This happened to me too! I went with it though, just accepted that there would be a time of learning and building, and less music making.
It was the best decision I ever made! Now my setup does stuff I couldn’t have imagined a few years ago.
The secret to making it worthwhile, is to aim for making a long-term system that you can use for years, learn like an instrument, develop muscle memory etc.
I’m no expert, but if you need any help with Drambo (especially as regarding MIDI), I’m happy to try and help.
Thanks for that!
So you went with the atom sq?
If so, can you share a rough description of what you do with it in Drambo?
Good point on building a long lasting system.
I’m quiet deep in the DT+DN workflow and only wanted to try Drambo for ambient stuff where I want long stereo samples… but who knows what I’ll end up doing with Drambo if I really do dive in
I don’t own that one, I have a load of Novation controllers hooked up, amongst others.
It’s relatively simple to do what you want though. As always in Drambo, there are probably multiple ways to achieve it. Most likely a Drambo expert could show you a better way than I could.
Please note, I tested this on knobs and it works perfectly. I don’t use encoders so I’m not sure how it will translate. It should be similar though. It may depend on which protocol your encoders use. Are they relative or absolute etc?
What messages do the A-H buttons send out? Are they programmable or fixed? I’m assuming you’d like to use those to switch tracks?
The basic idea I had, is to first put a Knobs module and map your 8 knobs to that box. Each knob then connects to it’s own MIDI CC Generator module. Set appropriate CC’s for each one, can leave the channels set to 1, because you’ll be setting the channel later. Pipe all the CC Generators into a MIDI Mixer module.
The MIDI Mixer goes into a MIDI Switch 1-N module, with 8 outputs. Label the outputs Track 1, Track 2, etc. Each output from that would go into a Channel Filter module (on Set). The Channel Filters set the MIDI channels from 1-8. You then merge all those into a Midi Mixer module, then Midi Output module, set to ‘MIDI feedback’.
You’d need to enable MIDI feedback as an input (in settings, set it to allow it for ‘Control’, but make sure ‘Track’ is off, in case of MIDI loops).
Now, when you turn a knob, Drambo will receive that MIDI CC, on whichever channel set by the MIDI Switch 1-N module. You can press the lights on that module to change channel.
The next step… basically you want to use your A-H buttons to switch the MIDI Switch 1-N module. How to achieve this depends on which type of messages those A-H buttons send out and whether you can change them or not. The simplest method would be to program those buttons (in the Atom editor etc) to all give out the same CC number, same channel, set to toggle (ideally). Each button A-H should be set to give out a certain value eg. A would be 0-0, B would be 16-16, C would be 24-24, and so on.
Then you’d map those buttons directly to the lights/buttons on the MIDI Switch 1-N module.
IF you can’t change what messages those A-H buttons give out, you’d have to map them to another module or two in Drambo, and use the Index control on the MIDI Switch 1-N module to switch the channels etc.
I hope this makes sense! It sounds complicated but it’s actually not! Have a go and see where you get to, I could possibly make a video showing how to do it if you need me to.
PS Set the MIDI CC Generators to make different CC’s than the Atom is giving out. To avoid confusion etc.
Okay, so I tested this more fully, and managed to get it working with encoders too.
The problem I encountered, was of jumping values, when changing channel/track (same problem I found when trying to solve this without MIDI feedback).
Btw, the encoders I’m using give out value 4 when turning clockwise, value 122 when turning anti-clockwise.
The solution:
The first set of knobs (the set that are mapped DIRECTLY to the encoders) need to be mapped using the ‘Continuous Absolute’ setting. Stick a MIDI Monitor after and check that they’re giving out the right values (in my case, 122, and 4). Those knobs SHOULD be jumping all over the place when turning the encoders.
Then, the knobs that will be mapped with the MIDI feedback, should be set to Incremental (using whichever setting works for your encoders normally, for me it was Incremental - Jog).
These knobs, you need to set the CC number, the MIDI channel, and the Incremental setting MANUALLY BY HAND, you won’t be able to automap these by turning the encoder (because Drambo will get confused and map the wrong values).
It 100% works. The only thing you’ll need to figure out is:
A) Which type of Incremental setting to use
B) Which type of MIDI messages the A-H buttons give out
Once you know B, I can help you set up Drambo to control the Index of the MIDI Switch 1-N.
It’s really worth digging into this stuff. Drambo can allow your controllers (of any make) to be far more useful!
Wow, mate.
This is some serious midi wizardry to me 🥸
“I’m no expert” you said, well
I’m really new to Drambo and just slowly realise how ridiculously powerful a tool it is. The flexibility both in terms of audio and midi control, astonishing really.
I haven’t got any midi controller yet so I can’t try right now (also, I’m preparing for a gig in two weeks with DT and DN so will spent my available time there until then).
But your instructions really make me consider to try the atom sq first (before the fadefox uc4).
Do you think that - with your midi wizardry in play - I would be able to use the atom sq as sketched out over here? I think I've found the perfect Drambo MIDI controller... — BeepStreet forums
That is, use the encoders as macros, the lower buttons to play notes / select tracks / edit sequences, the slider as a scene slider, and so on?
Or alternatively, as you described, use the A-G buttons to switch tracks?
Also, make it so that the encoders do not cause value jumps?
And also, have a couple banks of controls available to switch between for the encoders?
I guess all that would be a little too much to ask… but it would make the atom sq a somewhat perfect fit I reckon.
Well there’s no track volume faders but that would just be a bank for the encoders
This looks lovely too!
Does the mpk have some banks of ccs for the encoders or are the all fixed to one control only? Also, does it send out relative cc?
I started on Protracker on an Amiga, been using Reason since Rebirth, Cubase since SX… but I’ve never encountered anything like Drambo. It’s insanely powerful!
I can’t guarantee any of this, as don’t have an Atom to test with, but I’ll answer as best I can:
I think this is possible, as described above, by getting Drambo to reassign MIDI channels to incoming data, then loop that data back to Drambo itself.
Should be possible. Easier if the Atom allows for quick changing of the MIDI channel for just the notes. If not, a similar MIDI channel switching system could be used as for the encoders.
I think in Drambo you only can map up/down buttons to go up or down a track (could be wrong). So you’d need 2 buttons on the Atom for this.
Whether or not you’d use this, depends on which way you go, in terms of allowing all tracks to receive MIDI all the time (and then changing the channel on the controller - best method imo), or forcing the tracks in Drambo to only receive MIDI when the track is selected (and using only 1 channel on the controller).
If changing the MIDI channel on the Atom changes the channel for both the notes and the encoders, it might mean modifying the encoders solution I outlined above. Probably do-able though.
Not sure on this one, as I don’t use Drambo in this way. I basically use Drambo as a glorified MIDI processor to interface my controllers with my Macs.
Should work I think!
This almost certainly should work as I’ve tested it and it was fine. However, the solution itself might cause you to need other solutions with the keyboard etc. And this basically reveals the truth of the matter…
There is no perfect fit for controllers imo. The route I took, was to have a few different types, specifically for different jobs, and have them all hooked up at once. Having separate contollers for keys, faders, knobs etc, saves a lot of pissing around in the long run as it’s easier to separate out tasks for everything.
I went with Novation gear, because the build quality is solid, so you know it’s going to last. Also, they allow for bi-directional communication, which means you can get Drambo to change the lights on the controllers in response to what you’re doing. This is massive… it means you can get Drambo to work as integrated groovebox, rather than just the kind of separated feeling you can sometimes get from controllers and computers etc.
A couple of years back I had the dream of making the perfect groovebox, Drambo, with a few controllers, and a big project in Drambo (kind of a template), with everything ready to go.
Theoretically, it should have been the best thing ever! Well, it was definitely good, but I quickly hit the wall in terms of CPU, and also because of certain limitations in Drambo.
I think Ipad OS is not very efficient, compared to Mac or PC. So my system evolved somewhat. Now it’s spread over 2 Macs, 4 Ipads, a few hardware synths, and a lot of controllers. But it all still works like one big groovebox believe it or not.
It certainly aint portable though (one of my original goals). I’ll probably revisit my Drambo-Groovebox dream one day, in a few years when Ipads have more processing power etc.
OK so it turns out my Drambo projects were sync’d to iCloud after all. I’ve dug out the project where I was messing around with mapping the Atom SQ to be able to control 8 different tracks 22-04-23 Chucka.drproject (4.8 MB)
The idea is that you set the Atom SQ to output on MIDI channel 16 and you map each of the A-H buttons to the buttons in the MIDI Mods track in Drambo, and also map them to change the selected track (can’t remember how I did this, sorry). Then if one of the encodes outputs CC1 on channel 16, the MIDI Mods thing will rewrite that as CC1 on the channel corresponding to the selected track. So if you’ve pressed button C, then you’ll get CC1 on channel 3. Then on track 3, you can map app the CCs for channel 3 to whatever controls you like. I hope that makes sense.
EDIT: I think you map the A-H buttons to the track change by mapping it to the track header, i.e. the track name you click on when you switch tracks manually.
EDIT 2: If you look at the inner workings of the MIDI Mod track, I think I managed to implement MIDI value pick-up, so that when you switch between tracks and move the encoder, you don’t get a sudden shift in the value.
Just one bank for the knobs but I mostly use the UC4 for CC stuff and MPK for the keys and pads. You can setup the MPK knobs for relative or absolute CC.
I didn’t yet get any further with this (not too much time and if I do find the time I rather make something on my familiar DT+DN).
However, I came across a midi controller which might be the best pick for me: the shiq n33b.
EZBOT just did a video using it, it’s been released just this month it seems.
Just didn’t see it appear anywhere else on my feeds…
Decent price, 32 knobs and both normal midi (well, mini Jack at least) and USB midi. So usable not only for iPad but also Elektron gear.
