Chapter 17

Recipes

Whole workflows built from the pieces in the other chapters.

Written in our own words from the other chapters of this guide. Read the Drambo docs

0/8

In this chapter · 8

17.1A drum loop that never quite repeats
17.2A playable poly synth preset
17.3Drambo as a live effects rack
17.4From loop to finished song
17.5Sequence a hardware synth with p-locked CCs
17.6A moving filter bank from a few modules
17.7Turn chords into random melodies
17.8Transpose a track from another

17.1Intermediate

A drum loop that never quite repeats

A one-bar loop gets tiring fast. These steps give it variation that comes from the loop itself, without writing more bars.

Program a simple one-bar beat across a few tracks (Your first beat, Put notes on steps).
On the hi-hat track, hold a couple of steps and turn the decay knob, so some hats are open and some closed (Parameter locks).
On the snare track, add a quiet ghost note on an empty step, then open its components and put a Random condition before the Note so it only plays sometimes (Step components, The components).
On the last snare hit, add a Cycle condition that fires on the fourth pass, followed by a Retrig, for a roll every four bars (Conditional steps in practice).
Put a Random condition before the Param locks on one kick step, so its pitch lock only lands now and then.
Copy the clip to a second pattern and clip-lock a darker filter on it, for a breakdown version (Clip locks, Edit, copy and move clips).

17.2Intermediate

A playable poly synth preset

This turns the synth from Start with an oscillator and an envelope into something you can load in any project and play without seeing the patching.

Build the synth: two oscillators into a mixer, a filter with an envelope, an amp envelope, three or more voices (Start with an oscillator and an envelope to Polyphony and drive).
Wrap it in an Instrument rack (Wrap it in an Instrument rack and save it).
Inside the rack, add a Control panel at the start, and connect its knobs to the parameters you want to play — cutoff, envelope amount, detune (Build your own controls, Modulate a knob).
Double-tap each panel knob to give it a name and range.
Mark the other modules Hidden in compact view and switch the rack to compact view (Compact view).
Add Poly knobs on the oscillator tune with small random values, for analogue-style drift between voices.
Save the rack as a preset (Presets).

From the community

How to create Classic House Music - Drambo Tutorial 115 (iOS)
SoundForMore MusicTech Tutorials
A classic house track from scratch on the current app: drums, chords, bass, processed vocal samples, strings and the final arrangement. From October 2026.

17.3Intermediate

Drambo as a live effects rack

Drambo makes a flexible effects unit, with sequenced and morphed movement no pedal can match.

Bring the audio in: set a track’s Audio from to your interface’s input, or load Drambo as an AUv3 effect in your host (Process outside audio, Drambo as a plugin).
Build an effect chain in a Processor rack on that track (Processor racks).
For several effects you can switch between, repeat on more tracks and set each one’s Receives audio to Active track. Selecting a track now selects its effect (Route a track’s audio).
Parameter-lock the effect on steps — a delay that only catches the off-beats, a filter that steps through a pattern — and press PLAY (Parameter locks).
Store a mild and a wild setting in morphs A and B and ride the slider (Morphs).

17.4Intermediate

From loop to finished song

Most songs start as a loop. These steps take one the rest of the way.

Get your main loop playing in pattern 1.
Jam: launch clips from other patterns, try combinations, and save the good ones with PATTERN FROM CLIPS (Launch clips live).
Make variations: copy clips to new patterns by dragging, then change notes, lengths and clip locks (Edit, copy and move clips, Clip locks).
Order the song: drag patterns into place from top to bottom (Patterns).
Add sweeps with automation and builds with morphs (Automation, Morphs).
Select the first pattern, turn PATTERN LOOP off and press PLAY to hear the whole song (Play a song).
Mark the tracks you want as stems, arm STEMS and play it through (Record stems).

From the community

Making Techno In Drambo (with explanation)
Tone Garden
An 80-minute techno session with commentary, on a MacBook: the Macro Oscillator, Flexi Sampler hi-hats, scene states for variation and an unsuccessful Code module experiment. From February 2026.

17.5Advanced

Sequence a hardware synth with p-locked CCs

Drambo’s sequencer — locks, conditions and all — works on hardware too. Here the notes and a filter CC go out to the synth.

Start from the MIDI Sequencer template, or add a MIDI output to a track and set the synth’s port and channel (Sequence other synths and apps).
Program the part as usual.
Add Knobs to the rack and a CC generator set to the synth’s filter cutoff CC, fed by one of the knobs, and route the generator to the MIDI output (Modulate other synths with CC).
Hold steps and turn that knob: the synth’s filter now has parameter locks (Parameter locks).
Add an LFO to the same knob’s value for movement between the locks (Modulate a knob).

17.6Advanced

A moving filter bank from a few modules

Polyphony isn’t only for chords. Spread one sound across several voices and each voice can be processed differently — a whole bank of filters from a handful of modules.

Feed a sound into a Unison module, which spreads it across several voices (Ring modulation, sync and unison).
Add a band-pass filter after it. Each voice gets its own copy.
Add an LFO before the filter and use it to modulate the filter’s cutoff (Modulate a knob).
Use a Voice number signal, which is different for each voice, to modulate the LFO’s rate, so every band moves at its own speed.
Mix the voices back to one with Poly to mono (Polyphony, stereo and CPU).

From the community

Drambo - using Unison module for parallel processing.
BeepStreet
BeepStreet’s own two-minute demo of the Unison module spreading a signal across voices, here as a band-pass filter bank with separate modulation per filter. From June 2025.

17.7Intermediate

Turn chords into random melodies

A chord holds all the notes of a melody that will fit it. Picking one at random on each step gives you endless, always-in-key lines.

In the sequencer — put chords on the steps, then add a One of many component to each step. Each time it plays, one note of the chord is chosen (The components).
In the patch — add the MIDI Chance module before the instrument; since 2.40 its chord modes can turn incoming chords into single random notes (MIDI processors).
Generated — the Generative sequencer module writes melodies and voice-led chords in a scale, and you can copy its phrases into a clip (Import and export MIDI clips).

From the community

BeepStreet Drambo Tutorial 112: Midi Generative Sequencer (iOS)
SoundForMore MusicTech Tutorials
The MIDI Generative Sequencer from 2.56, which writes melodies and chords within a scale and can copy what it makes into the current clip. From August 2026.

17.8Advanced

Transpose a track from another

A track’s MIDI input transposes everything the track plays. Feed it from the Main track and you can transpose a sequence live, or sequence key changes, by playing notes on Main.

Tap the Main track pad to open the Main rack.
Connect the Main track’s internal MIDI output to the MIDI input of the Track module you want to transpose (Make and change connections).
Play or sequence notes on the Main track. The connected track is transposed by the note Main receives.

Inside a patch, the Sequencer module’s Transpose MIDI-in mode does the same for a sequence that lives in a rack (MIDI processors).

From the community