Plug-in Basics

What’s in the Box

Live ships with a healthy collection of built-in audio effects. Rather than listing them all alphabetically (which is what the Browser is for), it’s more useful to understand them by category — because when you’re looking for an effect, you’re usually looking for a type of sound manipulation, not a specific plugin name.

Each of these categories gets its own chapter later in the course: Effects: Filters and Frequency, and so on. For now, the point is that you have a lot of tools at your disposal, and they’re organized by what they do — not by how complicated they are.

The Device Chain

When you drop an effect onto a track, it appears in the Device View at the bottom of the screen. Drop another one, and it appears next to the first. This left-to-right sequence is your device chain — and the order matters.

Sound enters from the left and passes through each device in sequence. An EQ before a reverb means you’re sending a shaped signal into the reverb. A reverb before an EQ means you’re EQ-ing the reverb’s output. Same two devices, completely different results.

You can reorder devices by dragging them left or right in the chain. Experiment with the order — it’s one of the most underappreciated creative tools in Live.

Enabling and Disabling

Every device has a power button — the small circle in the device’s title bar. Click it to bypass the effect. The device stays in the chain but stops processing audio. This is invaluable for A/B comparison: click the button, hear the difference, decide if the effect is actually helping.

Pro tip: Get in the habit of bypassing effects regularly. It’s easy to convince yourself something sounds better just because it’s different. Bypassing keeps you honest.

Dry/Wet

Most effects have a Dry/Wet knob (sometimes just labeled Mix). At 100% wet, you hear only the processed signal. At 0% (fully dry), you hear the original, unprocessed signal. Anywhere in between gives you a blend.

For effects like reverb and delay, the dry/wet balance is critical — you almost never want 100% wet on an insert effect. For EQ and compression, the knob is less common because these effects are typically meant to process the entire signal.

We’ll talk about the distinction between insert effects and send/return effects in Racks and Chains.

Loading Effects

Effects are loaded from the Browser, just like instruments. You can:

• Drag and drop from the Browser directly onto a track’s Device View.
• Drag onto the track title bar — the effect will be added to the end of the device chain.
• Double-click a device in the Browser (with a track selected) to add it.
• Hot-swap — click the hot-swap button on any existing device, then browse for a replacement. Press Q to toggle hot-swap mode.

Live also loads effects with presets. Inside each effect category in the Browser, you’ll find not just the bare plugin but also saved presets that configure it for specific tasks. Compressor might have presets like “Vocal Tightener” or “Drum Bus Punch.” These are great starting points — load one, listen, then adjust to taste.

Third-Party Plug-ins

Beyond Live’s built-in effects, you can use third-party VST and Audio Unit (AU) plug-ins. These are made by other companies and range from free utilities to professional-grade studio tools.

To use third-party plug-ins, you need to enable them in Preferences > Plug-ins:

• On Mac: Enable Use Audio Units for AU format. Point the VST Plug-in Custom Folder to wherever your VSTs live. Plug-ins installed to the system folder (/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/) are found automatically.
• On Windows: Set your VST Plug-in Custom Folder paths. Common locations are C:\Program Files\VSTPlugins or C:\Program Files\Common Files\VST3.

After changing these settings, click Rescan — or restart Live entirely, which is more reliable. Once scanned, third-party plug-ins appear in the Browser under the Plug-ins category.

A few things to keep in mind:

• VST vs. AU: On Mac, both formats work. Some plug-ins come in both formats — use whichever Live finds first. Don’t load the same plug-in in both formats; it just clutters your Browser.
• 32-bit vs. 64-bit: Live is 64-bit. 32-bit plug-ins won’t load. If you have ancient plug-ins that only come in 32-bit, you’ll need a bridge application (or accept that it’s time to move on).
• CPU load: Every active plug-in consumes processing power. If your session starts crackling and stuttering, you’ve probably loaded more than your computer can handle. Freeze tracks you’re not actively editing (right-click the track > Freeze Track) to free up CPU.

Organizing Your Plug-ins

As your collection grows, finding things in the Browser becomes its own challenge. Live gives you a few tools to stay organized:

Color Tags

Right-click any device, preset, or sample in the Browser and assign it a color (1–7). These colors create Collections — custom groups you can name and access from the Browser’s sidebar. Use them however you like: by genre, by frequency of use, by project, by “things I keep meaning to learn.”

Favorites

You can also star items in the Browser to mark them as favorites. Between color tags and favorites, you can build a personalized toolkit that surfaces the effects you actually use, without scrolling through everything you don’t.

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