After last week's Ableton Rack, the Gibson Pad, I received a few questions regarding the drums I used in creating the demo video.  So, this week's rack is the drum rack I used to create those sounds.  The FM synthesis in Ableton's Operator can be used to attain nearly any sound imaginable. Lately, I have been using it to create some far out drum sounds.  This week's Free Weekly Ableton Live Rack is just that, a collection of different drums made with the Operator synth.  Every time  I open Operator and start messing around with it, I am always amazed at what I get.  The drum sounds I created are all racked up into a drum rack and from there I added a bunch of useful effects.  First is a bit of New York Style Compression, which is just a combination of the dry, uncompressed signal and a heavily compressed version; the macro knob allows you to blend them to taste.  I've added both a lo and hi pass filter, distortion, reverb and delay.  Also, I've thrown in a vinyl distortion that is designed to emulate the sound of a drum hit being sampled from a record.  One of the cool things about sampling off a vinyl is the crackling you get behind the drum sounds and the way it cuts out at the end of the sample.  To achieve this, I set up a vinyl distortion followed by a gate. The gate is set to close out the vinyl crackles, but open when the drum sounds.  The result is that you only hear the vinyl crackles while the drums are sounding, just like with a vinyl sample.  I love this effect, it adds so much life and grit to the drum sounds.  This technique can be emulated for any sample, not just drums. So here it is in all, I hope you enjoy it!

Check out some of my other Racks!

If you are making music with any of these racks, or wish to share some samples or suggestions for future racks, don't be shy!  Send them along!