small arrangement trick i keep using. instead of keeping fills on their own track, put the fill at the very beginning of the sample file, half a second of it, then the main loop right after. when you want the fill, retrigger the clip. playback jumps back to zero, you get the fill, the loop carries on.

one file instead of two, one track instead of two, and every variation of that sound lives in the same place. in a live set it’s a restart on a midi button, no track switching, no scene juggling.

it breaks the moment you want the fill on top of the loop rather than in place of it, because the retrigger cuts whatever was playing. three different fills for one loop and you’re back to three files or separate tracks anyway.

works best on drums, where the fill before the drop is baked into the loop itself and a single bar doesn’t need a layer of its own.