Frequently Asked Questions

orDrumbox is a free, open-source software drum machine and melodic sequencer designed for composing complex electronic music. Unlike rigid step sequencers, it uses a highly modular architecture where songs are built from custom Patterns, organized in Tracks, assigned to individual Drumitems (voices), and managed within comprehensive Drumkits.

• Drumkit: A complete collection of sound generators, multi-samples, and synth voices used across your project.
• Drumitem: An individual sound voice (such as a Kick, Snare, Bassline, or Lead synth) configured with specific synthesis, pitch, or sample parameters.
• Track: The actual sequence of notes, pitch values, and parameters assigned to a single Drumitem within a Pattern.

orDrumbox was built as a creative playground and research platform for algorithmic sound creation. Rather than mimicking rigid hardware setups, it treats rhythms as dynamic mathematical constructs.

By combining auto-composition, conditional triggers, polyrhythms, and procedural synthesis, it encourages producers to break out of repetitive sequencing habits and explore uncharted generative textures.

Yes. orDrumbox is released under the GNU General Public License (GPL), making it 100% free for both personal and commercial music production.

Yes! Despite its name, orDrumbox is a fully featured melodic sequencer. You can load pitched synth waveforms or multi-sampled instruments to sequence dynamic basslines, arpeggios, and lead synth lines alongside your percussion tracks.

• Pitch Offset & Scales: You can assign precise chromatic notes or constrain your sequences to specific musical scales directly on the step editor.
• Arpeggiator Tracks: Transform any bass or synth voice into rolling basslines using built-in arpeggiator modes (up, down, random, chord-based) with customizable octaves and gate times.
• Note Length & Glide: Adjust step durations and pitch envelopes to create smooth 303-style bass glides, muted stabs, or long sub-bass tones.

orDrumbox offers extensive pattern manipulation tools that go far beyond standard step sequencing:

• Triggers & Probabilities: Set conditional rules for note playback (e.g., play a hit or bass accent only 1 time out of 4, or trigger notes based on percentage chances) to create organic, non-repetitive rhythms.
• Retrigger & Micro-timing: Subdivide single grid steps to execute rapid roll effects (flams, ratchets, and burst fills) directly on the fly.
• Euclidean Rhythms & Polyrhythms: Generate mathematical, evenly-spaced rhythmic patterns across any step count (e.g., 5 hits over 16 steps) and customize time signatures per track.
• Per-Note Parameter Automation: Fine-tune pitch, velocity, panning, and VCO envelope parameters individually for every step in the grid.

orDrumbox supports independent track length settings, allowing every track within a single pattern to loop on its own cycle (e.g., running a 3-step hi-hat loop over a standard 16-step kick sequence).

This decoupling of track lengths creates complex polyrhythms and polymeters effortlessly. As the internal loops shift against each other over time, your pattern constantly evolves into new rhythmic combinations without requiring a full song arrangement.

orDrumbox features a rich, out-of-the-box library containing:

• Acoustic & Percussion Kits: Natural drum sets, hand percussion, and realistic cymbal sounds.
• Vintage Electronic Kits: Classic analog drum machine sounds (808/909-style kicks, snares, hats, and rims).
• Synthesized & Melodic Kits: Dedicated synth kits featuring bass waveforms, chords, and sound effects designed for electronic music production.

Yes. You can point orDrumbox to a local directory containing your sample collections. The audio engine automatically scans a sub-folder, parses sound files (such as .wav or .mp3), and attempts to categorise them based on file naming conventions.

This allows you to quickly generate new custom Drumkits from your existing sample libraries without having to assign every audio file manually.

Every drumkit is an open container where each Drumitem can be tailored:

• Hybrid Engine: Mix audio samples (.wav) with the internal Soft-Synth engine.
• Sample Manipulation: Set custom loop points, start/end trimming, and normalization per sample.
• Master Effects & Processing: Each drumkit routes through a dedicated master section featuring a Master Compressor, stereo panning, global gain staging, and dynamic pitch modulators.

You can create a custom Drumkit by adding new Drumitems (sound voices) in the Drumkit editor. For each voice, you can either assign local audio samples or configure the internal Soft-Synth engine.

Once your voices are assembled, you can adjust individual volume levels, pitch tuning, panning, and routing before saving the entire kit as a reusable library preset.

Yes. orDrumbox features a hybrid drumkit structure. Within a single kit, you can seamlessly pair sample-backed tracks with fully synthesized tracks.

Yes. Custom drumkits can be exported as standalone kit files or bundled into complete project exports. This makes it easy to archive your personalized sound banks, transfer them between browsers, or share your custom sound designs with the community.

When editing a sample or sound voice (Drumitem) within a drumkit, you can configure its core audio parameters in the item editor panel:

• Gain, Tune & Decay: Adjust the output volume gain, fine-tune the pitch, and set the decay time to sculpt short percussive hits or long decaying tones.
• Sound Type & Synthesis: Define whether the voice behaves as a standard sample playback voice or feeds into synthetic waveforms with pitch and volume envelope controls.
• Target Drumkit Assignment: You can choose which active target Drumkit receives the configured voice, allowing you to organize, move, or duplicate custom samples across different sound sets.

orDrumbox features a built-in Auto-Composition Engine based on heuristics. It analyzes your existing rhythm and bass tracks to automatically generate, mutate, and evolve new patterns and melodic lines.

Yes. The underlying code for the MCP integration is already fully written and available in the project repository (see mcp_tools.md).

Currently, this feature is primarily accessible to developers who run or connect their own local MCP server bridge. Connecting AI-driven natural language control only requires enabling the server connection.

Yes. You can render and export your patterns or full compositions directly into high-quality WAV audio files. This allows you to bounce your drum loops, basslines, and custom sound design to use in external DAWs (like Ableton Live, FL Studio, or Logic Pro) or for standalone listening.

Yes. You can export your patterns as standard MIDI files (.mid). This preserves all your note placements, velocity values, and track sequences, allowing you to trigger external hardware synths or assign your custom orDrumbox patterns to virtual instruments in your music production software.

orDrumbox leverages the modern Web Audio API to process high-quality audio and synthesis directly inside your browser. No plugins are required and everything runs natively on your CPU with ultra-low latency.

Your work is automatically cached locally using browser storage (LocalStorage and IndexedDB). You can also export and import complete projects as lightweight JSON files or record your audio output to standard .wav format.

Cache Storage (Automatic): Keeps your current session alive inside your browser's local memory (LocalStorage / IndexedDB).

Export/Import (Manual): Generates a standalone project file (e.g., .json) that you download to your hard drive for permanent backup.

Clearing temporary site data or cache will not affect exported files, but manually wiping LocalStorage will clear local autosaves. We recommend using Export Project to keep permanent backups.

Yes! orDrumbox is built as a Progressive Web App (PWA). Click the install icon in your browser address bar to add orDrumbox to your desktop or mobile home screen for offline usage.