Chapter 14

MIDI, Audio Units and sync

Controllers, MIDI learn and profiles, external synths, clock and Link, and Drambo as a plugin and a host.

Written in our own words from the Drambo docs’ MIDI mapping, recipes and sequencer pages, Beepstreet’s Drambo page and the App Store release notes. Read the Drambo docs

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In this chapter · 11

14.1Connect a MIDI controller
14.2MIDI learn
14.3MIDI mapping profiles
14.4Conditional mappings and shift buttons
14.5Controller feedback
14.6Modulate with incoming MIDI CC
14.7Sequence other synths and apps
14.8Modulate other synths with CC
14.9Tempo, clock and Ableton Link
14.10Drambo as a plugin
14.11Use Audio Units inside Drambo

14.1Basics

Connect a MIDI controller

Plug in or pair your controller, then tell Drambo what to use it for. In Settings → MIDI Inputs, each input can be enabled for three jobs.

Track: Its notes play tracks, following each track’s MIDI settings (A track’s MIDI settings).
Control: Its knobs, faders and buttons can be mapped to Drambo’s controls (MIDI learn).
Clock: Drambo follows its MIDI clock (Tempo, clock and Ableton Link).

Drambo also has an internal MIDI feedback port of its own. For sending Drambo’s state back to a controller’s lights and faders, see Controller feedback.

From the community

Ableton Move to Drambo
Stefan Boeykens
A short demo of an Ableton Move driving Drambo through a custom mapping, with the feedback port pointed back at the Move. The description explains the USB and mode settings. From December 2025.

14.2Basics

MIDI learn

Almost anything in Drambo can be mapped to a MIDI control: module knobs, buttons, sliders, and — since 2.40 — the step sequencer and the navigation bar.

Make sure your controller is enabled for Control (Connect a MIDI controller).
Tap MIDI LEARN on the top bar.
Tap the control you want to map.
Move the knob, fader or button on your controller. Drambo detects the message and assigns it, and the control shows a label for it.
To try it out, switch mapping mode off briefly.
To refine it, tap the control again in mapping mode. The mapping menu sets its range and control type.

Mappings are saved with the project. To reuse them, save the project as a template (Templates), or make a mapping profile (MIDI mapping profiles).
The settings list every mapped element.
Hold a mapped step on your controller and press another to set the step’s length; do it again to reset it.

From the community

Akai APC40MK2 midi mapping in DRAMBO. Eng
PTRVCH
Mapping an Akai APC40 mk2 – its template, encoders and the clip launcher – with the mapping tools that arrived in 2.40. From December 2025, with a link to the forum thread it grew from. Drambo has shipped a ready-made APC40 mk2 profile since 2.47.

I turned DRAMBO into a GROOVEBOX!
Stedt Martin
A custom hardware set-up that gives Drambo encoders, keys, step buttons, selected-track control, morphs and macros. Shows how far mapping can go. From August 2026.

14.3AdvancedStandalone only

MIDI mapping profiles

A mapping profile is a set of mappings that stays active whatever project you open — the right home for a controller you always use the same way. Drambo includes profiles for some popular controllers, including the APC40 MK2, and you can make your own. Switch profiles on and off in the main menu’s Settings → MIDI mapping profiles.

Make your own profile

Connect your controllers, and switch off any other active profiles so they don’t clash.
Turn on MIDI LEARN. The top shows which profile you’re editing, or Project for the project’s own mappings.
Tap that name, tap + on the profiles window’s top bar, type a name and confirm. Make sure your new profile is selected.
Optionally, set up initialisation SysEx (below).
Map the controls you want. Changes save themselves.

Many controllers have a programmer or custom mode that frees up more of their controls, switched on by a SysEx message from the controller’s programmer’s reference. Tap the (i) beside your profile, choose Controller initialization SYSEX, pick the MIDI output and enter the message as hexadecimal bytes. TRY buttons send it so you can test. Up to three messages can go to three different destinations, and it’s worth entering the messages that put the controller back to normal, too.

Plugins can’t reach MIDI ports, so profiles only work in the standalone app.

From the community

14.4Advanced

Conditional mappings and shift buttons

A mapping can have a Condition, so it only works when that condition is met. Conditional mappings win over plain ones, which lets one physical control do several jobs. There are four virtual shift buttons to build them with.

Launcher maximized: Only while the clip launcher is open full size — for mapping the launcher onto a grid of buttons you already use for something else.
Shift1, Shift2, Shift3, Shift4: Only while that virtual shift button is held. Map a shift button to a controller button first.
Current track: Only when the mapped element is on the current track. Give every track a filter and map its cutoff and resonance to the same two knobs, and the knobs follow whichever track you select.

From the community

Short of knobs? Give each mapping the Current track condition. It then works only while its track is selected, so eight physical knobs can control a different track’s filter or effects each time you switch tracks. via BeepStreet forums: MIDI mapping and controllers, August 2025

14.5Advanced

Controller feedback

Mappings can work in both directions. Drambo sends the current state back to the controller, so pads light up to match the steps, LEDs change colour and motorised faders move by themselves.

Map a grid of steps with feedback

In MIDI learn mode, tap the first step and press the matching controller button. Carry on through the steps; each one shows a label for its message.
Double-tap the first step for its detailed mapping menu.
Scroll down and set the Feedback port.
Set the state values: the MIDI values Drambo sends for each state of the control. Find them in your controller’s programmer’s reference; for controllers without colour, the defaults (0 for off and disabled, 127 otherwise) work.
Tap Apply to all in: Current sequence to copy those feedback settings to every step.

BeepStreet’s example layout for a Novation Launchpad X maps 8 tracks, 16 pads, 32 steps, 4 sequence pages, 7 patterns and the play, record and undo buttons.

From the community

14.6Intermediate

Modulate with incoming MIDI CC

MIDI learn maps a controller to a knob. To use a controller as a modulation source inside a patch instead — to blend with other modulation, say — convert its CC messages to a signal.

Add CC modulator to the rack, to the left of what it should modulate.
Tap Learn and move the control on your controller. The module picks up its CC number.
Connect the module’s output to the knob you want to move (Modulate a knob).

The module can smooth the signal, and with Reset on, the value updates at once on every note-on. CC controller does the same job with a knob that shows the value, and can be used to record CCs as automation; MIDI key pressure modulator responds to key pressure.

14.7Intermediate

Sequence other synths and apps

Drambo’s sequencer — with its locks, components and morphs — can drive hardware synths and other apps. This works in the standalone app, as an AUv3 instrument and as an AUv3 MIDI effect.

Add a MIDI output module to a track.
Set its MIDI port and channel to match the synth.
Program the track as usual. Its notes go out to the synth.

From the community

BeepStreet Drambo v2 - Demo / Tutorial 88: Beginner video Drambo inside AUM
SoundForMore MusicTech Tutorials
A beginner’s guide to running Drambo inside AUM: MIDI routing, audio channels and buses, and sequencing several instruments. From March 2023.

LK vs Drambo for AUM MIDI Sequencing | haQ attaQ
Jakob Haq
Why one producer chose Drambo to sequence synths in AUM, with a set-up walkthrough. From January 2021, on 1.x.

Drambo (iOS)Elektronauts — More than 2,000 posts since the 2020 launch, on the Elektron users’ forum, so many come from people using Drambo alongside hardware.

14.8Advanced

Modulate other synths with CC

Drambo’s modulators can move parameters on other synths, too. CC generator turns a signal into MIDI CC messages, which a MIDI output module sends to the synth or app — in the standalone app and as a plugin.

Add CC generator and connect the signal you want to send — an LFO, an envelope, a knob.
Choose the CC number.
Set the input type: bipolar maps −1…1 to 0–127, unipolar maps 0…1 to 0–127.
Route its output to a MIDI output module set to the synth’s port and channel.

From the community

AUM + Drambo MIDI Automation - For Beginners
Sampletheworld
Using a CC Generator and a MIDI Output inside Drambo to automate faders and plugin settings in AUM. Recorded in early 2023 and posted in January 2024.

14.9Intermediate

Tempo, clock and Ableton Link

Tap BPM on the top bar for the tempo and transport settings, including the sync selection: Drambo’s own Internal clock or an external one. Slide BPM left or right to change the tempo.

To follow MIDI clock, enable the clock source for Clock in Settings → MIDI Inputs (Connect a MIDI controller). A clock offset setting helps line things up.
Drambo supports Ableton Link, and loading a project doesn’t change the Link session’s tempo.

14.10Intermediate

Drambo as a plugin

The whole of Drambo — sequencer, racks and all — can run inside another app as an Audio Unit. Choose the version that fits the job:

AUv3 instrument: Drambo makes sound from its own tracks, and can also send MIDI out.
AUv3 effect: Drambo processes the audio the host sends it (Process outside audio).
AUv3 MIDI effect: Drambo’s sequencer and MIDI modules generate or process MIDI for other plugins.

On a Mac with Apple silicon, the plugins work in DAWs that host AUv3, such as Ableton Live and Logic Pro.

From the community

To automate a Drambo knob from Logic Pro, use Drambo’s own MIDI learn inside the plugin: double-tap the knob in MIDI learn mode, set the event type to CC and enter the CC number Logic sends. A forum user confirmed this works in Logic Pro for iPad. via BeepStreet forums: Drambo MIDI automation in Logic Pro iOS/Mac OS, January 2026

BeepStreet Drambo v2 - Demo / Tutorial 89: Beginner video on Drambo outputs inside AUM
SoundForMore MusicTech Tutorials
Sending Drambo’s tracks to separate outputs in AUM, up to eight, so each one can have its own effects. From March 2023.

Drambo in Ableton??? Why not?!
BJamminSinceBirth
Drambo as a plugin inside Ableton Live: setting it up, recording and sampling from it, and adding Live’s effects. From July 2024.

14.11Intermediate

Use Audio Units inside Drambo

Drambo hosts Audio Unit plugins as modules, so a third-party synth or effect can sit in a rack like anything else and be sequenced, locked and morphed. A track can even hold nothing but an Audio Unit, with no patching at all.

Audio Unit instrument: For instrument plugins.
Audio Unit processor: For effect plugins.
Audio Unit MIDI processor: For MIDI effect plugins.

Map plugin parameters to Drambo knobs

Open the plugin’s editor from its module.
Press MAP, then nudge the parameters you want on the plugin — or tap the first parameter slot under MAP to choose from a list.
Up to 16 parameters become Drambo knobs you can modulate, lock and morph.

With AU OVERLAY on, plugin windows open as floating windows. Double-tap a floating window to maximise it.
System AUv3s are switched off by default; you can switch them on in the settings.
The plugin list sorts by name, or by how often you use each one.

From the community