Software Grooveboxes

Native Instruments Maschine?

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I love this idea! You can get close in Drambo, which has support for both QWERTY and MIDI keyboards, but I donā€™t think it does key combos like the OP-Z

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well, itā€™s strongly inspired by Electribe 2, but is more capable than its hardware counterpart ā€“ deeper synth engine, 8-bar patterns, and more.

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Would renoise count?

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I think this would be Renoise.

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Iā€™d love if renoise was designed to be used purely with querty keyboard (not keyboard n mouse). hopping between keyboard n mouse disagrees with me personally.

itā€™d probably be impossible / far too slow compared to mouse tho.

I feel the same about ableton too. would be amazing with soley a keyboard. impossible I know but. tap tap tap.

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+1 for Maschine. It is pattern based and has no feature overload, just plain and simple.

ā€¦if ablton is too far out at first, focus on itā€™s drumrackā€¦
iā€™m always overwhelmed by the bitwig planetā€¦but itā€™s drummachine, a simple container device where everything can become a flexible one shot adressed drumrack like to classic pads, from any single audio snippet to whole synth arrays, letā€™s me get anywhere with total groovebox ā€œlimitationā€ā€¦and again, letā€™s mention and not forget microtonicā€¦ itā€™s THE software groovebox when it comes to synthesisā€¦

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Bitwig is also nice for Elekton fans as it has Trig conditions and things like that in the sequencer.

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Someone above suggested Microtonic and Drumcomputer. I agree that these feels like a groovebox. Theyā€™re limited enough not to be overwhelming, yet capable of producing a complete track without being overly complicated. Renoise, Live, Bitwig, etc. are arguably more capable, but OP might feel that itā€™s more like a DAW than a groovebox. :+1:

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iOS is the place to be for groove boxes on the IPAD, they fit the form factor/touch screen and there are some great oneā€¦Korg do a bunch (DRAMBO is great but a bit more modular)

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Definitely far better on iOS.

Loopy pro also great

This seems like quite a nice workflow as far as mouse based MIDI editing goes -

You can fairly easily setup a pretty nice workflow in Reaper to do whatever you want just by tweaking the settings and setting up keyboard shortcuts/macros and mouse modifiers. Immensely powerful bit of software. Realearn + MIDI hardware is highly recommended too.

Not my usual thing though tbh, Iā€™m more all about working with audio items.

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oh wow, didnā€™t know that

well, Bitwig is fun (iā€™m a Bitwig user myself), but it does not feel like a groovebox.
so ā€¦ still a DAW.

My first suggestion is to try out Koala Sampler since it available on all platforms. Itā€™s a software version of the SP404 and is great.

Drambo on iPad would be my second suggestion (since it requires an iPad)ā€”but itā€™s really my first suggestion fwiw :wink:

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Lots of cheap and cheerful options but if you want to go deep / long term - Drambo all the way - itā€™s the Octatrack of iOS - except deeper

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You can install Drambo on M1-M2 Macsā€¦

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rebirth

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Might have to try this!