Why Subtracks?

One track that holds eight samples, eight sequencer lanes, and a hidden ninth — the machine that answers "why should a drum kit cost eight tracks?"

Tonverk · 8 min read

Load a drum instrument onto a track and something quietly strange happens: the screen still says track 1, yet a subtrack number appears beside it, the bottom row of the keyboard now fires eight different samples, and the sequencer grid changes depending on which of the eight you touched last. One track has become eight. The manual tells you exactly what this machine does (Appendix A.2.3) — this piece is about why it exists, and how to stop it feeling haunted.

Here is the model that unhaunts it: a Subtracks track is a groovebox folded inside the groovebox. Eight miniature tracks — each with its own sample, its own SRC/FLTR/AMP/MOD settings, and its own sequencer lane — share one outer track's plumbing: its insert FX, its sends, its routing. And because the shared plumbing deserves a sequencer too, there is a hidden ninth lane for it: the supertrack. Seen this way, every oddity below turns into plain bookkeeping.

Eight tracks in a trench coat

Why fold them at all? Count what a drum kit costs: kick, snare, closed hat, open hat, and a handful of percussion — eight sounds, each needing its own rhythm. Spent one-per-track, the kit would swallow every audio track Tonverk has (§5.3.2 gives you exactly eight). The Subtracks machine spends one, and leaves seven voices and the entire console around it — the routing story's other fifteen tracks stay free for music.

Its own sample. Each subtrack holds one mono or stereo sample, replaceable one at a time: [FUNC] + [SUBTRACKS] opens the Sample browser for exactly that subtrack (Appendix A.2.3).
Its own sound. A per-subtrack SRC page — TUNE across ±5 octaves, PLAY MODE from FORWARD through REVERSE LOOP, start/length/loop points — plus its own FLTR, AMP, and MOD settings (Appendix A.2.3).
Its own voice. The machine is eight-voice polyphonic, one voice per subtrack — the kit can never steal notes from itself (Appendix A.2.3).
Its own handshake. Press a [SUBTRACKS] key to select and play it; [TRK] + [SUBTRACKS] selects silently (Appendix A.2.3).

One sequencer per sample

The half that makes Subtracks a sequencing idea rather than a storage trick: each subtrack is sequenced separately (Appendix A.2.3). The grid you see in GRID RECORDING is the selected subtrack's lane — switch subtracks and the red trigs swap out from under you. Eight rhythms, one screen, shown one at a time.

The per-step overview lives in STEP EDIT (§10.3.1): press [STEP_EDIT] in normal playback, pick a step — it turns green — and the keyboard becomes that step's contents. On a Subtracks track that means the eight [SUBTRACKS] keys light up to show which drums fire together on that step, and one press adds or removes a drum from it. [KEYBOARD] + [YES] previews the step, parameter locks included (§10.3).

EXPERIMENT

Sequence two drums apart

Goal: Feel the one-lane-per-subtrack model in your hands.

Press [FUNC] + [SRC], choose the Subtracks machine, and load a factory instrument — [UP]/[DOWN] to browse, the keyboard to preview, [YES] to load.
Play the eight [SUBTRACKS] keys on the bottom row. Each fires its own sample.
Press [RECORD] for GRID RECORDING and place a few trigs. They belong to the selected subtrack only.
Select a different subtrack with [TRK] + [SUBTRACKS] and place a different rhythm. Flip between the two — the grid swaps lanes under you.
Press [STEP_EDIT] and walk the green step through the pattern: the keyboard now reads out, step by step, which drums fire together.

Try it on the twin →▶ Assign a SRC machine to the active track ▶ Enter GRID RECORDING mode §A.2 SRC MACHINES

What they share — and why the supertrack exists

The manual states the reason outright: the subtracks "mostly have their own set of parameters… but there are some parameters that impact the sound of all subtracks. For this reason, the Subtracks machine has an additional sequencer track called the supertrack" (Appendix A.2.3). The shared layer is the outer track's plumbing — the two insert FX, the three sends, the routing, the whole FX-page story from The routing philosophy — plus the two FX LFOs on the MOD pages.

Getting there: press [TRK] + [TRIG 1–8] twice — once to select the track, once more to step up to its supertrack. Three white rectangles above the track number confirm where you are; [TRK] + [SUBTRACKS] steps back down (Appendix A.2.3). The supertrack even has its own TRIG PARAMETERS page, for the trig-sensitive shared parameters such as the Track FX LFO's MODE.

EXPERIMENT

Make the reverb arrive on cue

Goal: Parameter-lock the shared layer from the supertrack.

On a Subtracks track, step up to the supertrack: [TRK] + the track's trig, twice. Watch for the three rectangles.
Press [RECORD] and place a trig on the last step or two of the bar.
Hold the trig and raise SND3 on FX PAGE 1 — a parameter lock on the kit's shared reverb send.
Listen: the whole kit plays dry until the tail of the bar, then blooms into the reverb — the exact move Elektron demonstrates at the end of the official Subtracks tutorial.

Try it on the twin →▶ Select the Subtracks supertrack ▶ Parameter lock a step §A.2 SRC MACHINES

Choke groups

The classic drum-machine problem: a closed hat should silence the open hat, because on a real kit they are the same piece of metal. Tonverk's answer lives in the TRACK SETUP menu (§11.1.4): assign subtracks to choke group A or B, and triggering any member instantly silences the others in its group — their release is cut to a very short one. Two groups, freely assigned, per Subtracks machine.

EXPERIMENT

Choke the open hat

Goal: Hear one subtrack silence another.

Press [FUNC] + [TRIG] to open TRACK SETUP, select CHOKE GROUPS, press [YES] (§11.1.4).
Press the closed-hat and open-hat [SUBTRACKS] keys once each — both turn blue: group A. (A second press means group B/red, a third removes; [YES] toggles between assigning and playing.)
Exit with [NO] and play the two hats against each other: each strike cuts the other off mid-ring.

▶ Assign subtracks to a choke group §11.1 TRIG

The fine print

The TRIG page's NOTE parameter disappears on Subtracks tracks — pitch lives per subtrack, on each SRC page's TUNE (§12.2).
TRACK SETUP's OCTAVE (§11.1.7) and PORTAMENTO (§11.1.5) don't apply to the Subtracks machine.
AMP-page VOL sets the amp level per subtrack — level bookkeeping stays inside each mini track (§12.7).
The whole kit still routes as one channel: inserts, sends, ROUT. Per-subtrack routing does not exist — when one drum needs its own bus, that is the moment to graduate it to a track of its own.
Supertrack trigs are silent carriers for shared-layer locks — the same trick the mix track plays in the routing story (§15.2).

The takeaway: Subtracks answers "why should a drum kit cost eight tracks?" — the supertrack answers "then who sequences what the kit shares?" One track, nine sequencer lanes, one set of plumbing; and the plumbing is the same ROUT-and-sends story every other track tells. When a single drum outgrows the kit, give it a track of its own. Until then, the trench coat holds.