Live 12 Devices Map
Every stock Live 12.x instrument, audio effect, MIDI effect, MIDI tool and Max for Live essential in one place, with what each is actually best for and what changed in 12.0 through 12.3.
live 12devicesinstrumentseffectsmidi toolsmax for livemeldroardrum samplerauto shiftstem separationsuitestandardintro
This is the lookup page. Before you reach for a third-party plug-in, check here: Live 12.x ships with enough to build almost anything on this site, and the stock devices have a huge advantage on stage because they are CPU-cheap, Push-mappable, and never need a licence check. Each table has a "best for" column written from the sound-design angle, not the manual's. Edition notes assume Suite; Standard and Intro differences are at the bottom. Version tags (12.1, 12.2, 12.3) tell you which point release added or redesigned the device.
Live's device model is simple and worth internalising: a track is a chain of devices, instruments turn MIDI into audio, audio effects process audio, MIDI effects and MIDI tools process notes before the instrument. Racks nest chains inside devices. Max for Live devices slot in anywhere a native device of the same type would.
| Instrument | Engine | Best for | Edition / version |
|---|
| Operator | 4-op FM / additive, 11 algorithms, filter, loopable envelopes | Sub bass, FM bass, bells, metallic percussion, neuro growls, precise digital leads | Suite, Standard (sold separately for Intro) |
| Wavetable | 2 wavetable oscs + sub, 2 filters, 3 envelopes, 2 LFOs, MPE | Modern bass, wobbles, evolving pads, vocal-formant leads, MPE sounds | Suite, Standard |
| Analog | 2 VA oscs + noise, 2 filters, 2 amps, 2 LFOs, Quick Routing | Classic saw/square bass, brass, polysynth pads, screaming sync leads | Suite, Standard |
| Drift | 2 oscs with shape mod, noise, MS2/MS4 filter, 2 envs, LFO, mod matrix, MPE | Fast analogue-style bass, leads, keys, stereo pads; the go-to simple synth | All editions |
| Meld (12.0) | 2 macro oscillators with swappable engines, per-osc filters, 2 LFOs, 2 envs, matrix, Scrambler (12.2) | Bi-timbral weirdness: swarm sines, chip, formants, reed, rain, chords (12.2), physical-ish drums | Suite, Standard |
| Collision | Mallet/noise exciter into two resonators (beam, marimba, string, membrane, plate, pipe, tube) | Mallets, glass, bells, resonant percussion, idiophone textures | Suite |
| Tension | Physical-modelled string: exciter, string, damper, termination, pickup, body | Plucked and bowed strings, koto, harp, nylon, weird bowed drones | Suite |
| Electric | Electric piano model: mallet, fork, damper, pickup | Rhodes/Wurli keys, bell-ish keys, lo-fi hip-hop chords | Suite |
| Simpler | Single sample, Classic / One-Shot / Slice, warp, filter with drive, LFO | Chops, one-shots, quick resampling, slicing breaks to Drum Rack | All editions |
| Sampler | Multisample zones, 3 LFOs, Pitch/Osc FM, filter morph, modulation | Multisampled instruments, sample FM, layered zones, velocity splits | Suite |
| Drum Sampler (12.1) | One-shot player with pitch, decay, filter, envelope, built-in Sub, Punch, Noise, Ring, Bitcrush | Drum Rack pads, 808s, layered kicks and snares without extra devices | All editions |
| Drum Rack | 128 pads of chains, choke groups, per-pad sends | Any kit; the container for Drum Sampler / Simpler chains | All editions |
| Impulse | 8-slot drum sampler with per-slot filter, saturation, pitch env | Fast lo-fi kits, quick 909-style layering | All editions |
| Granulator III (12.0) | Live granular: Grain Size, Spray, Pitch, FM, scan, MPE | Clouds, frozen textures, stretched vocals, grain drones | Suite (Max for Live) |
| External Instrument | MIDI out + audio in with latency compensation | TD-3, eurorack voice, any hardware synth as a track instrument | Suite, Standard |
| Instrument Rack | Chains, macros, Macro Variations, randomisation, snapshots | Layering, splitting, performance patches | All editions |
| Effect | Family | Best for | Notes |
|---|
| Roar (12.0) | Distortion: 3 stages, Single/Serial/Parallel/Multiband/Mid-Side/Feedback routings, filters, feedback with pitch, mod matrix | Growls, neuro, feedback drones, multiband drive, tuned resonant distortion | 12.2 adds external sidechain and routing options |
| Saturator (12.1 redesign) | Waveshaper: Soft Sine, Analog Clip, Digital Clip, Hard/Medium Curve, Sinoid Fold, Waveshaper curve with Drive/Curve/Depth/Lin/Damp/Period | Harmonics on subs, glue on drums, fold on leads | Soft Clip stage, DC, color; oversampled |
| Drum Buss | Drive, Crunch, Damp, Transients, Boom, Dry/Wet | Kick/drum bus punch and low-end resonance | Boom is a tuned resonator; set its frequency to the kick |
| Pedal | Overdrive / Distortion / Fuzz stompbox with tone stack | Guitar-style grit on bass and leads, fuzz on drums | Pairs with Cabinet |
| Overdrive | Band-limited overdrive with tone and dynamics | Mid-focused distortion on bass, acid lines | Band filter is the key control |
| Amp / Cabinet | Amp models + speaker IRs with mic position | Dub bass, Reese colour, lo-fi drum bus | Suite |
| Erosion | Noise / sine / wide noise modulation of the signal | Digital grit, "aliased" high end, lo-fi sheen | Tiny, cheap, underrated |
| Redux | Bit depth, sample rate, jitter, DC shift, filter | Bitcrush, SP-style downsample, aliasing harmonics | Pre/post filter is useful |
| Vinyl Distortion | Tracing model, pinch, crackle | Record-style harmonics, crackle layers | Pinch adds even/odd mix |
| Corpus | Resonator: beam, marimba, string, membrane, plate, pipe, tube; MIDI pitch input | Tuned resonance on drums and noise, bell FX | Suite |
| Resonators | 5 tuned comb resonators | Chordal drones from noise, dub chords from hits | Cheap and musical |
| Spectral Resonator | Spectral tuned resonance, MIDI mode, freeze | Vocoder-ish chords, freeze pads, shimmer | Suite |
| Spectral Time | Spectral freeze + spectral delay | Frozen tails, smeared textures, spectral echoes | Suite |
| Hybrid Reverb | Convolution + Dark Hall, Quartz, Shimmer, Tides, Prism algorithms, EQ, blend | Everything from rooms to infinite shimmer drones | Freeze is a drone engine on its own |
| Reverb | Classic algorithmic with input filters, diffusion, chorus | Dub spring-ish tails, cheap sends | All editions |
| Echo | Dual delay, Reverb, Modulation, Gate/Duck, Noise/Wobble, feedback filters | Dub delays, tape echo, ducked stereo throws | All editions |
| Delay | Simple stereo delay with Repitch/Fade/Jump modes, ping-pong | Clean rhythmic delays, Repitch tape-stop tricks | All editions |
| Grain Delay | Granular delay with pitch, spray, random pitch | Pitched grain washes, shimmer, destruction | Suite, Standard |
| Align Delay | Sample/ms/metre delay for alignment | Layer phase alignment, modular round-trip compensation | Suite |
| Shifter | Pitch / frequency shifter with delay and feedback, LFO, envelope follower | Metallic inharmonic tones, barberpole, Reese detune | Replaces Frequency Shifter |
| Pitch Hack | Pitch shift into delay with reverse and freeze | Octave-down bass layers, reversed tails, glitch | Suite (Max for Live) |
| Auto Shift (12.1) | Pitch correction and harmonisation with LFO, vibrato, sidechain-driven correction | Hard-tune vocals, pitch-lock noise, harmonies that follow MIDI | Suite, Standard |
| Auto Filter (12.2 redesign) | Filter types and circuits (Clean, OSR, MS2, SMP, PRD), LFO, envelope follower, sidechain | Filter sweeps, envelope-followed bass, ducking filters | 12.2 gives it a cleaner modulation section |
| Phaser-Flanger | Phaser, Flanger and Doubler modes with Fine/Hi Res | Jet sweeps, Reese chorus, stereo motion | All editions |
| Chorus-Ensemble | Classic, Ensemble, Vibrato modes | Pad width, juno-ish bass warmth | All editions |
| Auto Pan-Tremolo (12.3 redesign) | Amplitude/pan modulation with shapes, phase, sync | Tremolo gating, sidechain-like pumping without a sidechain, rhythmic pans | All editions |
| Beat Repeat | Sliced repeat with chance, gate, pitch decay | Fills, stutters, glitch performance | All editions |
| Looper | Performance looper with feedback and speed | Live layering, half-speed resampling | Suite, Standard |
| Vocoder | Multi-band vocoder, carrier modes incl. noise and modulator | Robot vocals, rhythmic noise, formant transfer | Suite, Standard |
| Compressor / Glue Compressor / Multiband Dynamics / Gate / Limiter (12.1 redesign) | Dynamics | Sidechain ducking, bus glue, OTT-style expansion, gating, ceiling | Limiter redesign adds better metering and lookahead options |
| EQ Eight / EQ Three / Channel EQ | Equalisers | Surgical, DJ-style kills, musical three-band | EQ Eight has M/S and L/R modes |
| Utility | Gain, width, Bass Mono, phase, DC | Mono below X Hz, width, polarity flips | Use it on every bass |
| External Audio Effect | Send/return to hardware with latency compensation | Eurorack filters and distortion as insert effects | Suite, Standard |