Signal from the 8 outs already be loud without gain?

Also should have added - I mostly always keep my drums & bass mono to save on RAM, but with old classic funk / soul breaks I have my folder chock full of pre-prepared breaks I cut with audio editing software - most of the time just cutting a section from one side of the stereo file works fine as there's usually no stereo field making much of a difference - but on occasions where there are significant stereo drums, I'll cut & save as stereo & then convert to mono after so not to loose any elements.

In what way are you converting your breaks to mono? Or does it vary? Just curious because I rarely try to just use a drum break looped up. I try to make my own drum kit and program a sequence with individual drum sounds.

Ahh i see, i just read the second half of your reply.

Yo I'm sure it comes down to preference but how do you guys handle programming sample chops. Specifically drum breaks do you guys set them to cut each other off or do you chop them pretty tight and allow them to just overlap naturally. Let me know boys.

I cut up a break into anywhere between 2 to 4 chops, on the kick or snare, and assign them all to the same mute group.

I do use one shot drum hits on top too generally. Kicks, snares & hats always, sometimes a few extra percussion hits like a shaker or tambourine.

the internal master fx are pretty solid! i was very skeptical but the compressor can sound very good, especially with slow attack and fast release, the eq can clean up some mess and add some punch. i often pair the internal fx with eq from my mixing desk and some compression\limiting\bass boost on the focusrite compounder, so i can use less drastic settings on both and have them stack up, i like how they interact!