface is confined to one screen separated into two areas, the shell (on 

the left and right) and the display in the middle. To the left is a bank of four multiwaveform 

oscillators, which are labeled and color-coded. They can be routed 

with 1 of 11 algorithms for connecting oscillators to other oscillators, so they 

can modulate in various ways. The display area is where the currently selected 

shell’s parameters are listed and they can be edited when selected. This interactive 

display can also be toggled between an Envelope and Oscillator Views, 

when the associated orange outlined box is selected from within the display.

Figure 1.14 Sampler. 


Oscillator View allows for creating customized “user” waveforms by manually 

drawing them into the Waveform Editor using the mouse pointer. By doing this, 

you can adjust the amplitude of an oscillator’s partials. 

Figure 1.13 Operator: Oscillator Waveform Editor. 

6 Sampler 

On the right-hand side is the 

LFO shell, an expansive Filter 

shell with 14 preset filter types, 

Pitch shell (Pitch Envelope), 

and Global shell. 

With Suite 8, you can select 

dozens of Instrument Rack 

presets featuring Operator, 

designed by top-notch sound 

designers. Load it up and 

try it out. The full version of 

Operator can be purchased 

separately for those who do 

not own Suite 8. 

No digital audio workstation (DAW) is complete without a fully integrated software 

sampler for sample playback and for building or hosting sample libraries. 

This is exactly what Sampler is. Think of Sampler as essentially Simpler on 

steroids. Lots of steroids! Sampler is a multisampling instrument capable of handling 

large multisampled instruments. Unfortunately, Sampler is not included 

with the purchase of Live 8; but the full version can be purchased separately for 

those who do not own Suite 8. The good news, however, is that Simpler too 

supports playback of multisampled instruments, as long as the instrument preset 

was made in Sampler and then converted to a Simpler preset (right click or 

Ctrl+click on Sampler’s title bar and select Sampler → Simpler). Sampler can also 

import Kontakt (.nki – Native Instruments), EXS (.exs – Logic), SoundFont (.sf2), 

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GigaStudio (.gig – Tascam), and AKAI -S1000, S3000 third-party sample libraries 

(a wonderful feature!). Note that some third-party sample programming features 

and parameters are not supported in Sampler due to their proprietary 

design. In addition to sample playback, Sampler also makes use of common 

FM/AM synthesis features for sound design concepts. 

The user interface is comprised around a multipage layout accessed by tabs 

located at the top of the interface. Each tab offers its own set of tweakable 

parameters as follows: 

The Sample tab is a graphic sample editor accompanied by all the necessary sample 

playback parameters. Among others, this includes the all important sample 

start, end, loop, and cross-fade settings. 

Figure 1.15 Sampler: Sample tab. 

The Pitch/Oscillator tab reveals the FM/AM oscillator and Pitch parameters and 

envelopes. Enable either one to modulate and shape the samples’ playback 

characteristics. 

Figure 1.16 Sampler: Pitch/Oscillator tab. 

The Filter/Global tab includes a multimode filter with adjustable frequency and 

resonance parameters and filter envelope. The Global section handles the overall 

volume envelope and sample settings.

Figure 1.17 Sampler: Filter/Global tab. 


The Modulation tab manages the auxiliary envelope and three LFOs for modulating 

a multitude of Sampler’s internal parameters, i.e., pitch, volume, filter 

frequency, etc. 

Figure 1.18 Sampler: Modulation tab. 

The MIDI tab is where Sampler’s internal parameters can be assigned to standard 

MIDI controllers. Each MIDI controller type can be assigned to two modulation 

destinations. 

Figure 1.19 Sampler: MIDI tab. 

The Zone tab is where each sample’s playback range is graphically managed. 

From this view, samples are assigned to keys, velocities, and sample select ranges 

that will trigger a sample layer’s playback. 

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Figure 1.20 Sampler: Zone tab. 

More specifically, a Zone is the horizontal line-bar associated to a specific sample 

layer that defines the actual MIDI note or value range a layer (sample) will 

respond to when a note or other incoming MIDI data is played/received. Each 

sample will have the correct “root key” note displayed within Sampler’s interface 

for easy reference to your new zone range. You can lengthen or shorten the zone 

range with a click of the mouse on each side of the zone range display, allowing 

you to trim each edge of the zone to the desired position along the keyboard 

range. You can also edit multiple zones as a group by selecting its title bar on 

the left-hand side. There is a zone editor for each MIDI note assignment (Key), 

velocity (Vel), and Sample Select (Sel). A multisampled instrument will consist 

of many zones, for example a piano may have 300� zones, one zone for each 

note at multiple velocity values (hard, medium, soft, etc.). In addition, dragging 

at the top of the Zone will allow you to set a Fade Range that allows you to scale 

the volume associated to the Zone area that the fade is applied to. This is useful 

for overlapping two Zones so that transitions between samples are inaudible. 

Another really exciting possibility with Sampler is Live’s Instrument Racking process 

that allows you to layer multiple Samplers within one playable device. For 

more on Rack Devices, launch to . 

You can adjust the viewable display within the Zone editor by right clicking 

or ctrl + clicking and selecting “small,” “medium,” or “large” in the menu. This is 

great when working with Zone Fades and multiple zone ranges. 

Sampler has an enormous amount of features that will keep you busy for hours 

on end, the result of which can be unimaginable. 

7 Tension 

Tension is a fully integrated software synth designed to closely emulate stringed 

instruments through physical modeling. This instrument has been created by 

Ableton in collaboration with AAS. The concept is based on emulating the 

physical characteristics that influence the timbre of a stringed instrument. 

These characteristics or components are considered by Ableton to be bowing

Figure 1.21 Tension. 


technique, dampening, finger, pickup, and body. To achieve a useful result, 

Tension includes four excitator types and models of a string, finger/fret interaction, 

damper, and various soundboards. It also includes a multimode filter and 

envelope, LFO, and global controls that integrate performance features. 

The user interface is laid out in two tab views. The String tab manages the 

parameters relating to the string’s physical characteristics. This includes a section 

for Excitator, String, Damper, Vibrato, Termination, Pickup, and Body. Here is a 

brief rundown of these sections: 

The Excitator section is where one of the four excitators – Bow, Hammer, Hammer 

bouncing, and Plectrum – is selected to play the string, thus generating 

various instruments and styles of playing. Excitator may be deactivated using 

the switch located next to its name in the upper left. If “Off,” damper will need 

to be active for sound to be made. The String section handles the simulation 

of the resonating string and parameters that affect its theoretical vibrations. 

Damping controls the presence of high-frequency content. Inharm affects the 

intonation of the strings’ upper partials. The Vibrato section generates a vibrato 

effect on the string (a pulsing wave-like effect). Adjust the Rate to set the speed 

of the vibrato and Amount to set the amplitude of the effect. Use Delay to delay 

the onset of vibrato when a note is played. The Damper section handles the 

parameters for simulating the effects of a string being stopped from vibrating in 

a similar way that a real-world instrument would behave when a key is released 

or muted with a finger, pad, or other type of damper. Each parameter in this 

section creates some very believable results. For example, by using Damping 

to control the amount and resistance of the damper and Position to establish 

where on the string the damper comes in contact, you can achieve some sounds 

resembling a finger muting a guitar string that can even generate a resultant 

harmonics effect. The Termination section emulates the relationship of the finger, 

fret, and string with parameters relating to the force applied by the finger 

onto the string and the stiffness of the finger and fret. Each one of these parameters 

can be adjusted. The Pickup section is designed to model an electric guitar 

or electric piano’s pickup, which can be positioned relative to the string using 

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the provided slider. The Body section handles the parameters for simulating the 

effect that the body or soundboard of a string instrument has on the frequency 

content and how the string’s vibrations resonate. Settings for Body type, Decay, 

Low/High Cut, and String/Body balance, all contribute the realistic modeling of 

this physical property. 

The Filter/Global tab includes a filter section for sound shaping, which contains 

Filter, Filter Envelope, LFO, and global controls with sections relating to 

MIDI and performance parameters. These parameters include Keyboard (tuning, 

polyphony, pitch bend, etc.), Unison Mode (stacking voices for a chorus-like 

effect), Portamento, and Volume knob. 

Figure 1.22 Tension: Filter/Global tab. 

The full version of Tension is not included with Live 8 but can be purchased 

separately. Tension is not only limited to creating traditional string sounds; rather 

it can be very useful as sound design too. To get a handle on Tension and all its 

possibilities, explore its presets and try experimenting with your own sounds in 

similar ways. 

8 Drum Machines 

Drum Machines is a 540-MB, 24-bit 96-kHz sample collection of the most popular 

and sought after vintage electronic drum machines/computers from past 

years. It has been integrated as an expansion to the Live library, developed, 

recorded, and programmed by Puremagnetik. Their goal was to recreate the 

classics as closely as possible. The Drum Machines sample collection seamlessly 

integrates Drum Rack presets found in the Device Browser’s Instruments>Drum 

Rack>kit folder and also comes with a collection of Live Clips that are installed 

along with the Drum Machines Live Pack. 

Don’t let the number of selected Drum Machines fool you. The included preset 

library contains a surprisingly vast amount of unique sounding variations for 

these classic “beatbox-like” iconic sounds. Drag any of these presets from the

Figure 1.23 Drum Machines Drum Rack. 


Drum Rack folder in the Device Browser to an empty MIDI track to start using 

them. Note that all these Rack presets are mapped to Macro Controls by default. 

Feel free to add and chain together additional sounds to each Drum Rack Pad 

to layer and build your Drum Machine sounds into megastacked creations. 

Drum Machines is available separately for purchase as a download for those who 

do not own Suite 8. It comes as a Live Pack that you’ll need to install after Live 8 

has been installed. The simple installation process will automatically add Drum 

Machines’ samples, presets, and clips (MIDI patterns) into your Live 8 Library. 

For quick access to Drum Machines kits and clips, use Help View. Same as for 

other various folders in the Library. Click on the associated link to browse for 

these items. 

9 Session Drums 

Figure 1.24 Session Drums Drum Rack. 

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Designed in collaboration with Chocolate Audio, Session Drums is a 28-GB 

sample library of multisampled acoustic drums with an included complement 

of Live Clips. Amidst this vast content are a variety of drums, sticks, and mallets 

as stereo kits (fully mixed for production) and multimic kits (for custom mixing). 

The multimic presets have been provided so that you can adjust and mix mic 

positions and levels as you wish. The idea here is to recreate a real live studio 

session (hence the name) with maximum flexibility. 

The quality and dynamics are evident in this well-produced drum library. Multivelocity 

ranges and cross-fade zones for each sound are an integral part of the 

Session Drum library, along with its sample switching programming approach 

that avoids obvious repeating samples. Cross-fade zones here are useful for disguising 

transitions between different samples and sample layers so that alternate 

samples or in our example drum samples of different velocities can be used to 

help create realism. 

Most of the Session Drum kits can be loaded either as a stereo “full version” 

(24 bit) or as a “lite version” LE (16 bit). They can be located in the 

Instruments>Drum Rack>Kit folder. 

To load a Session Drums preset, drag it from the Device Browser into an empty 

MIDI track, just like you would do with any other device. You will find the 

Multimic presets sorted into their own folder. For quick access to Session Drums’ 

kits and clips, use Help View. Same as with other various folders in the Library, 

click on the associated link to browse for these items. 

10 Latin Percussion 

Figure 1.25 Latin Percussion.


Created and produced by e-instruments, Latin Percussion is a 24-bit/48-kHz 

1-GB multisampled acoustic percussion sample library featuring 107 Latin 

Percussion instruments. This library is fully integrated as Drum Rack presets 

included in Suite 8 or for separate purchase for the Live 8 users. The concept 

behind Latin Percussion is to provide you with real-world percussion instruments 

that cover the various playing techniques and articulations, and exploit the various 

timbres native to the instruments, i.e., slaps, mute, flams, heel, shake, and 

more. The library is programmed as individual instruments and as kits that are 

compatible with the most common drum pad controllers. 

In addition, Latin Percussion comes with clips and grooves featuring authentic 

playing patterns and rhythmic phrases located in the Live 8 Library. Note 

that these clips go far beyond the normal MIDI clip, in that they have been programmed 

to really show off the true characteristics of these high-quality samples 

and presets in the Latin Percussion Library. To load up a preset, simply drag a 

Latin Percussion Set or specific clips contained within the Set into your Set. 

Latin Percussion instruments are located under Drum Racks in the Device 

Browser. There you will find a variety of instrument presets and kits. The provided 

clips and a selection of grooves are located in the Library within the Clips and 

Grooves folders. More specific clips and grooves (instrument/style/genre specific) 

are located within each kit’s Set within the Latin Percussion preset folder. 

All clips and grooves are loaded as expected. For quick access to Latin Percussion 

kits and clips, use Help View. Same as for other various folders in the Library, 

click on the associated link to browse for these items. 

Figure 1.26 Latin Percussion: 

Sets located in the Library Clips 

Folder. 

11 Zero-G, Cycling ’74, Sound 

Objects Lite, Designer Drums 

Suite 8 contains a very strong library of samples and sounds, which are ready 

to load and play as Construction Kits, Rack Device presets, and as individual 

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sounds in certain cases. Navigate to your Live Library and you’ll find several 

folders containing these Sets, clips, and Drum Racks. Zero-G has contributed 

over 400 loops and samples in a wide range of styles, from Hip-Hop and 

Funk to Dance and Electro. You’ll find over 440 MB of samples and loops by 

Cycling ’74. Sound Objects Lite by SonArte has included a wide variety of percussive 

style samples to widen the sonic palette with organic “found sounds” 

(real-world) for innovative sound design. Deep within the vast Suite 8 Library is 

Designer Drums, Drum Racks featuring Operator-based synthetic drums. These 

are intensely programmed and designed to offer dynamic sounds. Note that 

Zero-G and Cycling ‘74 content is not available in the download version of 

Suite 8. 

12 Essential Instrument 

Collection 2 

The Suite 8 “boxed version” contains a large multisampled library of instruments 

created in conjunction with SONiVOX and Chocolate Audio. Once 

installed, Suite 8 offers real-world sampled sounds ranging from acoustic pianos, 

orchestral brass, electric and acoustic guitars, to keyboards and orchestral strings 

designed as Instrument Racks. Ableton has cleverly included the EIC LE pack, 

which are CPU-efficient libraries that load easily and are great for working on 

ideas when computer power is at a minimum. You’ll find several versions of the 

sampled instruments in the EIC 2 library available as lite versions along with the 

full versions to assist in large-scale instrument sessions with lots of tracks. You’ll 

find all the EIC instruments within the Live Device Browser, integrated with all 

of Live’s other Instrument Racks. Take the time to explore these sounds and 

multitrack presets as you dive further into Suite 8. 

13 Construction Kits and 

Templates 

Construction Kits are worth mentioning here because they act as templates 

themselves. They serve as a great starting point for new projects or for a new 

Live 8 user. You’ll find dozens of Construction Kits in the Suite 8 Library. Clicking 

on one of these Sets will open an array of MIDI tracks and customized preset 

instruments across several tracks. Most or all these Construction Kits open up as 

Group Tracks, so you’ll need to unfold them to see all the contained “grouped” 

tracks. You can play through the scenes and launch the various clips, but best of 

all you can arm a MIDI track and record new parts with the current instrument 

on that particular track to build up your own arrangement, eventually doing 

away with or deactivating the original Construction Kit clips. Like Templates, 

most of these Construction Kits have mastering devices and other useful Audio

Figure 1.27 Construction Kits. 


Effect Racks to encourage you to dive deeper into creating and designing new 

sounds and sets with Suite 8. 

Several Live Set Templates are also located in the Library within their own dedicated 

folder. These range from standard 4 and 8 track recording setups to more 

advanced mastering and mixing templates. Explore them to find original devices 

and unique routing options. With templates, it’s all about learning and adapting 

to enhance your Live workflow. 

For quick access to Construction Kits and Templates, use Help View. Click on the 

associated link to browse for these items. 

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Figure 1.28 Templates.

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