— Interactive guide · Drambo 2.57
Drambo
BeepStreet’s modular groovebox, explained properly — the step sequencer and its p-locks and step logic, the launcher, morphs, racks and modulation, every module in the library and every hidden gesture, searchable in a keystroke, with the community’s best tutorials beside the topics they explain.
- chapters
- 17 chapters
- topics
- 144 topics
- modules
- 242 modules
- gestures
- 70 gestures
- videos
- 60 videos
— Where to start
Your first hour
Learn how a project fits together, find your way around, and make a beat that moves.
- 1How a project fits together
- 2The screen, control by control
- 3Your first beat
- 4Put notes on steps
- 5Parameter locks
- 6Save and load projects
Thinking modular
How modules connect without cables, how modulation works, and your first synth.
- 1Modules and racks
- 2Which way signals flow
- 3Automatic connections and colours
- 4Make and change connections
- 5Modulate a knob
- 6Start with an oscillator and an envelope
Making it move
Step logic, clip locks, morphs and the launcher: variation without writing more bars.
In the studio
Controllers, other synths and apps, plugins in Drambo, and Drambo as a plugin.
- 1Connect a MIDI controller
- 2MIDI learn
- 3Sequence other synths and apps
- 4Use Audio Units inside Drambo
- 5Drambo as a plugin
- 6Tempo, clock and Ableton Link
— Explore the screen
What does this do?
Pick a control to see what it does.
All 50 controls across the main screen, morph mode, the full-size launcher and a module, with the gestures that aren’t labelled in the app.
Our own schematic of the iPad layout · not to scale · iPhone and Mac arrange things differently
— Contents
17 chapters, start anywhere
Start here
What Drambo is, where it runs, how its two halves fit together, and your first beat.
What Drambo is · Where Drambo runs · Extensions you can buy · How a project fits together · Your first beat · Help inside the app
Find your way around
The main screen area by area, the top bar, and the hidden gestures behind UNDO.
The screen, control by control · The top bar · The rack editor · Track pads and the launcher · The sequencer and its buttons · The pads and keyboard · Resize and maximise areas · UNDO, and clearing things with it
Tracks and mixing
Tracks are modules: select, mute and solo them, route their audio and MIDI, and record stems.
Tracks are modules · What a new project contains · Working with track pads · Mute and solo · See every track at once · Track settings · Route a track’s audio · A track’s MIDI settings · Record stems
Step sequencing
Put notes on steps, record live, edit and copy regions, and set length, speed and metre.
Clips, steps and the transport · Put notes on steps · Additive step entry · Note length · Auto-advance entry · Record live · The navigation bar · Clip length and speed · Copy, paste, transpose and shift · Selection mode · The extended step editors · Mute single steps · Time signatures, polymeter and polyrhythm · The multi-track step sequencer
Piano roll, automation and keys
Edit notes in the piano roll, record and draw automation, and play the keyboard and wheels.
The piano roll · Automation · Pitch bend and mod wheels · Playing the keyboard and pads · Import and export MIDI clips
P-locks and step logic
Change any parameter on any step, lock values to clips, and give steps rules of their own.
Parameter locks · Clip locks · Step components · The components · Conditional steps in practice · Jumps and retriggers
Clips, patterns and songs
Play patterns as a song, launch clips live, and rearrange everything by drag and drop.
The launcher and arranger · Play a song · Launch clips live · Launch in time · Patterns · Edit, copy and move clips
Morphs and performance
Crossfade between parameter snapshots, randomise, and build your own controls.
Morphs · The Morph module · Meta randomizer · Morph Switch · Build your own controls
How the modular side works
Modules, racks and signals: how Drambo connects things for you, and how to connect them yourself.
Modules and racks · Signal types · Which way signals flow · Automatic connections and colours · Make and change connections · Modulate a knob · Turning knobs precisely · Move, insert, select and remove modules · The library browser · Polyphony, stereo and CPU · Inspect any signal · Feedback loops
Build a synth
From one buzzing oscillator to a polyphonic two-oscillator synth saved as a preset, then pitch, glide and MPE.
Start with an oscillator and an envelope · Insert a filter · Give the filter an envelope · Add a second oscillator and a mixer · Polyphony and drive · Wrap it in an Instrument rack and save it · How pitch works · Key tracking · Glide and portamento · Ring modulation, sync and unison · MPE
Racks, layers and presets
Package patches as instruments and effects, keep big racks tidy, and save presets.
Instrument racks · Processor racks · MIDI racks · Compact view · Presets · Layers · Good habits for tidy patches
Samples and audio
Load and record samples, loop live audio, catch phrases on the fly, and process audio from outside.
Which sampler to use · The Flexi sampler · Find and load samples · Record audio into Drambo · Live looping · Catch audio and MIDI on the fly · Process outside audio
The module library
All the modules, group by group, with what each one does and the signals it takes and gives.
Oscillators and noise · Samplers · Filters and EQ · Amps and amp envelopes · Shapers and distortion · Effects · Wavetable processors · Envelopes · LFOs · Morphs, random and other modulators · Mixers, layers and signal tools · MIDI in, out and generators · MIDI processors · Sequencing, clocks and time · Utilities · Controls and displays · Maths and logic · Racks, hosts and legacy modules
MIDI, Audio Units and sync
Controllers, MIDI learn and profiles, external synths, clock and Link, and Drambo as a plugin and a host.
Connect a MIDI controller · MIDI learn · MIDI mapping profiles · Conditional mappings and shift buttons · Controller feedback · Modulate with incoming MIDI CC · Sequence other synths and apps · Modulate other synths with CC · Tempo, clock and Ableton Link · Drambo as a plugin · Use Audio Units inside Drambo
Projects and settings
Save and load projects, keep templates, find the settings that matter, and report a problem.
Save and load projects · Templates · Settings worth knowing · Report a problem
The Code module and Visual
Write your own modules in a small DSP language, and a first look at the Drambo Visual expansion.
The Code module · Inputs, knobs and outputs · The language · Built-in functions · Per-sample mode and feedback · Code to start from · Drambo Visual
Recipes
Whole workflows built from the pieces in the other chapters.
A drum loop that never quite repeats · A playable poly synth preset · Drambo as a live effects rack · From loop to finished song · Sequence a hardware synth with p-locked CCs · A moving filter bank from a few modules · Turn chords into random melodies · Transpose a track from another
— Muscle memory
The gestures you’ll use every day
Drambo hides a lot behind swipes, holds and double taps — and behind holding UNDO. The full cheat sheet has all 70 gestures, filterable and printable.
Open the cheat sheet- Hold STEP + KNOB
- Locks that parameter’s value to the step.
- Swipe up on STEP
- Opens the context menu for the selected steps: copy, paste, clear, transpose and shift.
- Swipe down on TRACK PAD
- Mutes the track.
- Swipe left on CLIP
- Opens that clip in the piano roll.In the launcher
- Hold UNDO + CLIP
- Clears the clip.
- Double-tap KNOB
- Opens its options: reset to the default value, type in a number, or remove a modulator.
- Swipe down on HEADER
- Removes the module.
- Hold INPUT
- Opens the signal monitor for that input: oscilloscope, spectrum or MIDI monitor.
— Watch
Learn it from the community
Drambo - Video 1 - Watch This First If You Are A Beginner!!
Daddy Long Les
A 27-minute start on the current app from October 2026, and the introduction the official docs recommend. Its chapters cover templates, the tempo menu, the rack, the step sequencer, clip view and the pads’ TRK, PAT and INS modes.
Drambo - Video 3 - Building Your First Song GREAT FOR BEGINNERS!
Daddy Long Les
A first song built step by step on the current app: a kick and snare from Drambo’s own modules, a Model D Audio Unit bass, a polyphonic pluck, four patterns played as a song and an automated filter on the master. From October 2026.
Drambo 2.0 walkthrough
Ben Richards
Ben Richards’ 55-minute tour of Drambo 2.0, linked from BeepStreet’s own Drambo page, with a chapter for almost everything: modules, auto-advance step entry, the clip launcher, piano roll, automation, p-locks, clip locks and morphs. Filmed in May 2022, before time signatures and MIDI profiles (2.40) and additive step entry (2.51).
An independent guide by boog.ie, not affiliated with or endorsed by BeepStreet. Drambo is a product of BeepStreet. Content is written in our own words from the Drambo docs and module reference (November 2026) and the App Store release notes up to Drambo 2.57; community material is credited and linked. The screen explorer is our own schematic. When in doubt, the official docs and the app’s built-in help win. The Drambo docs