Layering Rules

Frequency band ownership: the sub/mid/top split

Split every layered sound into three roles and give each role one layer. Sub (30–90 Hz) is one mono oscillator. Mid (90–600 Hz) is the layer with the character. Top (above 2 kHz) is noise, click or a bright synth. Filter each layer so it stops at its border with a 24 dB/oct slope. The borders are where the next two techniques happen.

1. Make an Instrument Rack with one chain per role. On each chain, EQ Eight with 24 dB/oct cuts at the borders. Sub: LP ~100–120 Hz. Mid: HP ~80–90 Hz, LP ~2–3 kHz. Top: HP ~2 kHz.
2. Set the overlaps deliberately: 10–30 Hz wide at the sub/mid border, up to half an octave at the mid/top border. Too narrow a crossover sounds like three instruments; too wide reintroduces the phase problem.
3. Solo each chain and sweep the rack's note range; confirm each chain sounds incomplete on its own. If one chain sounds like a finished bass, it has too much band.
4. Level: sub 0 dB, mid −3 to −6, top −10 to −15 as starting points. Check on a Spectrum (Max hold on) that the summed slope falls roughly 6–9 dB per octave above 100 Hz.

Polarity check with Utility phase invert

Before any other adjustment, flip the polarity of one layer and listen to the crossover band. Whichever setting is louder and fuller in that band is correct. Utility's Ø L / Ø R buttons do this per channel; use both for a mono-compatible flip.

1. Loop a single hit or a held note with both layers playing. Put Spectrum on the group or on the master, Max hold on, and watch the overlap region (for kick/sub: 50–120 Hz; for mid/top: 1–3 kHz).
2. Toggle Ø L and Ø R together on the second layer. One state gives a higher trace in the overlap; keep that one.
3. If both states look the same, the layers are ~90° apart: neither cancels nor adds. Move to Align Delay (next technique) to rotate them into alignment.
4. Flip both channels or neither. Flipping only L on a stereo layer makes it wide and hollow in mono, a different tool (see Mid/side & stereo).

Align Delay for sub-millisecond offset between layers

When two layers start at the same sample but their fundamentals are not in phase (different synths, different filter slopes, a sample with silence at the start), polarity alone leaves them partly cancelled. Align Delay shifts one layer by samples, milliseconds or metres so you can rotate the phase at the crossover frequency into alignment.

1. Put Align Delay on the layer without the transient (usually the sub). Delaying the transient layer moves the hit off the grid.
2. Loop the hit. Sweep the delay across one half-cycle of the crossover frequency while watching the peak meter on the group. The highest peak is phase alignment; the lowest is full cancellation.
3. Combine with polarity: if the best position is near the end of the sweep, flip Ø and sweep again from 0; the correct alignment is usually within a quarter cycle.
4. Write the final value into the track name or a macro. Never leave Align Delay mapped to a live macro: it changes timing.

Mono vs stereo per layer

Width is a per-layer decision, not a per-sound decision. The rule: sub mono always; mid narrow (Width 40–70%) or mono below a crossover; top as wide as you like. A wide sub cancels in mono and wastes vinyl/club system headroom; a mono top sounds small. Utility's Bass Mono with its frequency control makes the rule automatic on any layer.

Envelope agreement across layers

Layers fuse when their amplitude envelopes line up: same onset time, decays in a sensible order (top shortest, sub longest, or all equal for a tight stab), and no layer still sounding when the next hit lands. The practical rule: the sub decays last and the click decays first, and every layer's attack is within 2 ms of the others unless you want a deliberate pre-echo.

1. Match onsets. Samples: trim leading silence in the clip, or use Simpler's Start point; synths: attack 0–2 ms on every layer of a drum, identical attack on every layer of a chord.
2. Order the decays: click < top < body < sub for drums. For chords/stabs, identical decay on all layers; otherwise the chord's timbre changes as it fades.
3. Cap the longest decay at the hit interval: at 128 BPM a 4-on-the-floor kick repeats every 469 ms, so sub decay under ~350 ms keeps it clean.
4. For sustained sounds (pads), agree on release instead: all layers 200–600 ms, or the pad "unlayers" on every note-off.
5. Use one Envelope Follower (M4L) from the body layer to drive the top layer's Utility gain if the top is a loop or a noise bed that cannot be enveloped at the source.

Tuning layers: fundamentals, harmonics and inharmonic samples

Two layers at 55 Hz and 57 Hz beat at 2 Hz: a slow wobble in the sub that sounds like a bad mix. Tune every pitched layer to the same note, then decide whether the harmonic content agrees. A kick sample has a pitch (usually its tail) and an 808 is a pitched sine; a snare has a resonant mode around 180–250 Hz; a noise layer has a band centre. All of them can be tuned to the key of the track.

1. Put Tuner after each pitched layer, loop the hit, read the note of the sustained part (the first 20 ms are inharmonic, ignore them).
2. Transpose in Simpler (semitones + Detune in cents) or Operator (Coarse/Fine) until all layers show the same note. For drums, tune to the root or the fifth of the track's key; for basses, obviously the note.
3. Kick and sub: tune the kick tail to the same note as the sub's lowest note, or an octave above. A kick at F and a sub at E will beat on every bar in E.
4. Inharmonic layers (metallic hits, Collision, Corpus): tune the loudest partial, not the perceived pitch, and keep them in the presence band where beating is less audible.
5. With Live 12 tuning systems: if the set uses a non-12-TET scale, synth layers follow it automatically; sample layers in Simpler only follow if the tuning system is applied to the track. Check that layered samples are not sitting 10–20 cents off the synth layers.

Drum Rack layering via chains on one pad

A Drum Rack pad can hold any number of chains on the same note. Each chain gets its own devices, so per-layer EQ, Align Delay and Utility live inside the pad, and the pad itself has one volume, one Choke group and one output. This is the cleanest way to build layered drums that stay portable and performable from Push.

1. Drop the first sample on the pad. Open the pad's chain list (show chains), then drag the second sample onto the same pad holding Cmd/Ctrl so it adds a chain instead of replacing.
2. Per chain: EQ Eight for band ownership, Align Delay if the layer has no transient, Utility for Ø and width. Velocity zones per chain if a layer should only appear on hard hits.
3. Set the pad's Choke group so all chains stop together; leave the chain Choke empty.
4. Add rack macros for the layer balance; on Push these show up on the pad's macro page. Use Macro Variations to store a "soft" and a "hard" version of the layer balance.
5. Bounce in place (12.2) or Freeze/Flatten when the layer is final, and keep the rack as a preset for the next track.

Instrument Rack key and velocity zones

Layering across the keyboard instead of across the spectrum: Instrument Rack Key zones hand different registers to different chains (sub synth under C2, a saw above), Velocity zones switch layers in by playing force (a click layer only above velocity 100) and the Chain selector crossfades layers from a macro. Fades at the zone borders prevent a hard jump.

1. Open the Chain list, enable Key and Vel zone editors. Drag each chain's range; drag the fade handles at the ends to overlap by 2–5 semitones (key) or 10–20 velocity steps.
2. Chain selector: enable the Chain editor, give the Air chain a 64–127 range, map a macro to the Chain selector. The macro now fades the layer in.
3. Velocity-switched layers need envelope agreement too: a click that only appears above vel 96 should still start within 2 ms of the body.

Sample plus synth: hybrid layering

The sample brings character and transient; the synth brings a clean, tunable fundamental with a perfect envelope. Typical pairs: sampled kick + Operator sine sub; sampled Reese + Drift sub; sampled snare + Operator noise crack; vocal chop + Wavetable pad doubling the pitch. The synth owns the sub and tuning, the sample owns everything above.

Verifying a layer stack on Spectrum and in mono

A procedure, not a sound. Run it on every layered instrument before it goes into the arrangement.

1. Owner check. Solo each layer, Spectrum Max hold on. Each should cover its band and fall at least 12 dB outside it.
2. Sum check. All layers on; the summed trace should be smooth with no notch at the crossovers. A notch at the crossover = phase problem: polarity, then Align Delay.
3. Mono check. Utility Mono on the rack output. Level drop below 1.5 dB and no change in the sub = pass.
4. Headroom check. Peak meter on the rack output: compare the peak of the sum with the loudest individual layer. If the sum peaks more than 4 dB above the loudest layer, two layers share a peak band; move a crossover.
5. Interval check. Loop the hit at the track's fastest repetition (16ths at tempo). Nothing should still be audible when the next hit begins, except deliberately.