DRAMBO 2.0 is LIVE!!!

yowza

@Gravitas said:

You don’t actually have to build anything in dRambo.
Use auv3’s for both instruments and effects as with any other
DAW/groovebox/music program and use dRambo for the sequencing.
dRambo is a modular playground and it’s now a fully fledged sequencer.
Saying that “horses for courses”, if it doesn’t rock your boat then it doesn’t.

Can the Drambo sequencer do tempo changes and different time signatures in the same song?

Gravitas

@yowza said:

@Gravitas said:

You don’t actually have to build anything in dRambo.
Use auv3’s for both instruments and effects as with any other
DAW/groovebox/music program and use dRambo for the sequencing.
dRambo is a modular playground and it’s now a fully fledged sequencer.
Saying that “horses for courses”, if it doesn’t rock your boat then it doesn’t.

Can the Drambo sequencer do tempo changes and different time signatures in the same song?

To do tempo changes you would have to map a cc to Tempo and automate that.
You would need something like FreEwi to do it.

We’ve been discussing time signatures recently.
There’s a couple of ways to do this.
There’s a poly speed thingy and you could also use Jump components
to create subdivisions via Steps per beat so instead of having
the sequencer play all 16 steps you get it to play only 14 steps.
I’ve yet to fully explore true polyrhythms via dRambo so this is good question for me also.

sharifkerbage

Is the 'Prog' sync option in the LFO module a new feature? I don't recall seeing it before. And I still can't understand what it does.

lukesleepwalker

@ohwell when you said “my favorite use of Drambo is processing my acoustic instruments in this kind of way. That means tons of modulation, the envelope follower module, and the transient detector modules are my best friends” my jaw fell open and I said to myself “there are others out there!” 🙂

Do you have any videos or drambo racks/instruments that you’ve shared so i can check out what you do?

yowza

@Gravitas said:

Can the Drambo sequencer do tempo changes and different time signatures in the same song?

To do tempo changes you would have to map a cc to Tempo and automate that.
You would need something like FreEwi to do it.

We’ve been discussing time signatures recently.
There’s a couple of ways to do this.
There’s a poly speed thingy and you could also use Jump components
to create subdivisions via Steps per beat so instead of having
the sequencer play all 16 steps you get it to play only 14 steps.
I’ve yet to fully explore true polyrhythms via dRambo so this is good question for me also.

OK so tempo change is there but it sounds like the sequencer doesn't do real time signatures and would involve some kludgey workaround to try to get there. Plus if 16 sequencer steps is all you get this seems very limiting.

This is an example of what I was talking about earlier where iOS tends to cater to a certain kind of electronic musician but leaves out basic things that a non iOS musician would expect to be there.

Gravitas

@yowza said:

@Gravitas said:

Can the Drambo sequencer do tempo changes and different time signatures in the same song?

To do tempo changes you would have to map a cc to Tempo and automate that.
You would need something like FreEwi to do it.

We’ve been discussing time signatures recently.
There’s a couple of ways to do this.
There’s a poly speed thingy and you could also use Jump components
to create subdivisions via Steps per beat so instead of having
the sequencer play all 16 steps you get it to play only 14 steps.
I’ve yet to fully explore true polyrhythms via dRambo so this is good question for me also.

OK so tempo change is there but it sounds like the sequencer doesn't do real time signatures and would involve some kludgey workaround to try to get there. Plus if 16 sequencer steps is all you get this seems very limiting.

No, I used 16 steps as an example.
The sequencer does 64 steps per clip.
Longer than that you would need to use something like Midi recorder

https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/midi-tape-recorder/id1598618004

This is an example of what I was talking about earlier where iOS tends to cater to a certain kind of electronic musician but leaves out basic things that a non iOS musician would expect to be there.

Then use the tools you feel comfortable with.

el_bo

@yowza said:
I'm beginning to see that I'm a musician who likes to create music with sounds that are already there (guitar, keyboards) as opposed to folks who like to create those sounds as an end itself. Thank you for helping me see that!!!

I don't own Drambo myself, so take what I'm about to say with the appropriate measure of salt.

Earlier, In critiquing someone else's music, you said (and I'm paraphrasing) that it sounded like something that could've been done in any other software. But turning that comment around, it seems that you want to create the same kind of music in every app (Correct me, if I'm wrong).

There is nothing wrong with wanting to make music with nothing but guitars, pianos etc. And there's nothing wrong with not wanting to make EDM.

And maybe that's the end of the story.

But there's something about the modular approach, whether using miRack or a modular groovebox like Drambo, that seems to encourage experimentation, simply due to non-traditional workflows. Even if none of the actual sounds got used in a full production, it's possible that with the use of various random and generative processes, that certain results could form the basis of compositions that are revealed in completely different places.

Or maybe you just end up getting into making ambient music

Seems to me that experimenting with completely new forms is very much a part of the spirit of jazz

Skyblazer

@Gravitas said:

@yowza said:

@Gravitas said:

You don’t actually have to build anything in dRambo.
Use auv3’s for both instruments and effects as with any other
DAW/groovebox/music program and use dRambo for the sequencing.
dRambo is a modular playground and it’s now a fully fledged sequencer.
Saying that “horses for courses”, if it doesn’t rock your boat then it doesn’t.

Can the Drambo sequencer do tempo changes and different time signatures in the same song?

To do tempo changes you would have to map a cc to Tempo and automate that.
You would need something like FreEwi to do it.

We’ve been discussing time signatures recently.
There’s a couple of ways to do this.
There’s a poly speed thingy and you could also use Jump components
to create subdivisions via Steps per beat so instead of having
the sequencer play all 16 steps you get it to play only 14 steps.
I’ve yet to fully explore true polyrhythms via dRambo so this is good question for me also.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think "Song Mode" will always play a multiple of 16 steps per clip. So if I use the "Jump" condition on the 7th step, it will repeat the sequence twice, and then play the first two steps again. Or it can play two other steps from that clip. But it cannot jump to the next clip.

So basically, if you're composing in an odd time signature, and you want to write a full song, eventually you need to have a NoteOff that coincides with a multiple of 16.

I think it would be fair to say that "support for odd time signatures" has become the "most requested feature of the AudioBus forum Drambo 2.0 release exploration extravaganza".

aleyas

@yowza said:
Does anyone have links to music created in Drambo that's not EDM?

Here’s a couple of mine

Tines and shakers:

Piano and Tines

yowza

@el_bo said:
I don't own Drambo myself, so take what I'm about to say with the appropriate measure of salt.

Earlier, In critiquing someone else's music, you said (and I'm paraphrasing) that it sounded like something that could've been done in any other software. But turning that comment around, it seems that you want to create the same kind of music in every app (Correct me, if I'm wrong).

There is nothing wrong with wanting to make music with nothing but guitars, pianos etc. And there's nothing wrong with not wanting to make EDM.

And maybe that's the end of the story.

But there's something about the modular approach, whether using miRack or a modular groovebox like Drambo, that seems to encourage experimentation, simply due to non-traditional workflows. Even if none of the actual sounds got used in a full production, it's possible that with the use of various random and generative processes, that certain results could form the basis of compositions that are revealed in completely different places.

Or maybe you just end up getting into making ambient music

Seems to me that experimenting with completely new forms is very much a part of the spirit of jazz

That really is the end of the story.

Why would my comment need to be turned around? I'm not sure of the point you're trying to make. Do you make your music based on which apps you use? Music comes from inside my head not from any specific app. I play guitar in most of my music so does that mean all the music sounds the same just because there is a guitar present?

I realize I hijacked this thread and made it about me so I apologize for that but my questions were related to Drambo so I was on topic somewhat. With the limited time I have to make music, I tend to like to work in more traditional work flows and the experimental side of modular takes me out of that zone. I become more of a sound designer and tend to waste so much time creating and tweaking sounds that I often don't get any real music made. I've realized that I'm more of an old school musician that likes playing with notes and rhythms more than I like modulating filters with an LFO (though I do know how to do that).

A number of old school jazz musicians I know are jazz holes and think arch top guitars should be the only guitars in jazz so not all of the jazz world has a view as expansive as yours. I do agree the spirit of jazz is about experimentation (more with musical forms than with tweaking sounds) but I don't think the whole jazz world agrees with us.

Gravitas

@Skyblazer said:

@Gravitas said:

@yowza said:

@Gravitas said:

You don’t actually have to build anything in dRambo.
Use auv3’s for both instruments and effects as with any other
DAW/groovebox/music program and use dRambo for the sequencing.
dRambo is a modular playground and it’s now a fully fledged sequencer.
Saying that “horses for courses”, if it doesn’t rock your boat then it doesn’t.

Can the Drambo sequencer do tempo changes and different time signatures in the same song?

To do tempo changes you would have to map a cc to Tempo and automate that.
You would need something like FreEwi to do it.

We’ve been discussing time signatures recently.
There’s a couple of ways to do this.
There’s a poly speed thingy and you could also use Jump components
to create subdivisions via Steps per beat so instead of having
the sequencer play all 16 steps you get it to play only 14 steps.
I’ve yet to fully explore true polyrhythms via dRambo so this is good question for me also.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think "Song Mode" will always play a multiple of 16 steps per clip. So if I use the "Jump" condition on the 7th step, it will repeat the sequence twice, and then play the first two steps again. Or it can play two other steps from that clip. But it cannot jump to the next clip.

Using a combination of Jump, Cycle and Retrig you can do
odd time signatures and the maximum steps in a Clip is 64 steps.

Screenshot.

So basically, if you're composing in an odd time signature, and you want to write a full song, eventually you need to have a NoteOff that coincides with a multiple of 16.

See above.

I think it would be fair to say that "support for odd time signatures" has become the "most requested feature of the AudioBus forum Drambo 2.0 release exploration extravaganza".

Agreed, it has.

rs2000

@el_bo said:
...
But there's something about the modular approach, whether using miRack or a modular groovebox like Drambo, that seems to encourage experimentation, simply due to non-traditional workflows. Even if none of the actual sounds got used in a full production, it's possible that with the use of various random and generative processes, that certain results could form the basis of compositions that are revealed in completely different places.

Absolutely!
I think yours is an excellent description of making music with Drambo.
It's like a music laboratory with all the ingredients available to make any kind of music and whenever you have any musical idea, it's good to know what's available and how it can be used.
I've been working with modular synths since I was 16 and I doubt that you can learn to make good use of the available modules and tools within a few days.
It takes time. And having a clear picture of what you want to do does help.

When people say that Drambo can literally do everything then there's a lot of truth in that but you won't always find a ready-made project or preset for your purpose.

If you like to dive in and learn, this is an app for years of your own entertainment and the community has been very helpful to support the learning process.
Sometimes it's a single module that will do, and sometimes you first have to google how a certain effect could be built and try to do that in Drambo. The tools are there.

lukesleepwalker

There’s no way to change scenes (Mute/unmute tracks) without the transport running, right? I’m looking to use a single button on my controller to cycle through scenes but without the transport on all the time.

mistercharlie

I think this was in the old version, but being able to map any key on the Magic Keyboard to any midi-map destination is amazing

ohwell

@lukesleepwalker said:
@ohwell when you said “my favorite use of Drambo is processing my acoustic instruments in this kind of way. That means tons of modulation, the envelope follower module, and the transient detector modules are my best friends” my jaw fell open and I said to myself “there are others out there!” 🙂

Do you have any videos or drambo racks/instruments that you’ve shared so i can check out what you do?

Yay like-minded folks!

I don’t have any patch to share atm. I got back into iOS in March so I’m taking it slow and experimenting without looking for polished results.

Basic tricks I enjoy a lot atm

• randomizing a bunch of effect parameters all at once a transient is detected
• sticking a wave folder between the env follower and the modulation target. (Allows getting less linear interactions between the input amplitude and the modulation that still react to audio.)
• Experiment with the delay rack module
• Put vca + env after chaotic effects chains, to make them come in and out like independent voices that still take on the flavor of the input
• modulate my favorite AUv3 effects (e.g. TTAP) to keep them changing over time

One part that I still have a long way to go on is keeping the results that interesting and evolving over time. My results usually end up feeling either too static or like the muddy kind of random.

@yowza I feel similarly to you about some of what you’re describing: I definitely have more patience and bandwidth for practicing and improving how I shape sounds with my body (these days on flute), than for polishing and fine tuning what I’m doing with sounds on the computer or iPad. But I really love electronic sounds that react to acoustic sounds.

So my personal compromise has been to just take things very slowly with modular: I give it time when I feel like it, but don’t force it. I also try to stay in the moment and to focus on learning and having fun, instead of trying to nail results I feel proud of. It’s also helped to focus on bringing in a bit of electronics/iPad processing when I practice with friends to keep things interesting and switch up what I’m doing, rather than on recording tracks.

Gravitas

@rs2000

“ I've been working with modular synths since I was 16……..”

this…..🧐

explains everything….🤩

bcrichards

@yowza hwres a few more non edm tracks

RajahP

@Gravitas said:

@Skyblazer said:

@Gravitas said:

@yowza said:

@Gravitas said:

You don’t actually have to build anything in dRambo.
Use auv3’s for both instruments and effects as with any other
DAW/groovebox/music program and use dRambo for the sequencing.
dRambo is a modular playground and it’s now a fully fledged sequencer.
Saying that “horses for courses”, if it doesn’t rock your boat then it doesn’t.

Can the Drambo sequencer do tempo changes and different time signatures in the same song?

To do tempo changes you would have to map a cc to Tempo and automate that.
You would need something like FreEwi to do it.

We’ve been discussing time signatures recently.
There’s a couple of ways to do this.
There’s a poly speed thingy and you could also use Jump components
to create subdivisions via Steps per beat so instead of having
the sequencer play all 16 steps you get it to play only 14 steps.
I’ve yet to fully explore true polyrhythms via dRambo so this is good question for me also.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think "Song Mode" will always play a multiple of 16 steps per clip. So if I use the "Jump" condition on the 7th step, it will repeat the sequence twice, and then play the first two steps again. Or it can play two other steps from that clip. But it cannot jump to the next clip.

Using a combination of Jump, Cycle and Retrig you can do
odd time signatures and the maximum steps in a Clip is 64 steps.

Screenshot.

So basically, if you're composing in an odd time signature, and you want to write a full song, eventually you need to have a NoteOff that coincides with a multiple of 16.

See above.

I think it would be fair to say that "support for odd time signatures" has become the "most requested feature of the AudioBus forum Drambo 2.0 release exploration extravaganza".

Agreed, it has.

A video tutorial on the ‘Comp’ features would be great… there is no documentation on the ‘Jump’ module to be found.. Steps and Bars?

😇

Grandbear

@eross said:

@bcrichards said:
@eross in the piano roll hit the hamburger menu. Turn off quantization there and you’re no longer tied to the grid.

@Grandbear said:

@eross said:
is there a way to shit notes, so they hit a little early or a little late in comparison to the grid?

Yes: "Offset" in the step editor (the button next to the piano roll)

does this oddest both before and after the grid lines? or just after

only after, sorry my reply didn't cover the "little early" aspect of your question

Gravitas

@RajahP said:

@Gravitas said:

@Skyblazer said:

@Gravitas said:

@yowza said:

@Gravitas said:

You don’t actually have to build anything in dRambo.
Use auv3’s for both instruments and effects as with any other
DAW/groovebox/music program and use dRambo for the sequencing.
dRambo is a modular playground and it’s now a fully fledged sequencer.
Saying that “horses for courses”, if it doesn’t rock your boat then it doesn’t.

Can the Drambo sequencer do tempo changes and different time signatures in the same song?

To do tempo changes you would have to map a cc to Tempo and automate that.
You would need something like FreEwi to do it.

We’ve been discussing time signatures recently.
There’s a couple of ways to do this.
There’s a poly speed thingy and you could also use Jump components
to create subdivisions via Steps per beat so instead of having
the sequencer play all 16 steps you get it to play only 14 steps.
I’ve yet to fully explore true polyrhythms via dRambo so this is good question for me also.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think "Song Mode" will always play a multiple of 16 steps per clip. So if I use the "Jump" condition on the 7th step, it will repeat the sequence twice, and then play the first two steps again. Or it can play two other steps from that clip. But it cannot jump to the next clip.

Using a combination of Jump, Cycle and Retrig you can do
odd time signatures and the maximum steps in a Clip is 64 steps.

Screenshot.

So basically, if you're composing in an odd time signature, and you want to write a full song, eventually you need to have a NoteOff that coincides with a multiple of 16.

See above.

I think it would be fair to say that "support for odd time signatures" has become the "most requested feature of the AudioBus forum Drambo 2.0 release exploration extravaganza".

Agreed, it has.

A video tutorial on the ‘Comp’ features would be great… there is no documentation on the ‘Jump’ module to be found.. Steps and Bars?

😇

I know otherwise I would’ve posted that as well.
I’ve only just learnt how to do this myself.
I don’t normally use Components.

😁

tk32

Just wanted to share this thought…

One of my favourite Drambo features is not even a new one: Qwerty MIDI for the win!!

Triggering notes via my bluetooth qwerty keyboard case is so helpful for auditioning synths and testing melodies when using the ipad away from home. Give it a try.

Samu

@tk32 said:
Just wanted to share this thought…

One of my favourite Drambo features is not even a new one: Qwerty MIDI for the win!!

Triggering notes via my bluetooth qwerty keyboard case is so helpful for auditioning synths and testing melodies when using the ipad away from home. Give it a try.

That's where the 'Tracker Heritage' comes from with the developer being a Renoise fan
SunVox with external keyboard is also a blast...

rs2000

@lukesleepwalker said:
There’s no way to change scenes (Mute/unmute tracks) without the transport running, right? I’m looking to use a single button on my controller to cycle through scenes but without the transport on all the time.

There's no cycle function for scenes but you can map scene buttons and the scene x-fader to MIDI messages.

rs2000

@Gravitas said:
@rs2000

“ I've been working with modular synths since I was 16……..”

this…..🧐

explains everything….🤩

I was lucky to have an older friend who had built one of these, an Elektor magazine DIY project from the 70s:

When he moved to a different apartment, he gave it to me.
I still have it but didn't touch it since getting the Nord Modular.

Gravitas

@rs2000 said:

@Gravitas said:
@rs2000

“ I've been working with modular synths since I was 16……..”

this…..🧐

explains everything….🤩

I was lucky to have an older friend who had built one of these, an Elektor magazine DIY project from the 70s:

When he moved to a different apartment, he gave it to me.
I still have it but didn't touch it since getting the Nord Modular.

Wow.
What a great gift.

That’s amazing and it looks like it’s in such good condition.

Awesome.

Wait a sec….dRambo? cv ? would it react? 😁

MadGav

@0tolerance4silence said:
Imo it works as intended...
The three buttons are not all grouped together.
The first is your layout selector - you can decide whether you prefer keyboard or pads as your input device. This one is ‘sticky’, remembering its state.
The other two (TRK, PAT) are pad modes. Tapping them once will enter mode, second time will exit mode, or you switch between modes.
This mechanism supports temporary mode selection... f.e hold PAT to enter mode, release PAT to go back to your input device.
When you are in one of the modes (PAT or TRK) and you tap layout selector button, you effectively do two things - exit mode and switch layout.

It’s clearly inconsistent, taking your approach the layout selector should do nothing visible when either PAT or TRK is selected, which is not the case. Doing nothing visible isn’t useful, so I still put forward my suggestion.

jsmonzani

Answering my own question about piano roll where notes that can be selected but not manipulated.

Imagine you'd like to move a long note (or many) in the piano roll.

When selecting it with the "rectangle" tool, I can draw a smaller selection rectangle than the note:

The note appears green and is selected BUT I can't move it, change its length, etc.

However, if my selection rectangle is larger than the note:

then everything works as expected. Hope this explanation can help other people.

I also sometimes have issues with this selection box not following my finger, but starting say 2 cm on the left or right. I can't reproduce this though!

[Deleted User]

How to go about recording stems?

rs2000

@NeuM said:
My only ask is for @giku_beepstreet to bring Zeeon to macOS… when you get a chance! There’s nothing quite like it.

+1

drewinnit

@prtr_jan said:
How to go about recording stems?

Tap the icon that looks like tape reels, it’s there on each mixer channel for individual stems and the top one is for the master out.