Ableton Forum

Hey all, beginner question here for everyone in how they use drum racks. I see the power of creating my own drum racks, so I have a cohesive sounding kit for the sound I'm looking for in a specific tune, or easily switching out pieces in the kit.

But, whenever I use a drum rack in a tune, I end up midi programming out all the drum hits/notes into one midi track. Since then it's easier to play all the sounds on my keyboard when I'm messing around. However, then I have the problem where I want to add some FX to a single sound in the kit, i.e. just the kick or snare. In this case do you guys duplicate the midi track and separate out the midi notes into other midi tracks for the kick, one for the snare, etc. Or do you add effects to each pad/sound in the drum rack (nested racks?) and keep it all in one midi track? Any tips/suggestions?

you can add efx into each chain of the drumrack. check the manual! click on the little circle with the triangle inside, right beside the name of your drumrack on top of the channel. see it fold out and cry.

Hmm "Read the manual", nice...

Guess I wasn't clear enough. I'm looking for more of people's opinions on how they like to use drum racks. And if they do everything in one midi track or separate everything out into separate tracks. Do you find one way easier/better than another, and why? I'm not asking if it is possible to go one way or the other.

i keep it to one drumrack, dropping fx on the hits separately...nothing wrong separating either i suppose, you could group them if you do want to put an effect over the whole deal...

heres how ive been making beats lately, if your midicontrolling this a huge time saver (first of 2 vids, 2 is where it gets very cool)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ka39zTpP ... r_embedded

When composing or playing around, I like to put all my effects into the drum rack itself, and control the whole thing with a single MIDI channel. I find it more straightforward to work with and think about, as well as to trigger using a Launchpad, which I like to do.

If I'm working on a studio project though, I like to separate drums into their own tracks for mixdown and processing. The "extract chains" feature is great for this. The main reason I prefer to separate them is to use the global sends. I don't know of any way to send from a drum rack chain to a top-level return track; I only know how to send within the rack.

I don't separate every drum though, only the ones I specifically want to think about and send separately.