Shape the sound
Drum Rack and generated sounds
Shape five drum voices, choose models and controls, and load generated sounds or ready-made beats.
Drum Rack puts five sounds on one track: Kick, Snare, Hat, Clap and Percussion. Each pad has a model and its own sound settings. Write the rhythm in the drum roll, then shape the sound in the Device dock.
Choose Drum Rack in the instrument selector. Press a pad in Pads to select it and audition it. The rest of the card edits that pad. The pad buttons also display each pad's current model.
Models and source controls
Use Voice model to choose a model for the selected pad. The Source section shows the controls that belong to that choice.
| Pad and model | Source controls shown |
|---|---|
| Kick — 808 sine sweep | Tune, Sweep, Pitch decay, Body, Snap. |
| Kick — 909 click + body | Tune, Sweep, Pitch decay, Body, Snap. |
| Kick — FM thump | Tune, Sweep, Pitch decay, FM amount, Snap. |
| Snare — Tone + noise | Tune, Body, Noise, Snap. |
| Snare — Ring modulation | Tune, Body, Noise, FM amount, Ratio. |
| Snare — Rimshot | Tune, Body, Snap. |
| Hat — Filtered noise | Noise, Snap. |
| Hat — Metallic FM | Tune, Ratio, Noise. |
| Clap — Multi-burst noise | Noise, Bursts, Spread, Snap. |
| Percussion — Tom, Conga or Blip | Tune, Sweep, Pitch decay, FM amount. |
| Percussion — Cowbell | Tune, Ratio, Body. |
These controls all use a 0–100 scale. Their main jobs are:
| Control | Effect |
|---|---|
| Tune | Moves the generated source's base pitch. |
| Sweep | Sets the transient pitch-modulation amount. |
| Pitch decay | Sets how quickly that transient falls away. |
| Body | Sets the tonal component for the noise-based snare models. The visible Body settings on kick, Rimshot and Cowbell do not change their current generated tone level. |
| Noise | Changes the noise component. |
| Snap | Changes the sharpness of the amplitude attack. |
| FM amount | Changes the modulator signal's contribution. |
| Ratio | Changes the modulator's frequency relative to the source. |
| Bursts | Changes the clap's repeating-delay feedback, affecting its repeated texture. |
| Spread | Changes the spacing of those clap repeats. |
The pictures above Source are sketches of the settings. They do not display a live waveform or measured spectrum.
Filter, decay, drive and output
Every pad has these sections after Source:
| Section | Controls |
|---|---|
| Filter | LP / BP / HP chooses low-pass, band-pass or high-pass; Cutoff sets frequency and Resonance emphasises the cutoff region. |
| Amp | Decay sets how long the drum sound falls away. |
| Drive | Drive increases soft clipping. |
| Output | Level sets the pad level; Velocity sets sensitivity to note velocity. |
At Velocity 100, softer note velocities produce softer hits. At Velocity 0, the pad uses a fixed input level. The track's mixer level still applies to the combined rack.
Pan and Choke group are visible but disabled. The card states Per-pad pan and choke are unavailable in this Grid sampler. Use separate tracks if you need separate drum panning. The track's Pan control works on the entire rack.
Drum sound settings rebuild the generated material used by its sampler. The ordinary track automation picker also lists pad parameters, but those pad lanes and modulation routes do not drive the current generated samples over time. Use direct pad edits for a fixed sound, or build the movement into a custom Grid instrument.
Reuse and reset pad settings
The buttons beside Pads are:
- Randomise pad changes the source controls currently shown, plus Cutoff, Decay and Drive. It changes the sound, not the written rhythm.
- Reset pad restores that pad's default model and parameters.
- Copy pad keeps a copy of its current model and settings in the open Drum Rack editor.
- Paste pad applies that copy to the selected pad. If its model does not belong to the destination pad, the destination uses its default model with the copied parameters.
Paste is disabled until you copy a pad. Switching to another track creates a different device editor, so use this as an editing convenience rather than a saved pad library. Use Save patch to keep a complete rack sound.
Generated sounds in Samples
The Samples panel provides audition buttons for Kick, Snare, Hat, Clap and Percussion. The play button changes to Pause while its short preview runs. Clicking the sound's name loads a single-hit pattern for it onto the selected track.
For predictable drum playback, first choose Drum Rack as the selected track's instrument, then load the sound or kit. Loading from Samples changes the track's type and rhythm but does not replace an existing instrument graph. If you loaded it onto a different synth, choose Drum Rack afterwards as well.
Right-click a sound for Audition or Stop, Load on the selected track, or Add as new track. The new-track action also needs the Drum Rack instrument selection for the reason above.
Ready-made kits
The three kits replace the selected track's notes with a drum pattern. Load applies the kit; its right-click menu also offers loading on the selected track or as a new track.
| Kit | Starting rhythm |
|---|---|
| Straight kit | Four evenly spaced kick hits, backbeat snare, alternating hats, a clap and percussion accents. |
| Broken kit | An uneven kick pattern with extra hat placements and percussion. |
| Sparse kit | Fewer kick and hat hits, one snare and a percussion accent. |
Loading a sound or kit clears the selected track's previous notes. Undo restores them. The material is generated in Studio; this panel has no audio-file upload or microphone recording control.
The factory preset Four on Floor chooses Drum Rack sound settings. It does not write the Straight kit beat. Choose Samples when you want a supplied rhythm, and Presets when you want a supplied sound.