Reference Manual

CHAPTER 16. INSTRUMENT AND EFFECT RACKS 207
exotic, multi-parameter morphs of rhythm and timbre; or for constructing a mega-synth,
and hiding it away behind a single customized interface.
For the greatest degree of expression, try MIDI-mapping the Macro Controls to an external
control surface.
16.2 Creating Racks
Three Rack variants cover the range of Live's devices: Instrument Racks, Audio Effect Racks
and MIDI Effect Racks. Just as with track types, each kind of Rack has rules regarding the
devices it contains:
MIDI Effect Racks contain only MIDI effects, and can only be placed in MIDI tracks.
Audio Effect Racks contain only audio effects, and can be placed in audio tracks.
They can also be placed in MIDI tracks, as long as they are downstream from an
instrument.
Instrument Racks contain instruments, but can additionally contain both MIDI and
audio effects. In this case, all MIDI effects have to be at the beginning of the Instrument
Rack's device chain, followed by an instrument, and then any audio effects.
There are different ways to create Racks. A new, empty Rack can be created by dragging a
generic Rack preset (Audio Effect Rack, for example) from the Device Browser into a track.
Devices can then be dropped directly into the Rack's Chain List or Devices view, which are
introduced in the next section.
If a track already has one or more devices that you would like to group into a Rack, then
simply select the title bars of those devices in the Track View, and use the Edit menu's Group
command. Alternatively, (PC) /
Ctrl
(Mac) on one of the selected title bars to open
a context menu featuring the same command. Note that if you repeat the command again
on the same device, you will create a Rack within a Rack.
To ungroup devices, dismantling their Racks, select the Rack's title bar, and then use the
Edit menu or the context menu to access the Ungroup command.