Drums
Sixteen steps, sixteen drum pads and a velocity column: build a beat without reaching for the mouse.
- The drum layout: drums, steps and bars at a glance
- Make a beat: velocity, step length, bars and loops, duplicate and follow
The drum layout
Select a track with a Drum Rack and press User. The pads split in three: the drums on the left, the 16 steps of the selected drum on the right, and one pad per bar across the top.
Tap a drum on the left, then tap four steps on the right: that's a beat. The step under Live's playhead lights green as the clip plays.
Hold Shift and tap a drum pad to select it without hearing it. Brighter blue steps are louder notes.
1 Scene buttons: the velocity of the next steps you place. 2 Clip Stop: how long a step is, finest on the left.
| Control | What the buttons do |
|---|---|
| Left 4×4 pads | Play the drum pads (the selected pad is white) |
| Up | Scroll the drum pads up a row |
| Down | Scroll the drum pads down a row |
| Shift+Up | Scroll up four rows |
| Shift+Down | Scroll down four rows |
| Right 4×4 pads | The 16 steps: tap to add or remove a note |
| Top pad row | One pad per bar: tap = show it, hold + tap another = loop them |
| Clip Stop 1–8 | Step length, finest on the left (1/32t … 1/4) |
| Left | Previous 16 steps |
| Right | Next 16 steps |
| Nudge + | Duplicate the loop, notes and all |
| Nudge − | Page follow: the steps follow the playhead |
| Shift+Left 4×4 pads | Select a drum pad without playing it |
Make a beat
Velocity
The scene buttons choose how hard new steps hit: 127 at the top down to 25 at the bottom. The chosen level pulses white.
- 127
- 100 (the start)
- 75
- 50
- 25
Hold a level instead of tapping it: it's used only while you hold it. Place a few soft steps, let go, and you're back on your level.
Hold one or more steps and press a level: those steps take it. Your chosen level stays where it was.
Step length
Clip Stop 1–8 set the step length, finest on the left: 1/32t, 1/32, 1/16t, 1/16, 1/8t, 1/8, 1/4t, 1/4. At 1/16 the 16 steps are one bar.
Bars and loops
The top row has one pad per bar. Tap a bar to see its steps, hold one and tap another to loop from one to the other, double-tap to loop just that bar. Left / Right show the previous or next 16 steps.
- ocean: the bar you see
- turquoise: a later page of it
- light blue: in the loop
- dark: outside the loop
Duplicate and follow
Doubles the loop with all its notes: a one-bar beat becomes two bars to vary. The pads say .
The steps follow the playhead page by page while the clip plays (); press again for . Left / Right turn it off too.