Drambo for toddlers

iTVbene

Nearly every evening I let my 1.5 years old 'play' on the keyboard a bit, the sound comes from an iPad. This way she can also twiddle with the knobs and sliders without changing the presets all the time and I finally have some time for fun with my apps.
Now there's a certain challenge in creating sounds that are toddler friendly & calming, interesting for her to play and most notably pleasant to listen to when said toddler is playing...

So I'm building a small Drambo project, currently only using the CV quantizer to force notes of a scale and then that goes into Syntronik with its arpeggiator on and a very soft sound.
On the real piano she often tries to individually play notes so I think I have to add a more plucky sound that will not be arpeggiated. So she gets immediate feedback to single notes.

Maybe there's someone with similar experiences and some ideas? For sounds, MIDI effects, something from patchstorage etc?

bcrichards

Lol, my 2 year old thinks iPads are exclusively for ”dray-bo”

bcrichards

My kid really liked when I put on a delay effect for plucked notes.

Gravitas

@bcrichards said:
My kid really liked when I put on a delay effect for plucked notes.

I hear you on that.

My son loved it when I was learning how to design piezo triggered drum synths.
I eventually got him a "pro" one which we call ,"Squish".
He regularly asks me ,"Dad, what have you done with dRambo now?...Can I play with it?"

iTVbene

Alright, I‘ll try pluck and delay next. Thanks!

iamspoon

Beatsurfing is fun to play around with if you don’t mind the younglings touching the screen.

https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/beatsurfing-2/id1579693136

Gravitas

@iamspoon said:
Beatsurfing is fun to play around with if you don’t mind the younglings touching the screen.

https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/beatsurfing-2/id1579693136

Normally I wouldn't say anything but...
this is a "dRambo for toddlers" thread not beatsurfing
though we do appreciate the suggestion. 😉

AtticusL

Thread title made me expect super-basic tutorials. Truly disappointed!

Gravitas

@AtticusL said:
Thread title made me expect super-basic tutorials. Truly disappointed!

Oh...
From that perspective hhhmm...

Food for thought.

Gravitas

@AtticusL

What would you like to do in dRambo?

Poppadocrock

Yea, it would be definitely be cool to have a couple “playground” patches for drambo. Any ages fun type things.

Gravitas

@Poppadocrock said:
Yea, it would be definitely be cool to have a couple “playground” patches for drambo. Any ages fun type things.

Yeah, I'm thinking about that also.
I'll be back soon...

Gravitas

“Hey, Mum….Look….here’s my first four voice polyphonic synthesiser”…

You can play notes and stuff….

Gravitas

and…….remember to turn down the volume before you begin with the oscillators
as one does need one’s hearing to be able to hear what one has made….

iTVbene

@iamspoon said:
Beatsurfing is fun to play around with if you don’t mind the younglings touching the screen.

https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/beatsurfing-2/id1579693136

Thanks, I‘ll try when she‘s older, no screen time for now!

iTVbene

@Gravitas said:

@bcrichards said:
My kid really liked when I put on a delay effect for plucked notes.

I hear you on that.

My son loved it when I was learning how to design piezo triggered drum synths.
I eventually got him a "pro" one which we call ,"Squish".
He regularly asks me ,"Dad, what have you done with dRambo now?...Can I play with it?"

Your suggestions were a big success! Adding a pluck + delay as a second instrument helps her playing around with single key presses. It‘s my first dive into Drambo (and ‚modular‘), so everything takes a while.

It took me a while to make something like the arpeggiator from Syntronik, now I‘m quite happy with the combination of an arp, a gate/velocity sequencer and AND.

For the pad I only take gate from the sequencer and keep velocity from the input so that the arpeggio sounds more dynamic. The pluck uses a very reduced velocity range because kids and hammering on the keys

Does anyone know of a way to add pitch shifting per step for the arp? That‘s the only thing that‘s missing compared to Syntronik.

rs2000

@iTVbene said:

@Gravitas said:

@bcrichards said:
My kid really liked when I put on a delay effect for plucked notes.

I hear you on that.

My son loved it when I was learning how to design piezo triggered drum synths.
I eventually got him a "pro" one which we call ,"Squish".
He regularly asks me ,"Dad, what have you done with dRambo now?...Can I play with it?"

Your suggestions were a big success! Adding a pluck + delay as a second instrument helps her playing around with single key presses. It‘s my first dive into Drambo (and ‚modular‘), so everything takes a while.

It took me a while to make something like the arpeggiator from Syntronik, now I‘m quite happy with the combination of an arp, a gate/velocity sequencer and AND.

For the pad I only take gate from the sequencer and keep velocity from the input so that the arpeggio sounds more dynamic. The pluck uses a very reduced velocity range because kids and hammering on the keys

Does anyone know of a way to add pitch shifting per step for the arp? That‘s the only thing that‘s missing compared to Syntronik.

You can p-lock the MIDI Transpose module.
Or, if you prefer "analog" pitch shifting, p-lock the Pitch Shifter's pitch knob.

PS: That's a great idea in fact. Just tried it with a simple Cmin chord, very effective! 😊

iTVbene

@rs2000 said:

You can p-lock the MIDI Transpose module.
Or, if you prefer "analog" pitch shifting, p-lock the Pitch Shifter's pitch knob.

PS: That's a great idea in fact. Just tried it with a simple Cmin chord, very effective! 😊

P-lock means I need a pattern in the main sequencer, right? Can I add steps there that don't contain note information? I did not find a solution for that.
But I found a way to add one interval by automating MIDI transpose with a clock generator and then CV quantizing to the scale again.

rs2000

@iTVbene said:

@rs2000 said:

You can p-lock the MIDI Transpose module.
Or, if you prefer "analog" pitch shifting, p-lock the Pitch Shifter's pitch knob.

PS: That's a great idea in fact. Just tried it with a simple Cmin chord, very effective! 😊

P-lock means I need a pattern in the main sequencer, right?

Yes. Of course you can edit notes and velocities in the piano roll and use it next to the step and component/automation sequencer on the same pattern. No pre-defined workflow, use what serves you best.
You could even use e.g. LK to sequence notes and Drambo's track sequencers to add p-locks to instruments parameters and freely choose from note patterns in LK and p-lock rides in Drambo's sequencer - or create the music in Drambo and use the automation via MIDI CC from LK.

Can I add steps there that don't contain note information? I did not find a solution for that.

Yes you can. Just add a p-lock on an otherwise empty step.

But I found a way to add one interval by automating MIDI transpose with a clock generator and then CV quantizing to the scale again.

Oh there are often many ways to do things in Drambo!