Lead Rack

A lead rack built around a key split and a velocity layer rather than a chain crossfade. Below C3 an Analog mono chain plays a thick, glide-heavy lead; from C3 upward an Operator FM chain gives bite and definition; velocity above 100 adds a Drift unison chain on top for the accented notes only. Six macros cover the things a lead actually needs on stage: Edge (brightness and drive), Vibrato, Glide, Width, Delay and Octave. Use it for electro and synthwave hooks, grime square leads, psytrance and hard-techno screamers, trap and drill melody lines, and DnB stabs. It is tuned to be mono-compatible and to sit between 300 Hz and 6 kHz, where a lead has to live if the bass and kick are doing their jobs.

Layout

How it's built

1. New MIDI track, empty Instrument Rack. Show the Chain List and open both Key and Velocity zone editors.
2. Chain "FM Bite" (Operator): algorithm with B feeding A (second from left). Osc A: Saw, level 0 dB. Osc B: Sine, Coarse 2, Fine 0, level −14 dB. Osc B envelope: A 2 ms / D 180 ms / S 0.4 / R 100 ms, so the FM brightness spikes at the attack and settles. Amp envelope A 3 ms / D 300 ms / S 0.7 / R 150 ms. Filter: LP 24 dB at 3.5 kHz, resonance 15%, env amount 30%. LFO: sine, 5.5 Hz, destination Pitch, amount 0 (Vibrato macro raises it). Voices: 1 (mono), Retrigger on, Glide off by default. Tone 70%.
3. After Operator: Saturator, Hard Curve, Drive 4 dB, Soft Clip on, then EQ Eight HP 250 Hz 12 dB.
4. Key zone for FM Bite: C3–C7, with a 4-semitone fade at the bottom edge so the split does not click.
5. Chain "Analog Mono" (Analog): Osc 1 Saw, Osc 2 Square detuned −12 cents, Osc 2 level −3 dB, sub off. Quick Routing: both oscillators into Filter 1. Filter 1 LP 24 dB at 2.2 kHz, resonance 20%, Env 1 amount 35%, Env 1 A 1 ms / D 250 ms / S 0.3. Amp 1 env A 5 ms / D 200 ms / S 0.8 / R 200 ms. Mono voice mode, Legato on, Glide 60 ms. LFO 1 sine 5.8 Hz to Pitch, amount 0.
6. After Analog: Overdrive, band centre 2.5 kHz, Q 1.5, Drive 25%, Tone 50%, then EQ Eight HP 180 Hz.
7. Key zone for Analog Mono: C0–B2, 4-semitone fade at the top edge.
8. Chain "Drift Accent" (Drift): Osc 1 Saw, Osc 2 Shark Tooth at +12 st, −6 dB. Voice mode Unison, 4 voices, unison amount 30%. MS2 LP at 4 kHz, resonance 10%, filter env 40% with decay 220 ms. Amp env A 2 ms / D 180 ms / S 0.5 / R 120 ms. Legato on, Glide 0. Then Utility width 140%.
9. Drift Accent key zone C0–C7, velocity zone 100–127 with a 15-value fade so hard hits bring the octave-up unison in gradually. Chain volume −8 dB.
10. Shared delay: Instrument Racks have no internal send bus, and three Echo instances (one per chain) would triple the CPU and smear the stereo image. So add one Echo after the Instrument Rack on the track: Left 3/16, Right 1/8 (Sync, Stereo mode), feedback 40%, Filter HP 400 Hz / LP 6 kHz, Duck on at 50% so repeats step aside while you play, Reverb 15%, dry/wet 0 (the Delay macro opens it).
11. Select the Instrument Rack and the Echo together and press Cmd+G. This wraps both in an outer Instrument Rack with a single chain. Everything that follows is mapped on the outer rack: macros 1–5 map 1:1 to the inner rack’s macros (0–127 full range), macro 6 "Delay" maps the Echo. Octave lives on the inner rack and is exposed as outer macro 7 (show it with the macro count buttons; racks allow up to 16).
12. Edge: Operator filter freq 1.5–9 kHz, Operator Osc B level −24 → −6 dB, Analog Filter 1 freq 800 Hz–6 kHz, Saturator drive 0–10 dB. One knob does brightness, FM index and drive together, which is how a lead "opens up".
13. Vibrato: Operator LFO amount 0–35%, Analog LFO 1 → pitch 0–30%, Drift LFO → pitch 0–25%. Keep LFO rates slightly different per chain (5.5 / 5.8 / 5.2 Hz) so stacked chains do not phase-lock.
14. Glide: Analog glide 0–400 ms, Operator glide 0–300 ms (turn Glide on in Operator’s voice section and map the time), Drift glide 0–350 ms. At 0 the macro means no portamento; legato stays on so overlapping notes still slide when the macro is up.
15. Width: Operator Spread 0–70%, Utility width 60–160%, Drift unison amount 0–50%. Spread in Operator is a stereo detune, not a pan, so it stays mono-safe at the centre of the knob.
16. Octave: map each instrument’s transpose 0 → +12 st. Macros are continuous, so a slow sweep passes through every semitone in between; treat this one as a switch: snap it to 0 or 127, and store "Low" and "High" Macro Variations so Push recalls it cleanly.
17. Macro Variations: "Soft" (Edge 25, Vibrato 15, Glide 20, Width 40, Delay 20, Octave 0), "Hook" (Edge 70, Vibrato 40, Glide 10, Width 90, Delay 45, Octave 0), "Scream" (Edge 127, Vibrato 60, Glide 0, Width 110, Delay 30, Octave 127).
18. Randomization: exclude Octave and Glide; randomize Edge, Vibrato, Width, Delay for new timbres.

Macro map

Signal flow notes

FM Bite chain (C3 and up)

Modulating a saw rather than a sine keeps the fundamental strong while the FM adds upper partials. A ratio of 2 stays harmonic; try 3 for a hollower, clarinet-like lead or 1.01 for slow beating.

Analog Mono chain (below C3)

Overdrive’s band-pass drive at 2.5 kHz adds presence exactly where the Analog chain would otherwise be dull next to the FM chain, so the split is less audible.

Drift Accent chain (velocity 100–127)

Variations

• Grime square lead: Analog Osc 1 Square, Osc 2 off, no Overdrive, Edge max 4 kHz, Glide default 30 ms, key split moved up to C4. Pair with a Beat Repeat after the Echo. See grime.
• Psytrance / hard techno screamer: Operator Osc B ratio 3 and level −8 dB, filter resonance 40%, Saturator Digital Clip, Vibrato LFO rate 6.5 Hz, Drift velocity zone from 1 so the unison is always on. See psytrance and hard techno.
• Synthwave: swap Operator for a second Analog with PWM (Osc 1 Square, LFO 2 → pulse width 0.3 Hz), Chorus-Ensemble after the rack, Delay macro default 40 with 1/4 dotted. See synthwave.
• Trap / drill bell lead: Operator Osc A Sine, B ratio 3.5 (inharmonic), B env decay 600 ms, amp release 900 ms, Octave default +12, Width 20. See trap.
• DnB stab: all amp decays under 150 ms, sustain 0, Edge default 100, Echo swapped for a Grain Delay with pitch +12 at 20% wet. See drum and bass.

Performance notes

• Push: map Edge, Vibrato, Delay, Octave to encoders 1–4 (the ones you reach while playing with the right hand). Use Push’s aftertouch to drive Vibrato via a MIDI mapping to the macro if you prefer pressure to a knob.
• Octave as a switch: on Push, assign Octave to a pad or use a Macro Variation to flip registers; slow encoder sweeps through +1 to +11 st sound wrong.
• Automation vs macro: automate Edge over a build (0 → 100 over 8 bars) and Delay feedback in the last bar; play Vibrato and Glide by hand.
• Mono compatibility: Width above 100 puts Operator Spread and Utility width past unity; check in mono before a club gig and set Width’s max to 120 if the lead vanishes.
• CPU: light. Operator and Analog mono are a few percent; Drift unison with 4 voices is the only cost and it only triggers on accents.

Related

• Leads · Plucks and arps
• Operator · Analog and Drift · Racks and macros
• Delay design · Saturation and distortion
• Performance rack · Acid rack
• Electro · Grime · Synthwave