Over at Wavparty I put up a new pack of drum samples and instruments: Dinky’s Taiko samples & instruments. This is the biggest pack I’ve put together so far and also includes some Ableton instruments.



I’ve turned into a huge ALM/Busy Circuits fanboy--their modules are great and their aesthetic is so fun, simple and distinctive.

I had never really dug super deep with Dinky’s though. I generally just throw a bunch of modulation at it and steer into the craziness--and if you watch the YouTube videos you’ll see I’m not alone. But some careful tuning produced some great sounds here. And the included waveforms include some fun/weird vocal sounds and some other waves that work well for melodic sounds.

I’ve been learning a lot about Ableton’s built in sample instruments (Sampler/Simpler/Drum Racks) while doing these packs and demos and it was another interesting challenge to but together a good selection of instruments to go along with the pack.

Quick sidetrack: I really like putting tuned kick drums and other melodic samples into these packs but a lot of these modules are a pain to tune. I just got an Addac 306 and here’s how I’m doing this now:

  • run drum/oscillator audio out into tuner
  • run a Addac 306 CV out into oscillator pitch
  • use the 306’s min/span controls to get the pitch into the ballpark of C
  • narrow the span control as much as you can while still keeping the pitch in the ballpark of C
  • use the crossfader to fine tune the pitch

Maybe that will save someone else some frustration someday.