Ableton Live: VST in DrumRack with Multi-Outs & Push Colours

[@JamesRamboPearce]

Man I've been using XO for ages and taking samples out and putting them into a drum rack, so glad I found this video!

[@ddddieggggo]

Hey, and did you manage to assign multiple outputs? Like he does here 13:36 . I can´t find a way in XO

[@ilyaalexeev7845]

LIFE-SAVING TUTORIAL! HUGE THUMBS UP!

[@Bronwyn031]

ZOMG! I've spent the greater part of a full day trying to figure out how to do this! THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!! They should've sent a poet to watch your video... So beautiful... so beautiful...

[@Tamko_Music]

Thank you so much. I didn't even realize how flexible Ableton is.

[@djGreenALERT]

I KNEW it was possible to do this, but for the life of me I just couldn't work it out. 2 years I have been looking for the solution.. I can finally set up Addictive Drums 2 inside of Ableton to use with (I assume a Launchpad works in the same way as a 'push' in this instance?) Thank you for uploading this. It is very much appreciated!

[@mysterienvril]

Thank you so much for this tutorial! I was frustrated with creating the drum rack with Battery 4 in Ableton Live 11 and it was not working until I saw your video here on selecting the "all notes" option!

[@michaelbacon5278]

Mate, you are a legend in your own lifetime. This was so useful. NOTE: To save other users time however, consider setting up a separate instance for each pad rather than using the 'receive: all notes' command as Jester advises. This is because if (like me) your VST doesn't let you set separate MIDI outputs for different keystrokes/drum pad hits (or you can't figure out how to do it, as it may not be self evident). If Ableton automatically sets your output MIDI note to C3 (like me) you'll have to adjust that to match the input key.

[@ibec69]

Thank you so much for this. I've been trying to figure this out last 2 days. One thing to point out for those who are getting "Multi" labels on their DR pads and odd groupings, you need to change MIDI receive for each External Instrument you add to ALL. Otherwise default inputs will be clashing with your original pad input channel. This is not mentioned in the video.

[@khz5324]

ONE OF THE BEST TUTORIALS I'VE SEEN IN A WHILE! THANK YOU!

[@katchley]

Thanks for the presentation. Straightforward and very helpful. I will save this one and refer to it as needed.

[@louis-pierrebeaumont5731]

I tried a lot of other methods, that one is clearly the best! Thank you!

[@dambrou22]

Thank you!!! I 've been looking for a way to do this for such a long time, you can't imagine how happy I am now. It's working great! Thanks for sharing it! It made my day!

[@SagnolA]

Hi there mate. This is the best workaround i've seeing done using Ableton Rack and NI Battery you are a genius Jester, God bless you. Thank you very much mate.

[@schrodingerschrodinger]

I've also been searching for a work around for this. Thanks, this is perfect. You can also just drag the track into your user folder, rather than saving it as a template.

[@bilnabiln]

This works with GGD drums too^ I just mapped everything with the Modern & Massive drums. One tip though: if you start with Dyskinetic's Ableton Live template for GGD, then you can skip adding the External Instrument to each drum chain part.

[@rfproject8726]

Super awesome video! Just what I was looking for! Thank you so much!

[@elttik]

Thank you Sir. This is going to be a huge for my drum processing with a third party plug in. Very well articulated and easy to understand.

[@dmitryklimov9706]

Oh gosh, just exactly what I was asking myself, thank you!

[@jonasstein2101]

Great tutorial!

[@perhoier2881]

That was so very helpful. Always thought that wasn't even possible. Thanks so much!

[@jeanpierre72]

Thanks for sharing this, much appreciated. Love from Manchester, UK

[@avationmusic]

Thank you! I just bought Komplete 10 at a hugeee discount and I *love* Battery’s built in effects but it’s such a pain to use in its default midi form. You’re a live saver!

[@dylanreo8519]

Thanks man - this was really great. Clear and concise instructions are hard to come by these days.

[@EZtones]

Thanks Jester - just what I needed to get my XLN Audio XO VST to work with my PUSH 2 :-)

[@tunes1000]

Thanks for this. Been trying to do this with VPS Avenger for a week. Nice one.

[@jrmcelro]

This video is incredibly helpful

[@dblink6228]

Just what I needed! Thanks so much!

[@bookzdj4387]

this is very dope 🙏🏾👊🏾👊🏾

[@velanche]

This also works with Maschine Jam via the Ableton template. Drum rack will appear via Pad Mode once you spread the kit out. Colors for them are mixed; some colors might be unavailable, as there’s a limited color set on the Maschine side.

[@JemGabriel]

Thanks a lot! I used this technique to work with xln XO :)

[@sarinsahil]

Thank you! I am switching from using Logic to Ableton thanks to this video. Been using Logic for more than a decade but the drum rack and your method allows me to make kits I have had to jump hoops to make happen. Are there any third party plugin that comes close to what Ableton Drum Rack has to offer in terms of creating a hybrid instrument, grouping at the same time processing it as a bus and individually. Please do share. Thank you very much again :)

[@xil.sanctified]

Thanks! Found this really helpful.

[@billbradleymusic]

Good job

[@fpl8681]

this is great for setting up atlas on a drum rack too thanks

[@bartdegroot2974]

Very helpful, thank you very much Jester!

[@barankaypakoglu7643]

Million dollar question: How do you assign the mod wheel of push-2 to the VST inside the drum rack? I got percussion libraries of Kontakt, where mod wheel changes the speed of the rolls and fills etc. But as long as Kontakt is inside the drum rack, the mod wheel is solely assigned for Drum Rack pads. He who solves this problem will receive a huge karma boost.

[@MrPiha]

Nice, thanks.

[@MrPiha]

very very good, thank you once again, been with the video for a few hours and managed to replicate it, in Live, I mean I do have to pay attention, this saves your ass and your CPU

[@pbueno]

I was having trouble for a second with my drum rack midi names ("Kick", "snare", "hat", etc.) changing to "multi" when I played them on the push. It would also highlight two chains at once. If anyone else is having this issue, the fix is to change the Ext. Intrument I/O to recieve "All" midi in each of the grouped chains, like Jester did for the Battery midi.

[@softpalace4605]

Jesus mf Christ thank you dude

[@schrodingerschrodinger]

Hey! Thanks! I've been tearing my hair out trying to figure this out. Everything was working fine, till last week! And so fxxxing simple! ;-)

[@drewgermaine5935]

Amazing tutorial Thanks lots. Is there any way to quickly rearrange the cells of Battery so they are in the same order as the rack? For instance, the C1 (most often a kick) in Rack is default at the bottom left pad, while the C1 in Battery is at the very top left. I understand the can be re-routed manually, but is there any way to flip them quickly, as a whole? I'd like position of everything to match (I'm new to Battery and 3rd party drums).

[@Teddyrobinson]

Awesome vid!!! One question still remains, is it possible to do different macro's per pad? (eg, set every pad to have knob 1 on the push to change the sample pitch of that pad)

[@jestermgee]

Not sure really. The issue with this is pads are all "blank" and simply send a note to the plugin loaded on the first slot. To add macros to every pad you would have to add an instrument rack to each pad which I guess you can, just unsure what you could then link the macro too as it would likely be limited to only what is loaded on that pads channel, which will be nothing. I usually ask myself a question like this and just F&%k around until I find out one way or the other. Precisely how I discovered how to do what is in this video really.

[@PabloRodriguezwhyCharlieWhy]

Thanks for the Help... some how I been trying to do this with the VST of the Roland TR-909 which I found out it works in another video but the guy, simply could explain how he made it work... anyway, I got stuck in the step in which you add a external Instrument but in the sub menue It doesnt get the sub output of the 909 in which basicly at this point , I have no clue what else to do since well routing this is a no to go... I'm Ableton 11 .... at this point I have no clue what else to do, any suggestion or help is highly apreciated

[@countorringtonludlow5211]

I realized after a bit of head pounding that the internal routing using ext instrument in Ableton only works if the vst instrument is vst2 and not vst3. You won't get the option for it in the dropdown of "Midi to" if you're using a vst3 instrument. At least as of this writing.

[@Xtharel]

Thank you very much. I almost knocked my head trying to figure out why a plugin I was trying didn't work.

[@PabloRodriguezwhyCharlieWhy]

THANK YOU.... IT WORKS

[@countorringtonludlow5211]

@@PabloRodriguezwhyCharlieWhy I can't believe after 2 years Ableton haven't fixed this yet. Especially when vst2 is being phased out like 32 bit plugins.

[@benelee]

awsome, thanks a lot

[@thomas_rellum]

Thank you man!

[@diegoscattolin8583]

Thank you!!!!

[@pradbitt]

i was in the native intruments forum and saw a guy requesting stylus rmx and you replied maybe never. i was at guitar center today and they have a retag special on stylus remix for 179 USD ...

[@JanSchultink]

Thank you!

[@thesurfinsuricate]

Lets say i ONLY (to keep it simple) want a Kick and a Snare from a VST - Can i "rout or map"" these VST Samples to Drum Rack Pad C1 and C#1 instead of having the Kick Sample on (let's say) F2 and the Snare Sample A3? (together with all those other 50 samples that i don't want)?

[@jonaqueue]

It seems the output is doubled. Even if I lower the DBs completely in one of the groups, I still hear it. Is there a way to prevent this?

[@nicoorlando]

Many thanks! It helped me a lot. One question: What does play do (next to recieve)? Can someone explain to me what play is good for (everything remains c3)?

[@woxta]

That's the note the drum rack will send to the external instrument. You don't need to worry about it if you only want to play using hardware (because on the hardware you can play the correct midi notes anyway) , but you need to set it correctly to be able to play using the play buttons in the drum rack or when using a midi clip inside ableton. Receive is the note that triggers the pad (corresponds to the position in the drum rack), Play is the note that is actually sent to the vst. So for example if you have a kick on the bottom left pad Receive is set to C1. Set Play to whatever note triggers the kick in your vst and press the play button in the drum rack. It should play the kick. This way you can move around the pads in the drum rack freely. It also helps a lot if your vst takes weird midi notes as input. For example the Roland TR-909 vst takes the midi notes in an almost random order and some midi notes trigger the same drums. Setting up the Receive and Play helps getting around this. (Only downside is that the pattern to midi drag and drop doesn't work properly anymore because there it will write the original midi notes to the midi clip)

[@davidringo9238]

Noice!

[@jeremysmith5921]

Hi there, love this tutorial! I do have an issue though - when I get to the stage where we start routing the audio using the external instument, my only available "MIDI to" outputs are my MIDI controllers and external hardware. There's no Drum Rack option. On top of that if I do select one of those, such as "Push2 Output" there's no options for audio inputs within Ableton Live. Long story short, when using the External Instrument, I'm only getting options for external MIDI and Audio routing options, not internal.

[@jeremysmith5921]

All good - I was trying this with the Roland 808 plugin, but when I tried it with Battery instead it worked fine - so it's just the plugin.

[@PabloRodriguezwhyCharlieWhy]

@@jeremysmith5921 I saw this video in which this dude makes it work with TR-909 which I guess is the same as the 808, and I'm talking about Roland VTS .... like you I got stuck in this dilemma, but funny that when I put a VTS audio effect like Fabfilter the external Instrument detect and make available some routing, I been trying to figure out how this other guy made it, but seen that he is keeping the secret ... take a look kzbin.info/www/bejne/bKOyYqanos2FnKc&ab_channel=Synths%26Softbydtekproduk

[@PabloRodriguezwhyCharlieWhy]

@@jeremysmith5921 OK I was reading down, and from here, it seems that it works only vst2 and not vts3... and yes you can route hope that you figure out if not this message from me can help

[@taylor244x]

MY MAN

[@dlees8432]

thx . buddy. subbed

[@jimmymontanez1199]

This isn’t working with my ugritone drum kit plug ins. Is there compatablility issues with that set?

[@Fairlight2cx]

In 10.1.9, the second you change your VST to All Inputs, all pads stop working. :( Any help with this, please?

[@EZtones]

I just did this with 10.1.14 and it worked great. I had a issue with my Push 2 (first time in 2 years it's connected and to a new computer) and reset/restart PUSH and Live and voila everything fine and I could create my special Drumrack with XLN Audio XO :-) as VST

[@shanemartin9147]

Hi Can I connect my electronic drums and assign these sounds in battery to my pads??

[@sokundamiansuong9282]

unfortunately I could not success to change color of the pad with push1. I am using ableton live 11. Any one who succeed it? by the way, thank you Jester for that great video.

[@jestermgee]

Dont think it works with Push 1, I believe from ancient memory P1 has fixed pad colours for drums rack?

[@soukdamian]

@@jestermgee thank you for ur reply. Light yellow for assigned pad with one of a sound of the drum rack blue selected one and green while played. I really hope that they could change this... it would be awesome. With the novationKontrol you could something similar with the control script. But currently the software has no compatibility with live 11. So it is surely possible . ableton has to modify either the codes to allow this.

[@jestermgee]

@@soukdamian Doubt it will ever happen. There is no longer any real development for the P1, only compatibility updates.

[@meroinheroin]

@@soukdamian I know I'm way late, but there's a way to change the pad colors on the push but I don't think you can change the drum rack pads the same way he was able to in this video.

[@marcelovitor8337]

I'm having trouble setting up the External Instrument device. The VST plugin I'm using is EZ Keys and it doesn't show up in the MIDI To choser of the device. Any chance you'd know how to fix that?

[@jestermgee]

Probably because EZKeys only has a single audio output available being just a single insrtrument. The ext instrument will only show the sub-channels of an instrument for multi-output instruments. EZ Keys wouldnt be very suitable in a drum rack

[@marcelovitor8337]

@@jestermgee Thanks for your answer. It worked with Addictive Drums, though. Really nice thing to do. Thank you for the video.

[@GrantCarvalho]

I wonder if having the external instrument modules cause longer export times?

[@jestermgee]

If the Ext instrument device routs to internal sources then no it does not, only when you set it to rout to an ext source (for an ext instrument) will it cause an export to run at realtime (so slower)

[@GrantCarvalho]

@@jestermgee Thanks for the reply. I will definitely try this out when I have time!

[@citruxxxxxx]

Does this work with Ableton Push One ???

[@jestermgee]

Pretty sure it would except the pad colouring, not sure the P1 can have coloured pads for the drum rack, tho it's been many years since I had a P1 so no idea TBH but it costs nothing but some time to give it a go.

[@ShawnSharif7]

Are you using Ableton Live 10? I don't see this configuration in Live 9 standard?

[@jestermgee]

The multi-out should work just fime, I have setup drum racks this way for years, even in L9. I cannot be sure the clip colouring will work in L9 but you should be able to create a drum rack, add the ext instrument device and setup in the same way

[@ismailsimsek332]

ana skm

[@Kollapz3000]

ableton is such a pain

[@jestermgee]

Maybe to some, lots of things on this planet are a pain...

[@Kollapz3000]

@@jestermgee yeah that’s right man. But good video here thanks for this !