RECORDING November 2024 - 54

Review by Aaron J. Trumm
Imaginando BAM
Pattern-Based Beats or the New Age
In this year's July issue, you may have seen my review of the K7D, a surprisingly
cool and robust tape delay plugin by Portuguese company Imaginando. Since I
was duly impressed with K7D, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to check out the
company's BAM pattern-based beat maker. As with K7D, a super simple initial
impression hides great depth within BAM.
hardware boxes-for instance, the old
Boss DR-220 drum machine.
You can use it as a plugin in your DAW
or as a standalone app on a PC or iPad. As
with all Imaginando software, it's geared
toward that use, even though it works perfectly
in a PC or DAW environment.
You'll usually start by loading samples/
sounds into your tracks via the " sound
engines " -kick, snare, hat, bass, whatever.
Once you have some sounds loaded,
there are several ways to work:
* The MATRIX panel displays a
grid of MIDI (and audio) clips and
scene launcher buttons. You can
trigger clips by clicking on them.
This isn't like a DAW timeline. It's
more like the session view in Ableton,
for example.
* The TIMELINE panel is the familiar
pattern-based beat builder. It
works like every pattern-based
builder in history. Imaginando
says the MATRIX view is the heart
of the BAM workflow, but for me,
it's the TIMELINE-but I digress,
and you can build around what
works for you.
* The AUTOMATION panel gives
you clip-based step automation of
parameters so you can do things
like vary the velocity of hits to
make things sound more human.
Boom, Bop, BAM
Pattern-based beat-making is as old as
drum machines and was a considerable
part of the electronic music revolution
from the 1980s onward. You don't need
to be able to play drums or finger drums
or even understand rhythm to understand
the step-sequencer style paradigm-click
around in the grid of squares and you can
create a rhythm track.
BAM starts with that old-school methodology
and then adds many modern extras-like
audio import, sample manipulation,
arrangement tools, and an extensive
library of samples (including pitch-based)
and instruments so you can go beyond
54 RECORDING November 2024
just drums. BAM is more of a workstation
than a beatbox and you can make a
whole song with this thing.
The BAM Workflow
To quote the online manual, " BAM is a
groove box-style application ready for full
autonomous music production. It comes
with sound engines, effects units, a mixer,
various panels for MIDI and/or audio
clips and automation editing, a factory
soundbank, and an expansion bank. "
What that means is that BAM is primarily
a real-time drum sequencer and
is loop-based. It's like a hybrid of other
popular loop-based creative DAWs and
* The COMPOSER panel is a piano
roll. It also adds notes to the
timeline, so as you're working on
a particular loop, you can switch
back and forth between the timeline
and the composer. This is
handy if you want to create something
pitch-based, like a bass line.
* The MIXER panel is a standard and
handy mixer. It has fader levels, pan,
A & B sends to add effects to tracks
or the master, etc. It's not as robust as
a full DAW, of course, but you could
actually mix a whole song in this
panel or effectively use BAM live.
BAM in Action
For anyone performing live electronica,
BAM is a lightweight, ultra-affordable
tool that you can slap on your iPad and,
given a minimum of ingenuity, create lush,
unique, ever-changing live performances.
RECORDING November 2024

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