Ableton Forum

Hi!

Am new to ableton so excuse this if its really silly but when producing drum loops is it best to drop audio files in or can impulse etc produce decent results. i would prefer to use audio but all of the tutorials talk about impulse etc.

Any help would bd great!!

Thanks

drum racks are better than impulse - more flexible
using professionally produced audio loops will give better sounding results more quickly. there's a whole discussion about sampling, originality, the glutting of the market with highly derivative loop based music and what sounding 'good' actually means... but we should all just live our lives shouldn't we.

if you're using a loop drop it on the arrange window.

why?

Im actually using isolated drums from loops as im thinking i can have greater control over each sound. Does a rack let me achieve this or should i just process the sound to the hilt before dropping into the rack?

Cheers for this guys!

When you're using drum racks, choose the top pad you have a sample on - open the Simpler associated with that pad and turn the velocity up to around 60 - 70%. The right click and choose "copy value to siblings". Better yet, search the forum on how to save this Simpler as a default. Adding some velocity gives some volume and life to your kit. Most software like Logic have drum machines that default with some velocity and this is one reason some people think Ableton sounds bad - drums are a bit lifeless out of the box.

Also - to make your drums come alive a bit more - try a Saturator after the drum rack. 6db drive, the rest default settings then use the wet/dry to mix some of this body into the kit.

nylarch wrote:...to make your drums come alive a bit more - try a Saturator after the drum rack. 6db drive, the rest default settings then use the wet/dry to mix some of this body into the kit.

Thank you for that.

Not used saturator before and just tried against some of my existing drum tracks, particularly the steady, solid 4/4 rock ones and it makes a very pleasing difference.