Ableton/Live/UG/25 Racks/01 An Overview of Racks
- How signals flow through a Rack's parallel chains, and what Macro Controls are.
- A track's devices normally run in series, left to right, in one chain. A Rack adds parallel chains.
- In Instrument and Effect Racks, every chain receives the same input at once, processes it through its own devices in series, and the chains' outputs are mixed into the Rack's output.
- In a Drum Rack, each chain receives only its assigned MIDI note.
- A whole Rack behaves as a single device: it can go anywhere in a chain, Racks can nest without limit, and devices after it receive its output.
- Macro Controls are a bank of knobs, each able to control any number of parameters across the Rack's devices — to bring one parameter forward, to morph many at once, or to hide a complex instrument behind a small custom panel. See Ableton/Macro.
- Mapping the Macros to a hardware controller makes them playable.