Drambo is Awesome BUT my Groovebox is NOT | haQ attaQ

[@JakobHaq]

⏰ TIME STAMPS ⏰ 0:00 Introduction 1:35 Heavy Sample Player 5:39 Light Sample Player 9:13 2x Bass Synthesizers? 11:40 Side-chain compression

[@GeorgeL909]

I'll be honest, I would love to see more Drambo stuff in the future. You have the charisma to present such a deep but frankly dry and intimidating program in an entertaining and approachable way. I love Drambo but I struggle with it (and any virtual modular), but seeing you work through those struggles is both helpful and extremely fun. +1

[@JakobHaq]

Aw, thank you so much!

[@EnriquePage91]

I know this is YOUR video not mine, but I'll throw a quick explanation of how I use Drambo for one of my favorite uses for it, drums. Hopefully you can get something out of it. Whenever *which at this point seems to be never* I have some free time I'll try to do a video on this, since it pretty much is what I've been trying to cover for 4 months but haven't had the time to produce such stuff. You've kept "your whole song" on a Drambo instance, I usually don't do this. I like separating my percussions from my other instruments so if anything, I use two Drambo instances at least, one for percussions and another one for instruments (or multiple ones depending on their use, sometimes as FX for example or as a MIDI controller to modulate other plugins through Drambo's amazing LFOs). I make sure that each Drambo Track (so, each "pad") only listens to a specific MIDI Channel (unless I specifically want it not to do so), so to keep it simple, track one listens to MIDI channel 1, track two listens to MIDI channel 2, track three.... you get the point. By doing so, I can control the flow of my song without even needing to have Drambo open, as I can simply "mute" the MIDI channels that I don't want active through a MIDI controller, and let Drambo know which tracks are being played. It also allows me to simply tap the sequencer slot on Drambo wherever I want to play THAT particular "drum sample" or generator without having to worry about "which note is it playing? is this even the note that the snare corresponds to?". The beauty of doing things in this way, is how easily I can intercept both the MIDI before it gets to Drambo, and also the audio coming out of it thanks to Multi-OUT, to do other stuff, for example: *AUDIO:* Since we have separated each type of sound from the drum kit into its own track, we can make THAT track send audio to a specific OUT thanks to Multi-OUT. THIS, is wonderful, as we can further customize the drums individually through the use of other AUs. I sidechain my kick, and add blackhole at different settings depending on the drum element. Sometimes I use Replicant 2 to glitch the hats and snares, and If I'm feeling vintage I sometimes even add "mic emulation" on that chain so that I can make the target percussion sound specifically the way I want to (Mic Swapper or that AU is pretty legit, although expensive and can be a bit tedious to handle if you resize the screen since the UI has a lot of bugs... It does a wonderful job though). *MIDI:* I also use MOZAIC by Bram a lot, and I've programmed a script that essentially lets me definte probabilites per midi channel, that notes will actually go through. Then I handle those probabilities through 16 faders, one per channel. Essentially by using such sliders, I can define tha probability of a Kick that is being sent to Drambo, to actually go through. etc. I've built scripts to also mute MIDI channels, to add swing, to copy the channel to another channel (so that for example toms can play at the midi that is being sent to the kick by copying such channel on top of what they are already playing). If there is something I want to do to MIDI and I do not have as an AU, I write some script in Mozaic for that specific task, and everytime I need Drambo to behave in such way, I can just load that script, intercept the MIDI being sent to Drambo, and the job is done without convoluting Drambo's view and complexity with unnecessary parts. This has been to me, a blessing, as it means I don't have to convolute my Drambo instance with unnecessary stuff that I can simply allocate to, for example, Mozaic. It is the same however if you just use an AU to do the task, the point is the *modularity* here. *Other key aspects about Drambo for my workflow....:* Having a single sampler per Drambo track, allows you to add a lot of control without having a HUGE module like you do (and there's nothing "wrong" with that, but as you said, it's good design practice to try to break down everything as much as possible into their own module which does its own thing and only that). It's easier to refactor changes without breaking everything, and I get the impression that you're probably better off separating your samplers into different tracks as these are probably somewhat run in parallel, whereas in the way you've setup your chain, ALL the audio mixing has to be processed on your drum track before it can be output by the track. I have built a "preset sampler", which contains all the things I want, as a template inside of Drambo. This template, uses a single flexi sampler, an ADSR filter which modulates the final Amp module by lowering completely the Amp volume so that it only sends sounds when the filter is active (so essentially I can handle how the sample behaves easily with the 4 sliders that come with the ADSR filter module), LFO's for automation of mostly the pitch of the sample but also other stuff such as play speed and etc... And a knob that controlls the offset at which the LFO is oscillating bipolarly. For drums, I do ONE last thing after loading this template into my setup, I change the mode of the flexi sampler to play slices, at random, and load a "cloud" of percussive sounds of the type I like (so for example, an audio file that contains 10 variations of the Kick I want to use, some have modulation, are played stronger, or whatever you can think of doing to them), then whenever Drambo receives a midi note message on such channel, it triggers the random selection and one of the "slices" of the corresponding track, is played. I ultimately, use as many Drambo tracks as I consider necessary, so for drums for example I could have 5 tracks: "Kick, Snare, Hats, Toms, Cymbals", and in this way I have A LOT of control over what's happening in realtime without needing to edit the MIDI for example. I can simply "mangle it" so to speak, which is far easier when performing live imo, and also SUBSTANTIALLY faster. Let me say this thing, I have tried EVERYTHING for organic drumming on iOS and have looked for MPE controllers all around for other uses. Back to drumming, I've even looked into the famous Jazz/Funk/Rock etc Drummer apps everyone loves (I love/hate them tbh, to start with, they don't even have an AU version which is like... what? But they do have wonderful sounds I cannot deny that, which is why I bought them to SAMPLE them so that I could use them with Drambo lol). I have DrumComputer which I am enjoying a lot, but I still think if anything it'll just end up being ANOTHER way for me to design drum sounds and use them inside of Drambo (nothing wrong with that though). There is NOTHING like Drambo for this task. Having a small LFO amplitude modulating the pitch slightly of all of your samples, triggering RANDOM samples that have something in common in-between them, being able to add effects specifically to what you want without being limited by the original vision of the developer, and ultimately also being able to send such audio if I so desired, to a specific Audio-OUT channel, you can essentially have Drambo be the BEST drummer/Synth/controller etc on iOS. BTW, the Mozaic part I mentioned, is completely redundant really and more of a personal preference, since all you can do in Mozaic can be done in Drambo, and I am sure you could even add a single Track and build a similar controller to do SPECIFICALLY just that. I am used to using Mozaic for this, but really it is redundant in this equation. It can however also be replaced by any MIDI plugin you can think of and experiment with. *Quick foot note:* This way of working with Drambo does not only apply to drums, it pretty much applies to any kind of synth you can think of. Even for MIDI controllers really, as implied earlier. CC generator, PC Generator... MPE sampler to a 4 Oscillator one. whatever. FM. do whatever you want with it. Thanks to the fact that we can isolate MIDI channels inside of Drambo tracks (it's unfortunate it cannot be multiple channels per track unless you go OMNI though), we can also build MPE instruments inside of Drambo. EVEN sample-based ones. Anyway, cheers I love to see how people work with Drambo it's very inspiring. I hope to see a version 2 of this video sometime!!!! It was very cool!

[@tompoynton]

God I wish I spent more time with Drambo

[@EnriquePage91]

@@tompoynton keep at it dude it’s WONDERFUL

[@Farmatique]

Wow, man! TL;DR, but I think you definitely need to make your own Drambo-tutorials👍

[@tompoynton]

@@Farmatique Seconded!

[@stevebrown5597]

There are many excellent ideas here!

[@troyouttram]

Awesome work mate, you have such high standards.... you know this is a 10x better than what most people have ever done and a 100x better than what I’ve done haha. You should be proud. Don’t forget you have hand crafted a fine music making device from scratch and it sounds epic and looks good to me.

[@EdwardAlexander-ABF]

I learn something new every time I use Drambo. I’ve had it since the day it came out and feel like I still haven’t even scratched the surface. Another great video Jakob!

[@JakobHaq]

Thank you! 👊🏼

[@JeffScroggin]

Drambo is so good it’s made me sell off most of my hardware. Looking forward to more Drambo content!

[@EnriquePage91]

you know, your comment is so amazing it would be nice to know WHAT kind of hardware you sold. I haven't sold mine, but I can certainly confirm I have been a Drambo fanboy since day 1. I use it for pretty much everything.

[@JeffScroggin]

​@@EnriquePage91 Digitakt, a small eurorack setup, and a Pioneer AS-1. When VCV-Rack/Mirack came out, I really thought about trying to get out of my physical rack, but patching it was never very fun and kind of tedious. Drambo has been a blast, and the sequencer offers everything the Digitakt did.

[@EnriquePage91]

@@JeffScroggin nice! I agree. I like miRack a lot too actually but I definitely prefer Drambo. And part of it is the workflow. I’m very glad we have both though and apparently Audulus 4 is launching before the end of the year, at least I hope so! Modular is getting pretty crazy on iOS, although I cannot deny sometimes I wish my iPad had like 10 times more processing power and ram lmao

[@EnriquePage91]

Not only does the Amp have the visual meter, the sample player also lacks the functionality to modulate the volume. The amp knob doesn't, however, so it's more versatile. I often control this output through an ADSR filter :) it's convenient to be able to manipulate the sample in this way :D

[@quinnzender]

When drambo gets AU hosting (in development now) you can load drambo in drambo.. that is, if you want full 'sound control' and XOX programming over your drums, instead of turning it into a rack, you can turn it into a 16 track project. Basically, it's like turning a whole drambo project into a single drum rack (ala Ableton) on a single track. then, you'll be able to host that project (au) inside a single track of drambo (as the host). What more - if each sample source in you sampler groove box is only a single sample, it'd be more economic and powerful to use Flexi Sampler (instead of multi-sampler). Flexi has more immediate control over sample offset, start, and end, as well as sample playback modes. In the Drambo hosting drambo project - if you have 16 tracks of flexi you'd even be able to play each instance chromatically and polyphonically. The hosting function is going to be a huge workflow enhancement. Great video - hope you do more on Drambo in the future.

[@tapsy]

What about using scenes to have "project preset" switching?

[@walrtbstudios5430]

I should try to get my head around Drambo, but it seems an order of magnitude more difficult than miRack- which I can make sense of- and there just are not enough hours in the day. That’ll teach me to bite on new apps without thinking...

[@JakobHaq]

I would say that it’s the other way around. Drambo is way more easy to get into than something like miRack. In Drambo one does not need to do all the routing as one has to do in miRack. The modules automatically connect from Left to Right. It’s quite innovative the way that Jarek has made this app work. Please do look into it.

[@JoshuaDb_The_Witness]

I own it... but have been having a hell of a time wrapping my head around it

[@JohnDoe-yr5tg]

Just wondering do you share any of your setups like this template ? as it would help loads of newbies I just purchased this of your review in the top 5 synths of 2022

[@xrafar-i2675]

I haven’t dived in as deep into Drambo as I wish. Maybe AUv3 comes and I can use Atom piano roll inside it will be me new favorite DAW Wondering if you could solve the two different base sound settings/presets with the A--B crossfade thingy?

[@JakobHaq]

Yeah, the A-B thing should be able to work for something like this. I’ll definitely try that out.

[@xrafar-i2675]

@@JakobHaq yea if it works with that it also adds an extra dimension to play with

[@theinfinate]

I’d love to have this Drambo project, Drambo seems like so much work to just get a simple beat going. It’s easy if I use auv3 as instruments but I can’t do that when I use Drambo inside loopy pro

[@Apuat]

Hey Jacob what do you think of the new 2.0 design? Are you going to do a follow up video?

[@JakobHaq]

Drambo 2.0 is amazing! I don’t want to make any promises regarding videos. Many times my projects take longer to finish than I expect so I don’t want to make people wait for something that might be weeks or months down the line. 😅

[@Apuat]

@@JakobHaq As a filmmaker, musician and entrepreneur I know exactly what you mean brother!

[@andreacrisante4945]

The new update is awesome!!!!!! 😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍

[@FlowFormMobileMusic]

Jakob please tell me what application do you use screen capture? looks very high quality. It seems to me that the built-in capture worsens the picture.

[@JakobHaq]

Um, I’m using the built in one. 😅 But hey, what iPad model are you using. I’m using an iPad Pro 12.9 inch. These things record screen-footage at their native resolution. So an iPad mini or Air for instance, well they have a smaller resolution. And I’ve also noticed that the colour looks a bit different at some models. Like my iPad mini 2. The colour looks kinda washed out on the screen captures (video and pictures).

[@FlowFormMobileMusic]

@@JakobHaq The fact of the matter is that I have the same as yours Pro 12.9 but 2020. Strange, but it seems to me that you look much better. Maybe I'm doing something wrong when rendering in Final Cut .. I'll figure it out. Thanks anyway! And for the video, as always, respect!

[@tapsy]

@Jakob - livestream a drambo jam? :)

[@camofpv]

Older iPad you say hmm. Mine is iPad Pro 9.7. Yes. The first one. I’m watching this to find out what’s the story with Drambo. Btw. Your content is simply amazing. Thanks

[@camofpv]

Also: Agonizer is amazing. Get it people! It’s truly an amazing synth!

[@almightyEsquilax]

You've heard of the French kiss, but did you know about the Swedish kiss?

[@thechronicnoizeco.6675]

If i can do everything i do in AUM and Cubasis then do i even have a need for Drambo? I’ve never understood what it is.

[@JakobHaq]

It’s a modular Synthesizer and step sequencer platform. It’s been upgraded over since it came out and can now do clip-launching, supports loading AUv3 instruments and effects. I think it also has audio tracks now so it can be used as a DAW. . However, Drambo is very much in the DIY genre. As I mentioned above it can host AUv3’s and it can be boasted as an AUv3. It can even host a Drambo AUv3 inside itself. It can also be used as a sequencer and as a FX plugin. . Same but different kinda … Drambo vs Cubasis is like comparing Beatmaker 3 to KORG Gadget. Can they do the same thing? Yes in many ways they can but they employ completely different workflows. . What it comes down too is well … What do you need, how do you like to work, what do you prefer? Selecting a DAW nowadays are like selecting a synth. There’s many out there and a lot of them a similar in how they can do the same thing but in different ways. Different knob count, colour schemes, interface layouts etc. . Drambo more alike an Elektron box, but as an app whith an entire modular platform.

[@joshuagood4237]

Thanks for the video Jakob 👍

[@JakobHaq]

My pleasure!

[@FireSonix]

What this sensitive pad on 4:11?

[@JakobHaq]

It’s the Sensel Morph. That clip was from this video: kzbin.info/www/bejne/pZ3ahnujndSSZ6M And I made a video about sensel morph here kzbin.info/www/bejne/bZubeaepasemrM0

[@lbcsrw]

Thanks so much for the thoughtful exploration of this app. It looks like I may need to get it, now. *SIGH*

[@JakobHaq]

Sorry! But you’re getting a great app!

[@antfactor]

It took me a bit to realize... but you've a venus-flytrap on your desk.

[@ErinskiEasy]

I drank the DRAMBO ‘juice and now I’m addicted to it

[@JakobHaq]

👊🏼😂

[@naamanmeir]

good good here is a comment for commenting thank you

[@dafingaz]

Yo!

[@jameslabs1]

Congratulations on the new app/software. Please STOP putting yourself and the things you make or do DOWN. It’s what made me mostly quit watching your KZbin show. Please!

[@JakobHaq]

Don’t worry, I’m fine! 💋💋💋💋