Drum rack :: advantages and disadvantages

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.marc.
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Drum rack :: advantages and disadvantages

Post by .marc. » Mon Aug 02, 2021 4:54 pm

Hi together,

I work with Ableton since the beginning of V10. Now (I don't know why so late) I'm a bit confused, why In hell I don't use "drum racks"... since today I used one track for each part of drums. One for a kick, one for snare and so on... But now i thought.. why don't do layering within a drum rack and I found a good way with a "multi pad" + chains into it. what should I say. it worked very well. so I searched the www for a reason why nobody use a drum rack (all using tracks like me.. one by one). maybe some disadvantages? sorry for this stupid question. I don't understand it. today I got more advantages. I can use my push very well. if I'm finished a track, I can easy export it, or record it on the fly one by one on its own track, the using of a drum rack within the session-view make more sense for me and so on...

can anybody help?

thanks and cheers
marc

.marc.
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Re: Drum rack :: advantages and disadvantages

Post by .marc. » Sat Aug 07, 2021 6:01 am

nobody?

Pasha
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Re: Drum rack :: advantages and disadvantages

Post by Pasha » Sat Aug 07, 2021 2:17 pm

I am coming from the analog world. Back in the day Acoustic Drums were miked and placed in the Mixing console taking a lot of single channels. When the Drum Set was big it was a problem for those 16 channels mixing consoles....

I use Drum Racks a lot and they are the foundation of every rhythm section I make. Admittedly , I use many Drums MIDI Files Patterns I bought from various providers. They are GM specs Drums MIDI files so they usually work after a simple drag and drop in session view. I can have several of those arranged as clips in the Drum Track that hosts a Drum Rack.

Advantages :
One Track for Drums = Less screen real estate taken especially when mixing.
I use a BCF2K for mixing in Mackie Mode and this way it's better to intervene on the Drum Track all at once.
All FX routing happens inside the Drum Rack
If I need to control the Kick Volume I drill in and I can access all parts of the Drum Kit
Easier to add 'groove' and 'humanization' especially with new L11 capabilities
Easier to add some 'randomness' using follow actions to trigger different patterns especially when coupled with AutoBeat (needs M4L)

Disadvantages :
I think that CPU is taxed more as Multi-Threading is not happy that way
Some times vendors sell strictly GM format MIDI Files and you have to remap a Drum Kit to make it sound properly

Of course this is my point of view YMMV.

Hope it helps,
Cheers
Pasha
Mac Studio M1
Live 12 Suite,Zebra ,Valhalla Plugins, MIDI Guitar (2+3),Guitar, Bass, VG99, GP10, JV1010 and some controllers
______________________________________
Music : http://alonetone.com/pasha

p1an0_guy
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Re: Drum rack :: advantages and disadvantages

Post by p1an0_guy » Sat Aug 07, 2021 3:00 pm

I think the main drawback for me personally is that I cannot sidechain to a specific sound in the drum rack, which would mean that I would have to either use a sidechain track or have the kick in another track. Which is kind of annoying because of the 8 track limit in Lite.

.marc.
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Re: Drum rack :: advantages and disadvantages

Post by .marc. » Sat Aug 07, 2021 10:07 pm

p1an0_guy wrote:
Sat Aug 07, 2021 3:00 pm
I think the main drawback for me personally is that I cannot sidechain to a specific sound in the drum rack, which would mean that I would have to either use a sidechain track or have the kick in another track. Which is kind of annoying because of the 8 track limit in Lite.
maybe i dont understand correctly, but sidechain within drum rack is possible with no limits. just choose sidechain -> your track with the drum rack and then use the next dropdown-list to choose your pad or chain within the pad and so on

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