EDIT 2025-11-08 — Drambo recently got updated to 2.48 which effectively puts the help documents into the app in a much smoother way than I could ever hope to make on a separate website.

Happy to see it, a much better solution than it was previously.

I'Il upload the documents I created to Github for anyone who might want to download some markdown text for their own documents if enough people are interested. They would be perfect for someone’s Obsidian vault for instance.

But there isn’t a point for me to pay for hosting now that a far better user experience exists in the app.

I’ll leave this up for the time being as I was super proud of the work I did.

Over the length of my music making journey, in one hand, I've learned a lot, though, if I sit in thought for longer than 5 seconds, the other hand reveals that in reality the truth is, "I know that I know nothing".^[1]

"For I was conscious that I knew practically nothing…"^[2]

• (Plato, Apology 22d, translated by Harold North Fowler, 1966).

A major influence on this journey of never feeling as though I know anything, was discovering iOS as a platform has music creation apps, that often utilizes the uniqueness of a tablet as the main interface for creating music.

The first app I found out about, was koala, on Jake Ones Instagram stories in 2022, answering a question from a user when asking about affordability I believe, though it may have been about how to get started sampling music, etc.^[3]

I hadn't much money at the time, I didn't have a powerful enough computer to get a full featured DAW, but, I had an iPhone and an old iPad, so, I started to bounce the idea of making music with these devices I already had while not having to dig too deep into purchasing a subscription, or a full DAW suite.

I purchased it, as $5 at the time seemed like a no-brainer, with an endorsement from an artist I respect.

Then, after the dopamine of research mixed into culminating buying the app, I proceeded to never spend more than a couple of hours in it until 2023.

I've succumbed to the phenomenon of the great impulse buy, yet again.^[4]

In 2023, I took I put an earnest effort into learning about sampling, chopping, building beats, etc. Though, as intuitive and fully capable of building a song as koala is, I felt I needed more, as I had a different direction I wanted to create the music that interested me at the time.^[5]

After researching iOS Music making, in April 2023, I stumbled upon a forum, the Loopy Pro forum^[6] - I now had a resource of a decade+ of making music on iOS, but, one word kept popping up, seemingly, as an answer for most of the users varied questions.

After looking into this app for less than hour, I purchased it, and one of the IAP^[7] that I often saw as most necessary.^[8]

Yet again, I've surrendered to the power of the impulse buy.^[9]

That apps name?^[10]

Drambo^[11]

Drambo is one of, if not the most, innovate pieces of software I've ever enjoyed using. Using it as a canvas for creating music always gets me into a flow, and often, sparking a part of my curiosity into learning more about music. Whether it's what this module does, what inspired that module, can I create a similar functionality to this new application that I rather not impulse buy this go around.^[12]

Utilizing this software has given me an ability to explore the creative side of myself I never had an opportunity to tend to.

Getting into music making is daunting, as musicians we often are committing ourselves as students of music for the rest of their lives, and still have plenty to learn. See ^[1:1]

Between music theory, a plethora of acronyms that are commonly used though seldom explained, including but not limited to, MIDI, sound frequencies, beat measures, producing, mixing, mastering, playing your instruments, sampling, etc.

It all is, daunting.

Stumbling upon Drambo, an opinionated, yet strikingly intuitive while allowing the user a blank canvas for their creative desires, was daunting, as well, but it clicked with me faster than any of the other software I had researched.

Using this app to make a synth, or a create a beat, almost instantly, you realize that a great deal of care lies within this code. It's exceptionally well made, stable, updated frequently, and has a community that believes in the app behind it.

Then I realized, it's a Universal app, meaning, it's available on every device I had within Apples, admittedly, walled garden. So, while Drambo is an all around high quality piece of software, it's exclusive to iOS^[13]

For myself, that's okay, as I've been in the Apple ecosystem for far more years than I care to admit on the internet.

Then I found out that this software was in development by one single person. I'm unable to exaggerate my surprise.^[14]

Putting aside walled gardens, capitalism, and Apple, I find that supporting these small dev teams (often meaning 1 single person) that make incredible pieces of software, makes my thoughts far less cynical than they typically veer into.

Digital [Modular] Garden

One thing about being a digital/electronic creator that isn't spoken about enough is how often the tools/software we use are ephemeral.

While there are basic skills one will learn about being an electronic musician,^[15] the way that software works varies radically from software to software.

But, sometimes, we get lucky for a stretch of time and find something that you truly believe in, something that helps your creativity flourish.

Something that clicks, Drambo was the first music software that clicked for me.

I watched a video, on Youtube, that changed the way I viewed being a valuable person within a niche community, the video, For-Profit (Creative) Software, is, without exaggeration, one of the best videos I've seen on the platform. I could, and probably should^[16], write a full essay about each part within the lovingly created video.

This post is focusing on one specific part.

I can also contribute to documentation sites.
01:04:14-01:04:16

This especially helps during times when something has gotten too expensive and people are looking for alternatives.
01:04:16-01:04:21

Finding answers may be the same that helps someone detach from an old piece of software.
*01:04:22-01:04:25

Side note, if you do have the ability to make tutorials or classes, please consider doing this in a text-based way rather than a video one.
01:04:26-01:04:32

I thought, why not follow this advice, take the notes I've taken^[17] and put these notes available online. This idea morphed into making a documentation site for Drambo with less of my jumbled notes, and with more structure.

I have always had an affinity for websites, specifically, 'digital gardens', and why not make one for myself, and the community. Take this youtube video creators response to heart and have a go at documenting this for anyone interested.

The site itself is here, originally, I built it for myself, then in a short amount of time, I realized that I was building this for the community.

In its current state, it functions as a reference site documenting the help text found within the apps help function.

But, in time, It'll be a wiki-like compendium for understanding Drambo, including references for acronyms, explainers for modules inspiration, descriptions of patches, full song project templates, and anything else the community might find beneficial.

The approach I'm taking is one of a 'Digital Garden.'^[18] It's one where you make your post/note, and over time it gets added to, so it grows from a seedling idea, to a full growth sprout.

There won't be any generated AI here. I am going to resist,^[19] any new-fanged tools from Big-AI, as I want this to be a human-first effort.

Helping others when you can*

*In a hyper-niche community, preferably utilizing text based approach.

I must admit, the original post I started with, with the intent of sharing this documentation site, veered into an astonishingly different direction. ^[20]

Upon realizing I was out of time, late into the evening, I chose to sit on this post, and reevaluate in the AM. I'm glad I did, as it's given me the time and space to off-shoot that into a separate post.^[21]

Instead of wallowing in self destructive defeat from my own, admittedly ambitious, imposed deadline, as I often favor. I'm going to allow myself the grace of forgiveness, and the permission to move past my eager minded time constraint, and allow myself a new one.

I mention this as I enjoy helping others, that's a large part of what innately drives me. I want to provide help, whenever I can.

As long as I remind myself that when I have the bandwidth, the work entailed often times pales in comparison to the feeling of helping others.
Helping other like-minded people in their creative desires is something I'll try and do, whenever I'm able.

For me, not much else compares.^[22]

---

1. "I know that I know nothing" is a saying derived from Plato's account of the Greek philosopher Socrates: "For I was conscious that I knew practically nothing…" (Plato, Apology 22d, translated by Harold North Fowler, 1966). ↩︎ ↩︎

2. Such a great quote. ↩︎

3. Forgive me for not being 100% sure ↩︎

4. Shame, Shame ↩︎

5. I now know, this is achievable in koala. ↩︎

6. At the time, audiob.us ↩︎

7. In App Purchase ↩︎

8. Now, I believe they all are. ↩︎

9. Shame, Shame, Shame. ↩︎

10. Could I be, more annoying. ↩︎

11. I'm sorry, footnotes are fun. ↩︎

12. Impulse Buy (2) - Me (1) ↩︎

13. at the time of this writing, I don't know if that will change in time. ↩︎

14. I was, shook. ↩︎

15. I've always liked the term computer music ↩︎

16. Ok, I will. ↩︎

17. I've always been a voracious note taker. ↩︎

18. Though, given Drambo and it's modular approach, I think a more appropriate name for the approach could be 'Modular Garden' ↩︎

19. Without issue, I may add. ↩︎

20. Also, I was massively distracted by the Seattle Mariners, a baseball team I've loved since my pre-teen years, for the first time in my fandom, winning a playoff game on my birthday, 3 hour rain delay be damned! ↩︎

21. About AI/Creativity - Sign Up if you don't want to catch it, here. ↩︎

22. I reached out to Jaroslaw before sharing this new documentation site with anyone, in case anyone's curious! ↩︎

Post Script

I'm grateful to the developer, Jaroslaw, the beta team, and the community as a whole for helping me find a part of my creativity that I hadn't even considered. I hope these notes grow to be as helpful as the community has been for me.

I'm massively grateful to Jakob Haq for having a discord server where I've met other creators who have encouraged me massively in this journey, you know who you are. 🤘🏽