creative MIDI with Drambo

sounda

Hi there,
trying to use Drambo for creating interesting variations of MIDI note lengths … if this works out, also some MIDI CC’s along the way … to let a simple MIDI pattern evolve to something lively.

Thought that a “Env AD” module would be a possibility, e.g. to let a simple 1/16 note pattern evolve by varying the Decay time … but I cannot “attach” the “Env AD” modulation-signal output to the gate input of the "MIDI Note Gen" in the right way, maybe missing an appropriate “signal converter” in between?

In this setup the gate does not close (hence no note-off is sent) although the oscilloscope shows that the modulation-signal of the “Env AD” goes completely down to 0, what I thought would be the moment where the gate would close and hence the MIDI note-off be sent.

Just as a starting point to understand how can I handle (or what I can feed / convert into) the gate to control the MIDI note-offs … and then play around with different modulation options to create ever different note lengths & MIDI CC value curves.

Any clarifications and ideas are very much appreciated – Drambo is awesome, but not so easy to wrap ones head around, or into 😉.

rs2000

Quick hack: To make your example work, add a Math > Offset module between ENV AD and MIDI Note Gen's Gate input and set the offset value to -0.01
This will make the ENV signal cross the zero line which is required by the MIDI Note Gen to generate a Note-Off message.
Let's ask @giku_beepstreet if it's possible to make the ENV modulators send a "true zero" signal at the end of the ENV cycle

sounda

@rs2000
YES – that did the trick … thanks a lot!

So, I assume it’s the same logic on other side … a “zero crossing” from a negative to a positive value will let the "MIDI Note Gen" generate a note-on – or is it the “lift up” from 0 to a positive value?

Before fiddling around and maybe stumbling over another little Drambo glitch … knowing the basic principles would be very helpful … which I think are general modular synthesizer / CV logics & behaviors, or are there some fundamental different signal logics in Drambo?

If not, reading general modular synth tips & tricks would be a great learning resource, because Drambos manual is quite “focused on the basics of itself” 😉.

@giku_beepstreet … it would be awesome to have a program-change generator at our disposal – I would like to use it in the same way and places where I can create + add notes, so it could be a “step component” for example … as they are only send out to other Synths in specific (step) points in time and not all the time like MIDI CCs.

Context and use-case : I want to use Drambo (also) as a kind of conductor which instructs other “MIDI generating” apps to switch to another pattern or somehow change their behavior, e.g. in a AUM setup: let Suggester play & send out another chord, let StepPolyArp change its pattern and so on.

sounda

@rs2000
found a drawback, but also an easy solution too … the negative offset causes an everlasting audio / gain output of the track (see the level meter on the top of AUM)

But a Math-Offset at the end of the chain with the same amount (+0.01) in the opposite way fixes this … keep the signals in balance my not sound that great, but hacking things always creates a need for housekeeping, right? 😉.

rs2000

@sounda Agreed, I think it should be possible to drive the MIDI Note Gen properly without this offset hack. Probably just a small fix for @giku_beepstreet.

The audio offset is a side effect of Drambo automatically connecting the track's audio output to the module signal that seems to make most sense in the track - in this case, the output does nothing so you could either connect it to the track input for monitoring, or mute the track, or reduce the track volume to -inf.

RajahP

Any word on a midi export for Drambo.. import will be nice too?

PianoRoll too..😊