According to what I've read on the Ableton Forum and various other places on the web, you do not need to have Max installed on your system to use Max 4 Live.
But when I try to use any effects from the 'Max for Live Essentials' the program is asking where max is.

 

because you need to have Max installed.

 

It is not that simple Davea. I have the same problem. I installed Live 9 64bit and everything works perfectly, except Max For Live. Live 9 says that M4L is not installed, but when I want to install M4L again, the M4L-installer says that M4L is already installed correctly. Huh?! So I uninstalled Live 9 and then I installed Live 9 again, but it is stil the same. WTF? Can somebody help me please?!?!

 

So uninstall Max too and make a clean re install.

Check if you got already the Max 64-bit version to install ( 'cause you want Live 64-bit). In which system are you working ? WIN, OSX ?

Did you then installed the packs M4L needed to run it correctly as "Max For Live Essential" , "Max For live Building Tools" and "Max for Live Pluggo for Live" ?

Some infos here ( in case you don't know it ): https://www.ableton.com/en/articles/setting-max-live-9/

 

you have to say ableton in preferences, where max is installed

 

Thanks for replying. I have the latest and correct version of M4L, because otherwise it won't install. I installed M4L essentials and M4L Pluggo for Live on my PC and I got the message that installation was succesfull. There are 2 folders on my HardDrive: Documents\Ableton\Factory Packs\Max for Live Essentials and M4L Pluggo for Live and those folders are filled with devices that show op in Ableton Live 9, but I can't find the Max 6.1 application. Does someone know where the default location of the M4L application is? I am working on a PC with Windows 7 64bit.

 

default path is: C:\Program Files\Cycling '74\Max 6.1

 

I don't have Max4Live 6.1. I have the 'unofficial' Ableton Suite 9 version. Can I just download the trial version of M4L 6.1 and does it work with the 'unofficial' 9.0.2 version?