Ableton/Live/UG/31 Instrument Reference/07 Impulse
- Impulse is a drum sampler with eight slots. Each sample can be time-stretched, filtered, saturated, enveloped, panned and leveled, mostly with random and velocity modulation.
- Drag samples into slots from the browser or the Session and Arrangement Views, or hot-swap them;
Delete (Mac) / Backspace (Win) removes one. - Slots map to C3 through the octave above, leftmost first. With Fold on, the MIDI Editor lists all eight slots. A Pitch device transposes the mapping; a Scale device rearranges it.
- Each slot has its own parameters, shown when you click it. Changes, including automation and clip envelopes, apply only from the next note; for continuous changes during a note use Ableton/Instrument/Simpler.
- Slot 8's Link button ties it to slot 7 so each cuts the other off, as a closed hi-hat silences an open one.
- Hovering a slot shows play, solo, mute and hot-swap.
- Start — offset into the sample, up to 100 ms.
- Transp — ±48 semitones, modulated by velocity or random.
- Stretch — -100% to 100%; negative shortens, positive lengthens. Mode A suits low sounds like toms and bass; Mode B suits high ones like cymbals. Modulated by velocity.
- Several filter types with Frequency and Resonance; Frequency can follow velocity or random.
- Saturator — fatter, rounder sound; Drive adds gain and distortion, so lower the slot's volume to match. Heavy drive on low sounds gives overdriven analog drum tones.
- Decay — up to 10.0 seconds. Trigger mode decays with the note; Gate mode waits for note-off, which suits hi-hats with varying lengths.
- Volume and Pan per slot. Pan follows velocity and random; Volume follows velocity.
- Global controls right of the slots: Volume, Transp for all samples, and Time, which scales stretch and decay for all samples between short and stretched.
