> the beginner’s guide to live
Racks and chains
We’ve already covered Live’s Racks briefly in
Audio slicing and creating custom library
content on p18, but being such powerful tools,
they’re worthy of more comprehensive
examination here.
Racks make it possible to create self-
contained chains of instruments and effects,
which can be saved as presets and very quickly
added to new projects. What’s more, Racks
enable you to create stacks of chains, facilitating
the creation of layered instruments and parallel
processing effects.
Given all this power, you might imagine that
Racks would be tricky to work with, but their
sensible design makes it easy to both build and
control complex instrument and effect setups.
> Step by step 22. Building a formant filter in an Effect Rack
1 2
Drag Hoover.wav onto an audio track
in the Arrangement view, then open
Audio Effects and drag an Audio Effect
Rack onto the track. The Rack won’t make
any difference to the input signal until we
add an effect. Drag an Auto Filter onto the
Rack, and you’ll see its interface appear
within the Rack.
4 5
This causes the Macro Controls to
appear on the left-hand side of the
Rack, with the first knob assigned to
(cutoff) Frequency. Click the second
chain and, again, right-click the Auto
Filter’s Filter Cutoff and select Map to
Frequency. Now, both Filter Cutoff
parameters will be assigned to the first
Macro knob.
44 / ABLETON LIVE: THE ULTIMATE GUIDE 2015
Chaining and layering effects is a great way to make
new sounds, and in Live the possibilities are endless
The Instrument, Drum and Effect Racks all have a
bank of eight built-in Macro Controls, each of
which can be assigned to multiple parameters.
This, combined with the ability to stack chains,
What the Rack isn’t showing you is that
it’s automatically created a chain for
this effect. Click the Show/Hide Chain
List button on the left-hand side of the
Rack, and you’ll see a single chain in the
Chain List. Drag another Auto Filter from
the Browser onto the Chain List. This
creates another chain.
When a parameter is assigned to a
Macro, its value instantly jumps to that
of the Macro. Consequently, both our
filters have the same Filter Cutoff
frequency, but we need them to be at
different frequencies for our intended
formant filter-style effect. Click the Map
button at the top of the Rack and, in the
Browser, set the first row’s Min to 700Hz
and the second row’s Max to 7.00kHz.
makes it possible to create your own composite
devices that can do things Live’s stock
instruments and effects can’t. For example, in the
following walkthrough we’ll show you how to
create a formant-style filter using a couple of
Auto Filters in an Effects Rack.
Another cool feature of Racks is the ability to
restrict chains to particular key and velocity
ranges, making it possible to create velocity and
note splits – just the thing for live performers and
designers of sophisticated stacked instruments.
You can also assign a Chain Select range to each
chain, and use the dedicated Chain Select Ruler
parameter to determine which chains are active
at any given time – handy for varying a sound
using a MIDI controller knob or automation.
3
Because we’ve got two identical
chains, the signal is going to be twice
the volume level. To remedy this, turn
both Chain Volume parameters down to
-6.0dB. Set both Auto Filters’ Filter Types
to Bandpass. Next, we’ll set up a Macro
Control. Click the first chain to select it,
then right-click the Auto Filter’s Filter
Cutoff and select Map to Macro 1.
6
Click the Map button again when
you’re finished to confirm these
changes. Now, with their different
minimum and maximum ranges, the Auto
Filters’ Filter Cutoff frequencies will never
be in the same position, giving us a
satisfying formant filter-style sound. You
can even make this effect stereo by
panning one chain hard left and the other
hard right.( Audio: Stereo filter.wav)