Ableton Forum

please add a toggle for drum racks so they can be played as an instrument rack. it would be nice to fill a whole drum rack with samples in have access to all 64 pads. seems like an easy fix.

Agreed, but could you put this into the 'feature wishlist' of the forum.

In the meantime you could check out Stray's PXT-Live scripts, which allows you to do this.

You could also just use a dummy channel.
insert an empty midi clip with any midi instrument.
Mute the instrument and route the track's midi out
to the drumrack you want to play. ...select & Play the dummy channel.

et voilà! 64 drumrack pads!
(I haven't tried it out yet, but seems like it should work?

nemoy, this would work but how to toggle back and forth between the various 'modes'? In the same way you can toggle between free play and polyphonic step sequencing with instrument tracks now.

Ableton really should have covered all bases.

...you can "toggle" by selecting either the drumrack channel itself (for 16pads)
or the dummy channel (for 64 pads)

it's just a workaround...
not that practical, i know

I think push is really far from being complete yet!
Ideas like your's should really be sent to ableton!
let them know what features are missing!

this shit might be in the next firmware update already...

Easy.

install clyphx
rename a clip [] Push Drins
trigger that clip.

Voila you have the melodic layout of 64 pads of other instruments for DrumRacks.

You can also assign this function to a button on a Midi controller.

All great solutions but none of them quite as elegant. Here's hoping for the future

panten wrote:All great solutions but none of them quite as elegant. Here's hoping for the future

Why is the clyphx solution not elegant?!
It does exactly what the OP asked for, with the triggering of a clip or push of a button.

(Except maybe that the regular instrument color scheme is not well suited for a drumrack with 64 different samples - it gets confusing)

Requires setup and dummy clips lying around for every project you use. I anticipate that you will reply that you can setup once and save as your default template. Bit messy though.

Built-in Push solution would just work in a transparent elegant way. No setup, no dummy clips, no MIDI mapping. Just press Note button to toggle between Mono-phonics & Poly-phonics step sequencing.

panten wrote:Requires setup and dummy clips lying around for every project you use. I anticipate that you will reply that you can setup once and save as your default template. Bit messy though.

Built-in Push solution would just work in a transparent elegant way. No setup, no dummy clips, no MIDI mapping. Just press Note button to toggle between Mono-phonics & Poly-phonics step sequencing.

This misconception seems to linger, but no, you don't need dummy clips for clyphx. You can trigger the same actions by specifying them in the Usersettings.txt to be controlled via Midi buttons. So exactly what you asked for, just that this button has to be either on another controller or triggered via clyphx actions in PXTs acessory mode.

If Ableton implements something in-built though, I would surely hope they do a bit more than just use this method. For DrumRacks each pad should have its own user assignable color, like PXT Live Plus does, but they should make it in a way where the color data is directly transfered from Live and also represented on the pads in the GUI as well. I agree, that this is still a massive oversight on their part.

TomViolenz wrote: install clyphx
rename a clip [] Push Drins
trigger that clip.

Voila you have the melodic layout of 64 pads of other instruments for DrumRacks.

You can also assign this function to a button on a Midi controller.

Pardon me I was reading your instructions.

I have not used this as I have PXT-Live. Is this Clyphx melodic layout in 4 blocks of 16 like PXT or horizontally based on your scale?

panten wrote:

TomViolenz wrote: install clyphx
rename a clip [] Push Drins
trigger that clip.

Voila you have the melodic layout of 64 pads of other instruments for DrumRacks.

You can also assign this function to a button on a Midi controller.

Pardon me I was reading your instructions.

I have not used this as I have PXT-Live. Is this Clyphx melodic layout in 4 blocks of 16 like PXT or horizontally based on your scale?

Based on scale. What it does is, it forces the DrumRack to be treated like any other instrument. Nothing less, but nothing more either.

If you use PXT there is really no reason for you to use this (I don't).

I had just wanted to emphasize the fact again that dummy clips are not a requirement with clyphx, a misconception which seems to keep some people from using it. Clyphx is something anyone should use, no matter if this particular function is something they want, because there are hundreds of other (well documented) functions that extend Lives functionality by quite a lot.

You're possibly correct that it's a common misconception that clips are a requirement. It seems that even you forgot about the userSettings based on your original post.

The problem with this though is that you will either need a second MIDI controller or take up the User mode on Push; which is undesirable if you run another set of scripts from that mode already. Using PXT's accessory mode to get 64 drumpads is redundant as you already have superior access to it.

What is also undesirable is having your drum rack laid out chromatically as if it were an instrument. It breaks the format of the drum rack 4x4 layout.

I re-iterate, none of the above solutions are as elegant as either using PXT-Live or waiting for Ableton's implementation.

No offense meant

panten wrote:You're possibly correct that it's a common misconception that clips are a requirement. It seems that even you forgot about the userSettings based on your original post.

The problem with this though is that you will either need a second MIDI controller or take up the User mode on Push; which is undesirable if you run another set of scripts from that mode already. Using PXT's accessory mode to get 64 drumpads is redundant as you already have superior access to it.

What is also undesirable is having your drum rack laid out chromatically as if it were an instrument. It breaks the format of the drum rack 4x4 layout.

I re-iterate, none of the above solutions are as elegant as either using PXT-Live or waiting for Ableton's implementation.

No offense meant

Ha, and people call me argumentative

BTW: I did hint at the possibility to assign it to a Midi controller, read the last sentence in my post again.

I just didn't spell it out, because of the likelyhood that he won't install clyphx anyways, so why hold hands for something that's likely not to matter.

For the bolded part, I would only agree with the PXT part though, because I think anything is way better than to wait for something that may or may not happen

Argumentative? Or merely attempting to answer your question.

Why is the clyphx solution not elegant?!

Why does everything seem like an argument to you? Maybe because tone of voice cannot be interpreted through words alone; hence the invention of emoticon smiles. Here's another one to imply a calm, friendly, measured tone of voice

Anyway all this 'discussion' has probably more than adequately answered the OP's question.