Question by Joshua P: How do I assign drums to a midi controller in Ableton Live Lite 5?
I know this sounds really stupid, but I just started this software today, and I can only hear the drums when I play on the keyboard. When I hit the midi pads, there is a yellow light activated underneath the “midi” category. This problem only exists when I use the “Impulse” category. When I use the “Simpler” category, I can instantly hear notes when I press one of the pads. I have pressed the “midi” button to assign (when the screen options become blue), but will not let me assign “kick” or “snare” to a pad (How do you do that???). I have Ableton live lite 5, an M-audio trigger finger midi controller, and Mac OS X Leopard. I have also tried using the included Enigma software to change the midi settings to no avail. Any help for such a simple(?) problem will be greatly appreciated.

Best answer:

Answer by relaxification
Press the MIDI button, on the upper right of your screen, while you have an impulse kit open. You’ll see each drum pad highlighted in blue. Click on the bass drum, then on the trigger finger pad you want to use to control it. You’ll see a number corresponding to the midi output of that button. Continue for each drum.

Then make sure you either arm the channel that the impulse kit is on (make the grey button below the solo (S) button on the channel turn red” or change the input from ‘auto’ to ‘in.’

That should do the trick.

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