Ableton/Live/UG/25 Racks/06 Drum Racks
- Ableton/Instrument/Drum Racks share most features with other Racks but are laid out for drum kits.
- Four extra toggles in the view column show the Input/Output, Send and Return sections and Auto Select.
- Input/Output: Receive sets the incoming note the chain answers (with note names, numbers and General MIDI drum names); Play sets the note sent on to its devices; Choke puts it in one of sixteen choke groups, where triggering one chain silences the others, such as a closed hi-hat cutting an open one. With Receive on All Notes, Play and Choke are disabled. The Preview button fires a test note.
- Mixer: besides volume, pan and Hot-Swap, each chain has post-fader sends to the return chains, once they exist.
- Return chains: up to six chains of audio effects at the bottom of the list, fed by the sends. Each return's Audio To goes to the Rack's output or straight to the Set's return tracks.
- Pad View shows one pad per MIDI note (128 in all). Shift the visible 16 pads by dragging in the overview or with the arrow keys; hold
Cmd (Mac) / Alt (Windows) to move one row. - Drop almost anything from the browser on a pad and it maps to that note: a sample makes a chain with a Ableton/Instrument/Simpler; an audio effect goes after it; another sample replaces only the Simpler and its sample, keeping effects. In Hot-Swap,
D switches the target between the Rack and the last selected pad. - Dropping several samples maps them upward chromatically from the pad.
Cmd/Alt-dragging them layers all on one pad in a nested Instrument Rack. - Dragging one pad onto another swaps their notes, so existing clips play different sounds;
Cmd/Alt-dragging layers both pads. See also Ableton/How To/Preserve Name of Clip when Dragging into Drum Rack. - Receive choosers in the chain list remap notes too; chains sharing a note all fire from its pad.
- A pad stands for a note, not a chain — every chain at any depth that receives that note:
- an empty pad shows its note, and its General MIDI suggestion in the Status Bar;
- a pad with one chain shows its name and gives mute, solo, preview, Hot-Swap, rename and delete;
- a pad with several shows "Multi"; mute, solo, preview and delete affect them all.
- With a natively supported pad controller selected in Settings → Link, Tempo & MIDI, its pads play the pads visible on screen and follow when you scroll.
