ROLI Dashboard allows easy integration between BLOCKS and Ableton Live. With ROLI Dashboard you can customize the Lightpad Block's touch-responsive surface to control Ableton Live in a wide variety of ways. This article will show you how to use the Lightpad Block as a drum pad controller in Ableton. You can also control Ableton Live clips and instruments with the Lightpad Block, and use Lightpad and Seaboard Blocks as melodic instruments in Ableton Live.

Ableton's MIDI Preferences

Go to Preferences → Link MIDI → MIDI Ports


Ensure that Track and Remote are turned On next to Input: Lightpad Block


Ableton MIDI settings


Using the Lightpad Block as a Drum Pad

Step 1: ROLI Dashboard Settings

With your Lightpad connected to your computer, launch ROLI Dashboard and select your Lightpad in ROLI Dashboard's visualizer. Select the "Drum Block" app to load it onto your Lightpad.


Click "Edit", and under "Mode," select "4x4 Single Channel." This will create a 4x4 drum pad using a single channel of MIDI. This will automatically select the following settings:

  • MIDI mode: Single Channel
  • Note channel first: 1
  • Note channel last: 1
  • Base Note: C1 (ideal, as most Drum Racks are mapped from C1)
  • Grid Size: 4

If you'd like each note you play to have the same velocity, select "Fixed Strike."



Step 2: Create a MIDI track

  • Open a new Ableton set and load a Drum Rack instrument of your choice onto a MIDI track
  • Record-arm the MIDI track

Ableton Load a Drum Rack


You should now be able to trigger these drums from your Lightpad Block.


Step 3: Set up the dimensions of touch

The Lightpad Block's dimensions of touch can provide intuitive control over your drum sounds.


Strike will be automatically mapped to the velocity of each drum sound.


Glide, Press & Lift

You can set up different Glide, Press & Lift settings for each individual drum sound within the Drum Rack.

  1. Select the drum sound within that Drum Rack that you wish to control with Glide, Press or Lift.
  2. Right-click on top of the selected Simpler instrument and go to "Simpler → Sampler"
    Simpler → Sampler
  3. Assign Pitch Bend (Glide), Aftertouch (Press) and Off Vel (Lift) to the parameters you wish to control. You can also assign Velocity(Strike) to control other parameters.Glide, Slide & Press in Drum Rack


Slide

Slide transmits MIDI CC 74 by default.


You may change what MIDI CC message Slide transmits under the Global settings of ROLI Dashboard's Drum Block app.


You can assign Slide to the desired parameters on a Drum Rack or an Audio Effect by MIDI Mapping. In this example, Slide is being set to modulate the amount of 'Drive' control of 'Saturator' Audio Effect on the Kick Drum:

  1. Select MIDI Mapping on the top-right corner
  2. Select 'Drive' on 'Saturator'
  3. Perform the Slide gesture on your Lightpad Block to map it to this parameter


Slide assign in Ableton


That's it! You are ready to play some drums with your Lightpad Block and Ableton Live's Drum Rack.