Using Instrument Racks w/ Drum Racks To Have Effects Per Row Using Chains

So, yesterday, I was putting together huge drum kits....8 kits per rack...all made for my Trigger Finger. (see yesterdays blog for more info). The thing I really wanted to do was to be able to control effects based off of rows of my trigger finger. I want to be able to use the knobs on the trigger finger for effects, but without them effecting the whole group of samples. Specifically, since these drum pads are mostly for production, I really only want my tools on there so I dont have to waste time with that. Effects, well, im never really sure what I am going to want. I only have 2 knobs per row...one definitely being a frequency shifter. The other, I really want something to transpose the samples note up and down (+6, - 6) like I do with my samples...but that requires either using an audio pitch vst (which I dont really like), or, individually mapping each samples transpose to the same knob....LAME, and will take forever. So I need to think about this.

Another problem with the frequency shifter is that I need to to have a large range, but but also be able to get back to the 0 point easily...because some samples sound like shit if they are even just a few frequencies off....so I might have to use midimap to split a knob into 2 knobs, one going from (on the shifter) 0 and up, and the other knob going 0 and down. That way by putting the knob ALL THE WAY to one side or the other, it will be at 0....instead of trying to find it in the middle of the knob. In that case, I will use up both buttons...so shit....looks like I cant get exactly what I want without tons of mapping work.

ANYWAY....all that aside, lets get into how to make instrument racks w/ drum racks, so you can put different effects per row (or column if you like).

Ok, so what I have done is created a blank instrument rack in a new midi track.

Then, what I want to do is open up the chains of that rack. Now, I will take one of the drum kits I made yesterday (8 kits on 1 rack). Drag that into the device chain 4 times (for all 4 rows) like this -
You can see the exact same drum rack 4 times. Now, what you want to do is go to chain 1 (which is my case are the kicks). You need to delete every sample within that chain that is not a kick.

Then you need to go to chain 2, and delete every sample that is not in row 2 (or column 2 if you are doing columns). In my case, they are snares.

Again for 3, and 4. Also, rename your chains so its easier. Mine now looks like this -


You can see on my grid on the right side of my drum rack, now in rows instead of taking up every square.

Now you have individual chains to put your effects into. I went ahead and put in my frequency shifter to try it out. Click the chain you want, and put the effect after the chain, like this -


Now, any mapping you do to your controller for the effect, will not save when you save this instrument rack. But it is there. Considering I only have 8 knobs, its not a big deal just to map it when I want to use it. Its a lot better than manually putting it in, and I really need a rack that has per row effect options. REMEMBER, CLICK SAVE!

Now, it did take a lot of time to delete out all the samples I didnt want in each rack. If you want, you could just MAKE it right the first time. But, I also like to have copies of JUST my drum racks, in case I am doing improv and my friends want to use my racks their own way. So I put a little extra time into making both. It is a little bit time consuming considering the slow action of deletion of samples within a drum rack.

Also, one little thing I hate about drum racks, is how when you go to view the next 4x4 square within the grid view, it only jumps up 3 rows, not all 4....makes deleting confusing sometime. Maybe a fix for Live 9....please!

Well, now you have an instrument rack that have effects per row on your drum pad. Hopefully you can get the sound you are looking for even faster now.

Peace!

FroBot