Ableton/Live/UG/25 Racks/05 Zones
- Zones are filters at the input of each chain in Instrument and Effect Racks that decide which values reach it. They pass everything until you change them.
- The Key, Vel and Chain buttons above the Chain List open their editors; Hide closes them. Audio Effect Racks have only chain select zones; Drum Racks have no zones and filter by note in the chain list.
- Each zone has a lower bar to move or resize it and a thin upper bar for fade ranges. Drag edges to resize, the middle to move.
- In a MIDI Effect Rack with four chains, all chains receive the same MIDI.
- Before entering a chain, a note must pass that chain's key zone, then its velocity zone, then its chain select zone. Failing any one keeps it out.
- The outputs of all chains are mixed and passed to whatever follows the Rack.
- The Key Zone Editor shows each chain's range across the full MIDI note range, almost 11 octaves. Chains respond only to notes in their zone, which makes keyboard splits.
- Fade ranges lower the velocity of notes entering the chain.
- In Instrument and MIDI Effect Racks, each chain also responds only to a range of Note On velocities, 1–127, edited like key zones.
- Fade ranges lower the velocity of notes entering the chain.
- Chain select zones let one parameter, the draggable Chain selector above the 0–127 scale, choose which chains can play. Only chains whose zone overlaps the selector's value produce output.
- In Instrument and MIDI Effect Racks they filter only notes by default; Chain Selector Filters MIDI Ctrl in the ruler's context menu makes them filter all MIDI.
- In MIDI Effect Racks fades lower note velocity. In Instrument and Audio Effect Racks fades lower each chain's output volume: moving the selector off a zone that ends in a fade silences the chain, while a zone without a fade lets reverb tails and delays ring out.
25.5.4.1 Making Preset Banks Using Chain Select
- Chain select zones default to a length of 1 at value 0. Place four chains with different effects at values 0, 1, 2 and 3 with no overlap, and map the Chain selector to a hardware encoder: turning it switches between four setups.
25.5.4.2 Crossfading Preset Banks Using Fade Ranges
- Lengthen the zones and add fade ranges so neighbouring presets overlap, keeping one value where each plays alone. Moving the selector then crossfades between presets; wider fades make smoother transitions.
