Ableton - Doing Bigger Kits With Impulse

Hi all,

I found this tip to do bigger kits with impulse in ableton. Enjoy:)



No, this tip will not let you put unlimited samples in Impulse, but it will enable you to play different drum sounds across your entire keyboard.
I wanted to get a cool drum setup to use with my hardware sequencer (which doesn't like the white-keys-only mapping of impulse). A setup, where I could dial in new drums quickly. You might also have a teeny-tiny midi controller, and you'd like to use your black keys as well?

Here's what you should do:
As a start, set up two tracks with impulse on all of them. They are also set up to receive midi from the same source, in my case a step sequencer. You can use more impulses if you like, 24 drum sounds was adequate for me. Load two totally different kits, so that you can hear whats going on. You might also want to arm those tracks, usually you need to hold the ctrl/cmd key whilst clicking the arm button to arm more than one track.

Now, load one scale midi effect in front of each impulse. These have to be set up to transform a chromatic input to a white-keys-only output, but they have to be set up differently. Here's a rundown of the first scale, so you don't have to figure it out yourself (it may seem like a lot of work, but it isn't, it's point and click stuff, which can be saved as a preset :D ):
c unaltered
c# -> d
d -> e
d# -> f
e ->g
f ->a
f# ->b
g ->high c
g# -> blank
a -> blank
a# -> blank
b -> blank

Save that as a preset. Your first drum kit should now be chromaticly assigned to the keys :)

Open the scale device in the second impulse. Load up the preset you just saved and simply move all the dots one step to the right. Set transpose to -12 semitones. That's your second impulse on the same channel, with the notes assigned chromaticly, directly after the first kit. :!:
(remember to save that second preset as well :wink: )
An easier but less cool way of extending a kit is of course only using 7 slots in the impulse, and then transposing each kit down successive octaves with a pitch device. Easy.

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