Ableton Racks – Basics to improve your workflow

Description

A selection of eleven downloadable Ableton Live 10 racks designed to simplify and improve your workflow when producing music. These racks turn effects chains into easy eight-knob macros and are all set up to get you straight into the mixing process without too much fuss.

 

Installation

Drag and drop the *.adg files into MIDI/Audio track in Ableton or copy them to:

WINDOWS:

C:\Users[user name]\Documents\Ableton\User Library\Presets\Audio Effects\Audio Effect Rack

MAC OS X:

[user name]/Library/Application Support/Ableton/Library/Presets/Audio Effects/Audio Effect Rack

…or your default save location for downloaded racks.

Crude DeEsser

If you are looking for a quick and easy DeEsser, look no further. This plugin uses multi-band dynamics to tame those nasty frequencies and works well on lots of different sounds. Just remember, you don’t have to turn it to 100% to get the desired effect – in fact, just a little bit will often do nicely.

Drum Booster

This rack does not work well on pre-mastered samples, but for your own hand-crafted beats, it can work wonders. It brings out the best of your drums and gives them a bit of extra volume and tightness to really make them punch through the mix.

Easy Channel

A go-to for everyone who needs a simple mixing tool. This works great on drum and mix busses as well as for preparing sounds for the mixing stage. While it won’t do surgical EQing, it works great either before or after as a nice touch up. It also works great on the master track as a final touch after the mix.

Easy Compressor

If you want anything drastic, look away. This plugin does a nice and subtle job. Less is more. A one-knob tool to just bring a bit more out of your audio without letting you mess it up.

Guitar Rack

A bunch of Ableton’s own guitar effects reduced to eight knobs. Sure, Ableton’s guitar amp simulators are pretty nasty, but this works great for a quick tracking job until you find the perfect amp sim to finish the track. It actually works very well on synth sounds as well, dare I say it, sometimes better than on guitars.

Riser

One-knob job for any track you want energised before a drop. This adds a noisy sweep up the frequencies and delays to muddle and energise the audio for a nice build up. It works especially well for mid-range melodic sections and pads, but if you don’t mind your drums sounding heavily effected, it can work a treat on them too!

Simple DJ EQ/Filter

NOT FOR PRODUCTION! This uses Ableton’s EQ Three which is a very poor choice for mixing due to its algorithms. What is does do great though, is DJ-style EQ and filtering. Want to completely cut the bass while bringing up the HPF? This is the plugin for you! It is kitted out with resonance controls and a nice little macro which changes the filter algorithm.

Space (simplified reverb)

Ableton’s reverb can sound nice, but it’s a hassle to set up right. There’s not a lot to this rack other than its simplified way to make some nice reverbs. It is set up to be easy to control and won’t do anything too unnatural, so you can save yourself from overusing it.

Stereo Wizard

The Wide knob on Utility can move aside. This actually does a proper job of Mid/Side compression, allowing you to boost up the centre or stereo fields of your mix. Alongside the compression stage is an EQing stage, which lets you touch up the mix a bit further. As it is using compression, it is advised to use this near the end of the effects chain or on track groups.

Subtle Magic (great enhancer for all sounds)

Subtle is key here, yet it makes the next steps of mixing rather nice. All it does is bring out a little bit more from a track and gives it a little more life. It won’t mix a bad recording for you, but it may be all you need on a well-recorded take or high-quality sample.

Vocal Track

This actually takes a lot of the ideas from some of the racks above. It has a bunch of cool features to bring out the best in vocals, including the DeEsser and some nice early-stage EQing. It works great to bring your vocals to a point where they will mix nicely, meaning you may only need to do some small tweaks from here.