This is the second lesson in our multi-part course series, How to Make Your First Beat in Ableton Live. To follow along from the beginning, click here, or check out our Mainstage course, Beat Making in Ableton Live, for a more in-depth mentor-assisted experience!

Let’s start by familiarizing ourselves with the beat-making tools in Ableton. First, I’d like to point out that Ableton Live actually has two instruments designed for beat building.

Impulse, released back in 2004 with Ableton 4, was Ableton’s original drum machine and still remains in the program. It’s still used by producers who appreciate its simplicity and elegance.

The instrument this course will focus on is Ableton’s Drum Rack. Drum Rack is available in each of the three versions of Ableton Live: Intro, Standard, and Suite. To really get the most out of this course, however, you should at least have Standard and consider investing in Suite to take full advantage of Ableton’s amazing beat-making possibilities.

Wicked Kits includes 5 free Ableton Live Drum Kits optimized for Ableton Live and programmed for real-time performance. It is packed with a number samples from classic drum machines, synths and vinyl. Kind of dumb but I changed my default drum rack by accident and can't load an empty one now. Does anyone have an empty drum rack preset for me:p? Tried to google one but didn't get the actual download/file. I use Live 9, if that matters. Dec 07, 2018 Free Ableton Drum Racks session – Included in this is a session which holds 2 drum racks. Each is labelled allowing you to drop in your own sounds and easily create the tips that we discuss below. Each is labelled allowing you to drop in your own sounds and easily create the tips that we discuss below.

Jun 04, 2019  Download a free 90s style Jungle and Drum & Bass sample rack for Ableton Live 10 courtesy of Noisegate. Early samplers from the 1990s used time stretching and crunchy bitrates to cut and play old soul and funk drum loops, namely the ‘Amen Break’. These warped and sped up samples set the sonic aesthetic for Jungle and eventually drum and bass. I was in the midst of a project and suddenly I noticed my instrument rack and drum rack and other folders are merged into an empty folder that's the name of my current project. Instrument & Drum Rack disappeared in Ableton. Ask Question. In the midst of a project and suddenly I noticed my instrument rack and drum rack and other folders.

Locating the Instrument

Step one: Find the Drum Rack. To start, mouse over to the arrow on the upper left-hand side that allows us to open Ableton’s browser window. When you open the browser, there will be two ways to access the Drum Rack. The first is in the “Drums” tab. You’ll find it sitting directly beneath the “Drum Hits” folder.

You can also find the Drum Rack in the “Instruments” tab in the browser.

Let’s click back to the Drums tab again. If you press the arrow to the left of the “Drum Hits” tab, it will open to reveal a series of various types of drum hits. Let me explain what these are. If the file has .aif or .wav after it, it can be loaded directly into a cell in the Drum Rack.

We’ll be doing a lot of this in a bit. If the file has .adg after it, this stands for “Ableton Device Group.” In the Drums tab, these primarily contain Drum Racks that already have samples loaded into them.

One nice feature about Ableton’s browser is that you can preview sounds quite easily. Make sure the blue headphones icon is turned on. Then click on a .aif, .wav, or .adg file once, and you’ll be able to hear what it sounds like. You can adjust the preview volume level by moving the blue knob in the master channel.

Loading an 808 Kit

Follow along with the video below to load Ableton’s Kit-Core 808.adg into a session of your own.

By Nick Chen

Part of having a good workflow is maximizing the time you spend producing. https://lasvegasentrancement.weebly.com/blog/drug-dictionary-free-download-for-android. Investing time to create a default template of your own allows you to start a session and instantly have all your favorite tools ready to go to make music.

The genres I like producing (trap, future bass, hip-hop) are very drum/rhythm heavy. As such, I use a lot of Ableton’s drum racks and have decided to include that in my default template. I also have different instances of Serum set up in my template as I use it on every song I produce.

One thing to keep in mind is the speed of your computer, a big template can slow down launch times, thus be mindful of creating a template that is lean, but at the same time fits your needs.

I have included a link to download my template at the bottom of this blog post./sad-auto-tune-songs.html.

+ Learn more on Soundfly: Produce more creative, communicative electronic drum beats with help from Ableton Certified Trainer, Dan Freeman, and a team of personal mentors in our month-long intensive course, Beat Making in Ableton Live.

Creating the Template

Empty Drum Rack Download Ableton 10

The idea of this template is to kickstart your production process. You want it to be open enough to start different types of projects. I usually avoid adding any loops or musical patterns in my default template for that reason.

Here’s a rundown of my personal default template, which is broken down into five different groups:

Battery, Melodic, Bass, Vox, and FX (there is also a Sidechain group)

Free Ableton Drum Racks

Battery (Drums and Percussion Elements)

Tracks include: one empty drum rack, two full drum racks of trap and hip-hop samples, Sampler, Kontakt, audio tracks for loops and Palmas (Max for Live clap plugin)

Melodic (Harmonic and Melodic Elements)

Tracks include: Operator, Sample, Synthmaster 2, Kontakt, Wurlitzer (by Arturia), Absynth, Serum, and audio tracks.

Bass (Bass Elements)

Tracks include: Serum, Massive, Operator, Reaktor, and an audio track to record my Novation Mininova.

Vox (Vocal elements)

Tracks include: Sample, Simpler, and three audio tracks open for recording.

FX (Sound Effects and Transitional Elements)

Tracks include: two operators set to white noise, one Sampler, and three audio tracks.

Bonus: Put your go-to effect processing chains (compressor, EQ8, utility, etc) on tracks that you like to speed up your workflow.

Saving the Template

Once you have everything the way you want it, navigate to Ableton’s settings and go to “File” > “Folder.” Click to save using the first option that says “Save Current Set as Default” and you’re good to go!

Don’t Be Afraid to Break the Template

Having a robust template is great, but there are some factors to be wary of. Frequently using the same template over and over again can inhibit your creativity in the long run. To counter that, make sure you update your template every few months so you can keep evolving your sound.

I also recommend occasionally starting projects with a blank slate, simply add a new track and delete the rest of your template tracks. This way you are starting back at zero, which can also inspire creativity.

If you have a template that works for you, let us know in the comments!

Download my Ableton Default Template on Splice.

Whether you’re laying down demos, orchestrating digital strings in your DAW, or sampling found sounds in a beat, getting a good mix on your track could mean the difference between failure and fame. Preview Soundfly’s newest and most in-depth mentorship-assisted online courses, Faders Up I & II: Modern Mix Techniques and Advanced Mix Techniques, for free today!

Free Ableton Effect Racks

And right now, if you sign up before March 7th you can get 30% off (that’s $150) with the exclusive code LASTCHANCE !