Chapter 11
Racks, layers and presets
Package patches as instruments and effects, keep big racks tidy, and save presets.
Written in our own words from the Drambo docs’ first synth and recipes pages, the module reference and the App Store release notes. Read the Drambo docs
Instrument racks
If you’re building a synth, start with an Instrument rack. It is a module with a rack inside, and every signal that reaches it — audio, MIDI, pitch, gate, velocity, time — is passed through to that inner rack, which sends audio back out. Once your instrument is inside, it behaves like a single module you can move, copy, show compactly and save as a preset.
Mode (in the module menu)
- CV
- The instrument is played by pitch, gate and velocity signals.
- MIDI
- The instrument is played by MIDI, which it turns into pitch, gate and velocity for you. Use this mode for MPE (MPE).
Instrument racks have a preset selector right on the module, and BeepStreet ships a set of ready-made instrument presets. Wrap it in an Instrument rack and save it shows how to move an existing patch into one.
From the community
Drambo 2.0 tutorial #3 - Piano Roll (the deepest of dives)
The Man Who Shouldn't Speak
Half an hour in the 2.0 piano roll: scrolling and zoom, note preview, quantise options and velocity, with detours into saving presets and the keyboard, pads and scale modes. From May 2022.
Note Locks - Playable P-Locks in Drambo
Ben Richards
A community rack that turns MIDI notes into playable parameter locks. From March 2025; the Morph Switch added in 2.57 now has note modes built for the same job.
Drambo by BeepStreet - Signal and Voices
Ben Richards
Every signal type explained, then polyphony, paraphony, the voice selector, MIDI mode in instrument racks and stereo. Filmed on 1.x in April 2020, before 2.0 raised polyphony to 16 voices.
Drambo by BeepStreet - Racks, Presets, and Layers
Ben Richards
What a rack is, saving and organising racks with sections, labels and compact view, and building layers. Filmed on 1.x in April 2020; preset selectors on rack headers only arrived in 2.48.
SP Flexi 2.0 - Sampler for Drambo
Ben Richards
A community instrument rack, on Patchstorage, that puts 16 or more Flexi Sampler slices on faders for an SP-style workflow, with a lo-fi mode. A good example of what a well-built rack can be. From February 2023.
Processor racks
For an effect, start with a Processor rack. It takes audio, MIDI and time, hands them to the rack inside, and outputs the processed audio. Build your effect chain inside it and you can save, load and reuse the whole thing as one preset, from the preset selector on the module.
Drop one onto a send track for a shared reverb or delay, onto the Master for a mix bus chain, or onto any track to process its sound. To process audio from outside Drambo, see Process outside audio.
From the community
- Tracks send their audio straight to the Master track. If you put a Processor Rack after a track in the Main rack, set that track’s
Audio to 1toDefault (module out)so the sound reaches the rack, and end the chain with anAudio Outmodule set to Master. via BeepStreet forums: Processor rack on a track output, January 2026
MIDI racks
The MIDI rack holds a chain of MIDI modules — arpeggiators, chord generators, randomisers, filters — so you can treat the chain as one module and save it as a preset. It takes MIDI and time and outputs MIDI, so it sits before an instrument, or feeds a MIDI output to drive other apps and hardware (Sequence other synths and apps). The MIDI modules are listed in MIDI in, out and generators and MIDI processors.
From the community
Hole Puncher by tyslothrop1 // 🔥 Drambo Midi Gating Rack (iPad, iPhone, Mac)
Gavinski’s Tutorials
Hole Puncher, a free community MIDI rack by tyslothrop1 that thins out incoming notes, compared with the midiGATEs app. It also shows how to load a MIDI rack from Patchstorage. From January 2026.
Compact view
Compact view turns a rack of modules into something that looks like a finished instrument. Tap the icon in the top-right corner of an Instrument rack to switch between compact and full views.
- Keep a module out of the compact view: open its menu and choose
Hidden in compact view. - Gather the controls that matter on one
Control paneland hide the rest. See Build your own controls. - In long racks, add
Section (foldable)modules. Each names a section and can fold it away; in compact view a section can be visible, hidden, or hidden along with everything up to the next section.
From the community
Drambo by BeepStreet - Racks, Presets, and Layers
Ben Richards
What a rack is, saving and organising racks with sections, labels and compact view, and building layers. Filmed on 1.x in April 2020; preset selectors on rack headers only arrived in 2.48.
SP Flexi 2.0 - Sampler for Drambo
Ben Richards
A community instrument rack, on Patchstorage, that puts 16 or more Flexi Sampler slices on faders for an SP-style workflow, with a lo-fi mode. A good example of what a well-built rack can be. From February 2023.
Presets
Presets are how you keep and reuse what you’ve built. Modules, racks and tracks all have them, reached from their menus.
Save a rack preset
- Tap the rack’s name label (for an Instrument rack, the
Instrumentlabel) and choosePresets. - Choose a folder, or create a new one.
- Tap
Savein the top-right corner, type a name and confirm with the on-screen keyboard’s Enter key.
- Instrument, Processor and MIDI racks show a preset selector on the module itself, with previous and next buttons in the header.
- Whole tracks have presets too, from the track menu or by double-tapping a track pad.
- Patchstorage hosts community presets and projects for Drambo.
From the community
- To reuse a track in another project, hold its title bar on the Main track and choose
Copy, thenPasteanywhere you can add a module, even after loading a different project. Or tap the title bar, openPresetsand save it as a track preset. via BeepStreet forums: Switching Between Projects, September 2026
Drambo 2.0 tutorial #3 - Piano Roll (the deepest of dives)
The Man Who Shouldn't Speak
Half an hour in the 2.0 piano roll: scrolling and zoom, note preview, quantise options and velocity, with detours into saving presets and the keyboard, pads and scale modes. From May 2022.
Drambo - How To Make & Save a Synth From Scratch - Beginner Friendly Tutorial
The Sound Test Room
A synth from scratch – oscillators, filter, LFOs and effects – then saved as a preset. From June 2022.
Drambo by BeepStreet - Racks, Presets, and Layers
Ben Richards
What a rack is, saving and organising racks with sections, labels and compact view, and building layers. Filmed on 1.x in April 2020; preset selectors on rack headers only arrived in 2.48.
BeepStreet Drambo v2 - Demo / Tutorial 69: Drag and Drop and Upload files from PatchStorage
SoundForMore MusicTech Tutorials
Dragging in audio and MIDI files, and importing presets and zipped projects downloaded from Patchstorage. From May 2022.
Layers
A Layers module holds several racks that run side by side, but shows only one of them at a time. That keeps wide patches short on screen, and makes parallel processing easy. You can add, remove and rename the layers.
- Layers
- Runs its racks in parallel and sums their outputs.
- Layers mixer
- The same, with a volume knob for each layer.
- Layers crossover
- Splits the input into three frequency bands, processes each in its own layer and mixes them back — a quick multiband setup.
- Layers switch
- Only one layer reaches the output, chosen with buttons or an index signal. Works with audio, CV and MIDI.
From the community
Drambo by BeepStreet - Racks, Presets, and Layers
Ben Richards
What a rack is, saving and organising racks with sections, labels and compact view, and building layers. Filmed on 1.x in April 2020; preset selectors on rack headers only arrived in 2.48.
Good habits for tidy patches
These follow BeepStreet’s own advice for organising patches, and make the difference between a rack you can come back to next month and one you have to rebuild.
- Making a synth? Start from an empty
Instrument rack. - Making an effect? Start from a
Processor rack. - Keep racks short with Layers and Layers mixer: many racks in parallel, one visible at a time.
- Name long stretches with
Section (foldable), and gather the controls you play with on aControl panel. - Use
Poly to monoonce the part of a patch that needs voices is done (Polyphony, stereo and CPU). - Save presets as you go, and save a project as a template when you want its set-up — including MIDI mappings — again (Templates).
From the community
Drambo by BeepStreet - Racks, Presets, and Layers
Ben Richards
What a rack is, saving and organising racks with sections, labels and compact view, and building layers. Filmed on 1.x in April 2020; preset selectors on rack headers only arrived in 2.48.