Ableton has introduced a new range of instruments made for Live, Ableton Live Partner Instruments.

The range of sounds is diverse, including sampled grand pianos, Balinese gamelan, EBow guitar, boutique vintage synthesizers, found objects, acoustic and electronic percussion, atmospheres, and soundscapes. All partner instruments work with Ableton Live 8, Suite 8 or Live Intro, and many of them are exclusive to Ableton Live.

You can preview the Ableton Live Partner Instruments at the Ableton site.

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.