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Drambo, independent sequencer and drumkit (sounds)
Here’s the deal, I’d like to try out and switch different kits easily in Drambo. But saving a kit as a Drambo project means it’s got the sequencer notes and stuff in it so you can’t switch kits without loosing the sequences.
I know I could have the whole kit as a multi layer instrument rack in one track, then I could load presets for the module. BUT then you have to stack all notes in one track like this….
When there’s more than one note (kick + Hihat) for example you get the “chord” which doesn’t make sense for drums. It’s harder to see what’s going on, you can’t do probability or straightforward editing per kit piece, any note transformation becomes more difficult, etc….
If I have all the kit pieces on their own tracks, to change sounds I’d have to switch presets for half a dozen devices each time.
So in order to keep the sequence and just change the sounds I’m thinking the way to go might be to have separate Drambo instances for sequence and sounds. In a daw like Loopy you’d load the Drambo sequencer as midi and the Drambo drumkit as instrument. Right?. And within Drambo it’d have to be having the sequencer as master project and loading the Drambo sounds instance as auv3. Yes?. Then you’d just change presets on the Drambo sounds instance.
Any thought on this?. Any of you in the same situation?
Comments
In front of your multi layer rack and miditocv, could you have a Drambo AU on the track that sends out midi? The Drambo-within-Drambo would have each drum note on its own track.
☝️👌👍
can you just route midi from several sequence tracks to a later track with the instrument rack? something like this?
be sure to set the rack track to receive midi. the default is transpose.
Indeed this works well for Drambo standalone. But I do find it the “Drambo in Drambo” UI a bit confusing. Great option for Drambo projects.
I like this idea!. Hadn’t thought of the midi merger on the track mixer. This would be perfect for a single instance of Drambo as auv3 in Loopy or whatever. Additional question on this setup… What would you need to do to have multiple outputs from auv3?. Audio out module at the end of each kit piece layer?.
@bangzero ” be sure to set the rack track to receive midi. the default is transpose.”
Curious. Why is this needed?. What is the difference between transpose and receives for a track?.
Agreed that Drambo-in-Drambo looks confusing at first sight, but if you set the inner Drambo to be a floating window and display only the grid then it is quite good:
Btw, here you see C2 on all tracks for quick and easy editing; the proper midi note is made using Number with an appropriate value on each track. The Klevgrand patch on patchstorage uses this approach.
@tahiche There are so many possibilities in a modular environment.
that should work in the Drambo (8 outs) AU instrument.
when midi input (module) Mode is "Transposes", midi sent to the track midi input will transpose the track's sequenced notes relative to C2.
I’ve been working on my Drambo drumkit switcher. All separate tracks sending to a track with a kit instrument. This would work as is, or with an auv3 sequencer in Drambo, or a standalone sequencer in another daw.
I made a video of how it works. You can either load a different preset for a drumkit (first part of video) or have different kits laid out in sampler/s, then you can switch (via note transpose) kits with one button globally or per kit piece.
Just one tip that may make your setup more flexible: you can use Punch-in FX as a sort of drum rack. Just ignore the input and put each drum sound (e.g. in Flexi sampler) on each note section. Voila, you get an easily mapped and nicely separated racks for each drum sound.
That’s actually a good idea!. But I don’t see much benefit besides allowing to skip the “note filter” module on each kit layer. And the downside would be that you’d need an extra mapper of sorts if the incoming notes don’t conform to c2, c2#, d2…
BTW, regarding mapping. What would you say the “standard” midi mapping for drums is on iOS?. I used to do general midi but I don’t really like it.
To me the biggest benefit was no need to add Layers module and manually switch between them, just hit the note, if it's on virtual keyboard/pads or MIDI controller, and you're switched to the right sampler/chain of modules.
And you're right, the mapping is rigid so it may not be useful if you're used to different mapping.
That said, I also can't tell any "standard". To me, the preferred one is sequential mapping from C2, because it's where usually all keyboards/drum pads etc are located by default. You also don't have any "blind" spots like in other mappings. Not sure why other mappings are so complicated, because exactly as you say, that's why I don't like general MIDI, although it's probably closest to being some "standard".
@skrat would you mind telling me what mapping you use?. I’d rather just copy yours and get it over with 😂
I made some changes so that instead of having independent “global” and “local” switches to select kit piece sound, they’re synced, basically using the same index if the “global” switch is pressed. I used a feedback module, I was inspired by reading a preset by @rs2000
I’m happy with the result so far, except it’s quite tedious to make any changes. If I change a rack preset I have to go everywhere it’s used to update it…
One thing’s for sure, in Drambo you have to enjoy the pure noodling and logic side of the process, otherwise it’s just not worth it. I do enjoy it, sort of like “puzzle time”. Also makes me want to dive into the Bitwig Grid thing, as it’s very much the same building process but I assume it’ll be easier. Mostly because moving things around freely might be helpful to visually organize. In Drambo, being so “linear” it’s sometimes hard to see what you did yesterday.
Hi again!.
I wonder if any of you could help me out, I’m stuck with a detail that’s driving me nuts. Let me try and explain… I have some Transposer buttons that can be either global or local.
The global one (top pic) will act on any of the racks that are set to “global”. I figure out the “global” index of the pressed button and pass that to the local Transposer rack. Works flawlessly. If you choose a value on the global it’s reflected on any local instances that are set to “EXT” (via N-1 toggle).
The problem is when I want to switch the mode to “local”. (bottom pic). There I have to disengage the index from the global, to be able to set my own value, but there’s no way to disengage… so then I’ve tried for the local rack to “set its own index” via a feedback module. The problem is that when the index is connected the buttons do nothing. No value or change is detected.
In my previous version (video above) the “global” and “local” modes would both change the sample (transpose) depending on which was active, but the local module would not reflect what was chosen on the global, which is kind of lame… So I want to sync (EXT) or not sync (local) the 2 modules. Doing so with the index is the only way I could think of.
I want to use buttons and not sliders or knobs, they’re easier to operate (sausages) and better for p-locks. I’d really appreciate your help. Thanks!
Note, the “Buttons” above are just providing values for the Switch N-1, I get TOC when I use a dozen “number” modules to do a simple “1,2,3,4,5…”, then they have to go in a folded section, bla bla…
That's true @tahiche , as long as the index input is connected, the switch position is determined by the CV input. There's no such thing as an override mode that would let you switch manually.
For the sake of simplicity, I'd either just insert a Scale+Offset module before the local index input and transpose by turning the offset knob (it can be reset by double tapping and hitting "Reset value", or use your existing local index switcher to control the offset amount - in other words, make the local index switcher relative instead of absolute.
Of course you could also use a second, local switch panel and just switch between the outputs of the synced global and the unsynced local one so you can at least see what's the current global transposition on any track.
that's what i've done. something like this:
Yes, this is what I had, but it’s not ideal to have 2 different values displayed when they could be synced.
You know what would be really handy?. A utility module that would hide/show its contents via a value switch. It could be a foldable section, layers…. It’d have a ton of uses to make UI’s more friendly as there are many presets and modules where some parameters only work with a certain mode engaged. In this specific case I would hide the local Transposer if the global is engaged. It would work much l like the Punch in FX that displays different content based on incoming value.
Uhmmm… 🧐
Remember the “ Uhmmm… 🧐” above?. I tried using the FX Punch in module. No luck.
I managed to send note on/off for every button state change, via a surely overkill and embarrassing use of graphic envs. But the punch in fx seems to only respond to keyboard, given it’s intended use, which I guess makes sense. Does it?.
No, it responds to any MIDI Note messages going into the MIDI port. Make sure you're using the latest Drambo version, this was fixed recently.
Doesn’t seem to work on my side… just checked the App Store and it seems like I’m on the latest version, 2.24.
(EDIT) ok, it does seem to work. But only for the signal. You don’t get the “open/close” layer effect with notes triggered bu modules, that graphic part seems to be exclusive for actual piano roll.
That was the reason for using it, so no luck…