Return on Drum Rack Weak Wet Signal

[SilenceMayhem]

Maybe it's bias but it seems that when I have a reverb on a return track inside the drum rack and I fully send the signal to that return, it still doesn't give the same wet effect if I would have the reverb on the actual track on 80% and up, even if I send all of the sound.

Has anyone else encountered this, or is there another way of sending signals from the Drum Rack to return tracks?

[Tone Deft]

you're better off putting another reverb on that rack slot. or making a new track with the drum kit and reverb in it.

racks aren't meant to be used like that, they're a subset of a track without routing available like that.

[Shift Gorden]

Another idea is to route each cell of your drum track to its own audio track. Then you can just use the good old regular send and return method as with other non-drum rack tracks.

I love this approach...it can just take a little time to set up, especially if you have a large drum rack.

[Tone Deft]

route each cell of your drum track to its own audio track. Then you can just use the good old regular send and return method as with other non-drum rack tracks.

I don't follow but it reminded me of...

Drum Racks also have their own internal send/return channel, there's a spot inside them to drop an audio effect. be sure to turn the volume up in two places (the cell and the effect) it's all squished inside the GUI down there.

[pottering]

The Sends are by dB, not %, dB is not linear, so it is hard to dial exactly "80%". They default to Post-fader, so the Track/Chain's fader affects both the Track/Chain's and Send's gain.

Also, if you had sent 100% to the Return Track, you would have 100% of the wet added with 100% of the dry, since the Return Tracks/Chains are just mixed with the other tracks, they don't automatically lower the gain anywhere else to compensate (while plugins may lower the dry when the wet is increased).

In short, Live's Sends work more like a plugin that has separate knobs/sliders for Dry and Wet, not like plugins that have a single knob for Dry/Wet, so you have to adjust accordingly.

[SilenceMayhem]

The Sends are by dB, not %, dB is not linear, so it is hard to dial exactly "80%". They default to Post-fader, so the Track/Chain's fader affects both the Track/Chain's and Send's gain.

So, does that mean that by adjusting the fader of the return track to the amount you want you would actually in a certain way increase the wet of the reverbed signal?
I noticed that when I cranked it up to around 5-6dB it did actually get to the reverbed level I wanted, but it seemed odd that I needed to increase the fader so drastically

[SilenceMayhem]

you're better off putting another reverb on that rack slot. or making a new track with the drum kit and reverb in it.

racks aren't meant to be used like that, they're a subset of a track without routing available like that.

Yeah, but if you want to put 4 reverbs on different instruments from the rack and all on high quality it can get quite CPU intensive, at least for my laptop.

[SilenceMayhem]

Another idea is to route each cell of your drum track to its own audio track. Then you can just use the good old regular send and return method as with other non-drum rack tracks.

I love this approach...it can just take a little time to set up, especially if you have a large drum rack.

Great idea, thanks for the suggestion!
But, how exactly would you route each cell to an audio track? I saw that each cell within the rack can only be routed to a return WITHIN the rack but not outside, and it seemed to be similar for audio tracks.

[Shift Gorden]

Like this:

1. Put your drum rack on a MIDI channel, with whatever samples you're using in the cells.
2. Add as many audio tracks as you have instruments in your drum rack.
3. On each audio track, in the Audio From dropdown, select the drum rack track.
4. On the second drop down below Audio From, you can select the individual drum cell (note: you'll have options for pre fx, post fx and post mixer - I usually just stick to the pre fx option)
5. Rinse and repeat.

A bit of a time saver is to shift select all your audio tracks, and then select the drum rack from the first Audio From drop down. Unfortunately, you still have to select the individual drum rack cell for each track.

This way, you can use the regular FX sends, add individual insert FX to audio tracks, buss certain tracks together, etc. I think it makes managing and mixing the drum rack easier - just takes a minute to set up.

That make sense?