Convert drum rack to grouped tracks

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Depka
Posts: 5
Joined: Tue Jan 26, 2016 2:52 pm

Convert drum rack to grouped tracks

Post by Depka » Sat Apr 17, 2021 11:52 am

It would be really cool to have an option of Drum rack on right click to convert it to grouped tracks so that each loaded sample will be recreated as midi track with all loaded devices, correct volume, panning etc because sometimes when you want to use sends per sample it's not really straightforward to do so. This would be sooooo nice to have :)

Slow Hand
Posts: 35
Joined: Fri Nov 13, 2020 7:54 am

Re: Convert drum rack to grouped tracks

Post by Slow Hand » Wed Apr 21, 2021 9:23 pm

In 'Session View' at the top of the channel with the Drum Rack loaded (next to the channel's name) there should be an arrow that you can click to "un-collapse" that channel. I believe that will give you all of the features that you want: All of the drum rack samples presented as their own channel strips with volume, pan, sends, effects, etc. Were you aware of that feature?

Depka
Posts: 5
Joined: Tue Jan 26, 2016 2:52 pm

Re: Convert drum rack to grouped tracks

Post by Depka » Thu Apr 22, 2021 6:41 am

Yes but the sends are not there :/

Slow Hand
Posts: 35
Joined: Fri Nov 13, 2020 7:54 am

Re: Convert drum rack to grouped tracks

Post by Slow Hand » Thu Apr 22, 2021 8:41 pm

Well Drums Racks do have their own sends and returns. You can throw a drum reverb (for example) into the Drum Rack's returns and get the same send/return functionality. Though, yes, it's also true that you can't send individual Drum Rack cells to session-wide return channels outside of the Drum Rack.

I suspect the reason that Drum Racks don't send to the session-wide return channels is because the whole point of Drum Racks is for them to be self-contained, saveable, and have preset settings that you can easily recall. I personally don't ever put my entire drum kit into a Drum Rack. I have individual channels for my Kick/Snare/Hats etc. This way I have more granular control over this kind of thing.

If you really really want to send individual drum rack cells to the return channels in the session's mixer one thing you can do is create an empty MIDI channel and then drag the cell out of the Drum Rack and onto the new MIDI channel. It should retain all of the instrument settings, plugins, and balances that it had inside the drum rack AND it will extract the MIDI sequencing data from the clip on the Drum Rack. Once you've successfully transferred the cell to the new MIDI channel you can now send it to any of the session-wide Return tracks.

properLofi
Posts: 76
Joined: Thu Feb 25, 2021 7:35 pm

Re: Convert drum rack to grouped tracks

Post by properLofi » Wed Apr 28, 2021 12:01 pm

Drum Rack splitting to grouped MIDI tracks would be a massive work flow improvement. If you have any significant number of samples in a drum rack it’s a pain and time consuming to create a MIDI track, drag the sample, create a MIDI track, drag a sample. It’s just automation of existing functionality so not a massive change in operation from the software point of view.

For example, when I come to mix down I want each drum cell in its own flattened audio channel rather than trying to mix within the Drum Rack itself. This frees up CPU for the mix down stage but slows down my process.

jonljacobi
Posts: 887
Joined: Sat Dec 30, 2017 3:36 am

Re: Convert drum rack to grouped tracks

Post by jonljacobi » Thu Apr 29, 2021 9:33 pm

Adapting to Live's methods is a lot easier than waiting years for them to change something. I once had the same wish, because I was used to it. But I actually quite like mixing in the Drum Rack now that I'm used to it. I don't have to load a bunch of tracks with presets. My only wish is that there were more than 6 returns for sub-mixes.

The best piece of advice I've seen in these forums is "Stop fighting it. There's usually a way to do what you want, and quite often it's better. If you'll give it a chance."

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