Berlin, Germany, May 6th, 2010
Announcing a new range of exquisite instruments, custom-made for Live by Ableton's favorite sound partners. These new partner instruments are available now at the Ableton web shop.
The range of sounds is highly diverse, including painstakingly sampled grand pianos, Balinese gamelan, EBow guitar, boutique vintage synthesizers, found objects, acoustic and electronic percussion, atmospheres, and soundscapes. All partner instruments work with Suite 8, Live 8 or Live Intro, and many of them are exclusive to Ableton Live.
The partner instruments are completely integrated into Ableton Live, which makes for a smooth workflow and familiar controls. Most of the instruments use Live's Rack format, with the eight Macro Controls carefully mapped to provide powerful, top-level control for immediate tweakability. Within the Racks, carefully selected Ableton effects provide additional sound design options. This tight integration also means that the partner instruments all provide instant mapping to controller hardware.
Some of the sound design teams behind these instruments are long-standing Ableton partners--Puremagnetik, e-instruments and SonArte have all provided sounds for Live's Library. The "new" partners--Sample Logic, Toontrack, Soniccouture and Flatpack--may already be familiar names to many Live users.
Find out more about the partner instruments and listen to detailed sound examples on Ableton.com: http://www.ableton.com/partner-instruments
Instruments for Ableton Live by partners--the complete list
Flatpack Electronik Drums
More than 500 synthetically generated drum samples including micro culture (needle drops) and atmospheres, plus a pack of ten drum kits sampled from rare and original drum machines.
EUR 39/USD 49
Flatpack Scope
Scope is a library of soundscapes, pads and textures. Scope is dark, disturbing and atmospheric--the perfect tool for the avant-garde musician, film or TV composer.
EUR 39/USD 49
Flatpack Synthetik Loops
With more than 500 synthetically generated beats, loops and textures, Synthetik Loops is a distinctive and original tool kit for both music production and sound design. Beats and loops are set up in high-, mid- and low-frequency groups, allowing for a myriad of layering combinations.
EUR 39/USD 49
Flatpack Textura
Otherworldly, cinematic and lush, these ambient textures are wonderfully diverse and emotive. If you're looking for the bizarre, peculiar, eerie or unusual, Textura will inspire you.
EUR 29/USD 39
SonArte Sound Objects
SoundObjects Vol. 1 is a unique collection of sampled objects typically found in a hardware store, including saw blades, joist hangers, pipes, ceramic tiles, metal sheets, metal rods, electrical boxes and the like. It also features Thai gongs, tubular bells, and various Chinese cymbals and gongs.
EUR 69/USD 89
SonArte Crystal Sounds
Crystal Sounds Vol. 1 consists of two main instruments: a Cristal Baschet--a "sonorous sculpture" with a truly unique and haunting timbre--and a large variety of crystal glasses. These evocative sounds, combined with Live's effects, have created truly versatile and original instruments.
EUR 69/USD 89
Puremagnetik Retro Synths
Retro Synths represents the "cream of the crop" from Puremagnetik's extensive catalog of classic analog and digital sound libraries, with more than 4000 samples from some of the greatest classic synths of the past three decades.
EUR 59/USD 79
Sample Logic Acoustix
Acoustix is a toolkit for cinematic music production, with a vast selection of production-ready instruments and sounds including organic instruments, bombastic percussives, atmospheric pads and audio loops.
EUR 79/USD 99
e-instruments Studio Grand Uptown
Uptown captures the tonal quality, transparency and expressiveness of an exceptional concert grand. Recorded in a spacious orchestra hall, Uptown offers the rich, satisfying, expressive tonal ambience heard on classical piano performances and recordings.
EUR 79/USD 99
e-instruments Studio Grand Downtown
Downtown offers the rich tonality and balanced character of a high quality concert grand. The large dynamic range and impact of Downtown is geared towards pop, R&B, hip hop, jazz and blues productions.
EUR 79/USD 99
e-instruments Studio Grand West Village
West Village provides the powerful expressiveness of a renowned concert grand. Recorded in a spacious orchestra hall, West Village offers the exemplary tonal character and enhanced projection you would expect from a celebrated international concert stage piano.
EUR 79/USD 99
e-instruments Studio Grand East Village
East Village represents the handcrafted quality of a legendary concert grand. The expressive dynamic range and distinctive tones of East Village are particularly suitable for contemporary jazz, urban R&B, blues and rock.
EUR 79/USD 99
Soniccouture Balinese Gamelan
A gamelan is an ensemble of percussive, bell-like instruments originating in Indonesia. Balinese Gamelan has a characteristic "shimmering" sound due to the detuning of paired instruments playing the same musical part.
EUR 59/USD 79
Soniccouture Bowed Piano
The bowed piano technique involves flexible bows made from fishing line, threaded under the piano's strings, which coaxes a sustained tone from the piano. The resulting sound is organic, shape-shifting, massive, foreboding, and yet delicate.
EUR 59/USD 79
Soniccouture Pan Drum
For Pan Drum, Soniccouture sampled the Hang drum. The Hang is played with the hands. It's incredibly sensitive and dynamic--the entire disc resonates at a central frequency as the player's hands move around the edge, teasing the notes out.
EUR 59/USD 79
Soniccouture Skiddaw Stones
A lithophone (litho = stone, phone = voice) dating back to 1840, the Skiddaw Stones are composed of 61 tuned and shaped rocks made of the rare hornfels stone, found in Cumbria, England. A bewitching instrument that sounds truly ancient.
EUR 59/USD 79
Soniccouture Guzheng
The guzheng is a traditional Chinese instrument, typically with 21 strings over movable bridges, mounted on a large, resonant half-tube wooden box. The notes are generally plucked with the right hand, while the left provides pitch bend and vibrato effects behind the bridge.
EUR 59/USD 79
Soniccouture Kim
The kim is a type of dulcimer or zither from Thailand. It consists of a flat soundbox with 42 wire strings that are struck using two thin bamboo mallets. This extremely unusual instrument can add an atmospheric edge to all kinds of production, from film scoring to ambient soundscaping to folk.
EUR 29/USD 39
Soniccouture Konkrete Drums 1
Konkrete Drums is set of 24 superb drum and percussion kits for Live. It features over 1300 drum samples including punishing, deep kick drums, delicate crystalline ticks, super-fast drilling rolls and atmospheric gongs.
EUR 49/USD 59
Soniccouture Konkrete Drums 2
Konkrete2 is the next level in electronic Drums--25 full kits, each with its own sound, its own idea. Live recordings, dirty old analog synths, circuit-bent hi-fi equipment, obscure academic software algorithims, and unusual acoustic spaces.
EUR 49/USD 59
Soniccouture Tingklik
A Tingklik is a percussion instrument from Bali with tuned bamboo tubes - a "bubbling chatter of bamboo brilliance." Tingklik features extremely detailed stereo sampling, with fourteen velocity layers and six Round-robin alternate samples. Provided in the original or chromatic western tuning.
EUR 39/USD 49
Soniccouture EBow Guitar
The EBow (energy bow) is a small, hand-held device that "bows" the strings of a guitar using an electromagnetic field. It produces a unique guitar sound with a very slow attack and infinite sustain.
EUR 49/USD 59
Soniccouture Synthi AKS
The EMS Synthi AKS is a legendary instrument--raw and unstable. This surprisingly versatile library gives you horror klangs and snappy zaps, snarling ring-mod leads and basses, and fat, rubbery, mellow textures ready to slot into your productions.
EUR 49/USD 59
Toontrack Bully Kit
A clean, modern sound at home in metal, hard rock, hip hop and pop. Think tight, punchy, modern and strong. Created by recording Tomas Haake of Meshuggah, arguably the best metal drummer in the world.
EUR 29/USD 39
Toontrack Fibes Kit
These drums were recorded by Swedish drummer extraordinaire, Morgan Agren, on a Fibes kit from his rehearsal room--and the heads had not been changed for over a decade. This is a dirty, dry, vintage sound, at home in hip hop, alternative rock and country.
EUR 29/USD 39
About Ableton
Ableton makes Ableton Live, a unique product for writing, recording and performing music with a computer. Since the company started in 1999, Ableton has attracted an extensive and highly committed community of musicians, composers and DJs worldwide. The company has received outstanding press, awards and customer feedback since the unveiling of Live in October 2001. The company headquarters are in Berlin, and there is an additional office in New York. Ableton currently has about 100 employees.
About Live
Ableton Live is software for making music; for composition, songwriting, recording, production, DJing, remixing and live performance. Live's nonlinear, intuitive flow, alongside powerful real-time editing and flexible performance options, make it a unique studio tool and a favorite with live performers. Ableton Live is the choice for those who would rather be "making music" than just "using music software."
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