Ableton Forum

Hi I was wondering what is the difference between an instrument rack and drum rack? I understand that drum racks can be loaded into instrument rack and played via midi but in an instrument you can also play your sample via midi.

Drum rack has pre configured cells for dropping samples into in a common 4x4 layout.

Instrument rack: no pre configured instrument for launching samples from, but it will automatically select a Simpler for each sample

Read all about it in the manual: 18.6 Drum Racks

Edza wrote:I understand that drum racks can be loaded into instrument rack and played via midi but in an instrument you can also play your sample via midi.

"Play via midi" is playing notes, istn' it?
Now look at the first image in the manual section i have linked to: Each pad has a recieve and a play note, the note you press on your keyboard determins which pad/chain will be played, while the play note is passed to the devices in that chain.

Instrument racks on the other hand have key- and velcoity zones as methods of filtering notes: the zones determine which chain will be played, but in any case the same note you're playing is passed to the activated chain.

very helpful thanks for the reply guys!

Another thing I noticed about Instrument Racks vs Drum Racks, is that the Instrument Racks don't allow Sends like the Drum Racks do, but there are plenty of workarounds for that.

Another reason one might want to use an Instrument Rack over a Drum Rack would be if they want to play a sound melodically - like use the low section of keyboard for a bass instrument and an upper section for string melodies. It's easier to do that with an Instrument Rack.

Edza wrote:Hi I was wondering what is the difference between an instrument rack and drum rack? I understand that drum racks can be loaded into instrument rack and played via midi but in an instrument you can also play your sample via midi.

First thing to know is that Racks are really not even instruments. They are different solutions to manage working with many instruments, plug-ins, samples, midi effects etc. Each one is geared to certain things.



The main difference is that Instrument Racks are designed to manage the playing a range of notes which can be assigned to mutiple instruments for stacking, layering etc.

Drum Racks are designed for managing what instruments play on single notes only.


Typical Applications:

Instrument Racks:

1. Creating splits
2. Creating layers
3. Using Simplers, you can have a crude multisampler without needing Sampler.

Drum Racks:

1. Creating Drum Kits with samples on each pad.
2. Creating an Sound Effect palette for triggering multiple effects.
3. Playing Sliced and Diced Drum loops.
4. Really think of each pad as an instrument, it doesn't have to be a sample at all. It can be a Simpler, Simpler, Impulse, VSTi, Operator, Another Instrument Rack triggered by a midi effect.



They can be as simple or as complex and wacky as you need them to be. You could theoretically put Drum Racks in Instrument Racks to have a Drum kit on certain Keys, with Tuned 808s on another range of keys.

You could put Instrument Racks in Drum Rack cells to layer drums.

We haven't even covered Midi Effect/Audio Effect Racks but they basically do the same thing with effects and using those you could create various serial/parallel processing setups.

And all of these Racks can interact with each other and be nested very deeply.

Edza wrote:Hi I was wondering what is the difference between an instrument rack and drum rack? I understand that drum racks can be loaded into instrument rack and played via midi but in an instrument you can also play your sample via midi.

First thing to know is that Racks are really not even instruments. They are different solutions to manage working with many instruments, plug-ins, samples, midi effects etc. Each one is geared to certain things.



The main difference is that Instrument Racks are designed to manage the playing a range of notes which can be assigned to mutiple instruments for stacking, layering etc.

Drum Racks are designed for managing what instruments play on single notes only.


Typical Applications:

Instrument Racks:

1. Creating splits
2. Creating layers
3. Using Simplers, you can have a crude multisampler without needing Sampler.

Drum Racks:

1. Creating Drum Kits with samples on each pad.
2. Creating an Sound Effect palette for triggering multiple effects.
3. Playing Sliced and Diced Drum loops.
4. Really think of each pad as an instrument, it doesn't have to be a sample at all. It can be a Simpler, Simpler, Impulse, VSTi, Operator, Another Instrument Rack triggered by a midi effect.
5. Creating Choke Groups, cutting off one sound by playing another pad.



They can be as simple or as complex and wacky as you need them to be. You could theoretically put Drum Racks in Instrument Racks to have a Drum kit on certain Keys, with Tuned 808s on another range of keys.

You could put Instrument Racks in Drum Rack cells to layer drums.

We haven't even covered Midi Effect/Audio Effect Racks but they basically do the same thing with effects and using those you could create various serial/parallel processing setups.

And all of these Racks can interact with each other and be nested very deeply.

mylkoa wrote: ↑

Fri Sep 25, 2015 3:54 pm

Another thing I noticed about Instrument Racks vs Drum Racks, is that the Instrument Racks don't allow Sends like the Drum Racks do, but there are plenty of workarounds for that.

What are the workarounds?

Edza wrote: ↑

Fri Sep 25, 2015 6:01 am

Hi I was wondering what is the difference between an instrument rack and drum rack? I understand that drum racks can be loaded into instrument rack and played via midi but in an instrument you can also play your sample via midi.

Probably best to read up on the Rack concept in general.

In short Racks are Lives way of grouping devices.

You have:

1. Instrument Racks
2. Drum Racks
3. Audio Effect Racks
4. Midi effect Racks.

They are generally all nestable which means you can combine them all for unique setups.


Instrument Racks general uses

1. Stacking synths
2. Creating keyboard splits
3. Mapping various parameters to one knob for control.
4. Adding effects to synths that dont have effects.

Drum Racks are mainly for having a sound play on one key, with a different sound on another key. Great for drum kits. Drum kits usually have alot of Simpler samples but doesn't have to be. They can contain other instruments or even other Racks.