Drambo (iOS)

Vldsls_Drkwlya · May 24, 2020, 3:39pm

that is a cool generative sounding patch! that’s one hell of a scene change

Skypainter · May 24, 2020, 3:45pm

Thanks for the feedback… makes the effort of posting the patch worthwhile

Vldsls_Drkwlya · May 24, 2020, 4:10pm

So I’ve been messing about with Drambo for a week now, like everyone else I guess, and I have a few thoughts. Forgive me if this is all old news.

Pros

I love that it runs on the iphone. It’s really cool that I can sketch an idea while I’m out and about, then upload to the cloud and plop down on my “music iPad” so I can incorporate it into the larger setup.
It’s relatively simple to use. I had been getting my “modular in a computer” fix from Audulus up to now, and Drambo is kind of the opposite philosophy to Audulus. Audulus can go insanely deep and is totally open ended, while Drambo keeps things a bit simpler and tends towards things that are inherently musical. The way that modulations are created in Drambo is very efficient.
It sounds pretty good! My feeling is that I would typically use it for drums/loops and “digital” sounds, although the filters and analog-ish components do have a pleasant sound. Right now I really am appreciating the FM Operator module (a great way to organize and visualize fm btw) and the Reverb is surprisingly good.
The sequencer is obviously the star of the show. It is about 90% similar to an Elektron sequencer (is it legal?), so anyone who was wondering what it would be like to have an Elektron sequencer on an ipad can satisfy their curiosity here.

Cons

Drambo does not seem to start correctly on initial start-up in Cubasis. I typically have to re-select Drambo in order to get sound and UI to show up.
Drambo does not seem to respond to Cubasis automation. P-locks are great but I want to have the option to use the host automation when necessary.
Drambo should have more midi clock options when running in standalone. It can already send note and gate data to hardware, it should be able to send a clock too. It should also be able to directly receive clock from a hardware device, rather than requiring an auv3 host to handle the duties.
Not all of the p-lock options that I love are here. I’m missing the pre and nei conditions, which I use pretty often. And I guess whole sound locks aren’t in the cards.

Please let me know if I’ve misunderstood something and need to just rtfm

Skypainter · May 24, 2020, 6:07pm

I can’t comment on cons on 1&2 coz I don’t have Cubasis, but maybe this will resolved when CC receive comes with the next update.

Clock receive for standalone is apparently in the works. Don’t know about clock send.

I’d like to see pre conditions too, but more so fills

IMO it’s second to none in iOS in terms of sound quality.

Vldsls_Drkwlya · May 25, 2020, 4:52pm

Clock receive in standalone would be great, I would prefer to not have to host in a DAW if possible

echo_opera · May 26, 2020, 5:21pm

Had a chance to do something a little different. If anyone loves pedals you should check out Edge of Breakup on Instagram:

I had a chance to resample and compose a little track using a few of his loops, and really enjoyed the way it turned out…what I ended up with is something I imagine I would play if I played guitar. I ended doing all of it in Drambo of course, because, well…it was 1am and I couldn’t use my OT at that time
Thanks as always for watching. Hope everyone is doing well:

Vldsls_Drkwlya · May 29, 2020, 2:11am

ah nice pastoral sounds. is that your camerawork?

echo_opera · May 29, 2020, 5:44am

Many thanks. The footage is stock from StoryBlocks in LumaFusion video editor on the iPad.

no1normal · May 31, 2020, 7:29am

OK Midi learn is here.

Who’s up for explaining the best way to set this up with an Octatrack?

Skypainter · May 31, 2020, 10:49am

There’s no “best way” when it comes to midi mapping. But I’m sure many OT + Drambo users will start by mapping Drambo’s crossfader and variations to the OT crossfader and scene buttons I certainly will when I next sit down with the pair.

Skypainter · May 31, 2020, 5:03pm

So, Drambo requires separate CCs or notes to select its 16 scenes as it’s not possible to select Drambo’s scenes using different values from the same CCs, so midi remapping solutions will be required to remap values 0-15 output by the OT’s Scene Select A and B (CCs 55 and 56)

I want to avoid slaving Drambo in AUM3 and have it slaved to Audiobus 3 directly - for better sync. Mozaic works as an AU3 plugin in AB3. So are any of you using slaving controlling Drambo with the OT and are quick with scripting in Mozaic? It should be quite a simple script; Remap CCs 55 and 56 values 0-15 to the same set of 16 notes, but also allow CCs 55 and 56 thru to switch between the 2 scene select buttons in Drambo. StreamByter is also available as a plugin in AB3. I’ve never had a programming lesson and am v slow!

Skypainter · May 31, 2020, 5:45pm

For those interested, I’ve started a thread on OT + Drambo combo on the Beepstreet forum

mas_akala · May 31, 2020, 5:55pm

Nice!

echo_opera · June 4, 2020, 8:05am

Still having as much fun as i possibly can with Drambo. The focus as of late has been to see how far i can push 16 Steps into feeling evolving and not too repetitive using a bunch of playback conditionals like Chance, Cycle Playback and LFO’s.

So far i am really enjoying the process. As always many thanks for watching and listening. Hope this little jam soothes the nerves and helps you chill:

echo_opera · June 11, 2020, 10:10pm

Loving the new DigiTone update feature of Audio over USB…makes it pair very nicely with the iPad and Drambo with minimal cables…which is very nice.

Here’s a little track I made today using 4 synths on the DigiTone and Continua driven by Drambo and GrooveBox playing drums on the iPad:

Thanks as always for watching. Hope everyone’s doing well.

d4ydream · June 12, 2020, 12:42am

What OS are you on and how exactly are you connecting? I’m have the audio stream drop out in less than 10 minutes. I’ve tried a direct connect and through a USB-C PD powered clip-on hub. It looks like you have a proper powered external hub? I’m dying to use this setup but it fails on me invariably. It’s the only class-compliant interface that does, sadly.

Love to hear about the connections!

And also what sample rate/buffer size you have AUM set at.

echo_opera · June 12, 2020, 1:48am

Using an iPad Pro 2018 model and a powered USB C hub. The iPad is running 13.4.1 or some other (version just before the latest version).

Since it’s USB-C i am pretty sure it’s all running at 48khz.

FWIW, i have the Audio Out from the iPad routed to a USB-C Audio dongle so i can hear it on my speakers. Since my iPad doesn’t have an audio jack the USB-C headphone dongle allows you to do this.

Hope that helps.

d4ydream · June 12, 2020, 1:54am

So you’re not using the Digitone as a class compliant audio interface? That’s what’s giving me trouble. I have a clip on hub with a mini jack out that works just fine but I was wanting to take advantage of the DN interface. Less cabling and clutter.

Thanks for sharing the setup! Sounds similar to how I’ve setup in the past!

echo_opera · June 12, 2020, 3:57am

No i am. The DN is sending audio to the iPad over USB. I’m using Drambo to sequence it. I was just mentioning that the audio is coming out of my usb hub via the usb-c to audio connector so can hear it over speakers.

Speldosa · June 19, 2020, 6:49pm

This is a quite interesting app, and I will probably go ahead and buy it once it’s possible to sync it via midi clock to my A4 and AR (which, from what I understand, isn’t possible at the moment).

Something that I haven’t seen anybody do/show yet is to use it as an Octatrack when it comes to applying effects to incoming audio using the cross-fader, something that I assume is possible to do, right?

Also, I would have wished for another UI look, more akin to Samplr, but I guess you can’t get everything.