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Calling all Drambo wizards - does this exist, or does someone know how to make it?
Hi,
Does anybody know if it is possible to set up an ‘ambience generator’ in Drambo using the operators own samples? Or maybe such a thing already exists? I’ve got Drambo, and can happily use other people’s creations, but making my own... well, let’s say I’m still on the nursery slopes.
What I have in mind is 12 basic sample players in a rack, each of which can load up a loopable wav of any length (the longer the better), with individually lfo-automatable volume, pitch, and filter controls. The idea is that I could put individual samples of rusty clanks, distant doors slamming, wind, whatever, -or even, since there would be 12 channels, individual pitched musical loops, Mellotron style - then run the whole set as an automated drone/foley generator as a bed for synth noodling on top. The model for this sort of thing is this:
https://mynoise.net/NoiseMachines/twinBlackLodgesSoundscapeGenerator.php
It’d be great if you could choose as a preset whether or not to trigger a particular ‘channel’, set the rate of rise and fall and type of motion per channel, use a filter, and be able to automatically tweak start loop and end points using the usual LFO options, random, sine, whatever. The more stand alone, I.e. idiot proof, the thing is the better -so that the whole kit and caboodle can be dropped in and out of a bigger Drambo setup, or operate entirely as it’s own thing, without needing a lot of fancy plugging into other bits and pieces to make it work.
It would ideally operate in one of two modes, either completely automatically, clocked by the master tempo, or with each channel selectively triggered as a midi note by Drambo’s own sequencer.
Most importantly - the ability to save a complete set of loops and settings as a single ‘patch’ so that I could create , myNoise style, say a ‘creaky old house/haunted spaceship/whatever’ scene, save it, and just have the whole caboodle ready to run next time without having to faff around loading up samples, setting automation etc.
I know I can make something similar using the File Player and MIDI LFOs in AUM itself, but the File Player is a bit a blunt instrument compared to the samplers inside Drambo, and it would be multiple AUM channel hell, whereas this would just be one Instance of Drambo inside AUM, job done.
Any thoughts appreciated. 
Comments
Quite easy.
First, use an Instrument Rack with more instrument racks inside. You can use presets in the embedded racks as well in the main rack. Saving a "master instrument rack preset" will save all settings inside the rack as well, although you're still free to change individual presets inside and save the new combination under a new name.
Second, have a look at Misc > Clock Generator (runs with transport) and Misc > Stochastic Gate Generator (creates random pulses independent from transport). Both generate pulses that you can use to trigger sample playback or launch an envelope with a certain shape.
If you want random notes triggered at random times, you can for example route the stochastic gate gen to the gate input of the ENV/Sampler/Graphic Modulator and a random (S&H) shape LFO to the pitch input(s).
this would be awesome
@rs2000 : great to hear it is possible.
Now I just need someone to build it for me... 
(well, if you don’t ask, you don’t get!) Does it help at this point if I say I’m a big fan of some of your patches on PatchStorage? 
I’ll certainly take a look myself, following your tips as best as I can, thank you, but since I literally know nothing about how to make patches in Drambo, and definitely have no idea about how to use LFOs to automate faders, or how/if Drambo lets you record that automation, to take just two points straight up, my own attempt might take a while. A long while, probably...
You could probably do this with the file players in AUM with random CC generators hooked up to the volume controls.
@TheOriginalPaulB : yup, as I said, I definitely could, and I do know how to do that, unlike Drambo, which I don’t. Trouble is a) that’s a lot of AUM channels just devoted to File Players and the messy and tedious MIDI note allocation to parameters that would be involved, plus all the set up/overhead of adding in filters etc, and b) that is nowhere near as flexible, or neat, as a well constructed Drambo rack with all the filtering and tuning and whatnot built in and ready to go as a simple drop in all in one piece ‘instrument’.
My iPad bricked itself today.. but if I can manage to get it working again I’ll start working on you idea.
@aleyas : sorry to hear that. Hope you manage to get it up and running again. And not just out of self interest. Good luck!
Thanks!
Some of my favorite instrument projects came about through questions and problems needing solving here on the forum. Working on ideas that came from others gets me out of my own headspace, to create things I would’ve never thought about on my own. Genuinely looking forward to giving a crack at your atmosphere generator!
Lol. I must have missed that paragraph...
You could set up a multi sampled instrument in AudioLayer with untrimmed samples of different sounds that only play on some notes, but not at all velocities, then pipe your MIDI output of your live playing to that instrument, so you’d trigger a haphazard variety of samples from your own performance...
@TheOriginalPaulB : possibly. I have AudioLayer, but I’ve never got on with it’s file management, and doing as you suggest sounds like it would be complicated to set up. The whole point of this is to avoid the complexity inherent in having to micromanage assignments. The complexity should reside in the mixing of sounds, not in the means to control them. Easily tweakable knobs and faders that let you sculpt an ambience composed of multiple ‘tape loops’ in real time is the goal. (And before you say it, yes, you could do it with multiple Ensos or Gauss instances too, maybe even row 4pockets MIDI Mix in but - a big complicated AUM session, again.)
Also, I’m not looking for either a fixed repeatable performance or a totally random mish mash, but exactly what is portrayed by the myNoise tool - a set of user modificable faders, that allow you to sculpt that ‘performance’ of the ambience over time in a variety of quasi random, automatable, but ultimately controllable ways.
I looked long and hard for a simple app replicating the myNoise tool, which at heart is no more than a semi-automated mixer for multiple simultaneous wav loops, since it seems such an obvious thing for a dev to make, but as far as I know there is nothing available on IOS, or for Mac, that I have found that replicates that easy user friendly front end. Sadly, the myNoise site allows only private use of their soundscapes, and no easy way to make your own. I even wrote to the dev suggesting it would be cool if he sold such a tool, but I guess his business model depends precisely on not making the thing available to the public.
I did find a Windows thing once, it was orientated to sleep aid stuff, big on timers and fade downs, not so much on sample wrangling. So for now I am keeping my fingers crossed for @aleyas and the recalcitrant iPad...
A quick hack. Feel free to put the modules into racks the way you want them. (touch+hold a module header, drag to the right until all modules light up in green, copy, then inside the instrument rack hit "+" and paste.
https://patchstorage.com/atmo-generator-one/
@rs2000 - excellent! I’ll give it a spin, thanks.
I was just thinking. This would be a really cool way for us on the AB to share ambiences with each other too. I just listened to the 'quiet forest' ambience on mynoise, and can totally see myself recording various unique samples around the chaotic city I live in.
@aleyas : yes, I really like the myNoise concept, it seems custom built for well, custom built ambiences, but there is seemingly no currently user-usable front end you can slot your own stuff into. I like doing field recording as well as making unlistenable electronic dins, and ‘reassembling’ the ambience of a particular location, real or imaginary, through a manipulable soundscape generator strikes me as a fun thing to be able to do on it’s own account, as well as a great tool for experimental musical soundscaping.
@rs2000 : great work, that’s definitely in the ball park
I hesitate to ask since we are now definitely in RTFM territory, but might you be able to point me at any tutorials or other sources that can explain how I can attach LFOs to any of the knobs? Ideally I’d like the option to automate any or all of them involved in the sound.
Frankly I’m always baffled by what are presumably the elementary things in Drambo, like how the screens are organised, how you can get a sequence to be a different on-screen resolution to the one it boots up with, as you have here, and so on. I know sooner or later I’ll have to do the hard yards and watch a whole load of YouTube tutorials, but it’s like my experience with Ableton - I was (and am) very daunted by it, but I’ve learnt as I’ve gone along, just consulting info enough to do the next thing at each stage. Fine unless you want to jump in the deep end, as here, in which case a lot of difficult backtracking tends to be involved.
@Svetlovska Tap on a knob with a little grey arrow to its left (knobs with that tiny grey arrow can be modulated). It will flash in orange color. While it's flashing, tap the LFO output and a new knob will appear where the arrow was. Increase (+) or decrease (-) the new knob to start modulating.
Excellent! Thank you!
@Svetlovska
I know there is the issue of usage. And no connectivity.
But there used to exist a myNoise app... gonna take a peek and see if it's gone from the app store
Will mess with Drambo, MiRack and Zmors modular here and try to figure out what you're proposing.
Maybe BM3 or some other sampler too, if I don't get sidetracked
I downloaded it twice and tried to open both on iPhone and iPad and Drambo always crashes trying to open it. Even after restart.
Please update Drambo to the latest version.
I’m on the latest version. Drambo and iOS.
Deleted Drambo and reinstalled. Same result.
Anyway, thank you very much @rs2000 for all the knowledge you are sharing here.
Could you please find the Drambo crash report under iOS Settings > Privacy > Analytics and mail it to
info [at] beepstreet.com
I've tested with the current Appstore version and had no issues here, albeit I'm still not on iOS 14.
Done 👍
@rs2000 : fwiw, your patch is working fine for me on my iPad 2018 running Drambo under IOS 14.3
I've tested it on both iOS 13.4 and iOS 14.2.
No problems here.
Thanks guys for testing on your devices, and thanks @Yodha for reporting 👍🏼
it’s crashing my iphone and ipad , latest drambo 14.2 ios. darn it!
For those with crashes: do you have the Waves iap which is being used?
i do