Ableton Forum

Quick question im a little confused on an easy topic.

Drum Racks Vs Impulse

If Drum Racks has more than 8 hit pads (Impulse) and automatically channels out to seperate audio channels
why am i using Impulse?

Drum Racks has more than 8 pads (looks like you can assign every key on you midi controller)
and when you double click it it brings the sample into simpler.

Ive been using impulse, why am I not using Drum Racks.

Again my question is why would anyone use impulse if we have drumracks?

Sorry guys just a little confused, I use version 7

I found Impulse super easy at first go,

After a while I was using Impulses in Drum Racks and thats super easy too but after I figured out how to get the Simpler to work for me I dont think I'll really go back.

It took me a second to figure out Simpler but being able to see the sample, really it is the way to go.

Let me know if your like me and need a hand with Simpler I can give a few easy tip that really helped me.

tommyn wrote:Again my question is why would anyone use impulse if we have drumracks?

simplicity

backwards compatibility

I'm not sure but I imagine Impulse is a lot less CPU intensive than a rack of samplers.

i find impulse color sounds in ways i dislike. when i've got a hard kick played with the snare, the snare tends to duck under the kick, and this doesn't really happen as noticeably in drum rack. also the ability to seperate tracks is useful.

Good question. The only advantage I've ever noticed with Impulse is that it has time stretching capabilities for each sample that aren't available with simpler. Otherwise I don't see any point in using it.

I prefer Impulse for drums, any day. Things just sound tight with it, easy, fun, cpu friendly..etc..

It just depends on what I'm doing. I've I'm doing a simple drum track, sometimes I just load up impulse, if I want to work with samples and chopped phrases, drum rack is better.

One question though, I'm trying to figure out.

After I slice a sample to a new drum rack, how can I set the samples to one shot instead of only playing when I hold the key? lol...
Been trying to find it for about 20 minutes.

saintjoe wrote:After I slice a sample to a new drum rack, how can I set the samples to one shot instead of only playing when I hold the key? lol...
Been trying to find it for about 20 minutes.

release time and release slope

yep, thanks found it after I posted lol...also found out how to setup defaults for dropping samples and slicing.

thanks for the response yo!

I like Drum Rack with the APC40 because I can map the 8 knobs to the parameters I want and access them very easily.

I use impulse because I like to use the same return/send fx on the whole track.

Especialy CPU hungrey reverb..

Not keen on the hassle of doing this within drum racks.

I also like to layer up kicks/snares etc, group and eq, compress them individualy which for me is also harder to do the Racks.

Now I can group tracks Impulse its the shizzle (though would be nice to be able to group groups within groups though I fear this may effect the space time continuem)

(Not sure why Impluse defaults from C3 to C4 either but no biggy realy)

Guff Tong wrote:I use impulse because I like to use the same return/send fx on the whole track.

Especialy CPU hungrey reverb..

Not keen on the hassle of doing this within drum racks.

I also like to layer up kicks/snares etc, group and eq, compress them individualy which for me is also harder to do the Racks.

Now I can group tracks Impulse its the shizzle (though would be nice to be able to group groups within groups though I fear this may effect the space time continuem)

(Not sure why Impluse defaults from C3 to C4 either but no biggy realy)

You can nest racks too by grouping them and get the same effect. You might still have problems with the space time continuum though.

^ I'll try that.... cheers mate.

- Ah, continu-uum, I did think Id splet it rong as i rote it. lol

I prefer drum racks for the following reasons:
- I can see the waveform of the used samples
- I can use more than 7 samples
- I can easily layer sounds
- I can setup different return tracks from the global return tracks of the project (powerful machine required if you use CPU hungry plugins)
- Drum rack channels do not occupy channels on my APC40
- More flexible than impulse (for example: racks inside racks)