Max 8 vs Max for Live License

Gregory Reddin's icon

I have Ableton Live Suite 11 and have been playing around with Max for Live. Today I was following some courses from Kadenze.com and launched Max 8 for the first time. Max 8 is telling me I need to authorize it before I can save a patch. Does this mean I cannot use Max 8 as a standalone outside of Ableton?

Thanks

Max Gardener's icon

Hello, Gregory.

You may find this page helpful in describing the differences between Max and Max for Live. There's a checklist of the main differences here, as well. I hope this is of some help.

Gregory Reddin's icon

Thanks for the link. Since they are two separate products then I assume I'll need two separate licenses to operate? I recently installed Ableton Live Suite and the first time I opened a Max for Live device, the Max console had a banner at the top to update the version of Max for Live that I was using. I did this which took me to the Cycling74 site where I downloaded and installed the newer version. I am guessing this is where I ended up with the Max 8 application on my computer? Would I have had Max 8 just with the Ableton Suite installation? Still a bit confused here. Thanks.

Max Gardener's icon

Yes, that's correct, Gregory. Most people who have done the crossgrade (at least in my experience) take advantage of the ability to select the standalone as what you use when working with Max for Live, since it seems to be upgraded a little more quickly.

So there are some differences between the version of Max in Max for Live and the current version of standalone Max. The features and improvements in the current standalone Max 8 application will be integrated into future Live releases, but this can take some time.

Apart from that, I'd say that the biggest differences and advantages would be the ability to use/edit gen~ and mc.* in the patches you create; you can run any devices that someone using those capabilities that someone else creates, but you won't be able to edit them or create your own from scratch.

Iain Duncan's icon

It is also a heck of a lot easier to develop things in Max standalone if you are working on bits that don't interact with Live directly. I pop back and forth between the two all the time.

And gen is great!