Chapter 7
Clips, patterns and songs
Play patterns as a song, launch clips live, and rearrange everything by drag and drop.
Written in our own words from the Drambo docs’ groovebox, song arranger / clip launcher and sequencer pages, and the App Store release notes. Read the Drambo docs
The launcher and arranger
Drambo’s launcher is also its song arranger. Each column belongs to a track and each row is a pattern: a set of clips that play together. Play the patterns from top to bottom and you have a song; tap clips from different patterns and you’re jamming, with everything staying in time.
The track pads under the rack editor are the launcher’s top row. Tap the chevron at the right of them to open the launcher full size, with the pattern buttons down the left side and the launcher’s own buttons down the right.
Gestures & keys
- Tap CHEVRON
- Opens the launcher full size, or closes it.Beside the track pads
The launcher’s own buttons
- PATTERN LOOP
- Loops the selected patterns. Turn it off to play the song. See Play a song.
- LAUNCH SYNC
- Starts clips on the next bar instead of straight away. See Launch in time.
- LAUNCHER MENU
- The launcher’s settings.
- Up and down arrows
- Move through the patterns.
- ADD PATTERN and PATTERN FROM CLIPS
- Under the grid: add an empty pattern, or make one from the clips you’ve selected. See Patterns.
From the community
Drambo 2.0 walkthrough
Ben Richards
Ben Richards’ 55-minute tour of Drambo 2.0, linked from BeepStreet’s own Drambo page, with a chapter for almost everything: modules, auto-advance step entry, the clip launcher, piano roll, automation, p-locks, clip locks and morphs. Filmed in May 2022, before time signatures and MIDI profiles (2.40) and additive step entry (2.51).
Drambo 2.0 quick walkthrough
Ben Richards
The 19-minute version of the same 2.0 tour: mute and solo, the scene fader, the clip launcher, auto-grow recording, the navigation bar, stems and the Morph module. He calls it 1.5 at the start, but it is 2.0. From May 2022.
DRAMBO V2 - Getting Started For Beginners & Looking At Some New Features
The Sound Test Room
A 52-minute live stream that builds drums and a bass, records stems, launches clips and plays a song in the then-new 2.0. From May 2022.
BeepStreet Drambo v2 - Demo / Tutorial 65: Introduction to UI, Clips and Patterns
SoundForMore MusicTech Tutorials
SoundForMore’s first 2.0 video: the redesigned interface, then clips and patterns. From May 2022.
Drambo 2.0 tutorial #2 - Clip Mode (deep dive edition)
The Man Who Shouldn't Speak
A deep dive into launching clips from different patterns together, recording new clips and clip locks, with a master-effects clip-lock trick. From May 2022.
BeepStreet Drambo v2 - Demo / Tutorial 66: Clip Launcher Detailed Walkthrough (inc. Clip Auto-Grows)
SoundForMore MusicTech Tutorials
A 23-minute walk through the 2.0 clip launcher, from auto-grow recording to clip settings, editing gestures, and clip length and speed. From May 2022.
Play a song
In song mode Drambo plays one pattern after another, from top to bottom. Each pattern plays its clips, then hands over to the next.
- Tap a pattern button to select it.
- Turn off PATTERN LOOP.
- Press PLAY. The song starts from the first pattern or from the selected one, depending on
Start from first patternin the LAUNCHER MENU.
With PATTERN LOOP on, the selected patterns loop instead — the way to work on one section while you build it.
From the community
Drambo - Video 3 - Building Your First Song GREAT FOR BEGINNERS!
Daddy Long Les
A first song built step by step on the current app: a kick and snare from Drambo’s own modules, a Model D Audio Unit bass, a polyphonic pluck, four patterns played as a song and an automated filter on the master. From October 2026.
DRAMBO V2 - Getting Started For Beginners & Looking At Some New Features
The Sound Test Room
A 52-minute live stream that builds drums and a bass, records stems, launches clips and plays a song in the then-new 2.0. From May 2022.
Launch clips live
You can launch any clip from any pattern, which is how you try out combinations and perform. As soon as you launch a clip from outside the current pattern, the pattern is no longer the one playing; tap a pattern button to go back to playing whole patterns.
Gestures & keys
- Tap CLIP
- Launches the clip and makes it the one you’re editing.In the launcher
- Swipe down on CLIP
- Stops the clip.In the launcher
- Tap PATTERN
- Selects the pattern and launches all its clips.
What a tap and a swipe do is configurable in the LAUNCHER MENU — for example, you can set tapping a playing clip to stop it.
From the community
Drambo 2.0 tutorial #2 - Clip Mode (deep dive edition)
The Man Who Shouldn't Speak
A deep dive into launching clips from different patterns together, recording new clips and clip locks, with a master-effects clip-lock trick. From May 2022.
BeepStreet Drambo v2 - Demo / Tutorial 66: Clip Launcher Detailed Walkthrough (inc. Clip Auto-Grows)
SoundForMore MusicTech Tutorials
A 23-minute walk through the 2.0 clip launcher, from auto-grow recording to clip settings, editing gestures, and clip length and speed. From May 2022.
Launch in time
Clips can start the instant you tap them, or wait for the next bar so they always land in time. Turn on LAUNCH SYNC — the clock icon in the launcher — for bar-synchronised launches, which is what you want when jamming over a running groove.
Patterns
A pattern is a row of clips, and the order of patterns is the order of your song. Building a song is mostly a matter of making patterns and dragging them into place.
Gestures & keys
- Hold PATTERN
- Opens the pattern menu.
- Drag PATTERN
- Moves the pattern to another place in the song.
- Tap ADD PATTERN
- Adds an empty pattern.
- Tap PATTERN FROM CLIPS
- Makes a new pattern from the selected clips.
- Hold UNDO + PATTERN
- Clears the pattern.
Settings that apply to a whole pattern
- The length of every clip in the pattern, or their number of steps.
- The time signature, with a numerator up to 16. See Time signatures, polymeter and polyrhythm.
From the community
Drambo - Video 1 - Watch This First If You Are A Beginner!!
Daddy Long Les
A 27-minute start on the current app from October 2026, and the introduction the official docs recommend. Its chapters cover templates, the tempo menu, the rack, the step sequencer, clip view and the pads’ TRK, PAT and INS modes.
BeepStreet Drambo v2 - Demo / Tutorial 65: Introduction to UI, Clips and Patterns
SoundForMore MusicTech Tutorials
SoundForMore’s first 2.0 video: the redesigned interface, then clips and patterns. From May 2022.
Edit, copy and move clips
Clips are easy to reuse. Copy a clip into another pattern and change it a little, and you have a variation in seconds.
Gestures & keys
- Swipe up on CLIP
- Opens the clip menu: copy, paste, clear, transpose, and MIDI import and export.In the launcher
- Drag CLIP
- Copies the clip to another cell.In the launcher
- Hold UNDO + CLIP
- Clears the clip.
Each clip also keeps its own length, speed and clip locks — see Clip length and speed and Clip locks.
From the community
Drambo - Video 2 - Lots Of Cool Stuff To Learn!
Daddy Long Les
The second part of the October 2026 series: a solo and mute tip, extending, duplicating and looping bars, an empty clip to silence a track, more on the INS button, what sits at the right of each track, and the Morph crossfader.
BeepStreet Drambo v2 - Demo / Tutorial 66: Clip Launcher Detailed Walkthrough (inc. Clip Auto-Grows)
SoundForMore MusicTech Tutorials
A 23-minute walk through the 2.0 clip launcher, from auto-grow recording to clip settings, editing gestures, and clip length and speed. From May 2022.