Ableton is unlike any other DAW you can get your hands on these days. Many producers are drawn to it due to its impressive functionality and efficient workflow. It helps the user to explore the bounds of their creativity and dive into new musical ideas. For this reason, Ableton is among the most powerful DAWs on the market today.

If you want to use plug-ins in Live, they need to be set up first whether it's VSTs or Audio Units (Mac only). It's an easy and quick process when you know how. This tutorial will guide you. Best Abletons VST Plugin Review: Every Musician Should Have Ableton is widely regarded as one of the best DAW platforms for independent music producers. It is a robust piece of software, but you may find that you need to add VST plugins to Ableton’s existing libraries.

The plugins that are included in Ableton Live are a great starting point for any music producer, but there are tons more plugins that can be combined with these to really enhance your production process. We’re going to look at what we consider to be the best plugins for Ableton to add to your collection.

Top 9 Ableton Plugins

Xfer Records Serum (Best Synthesizer)
FabFilter Saturn (Best Saturator)
Waves H-Delay (Best Delay)
SoundRadix SurferEQ2 (Best EQ)
UAD Classic Limiter Collection (Best Compressor)
Waves Center (Best Stereo Spreader)
Valhalla VintageVerb (Best Reverb)
Waves Smack Attack (Best Transient Shaper)
Dadalife Sausage Fattener (Bonus)

1. Best Synthesizer – Xfer Records Serum

Ableton Live has a pretty good selection of VST instruments and synthesizers, but you may want access to a bigger collection of sounds. If that’s the case, you should check out the Xfer Records Serum wavetable synthesizer. It got a lot of attention when it was first introduced years ago because of its unique ability to minimize aliasing. If aliasing is not a term you’re familiar with, just think of inharmonic artifacts that come along with digital audio. With the Xfer Records Serum, you can avoid the unfortunate high-end distortion that virtual synthesizers typically give you. This means you end up with a much more realistic sound than you’ll get with the majority of VST synths currently available.

You’ll find A and B oscillators that you can see in 2D or 3D with the help of an advanced wavetable engine. You have the ability to blend these waveforms through the use of spectral morphing, standard crossfading, or harmonic morphing. If you are a synth aficionado and like to develop your sounds from scratch, you’ll appreciate this tool.

This plugin has a number of exciting features, including a filter module, a third oscillator for sub sounds, an editable graph display to manipulate waveforms, a variety of modulation sources, and a massive collection of editing options. The interface is beautiful and will give you a great visualization of how different sounds affect the mix. There’s also a crazy collection of over 450 presets to choose from. The Serum gives you nearly unlimited possibilities when it comes to shaping your sounds, so it’s definitely a handy wavetable synthesizer to have at your disposal.

Pros

A great selection of modulation options
An impressive library of presets and effects
Flexible, morphing oscillators

Cons Free trap vst plugins for mac osx.

Takes up a lot of CPU

2. Best Saturator – FabFilter Saturn

The Ableton Saturator is sufficient for when you want to add a little warmth and distortion to your signals, but if you need a saturator that offers more flexibility, we recommend checking out the Fabfilter Saturn. This multiband saturation and distortion plugin is one of the most flexible saturators available today. Its versatile modulation routing technology will enable you to saturate your signal down to the finest detail.

Saturn acts like a single band frequency analyzer as it helps you visualize how your signal appears when coming in and when pushed. The display is very hands-on, enabling you to work with your multiple bands right on the interface without having to mess with knobs or sliders. You simply create a band, choose from 16 distortion or saturation options, and then push or pull that band however you like.

The Fabfilter Saturn offers incredible functionality and flexibility. You can use it for warm, subtle tape saturation or complete sound decapitation—and everything in between. You’ll be able to drive a portion of your signal, pan it, utilize M/S processing, and then blend it in with the use of the wet/dry knob. If you want to take it to a higher level, you can explore everything the modulation system has to offer, including envelope followers, the modulation step sequencer, and much more.

You’ll be hard-pressed to find a better multiband plugin with so many customization options and a user-friendly interface. If you are in need of a saturation plugin, this one won’t let you down.

Pros

Unique modulation system
Making crossovers is a breeze
Awesome range of sounds

Cons

Lacks real-time modulated parameter visualization

3. Best Delay – Waves H-Delay

No matter what genre you’re working with, delay is an essential part of most modern productions. When looking for a delay plugin, your focus should be on flexibility and low CPU usage. The H-Delay from Waves has you covered in these areas, even if it does lack versatility. If you want a go-to delay plugin that can get you where you want to go quickly, this is a great choice. And its analog tone makes it a great choice for electronic music.

The H-Day gets its inspiration from the PCM 42, a piece of Lexicon Hardware. You’ll have access to just about any delay effect you can imagine, including slapback, phasing, ping pong, flanging, and others. One of the most critical parameters it offers is delay time, which allows you to set your delay to the host tempo or in milliseconds or BPM. The sound can then be manipulated through the Delay and Feedback knobs.

The onboard pitch modulation includes adjustable depth, which allows you to modulate LFO frequencies up to 6kHz. This will give you even more creative freedom when it comes to manipulating your sounds. The analog design ensures that you will end up with natural sounds, and you can further control your delay tone through the use of low and high-pass filters.

The H-Delay is a unique plugin from Waves that has all your delay bases covered. It’s very accessible for beginners but has enough effects to satisfy even seasoned producers.

Pros

LFO range is wider than you would expect
Super smooth parameter transition
Intuitive interface

Cons

Not able to bypass variable pitch

4. Best EQ – SoundRadix SurferEQ2

Ableton Live comes with an impressively versatile parametric EQ, so we don’t blame you if you just want to stick with that. However, if you want to explore other options, we recommend that you start with the SoundRadix SurferEQ2. You’ll have access to two filters and five frequency bands for equalization and pitch tracking.

Frequencies often shift in dense modern productions. The Surfer EQ plugin is able to analyze frequencies in polyphonic material to determine if they should be corrected. This is super beneficial because you won’t have to worry about your EQ for the verse negatively affecting the chorus. The SurferEQ2 will read your signal while the song plays to make the best EQ choices.

One feature we love is the sidechain, which gives you the ability to make space in a track for each instance a certain sound pops up. For example, if your synth pad is consistently overwhelming your vocals, you just have to sidechain it and then it will drop down whenever vocals come along.

The GUI is gorgeous and incredibly functional. It will combine well with the standard parametric EQ in Ableton Live to give you even more capability and creative freedom.

Pros

MIDI pitch tracking
Unique Spectral Gate
GateHelpful Sidechain feature with pitch tracking

Cons

Limited Q widths lessens its surgical capability

5. Best Compressor – UAD Classic Limiter Collection

Ableton Live comes with a compressor that can pretty much get the job done. However, if you’re looking to add some more color and excitement to your mix, you should think about picking up some character compressors. We recommend the UAD Classic Limiter Collection.

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