Ableton is one of my favorite DAWs.
It has managed to diversify itself from the other DAWs by adding great features such as incorporating live performance, intuitive warping of audio, and of course a seamless workflow.
- The “LoFi Rack” is a free Ableton Rack based on Live’s stock plugins. It comes with 8 macros allowing you to decrease the band width, add vinyl crackles, detune and distort the source sound. Unfortunately it’s only available for Ableton Live users, so if you’re using another DAW you have to pick some of the other options in this list.
- Live Versions: 9-10 Operating System: All Supported Plug-in formats VST2 - 64 & 32-bit VST3 - 64-bit (Live 10.1 and later only).
- PC, Mac/VST, AU, RTAS, £78. In terms of chiptune plug-ins, chipsounds really is the mothership. It’s based around meticulously programmed DSP-based recreations of classic and obscure chips, with some sampled content to fill it out. Buy or download demo of Plogue chipsounds. YMCK Magical8bitPlug.
VST plug-ins encompass a wealth of instruments and effects, many of which are attempts to replicate hardware instruments and signal processors. They are typically used in DAWs such as Logic, Ableton Live, Studio One, and of course in Cubase, which is Steinberg’s flagship DAW.
Producers of all genres from rock, to hip-hop, to EDM swear by Ableton and prefer it over other DAWs.
In this article, we will be taking a closer look at the top 5 best Ableton drum kits available online. There are a ton of choices available but I felt I did a good job at narrowing down your choices to 5 superb options.
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Live House Drum Stems
The first Ableton drum kit I thought I’d mention is one named ‘Live House Drum Stems’.
If you’re looking for a great selection of acoustic drum kits to play around with from the comfort of Ableton, you’ll LOVE Live House Drum Stems.
Imagine having a bunch of different-sounding acoustic drum kits at your disposal along with over 190 midi files to give you rhythmic inspiration. That’s basically what Live House Drum Stems is.
I don’t want you to think of this pack as a sample pack by any means. It was designed to be much more flexible than that. For a fraction of the price of a lot of drum plugins you can pick up the Live House Drum Stems Ableton pack.
A good part about this kit isthat they make it easy for you to either use the drum hits individually or load up full drum kits.
Digitally recreating acoustic drum fills realistically is always a challenge…But not so much with this pack. Luckily for us, the creators of this pack provided us with 150 different groove files that we can apply to midi clips for an added swing. There’s a good mixture of subtle and heavy grooves included.
There’s a ton of configurability right out of the box. Instead of getting a bunch of random drum loops, you get different parts recorded separately for you to mix and match intuitively.
Final verdict? Take a listen to the demo of this pack on Loopmasters. If the quality of the drums impresses you as much as they impressed me, seriously consider purchasing this pack. Acoustic drums come in handy in any genre no matter how synthesis-based it is.
Drum Damage
Looking for the perfect drum pack? Perhaps Drum Damage is your answer.
All of the samples were professionally processed on top-of-the-line equipment.
The purpose of this pack is to provide you with unique and powerful drum sounds when you need them the most.
My favorite part about this pack is the variety of samples that are included. There are over 1000 sounds. For only $20-ish, this is a really good deal!
You’ll find samples that will appeal to any genre with this pack. There are deep bassy kick drums perfect for house, crisp hats/crashes, exotic percussion, punchy snares, and a lot of other breathtaking drum sounds.
Once again, this pack benefits Ableton users because of its sheer organization. 1000 files suddenly become manageable with this pack. This is important because you should always be able to navigate your sounds and find what you need without any hassle.
Dark Percussive House & Techno
The next sample pack we’ll be mentioning is Dark Percussive House & Techno.
By the name you can tell that it was designed specially for house and techno producers. Don’t let this fool you though! This pack translates well into many genres of EDM.
You’ll find over 1GB of unique samples inside. You can buy this pack in multiple formats including for Ableton Live.
Keep in mind that you’ll need Ableton Live 7 or higher to use this pack. Assuming that you acquired Ableton legally, you should be able to update to the latest version without issues if your computer permits.
Steve Lawler is no stranger to the dance music scene. He’s been producing and DJing for many years, playing in the world’s biggest clubs, and he knows exactly what type of sounds up-and-coming producers are looking for.
You’ll find over 1400 samples in this pack. Don’t be overwhelmed! Since you are an Ableton user, Lawler has kindly created a version of this pack that comes with Ableton packs to keep you nice and organized, making it easy to find the exact sound you are in need of.
Groove Tech
The next pack we’ll be mentioning is Groove Tech. It is aimed at funky house producers and comes with plenty of drum sounds and packs enhanced for Ableton Live.
The pack itself has that Ibiza club feel and has a ton of bassy kicks, groovy loops, sound effects, and a boat load of various drum/percussion hits.
This pack is perfect for you if you are trying to find some extra uniqueness to add to your tracks. Basically, if you’re a house producer you’ll love this pack.
Inside you’ll find 54 bass loops, over 400 club-ready drum loops, over 30 chord/filter loops, 30 effect samples, various instrument sounds, and over 300 single-hit drum samples.
Glitch Hop Drum Loops
Glitch Hop is a genre that has been gaining a lot of popularity lately. It’s a genre that runs at about 110 bpm and if you are producer of it, ‘Glitch Hop Drum Loops’ is a pack you should check out.
This pack comes in many different formats but we’ll be focusing on the Ableton Live version for obvious reasons.
Although the name may suggest that this pack is reserved for Glitch-Hop producers, you’d be surprised at the amount of genres it allows. Hip Hop producers, trap producers, and even dubstep producers are just a few examples of genres that this pack will mesh well with.
So what’s my suggestion? Take a listen to the pack’s preview on Loopmasters. If you like what you hear, give it a try! This pack is well worth it’s low price!
Which Ableton drum kits were your favorite?
Personally, my favorite has to be Live House Drums. For the producer on a budget who rather stick with a reasonably-priced Ableton pack instead of an expensive drum VST, it’s a must!
I’m interested to hear what you think! Tweet me at @MidiLifestyle or simply leave a comment below.
Thanks for reading!
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What’s the Best Choir VST? Your Top 5 ChoicesLast Updated on December 15, 2020 by
Indian instrument VSTs are quite hard to come by, especially the free ones…
This is why I put together this list of the 8 best free ones I could find.
Let’s get straight to it…
Acoustic Indian Dhol Lite by RDG Audio
Available for Windows and Mac.
Acoustic Dhol is a sample based Indian Dhol Instrument.
It has been sampled from 3 types of real Indian Leather DholInstruments; Wooden Dhol, Steel Dhol, and Fiber Dhol.
It is the first VST and AU plugins that can play real IndianDhol inside any Digital Audio Workstation.
Indian, Punjabi, Bollywood, and Bhangra styles are availablein Acoustic Dhol.
Over 100 articulation and 22 presets are also available.
If you are tired of playing boring Indian Dhol loops and areconstantly looking for new ones, just try the Acoustic Dhol VST and AU plugins.
You can also purchase the full version, should you want to.
Related: Here’s a huge list of the best free VST plugins in the world.
Features
- Sampled from 3 types of Indian Dhols
- Over 100 different articulations
- 22 presets
- Style : Indian,Punjabi,Bollywood,Bhangra
- MPC style GUI
- Velocity sensitive
- Round Robin sampling : YES
- Attack Realease Rotary Knob
- Tune Volume Pan Rotary Knob
- Algorithmic Reverb
- Level meter
You can download it here.
Related: List of the best Sitar VST Plugins.
Indian DreamZ by DSK
Available for Windows only.
DSK is well known for creating loads of free and prettycool-sounding plugins.
Indian Dreamz is no different…
It features a couple different typical Indian instrumentswhich work pretty damn well!
These instruments are; Sitar, Sarod, veena, Tar, tampura& Tabla.
All in all, it’s a great plugin, absolutely give it a shot!
Features
- 6 Indian Instruments: Sitar, Sarod, veena, Tar,tampura & Tabla.
- Velocity response.
- Amp. envelope and micro-detuner.
- HP/LP Filter.
- Midi automation.
You can download it here.
Related: Here’s a list of the best free Piano VST Plugins.
Crypto Cipher Free Sample Pack
Best Vsts For Ableton
Available for Windows and Mac.
It’s a Free Tryout Pack of Indian Kontakt Instrument andwave/Rex Samples.
The pack was created out of Products available at CryptoCipher and Some other Rare Indian Instruments.
Here’s the list of instruments;
- Double Sided Hand Drum
- ThingamaKit –SFX Instrument.
- Pambai – Rare South Indian Percussion.
- Tabla Mouth Percussion / Thunderous Raga VoiceSamples.
- Mouth Shots (Tabla Mouth Percussion).
- Indian Harmonium Scripted.
- Tabla Loops.
- A patch from Voices of Ragas Vol-1.
- Sound Design Instruments.
- Violin Raga Phrases Instrument.
You can download it here.
Syntar by Syntar
Available for Windows only.
Syntar is a VST instrument designed to fulfill yourevery sitar sound requirement.
For best results play with droning continuous bass notes and a higher melodyline.
For best results play with droning continuous bass notes and a higher melodyline.
Built in soft distortion, delay and flanger effects make iteasy to tweak the Syntar to fit your style of music perfectly.
You can download it here.
If you’re looking to record quality music at home, then here’s a list of the essential home studio components which you might find useful.
Real Sitar Player by RDGAudio
Available for Windows and Mac.
Real Sitar is a sample-based Instrument.
Vst Plugins For Ableton Live 10
It has been sampled from Asian and many types of real SitarInstruments.
![Best Vst Plugins For Ableton Live 9 Best Vst Plugins For Ableton Live 9](https://hiphopmakers.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Free-Drum-Machine-VST-Plugins-for-FL-Studio-Best-Drum-Machine-VSTs.jpg)
Sampled with 4 Mic Position, it is velocity sensitiveinstrument with built in Round Robin Presets.
It comes with Win 32-64 bit VST, VST3, AU and Mac VSTplugins.
Real Sitar is free but you can purchase the expansion pack forabout $50.
You can download it here.
Iowa Alto
Available for Windows and Mac.
Iowa Alto Flute is a sampled alto flute from theUniversity of Iowa Electronic Music Studios.
The sound quality is pretty impressive, especially for afree plugin…
So, give it a shot.
You can download it here.
VSCO2 Flute
Available for Windows and Mac
Versilian Studios Chamber Orchestra 2 Flute, also known asVSCO2 Flute, is an incredible free plugin that samples a real Flute.
All of the VSCO2 plugins are fantastic and I absolutelyrecommend them to anyone who is in need of some free ones.
You can download it here.
SwarPlug 4
Available for Windows and Mac
SwarPlug is a VST, Audio Units and AAX plugin that will workon most DAWs.
It features an ever increasing number of instruments (over80 so far), each with a large quantity of MIDI loops that you can audition andsimply drag & drop on your tracks, to achieve something genuinely soundingin instants.
The full version sells for quite a lot, but you can downloada demo version.
Features
- over 80 perfectly sampled Indian instruments
- customisable mapping of playing areas withspecific parameters settings
- multi-mic fader (for ML instruments)
- MPE support
- Cross-Legato mode for seamless cross-fadingpitch bendings
- scales customisation with semitone tuning
- modulations panel with large array of modulationpossibilities
- time-stretching
- buses and effect
- and much more…
You can download it here.
HandPan Tribalized
While not being strictly Indian, this HandPan sample library could certainly add some flavor to your productions.
It usually sells for $35, but it’s now free for a while, so make sure to get it while you can!
You can download it here.
You’ll need a MIDI Controller
In order to be able to use these plugins properly, you will need some sort of MIDI Controller.
While you can use your mouse to map the MIDI in your DAW, it’s a lot faster and easier to do it with a keyboard/controller.
My recommendation here is for you to get something like the M-Audio Oxygen 25 MK IV MIDI Controller which you can find at Amazon at a very affordable price, plus it comes with some extra software like Pro Tools First.
Conclusion
It was actually hard to find good-sounding Indian VST that were actually free, but here are the ones I found.
Some of them allow you to purchase the premium version, which you could definitely do if you find yourself using them a lot.
I hope this information was useful…
Have a great day!