Multiple MZ Racks and spectra banks.

DJ Software & Apps Ableton
1

Multiple MZ Racks and spectra banks.

So im about 15 months into my journey of DJing/performing with live but never used multiple drum racks at the same time. I was curious how you would load up multiple drum racks, more specifically MadZ racks, and assign them to the bank buttons on the MF Spectra? So I could have 6 sound packs loaded up and scroll through them with the bank selectors to play them?

Thanks guys.

2

There are a few ways you could do this. It’s been a while since I was in Live - but I think you could try:

  1. Loading all the Drum Racks into a single effects Rack, within an effects Chain in Live, and have the Spectra Banks buttons select a particular range in the chain selector (this is defintely the way I’d do it…), or;

  2. Load a Drum Rack in each channel in Live, and have the Midi IN for each channel set to a different midi ch number. Then, you’d need to ensure that each bank on the Spectra sends on a separate midi channel.

Option 1 is definitely the wauy to go, actually mate.

3

Thanks Patch. Havnt messed with effects chains much. Ill have to dive into that tonight. Thanks!

4

They’re AWESOME.

5

Patch, your inbox is full. Thanks for the explination. Ill give everything a try when I get home from work today.

6

I’ll empty some of my old PM’s. (I’v been busy trading gear and pestering Stewe and synthet1c about mappings!)

In the meantime, post any Q’s here and I’ll see what I can do. :+1:

7

Thanks brotha.

8

Not sure what Im missing, Patch. Its pretty straight forward but Live is not letting me drop the drum the MZ drum racks at the end.

Steps im taking verbatim.

Drop Empty drum rack on Empty Midi channel.
right clicking empty drum rack at the bottom and selecting “group” which puts the drum rack inside an instrument rack.
clicking/opening the chain of the instrument rack that currently has the empty drum rack in it.

Live will not let me drag any MZ packs into this chain. I feel like im overlooking something simple.

9

Okay - I getcha.

MZ’s Sound Packs are NOT actually Ableton Drum Racks. They are Drums Racks saved INSIDE an Ableton Live SET.

What you need to do is this:

  1. Open live.
  2. Import a MZ SP into live (just drag and drop the MZ .alp into a midi track in Live). Live will ask you where you want to install the Pack. Just use the same folder as the SP is in for now.
  3. This will install a Live Set with the same name as the sound pack into the folder.
  4. Open the Live Set. You will see that it contains a Drum Rack, containing all of the sounds in the SP.
  5. Click and drag the Drum Rack from the midi track in Live into a folder in Lives Browser. This will create a NEW Live Device (a single Drum Rack) - you should name this Device in accordance with the name of the Sound Pack. It’s probably a good idea to create a new folder in the same folder as your MZ’s SP’s - just call the folder “Mad Zach’s Drum Racks” (<<<Nice that it rhymes, eh?)
  6. Repeat for all 6 of your MZ’s SP’s.
  7. Once you have a folder with 6 Live Devices (each one consisting of a single Drum Rack) you can get to creating your own Live Device (Group) containing all 6 Drum Racks.
  8. Once you’ve done that, click and drag the new Live Device (the Group containing all 6 Drum racks) into the “Mad Zach’s Drum Racks” folder - name it “6xMZDR” (or something similar…)

Now, you can drag and drop that device into ANY live set. Ain’t Live great?!?

10

Ur the Man, Patch.

Strange that Live makes you do that but no biggie. Got all my favorite Drum racks in.

Thanks again Buddy!

11

No problem. :+1:

I’ve slowly been moving awat from Live for DJ’ing - but things like this just remind me of how powerful Live really is.

If Live could just have the Master/Deck A/Deck B Tempo flexibility, and the timecode vinyl control (per channel) that Traktor has, I’d be back on Live like stink on cheese.

12

Did you hear about Ableton/Serato?

Looks like they teamed up and are developing something…

13

I sure hope so - The Bridge was a dismal failure.

Although - if Traktor keeps on pinching functionality from Live, Serato and Ableton will have some catching up to do.