If you’re an Ableton Live user, then you probably already know how important it is to have a good collection of packs. Ableton Live packs are essentially folders containing different types of material such as samples, clips, and live-compatible instruments. These packs can help you create amazing tracks without much hassle.
In this guide, we’ll take a look at how to install official and third-party Ableton Live packs. Let’s dive in.
Installing Official Ableton Packs
There are many packs already included in your Ableton Live software, and there are also many packs available in the free trial version. To find these packs, simply open Ableton and open your browser. Once there, you’ll see many categories, and under these categories, you’ll find what are called “places.” The first of these is called “packs,” and directly from this view, you can click on “available packs” to find all the packs available in your account. To install a pack, simply press the download arrow, wait for the complete download of the pack, and click on “install” when it appears at the end of the download.
Once the installation is complete, you’ll see a useful view with a full description of the pack and its contents. You can now use your newly downloaded pack. All packs bought from the official Ableton site will be added to your account and will appear in Ableton after refreshing.
Installing Free Ableton Packs
To find free packs downloadable from Ableton.com, enter the “packs” section, and click on “free.” You can download all the free packs not already part of your account. Just click on “download,” wait for it to finish, and double-click on the alp file. The package will install and will be immediately added to your packs and ready for use.
Installing Third-Party Packs
There are many sites from which you can download Ableton packs, and some of them don’t actually have the alp format. But even if a pack doesn’t have the alp format, it just looks like any other folder on your computer and is still usable. Let’s create a folder and call it “third-party packs” or any other name you like. Position it into “Documents/Ableton/Factory Packs” so that you have all your packs installed in a single position on your hard drive. This is the usual directory in which Ableton packs get installed (a directory which you can change by going into preferences, library, and installation folder for packs).
After creating the folder, position inside of it one of your new kind of fake Ableton Live packs like the 707, for example, that you just downloaded. Go back to Live and click on “add folder” to add a folder to your places. The places folder is actually a shortcut section from which you can get to any folder on your computer. Let’s select the just created folder and click on “select folder.” The “third-party packs” folder is now added to your places and in your case contains the immediately usable 707 pack.
And that’s it! Don’t lose yourself too much looking for packs online. With this guide, you can easily install official and third-party Ableton packs and start creating amazing tracks.