If you’re returning to this manual because you’ve downloaded a version of Diode that has new features, you can find a summary of the new features here. Otherwise, please skip ahead to the “Welcome” section.

New in Diode-108 1.4.0 (In Beta Testing now -- not yet released to general public)

MIDI Sync Out
MIDI Note Out
Imported Kit Directories

New in Diode-108 1.3.0

Advanced FX Mode
Extended sample length (10 seconds versus less than 3 seconds)

New in Diode-108 1.2.0

Microphone Sampling
In/Out Song Markers
Choke Grid

New in DIODE-108 1.1.0

MIDI Sync In
MIDI Note In
New Special FX (Flange, Chorus, Vibrato)
AudioShare
AudioCopy

Welcome

Congratulations on owning the revolutionary Vibrant Diode-108 Drum Machine and Rhythm Sequencer. The Diode-108 gives you access to an outstanding collection of classic drum machine sounds in a powerful and easy-to-use sequencer.

First, before you go any further, this is a drum machine. Drum machines live to be played through giant stacks or headphones. So route your iPad to a loud, neighbor-blasting, quality stereo (subwoofer recommended) or a nice set of headphones. If you listen through your device’s speakers, you’ll make the hard workers at Vibrant Digital Engineering cranky.

Diode-108 free

In this manual, differences between Diode-108 and Diode-108 free show up in boxes like this.

Diode-108 vs Diode-108 free

Both versions of Diode are fully-featured Drum Machines. Compared to the free version, Diode-108 adds the ability to save songs and export audio through Audiobus, AudioShare, AudioCopy, Dropbox, and Soundcloud. Also DIODE-108 lets you load your own samples from Dropbox and import and export kits for sharing.

First steps in the Diode-108

The Diode-108 is a music app for your iPad with some unique tools that let you make infectious grooves. In fact, it demands that you make them.

You build up your song one pattern at a time in the Pattern Editor, placing notes, adding effects, setting the speed, swing, and time signature of 16 different instruments for 16 steps. Then you put your patterns together in the song editor. Some of the catchiest, best-selling, most danceable songs in the world have been made this way—the beat driven approach.

You can do it, too. It’s easier than you think. You can get started by going to the Diode-108’s pattern editor. The pattern editor is just a big grid. You tap the little rectangles to turn steps on and off.

Find the bass or kick drum and put down a hit on the 1st, 5th, 9th, and 13th steps (every four steps). Then set the snare to hit at the 3rd, 7th, 11th, and 15th steps (two steps after the bass drum). Then everywhere there’s a bass drum or snare drum hit, add a hi hat.

You’ve just made one of the most fundamental beats in music. You can stop right there! Countless songs have been made from that sound.

But wait, DON’T stop now! Go back in and put bass drum hits on ALL the odd-numbered notes and light up ALL the hihats. That’s the four-on-the-floor disco beat used to make millions get up onto the dance floor.

Things look pretty crowded, don’t they? Let’s spread things out a bit. Give yourself a bit of working room by making a pattern like this:

This sounds just like the first pattern we made, but it plays at half the speed. To pick up the pace, double the speed of the playback by doubling the bpm^[1] (beats per minute). Doing it this way will help you squeeze in a lot of interesting variety, because there is more room to put in off-beat hits.

So far, what you’ve seen can be duplicated with any pattern-driven, sequencer-based drum machine. So what makes the Diode-108 special? Let’s take a quick look at the stand-out features of Diode-108, and then put many of them to use in a song we built from the ground up.

Features

Among the insane features that you’ll use to make gut-busting, booty-shaking, face melting grooves:

Authentic, licensed samples of classic analog drum machines. These aren’t stray samples of dubious origin that we found lying around the Internet. Every one of our sounds was carefully created by our partners or our team members^[2]. And every kit was carefully constructed from our sample collection to be unique and inspirational.
16-instrument pattern editor. Just tap the squares in the grid to turn notes on and off. Bonus: Any beat that you’ve modified is clearly marked.
Chromatically tuned drums. Perfect for toms, congas, steel drums, and vibes. Any drum can be played up the scale.
Per-instrument effects let you, for example, compress the bass drum and bitcrush the snare. Per-step effects let you radically change your groove by dropping effects on individual steps.
Per-step-settings. Some instruments can play over several steps, like an 808 bass drum or cymbal. We let you change panning, volume, tone^[3], and pitch on the fly.
Wide speed adjustments, weird time signatures (even sequenced together into one song), and 50-75% shuffle settings.
Drag-and-drop song editor. Build up your song by dragging named patterns into the song list.
Create your own kits from our samples. Mix and match them! You like the bass drum from one machine and the snare from another and the clap from a third? No problem. Build your dream kit.
Import your own samples. Our code will analyze each sample so that it can be played straight-up (just as your found it), or to play it at any note on the scale. You’ll have full control over how your sample is panned, how loud it is, and whether you want to emphasize the bass or the treble of the sample. And remember, you’ll have full control over all the parameters on every step of the song by going into closeup view.

Make a Song, Take a Tour

Let’s find our way around the Diode-108 as we make a song. We’ll start by choosing a kit.

Switch to the Drum Machine view.

The drum kit you choose will determine the sound palette you’re working with. You’ll find lots of popular drum sounds from classic machines. But there are other choices as well. To see your choices, tap the load button.

You’ll see a list of drum kits to choose from. Let’s start with the world’s most popular drum machine—a basic 808.

Choose the 808, and then let’s move back to PATTERN.

Note that our drum kit has two kick drums and two snare drums. This is for variety. You can get varied sounds by mixing it up a bit. Also, try layering the two drums for a really big sound. Later in this tutorial, we’ll go to the FX section and add even more variety.

As you’re working through the tutorial, feel free to do back to the DRUM MACHINE and change the kit. Every kit has a different sound and can provide unique inspiration. We’ve made an effort to place instruments in the same slots within kits (where possible), so switching between kits usually preserves the overall feeling of the pattern.

Tutorial Step 1. Lay out a basic beat.

Let’s start with a moderate tempo around 105 bpm. Use the SONG BPM slider to get close, or type the exact bpm in by tapping on the bpm readout.

Start by making your grid match this one:

And then make these changes.

Quite a difference, right? Let’s see what the changes are.

Kick. Added an extra hit at position 8. At position 9, layered the kicks for a bigger sound. Often when you find a drum pattern, certain steps will be listed as “accent” steps. For kicks, there are many ways to create that accent effect. Use the alternative kick, layer the kicks, increase the volume of the kick on that step. If you want to distinguish a particular step, head in to FX.
Snare. Added extra snare work in the fourth measure (to help the beat head back to the first measure with a little bit of extra interest).
Hi Hat. Added some variety, adding a hit in the second measure and changing one of the hits to a Hi Hat Open. Feel free to play with the hats. This is one of the easiest ways to add variety.
Clap. Introduced a single clap hit. It’s very common that a clap lands on a snare (or replaces a snare hit). But have some fun with it. Try the clap out in every possible position, then see what you can do with two claps.

Tutorial Step 2. Dive in to FX!

Let’s make some big changes.

Reverb

Reverb lets you add artificial reverberation to your drum sounds. This makes it sound like your drum was recording in a big, boomy room, adding lots of atmosphere to your groove. Diode-108 has a flexible per-step system that lets you decide how much reverb each step gets.

Let’s try it out first on that clap.

First, go to FX.

Let’s take a quick look at the major FX controls. At the top left is an instrument chooser (labeled INSTRUMENT). We can see that the Kick 1 instrument is active and that it has 3 hits in this pattern. We can change the hits here, if we like, and the changes will be reflected in the pattern editor (and we’ll hear the changes immediately if the pattern is playing).

There are many effects that can be controlled here. But we want the Clap instrument (so choose Clap from INSTRUMENT and reverb, so hit REVERB. You should see this:

Slide the control for the clap hit up from DRY towards WET. Your clap will boom out. You can change REVERB OPTIONS to get a different sound.^[4]

Note that we’re only feeding the reverb effect with the clap sound of this one hit. Other claps won’t be affected by reverb. (Reverb is selective.) Try it out now. Click on some of the other pads to make more clap hits. Adjust the reverb between dry and wet for each hit to see what you get.

Take you reverb skills to the next level! Try feeding the reverb with a single snare hit and a single kick hit.

Special FX

Now let’s take a look at SPECIAL FX. Tap on SPECIAL FX and you’ll see this:

These are special effects than you can drag onto individual steps (one per step, but mix them up all you want, and each instrument can have its own sequence of Special FX).

To place the effects, just drag them up into the slots provided. Try this:

Here we have a busy sequence of claps with various effects applied. In this case, dive, retrig soar, sample reverse, and roll fast. You can see that it’s sometimes useful to have effects that continue after the hit. This can be the case when a sample is long, or your tempo is high and the sound spills out over the step. (But note that some effects, like Reverse and Flam, don’t do anything unless they are placed onto an active hit step.)

Note Mode

Diode-108 lets you play your drums as if they were instruments. Click on Pitch and Turn on Note Mode.

Using the Mute / Solo Features

Diode-108 plays up to 16 drum sounds at a time. While you’re working on a song or a pattern, you might want to hear only one or a few instruments at a time. This feature can help you perfect your patterns and songs by hearing only the instruments you want to hear as you make changes the the pattern, effects, or drum machine controls.

Soloing

Very often, you just want to hear the instrument you’re working on right now. To do that, click on Solo. Solo mutes ALL the other instruments. Solo is so powerful that it overrides your mute settings. What happens if you Solo a muted instrument? The Mute is ignored, the Solo is respected—you hear the instrument.

You can only Solo one instrument at a time (that’s what “solo” means). To turn off the Solo feature, just tap the Solo button of the currently-soloed instrument again.

Muting

The Mute feature is more flexible than Solo. With the Mute buttons, you can selectively decide which instruments you want to silence. You can hear how the bass drum and snare lines play off each other, for instance, while ignoring the hi hats.

Remember that all the Mute buttons are ignored if any instrument is being Soloed.

Mute and Solo on the Diode-108 Screens

Pattern Editor

Mute and Solo are both available here. Remember that soloing an instrument has priority over the state of all the Mute buttons.

When you switch away to some other screens, your Pattern Editor mute and solo settings may no longer apply, but when you come back to the Pattern Editor, you’ll find them as you left them.

FX

Since the FX screen is focused on editing the details of one instrument at a time, and you can only see the instrument you are working on, mute buttons would be confusing.

When you tap the Solo button here, you mute all fifteen of the the instruments that aren’t currently visible.

Pads

There are no Mute and Solo controls here, and the mute / solo settings of other screens do not affect what you hear when you’re on this screen.

Drum Machine

Mute and Solo Buttons can be found for each instrument, and they work just as they do on the Pattern Editor screen. This is where you dial in the controls for each instrument, so you can use mute and solo to help you isolate the instruments you are tweaking as a pattern or song plays.

Song Editor

There are no Mute and Solo controls here, and the mute / solo settings of other screens do not affect what you hear when you’re on this screen.

Transport Controls

Transport Controls allow you to pause, reset, and start playing your song or pattern. They act just like the controls you’re used to using when you play songs in iTunes or on your iPod, your CD player, or (if you have an old car) your cassette tape deck.

<< Rewind back to the beginning (of the pattern or song)

> Play

[] Stop

oo Loop

Time Signature Controls

Time Signature Controls change the number of beats in a measure. Although most music is in 4/4 time, some classics (especially some progressive rock classics) are in odd time signatures. Some songs even switch time signatures on the fly^[5]. Diode-108 lets you do just such crazy things.

BPM and Swing Sliders

There are two sliders next to each other that determine the speed and the feel of your song. BMP is a temp control for speed, and swing (some people call it shuffle) affects the internal timing of the beats in a measure.

Beats Per Minute

The speed (also called tempo) of a song is measured in beats per minute (BPM).

If you’re making electronic music, the tempo often helps define the style. Here are some typical bpm ranges:

Dubstep	140
DnB (Drum and bass)	160–180
House	118–135
Techno	120–160
Hardstyle	150
Trap	140
Hip Hop	80–115
TripHop	90–110

What about other kinds of music? Here are some popular songs^[6] and their BPMs. There are a surprising number of popular songs that have a bpm of 120, probably because many drum machines default to that rate when you turn them on.

Artist	Song	Tempo in BPM
Michael Jackson	Billie Jean	117
The Village People	YMCA	127
The Beatles	Hey Jude	74
Trio	Da Da Da	132
Pharrell Williams	Happy	160
Robin Thicke	Blurred Lines	120
Carly Rae Jepsen	Call Me Maybe	120
Foster The People	Pumped Up Kicks	128

Swing

Swing makes the odd numbered steps and the even numbered steps take different amounts of time. Swing isn’t just a drum machine thing. Swing (also called shuffle) pre-dates drum machines. The practice of playing swung 8th notes originated with swing music in the 1920’s and 1930’s.

To hear it, you have to have some drum hits on even-numbered steps. Drag the slider and you’ll hear the proportion of time between odd and even steps change. A swing of 50 is no swing at all (the two steps are 50/50 making up 100% of the time they share). A swing of 75 is quite extreme. Play around with this slider—it can dramatically affect the feel of your song.

The Diode-108, Screen by Screen

The Pattern Editor

What You Do Here

Songs are made by stringing patterns together, so patterns are the building blocks of everything that happens in Diode-108. This is where you create new patterns and edit old ones. When you make songs, you’ll be flipping back and forth between the Pattern Editor and the Song Editor.

Diode-108 comes with a lot of patterns pre-built, too. If you don’t want to make or tweak your own, this is still a great place to watch patterns play.

Controls

BPM
Swing
Pattern Selector
Transport Controls (Play, Stop, Rewind, Repeat)
Time Signature Selectors
Instrument Names (these can change when you change Drum Kits)
Pattern Pads (256 illuminated pads in a 16 column by 16 row configuration)
16 Mute buttons
16 Solo buttons

The FX View

When you want to add variety to your beats, or when you need some kind of special sound to build your groove, open the FX view. Here, instrument by instrument, and pattern by pattern, you can make all the adjustments you want.

Many of the sub views on this screen are straight-forward slider adjustments per step. Just try them out! Most of the subviews have one slider per step. You can alter the setting of multiple sliders with the RAMP and LOCK buttons.

RAMP

Hold down Ramp with one finger and move a slider with another finger. The slider you move will go up and down, along with all sliders up to the next hit. The sliders will form a stepping line between the one you are actively moving and the next step that has a hit on it.

LOCK

Hold down Ramp with one finger and move a slider with another finger. The slider you move will go up and down, along with all sliders up to the next hit. The sliders from the one you’re moving up until the next hit will all have the same level.

Special FX

You can drag any of the Special FX from the Special FX List up into the 16 steps (only one FX per step).

Try mixing it up, alternating between dive and soar, for example.

Bitcrush Sweep	This is a lo fi effect that can dramatically affect a sound. Try it on all kinds of samples. The effect will be more noticeable on some sounds than on others. This FX can be placed on any step (even steps without hits on them), so a long sound can start out normal and then be altered when it hits the FX. This effect evolves over multiple steps, so try it out on consecutive hits to hear how the effect progresses over time.
BuzzFi	Another lo fi effect, but with a different sound than Bitcrush Sweep. The effect will be more noticeable on some sounds than on others. This FX can be placed on any step (even steps without hits on them), so a long sound can start out normal and then be altered when it hits the FX. This effect evolves over multiple steps, so try it out on consecutive hits to hear how the effect progresses over time.
Reverse	Get that groovy backwards sound. But Reverse isn’t just for psychedelic music, it can turn hard percussion sounds into swooshy soft sounds, adding texture to your beats. Try it on the 808 cowbell. Note: This FX can only be used on a step with a hit on it. On an empty step, it does nothing.
Stutter / Roll Slow	Double up the hits in a step. This effect squeezes two hits into one, letting you go double-time without speeding up the tempo. This FX can be used on a hit. It can also rehit a sample that’s already playing from a previous step (assuming the sample is long enough to be still player).
Stutter / Roll Fast	Four steps in one! This FX can be used on a hit. It can also rehit a sample that’s already playing from a previous step (assuming the sample is long enough to be still player).
Dive	Drop the pitch of the sample on this step. Consecutive Dives will lower the pitch further and further. Note: This does not override the per-step pitch controls (either raw or note mode). You are free to use them together.
Soar	Raise the pitch of the sample on this step. Consecutive Soars will lower the pitch further and further. Note: This does not override the per-step pitch controls (either raw or note mode). You are free to use them together.
Retrig Dive	Drop the pitch of the sample on this step. Unlike the regular Dive FX, Retrig Dive starts the pitch back at normal for every consecutive step. Note: This does not override the per-step pitch controls (either raw or note mode). You are free to use them together.
Retrig Soar	Raise the pitch of the sample on this step. Unlike the regular Soar FX, Retrig Soar starts the pitch back at normal for every consecutive step. Note: This does not override the per-step pitch controls (either raw or note mode). You are free to use them together.
Flam ⅓	A short delay (⅓ of a step). Useful when “humanizing” a beat to make one instrument hit just a bit later than the others. Also useful (along with Flam ⅔) for making a triplet pattern over two or four steps.
Flam ½	A delay of half a step. Useful (along with rolls) to built double-speed high hat parts. For dubstep, use multiple high hat instruments and lots of Flam ½ and rolls on the hats.
Flam ⅔	A long delay (2/3 of a step). Useful to anticipate the upcoming beat (for humanization). Also useful (along with Flam ⅔) for making a triplet pattern over two or four steps.
Vibrato	Varies the pitch rapidly. Great for melodic sounds a sort of seasick wobble. Also great for adding variety to percussive sounds. Bored with your simple drum pattern? Try adding Vibrato to a few of the hits.
Chorus	A classic chorus effect. Works as you’d expect on sustained notes, but also works great as a nice fast roll for percussive instruments.
Flanger	One of the best-loved effects in music. (Almost every song on the Beatles’ album Revolver was subjected to some flanging.) Try it on everything!

Pitch

There are two ways to change the pitch of a sample--Relative Pitch and Note mode. In Relative Pitch, you are smoothly changing the playback speed of the sample so that it sounds higher or lower. Note Mode works in a similar way, except that it first locks the pitch playback to the sample’s closest musical note, then allows you to set the note anywhere in the chromatics scale up or down an octave (for a total of 25 choosable notes).

Relative Pitch

Move the sliders up and down to change the pitch of the sample.

Note Mode

In note mode (engaged by tapping the switch in the bottom left corner), you’ll see the musical note of each step. Move the sliders up and down to change the note. Samples that last beyond the end of their beat can change musical note per step (so you can play a long note and have it jump through various notes as it plays).

You’ll find that different samples have different root notes. One sample might be closest to a C, while another is an F#. Diode-108 uses an algorithm to try to find the root note of the sample. In some cases (like a sound that is noisy or rapidly changes pitch), you may disagree with its assessment. Even in these cases, note mode can be useful, though, to add variety to sounds. For fun, try it on high hats, cymbals, and other noisy and clangorous sounds. The song Cymbalism uses note mode on an 808 cymbal to turn it into a rhythmic instrument. Near the end of the song, the cymbal is further manipulated by changing its volume and adding Special FX Dives and Soars.

A more conventional use of Note Mode is to tune your bass drum, toms, claves, congas, and bongos to notes that are in the key of your song.

Try making a song that plays a simple melody with a single tom. If you get ambitious, follow that experiment up by using three or four toms to play chords.

The song Square Wave Alley uses four Nintendo Gameboy square waves (different octaves) to weave a complex four-part melodic piece.

Delay and Reverb

These two effects are what’s known as “send effects”. You can adjust the delay and reverb settings for your song globally, but then decide how much each instrument contributes to the effect. For instance, the bass drum might not feed the reverb at all. The snare drum might feed it a little. The hats and clap? Maybe they are drenched in reverb.

Excitingly, you have control of delay and reverb send amounts not only in the Drum Machine view, but also per beat! This is amazingly useful and flexible. It means that you decide which particular beats have delay or reverb. Take a moment to listen to Highway 66. If possible use headphones. There are only a couple moments of reverb in the song (single steps of single instruments with cranked-up reverb), but it’s enough to add interest and movement. Can you find them?^[7]

Delay and reverb have controls at the bottom left.

Delay

The delay controls are as follows:

Delay
Feedback
Filter

Reverb

The reverb controls are:

Room Size
Damping
Width
Hold
Gate

Advanced FX Mode

Let’s take a look at Slider Mode versus Advanced Mode. Here’s a hi hat pattern where we have raised the pitch of the hat on step 5.

Now tap on the SLIDER MODE / ADVANCE MODE switch to get to advanced mode. You’ll see that every step has been subdivided into four sections. That means instead of having control over the FX on a sixteenth note (1/16) grid, you have control on a sixty-fourth (1/64) note grid!

By default, the changes are discrete and instantaneous, but you can smooth the changes with the tie buttons underneath the steps. You have control over which steps are smooth and which steps aren’t.

Let’s make some changes. SOLO the instrument so you can hear the changes in isolation from any other voices that are playing.

You can use a finger to draw your FX automation. Try it. Drag left and right across the control area.

You can also use multi-touch to make linear ramps or other shapes. Put two fingers into the control area and drag them around to get a feel for this method of defining the FX automation curve. Try the different curves.

Even/Odd Controls

For wilder effects, you can affect only the “even” or only the “odd” partitions of the steps. Try this on long samples (it’s especially interesting on spoken word samples).

Pads

What You Do Here

Pads is where you can play a drum kit with your fingers.

You can play along with a pattern or song, even adding hits into an existing pattern. If you are adding notes into a new pattern, the Metronome button and the Tap Tempo button can be very useful.

Controls

16 pads for playing the instruments
Record button
Metronome Button
Tap Tempo Button

MIDI Settings

You can set up MIDI Sync and MIDI Note In in the PADS view. (More info to come in this manual. For now, view MIDI info here.

Drum Machine

What You Do Here

You can load a different drum kit in here, or save a kit if you’ve made changes to it.

With the dials, you can tweak the sounds of your kit, giving it the characteristics you want for your song. Is that 808 bass drum going to be deep, long, and boomy? Or is it going to be short, higher, and punchy? You decide here. (Note that many of these parameters can be changed per-not over in the Closeup view.)

You can even load in samples from other kits to make a combined kit, or load in you own samples.

Controls

Mute
Solo
Pan
Volume
Reverb
Pitch
Gate
Compress
Distort
Sample load / Sample rename
Audition

Loading Samples

To load a sample, tap the name of the sample you want to replace, then select the sample. You can choose a sample from another drum kit.

If you want to load in your own samples, create a folder in Dropbox named Diode-108. Inside that folder create a folder called Samples. Place .wav files in the Diodes-108/Samples folder. Then in Diode-108 when you are loading samples choose “Import from Dropbox”. You should see your .wav files in the SAMPLE BROWSER.

Song Editor

Diode-108 Free

Diode-108 Free cannot save songs. You’ll need the full version of Diode-108 for that.

What You Do Here

To make a song, drag patterns into the song list in the order you want them to be played.

Diode-108 free

You can save songs and patterns in Diode-108, but not in Diode-108 free.

On the left you’ll find a list of the patterns available to you. If you want to start from scratch, choose NEW SONG. There is always at least one pattern in the list. If you want more patterns to choose from, choose LOAD PATTERN and you can import patterns from any song (including the built-in songs that the app ships with). If you want to save a pattern, or multiple patterns, you save them in a song. So if you have a set of your own dance patterns, you can choose SAVE SONG and then save them as “My Dance Patterns” (or any name you want). Whenever you want to use them, choose LOAD PATTERN to import them. You can import as many patterns from as many songs as you like.

Adding a Pattern to a Song

To build up a song, you drag from the pattern list over to the song list. You drag by grabbing the “handle” of the pattern (the three stacked bars, in the MOVE column) and dragging the pattern into the song list wherever you like it. Or, double-tap the pattern name to add it to the end of the song.

Moving a Pattern within a Song

To move a pattern in the song, grab it by the handle and move it up or down in the song list.

Pattern Naming

Since all the patterns are named, be sure to name them so they make sense. Some good names follow.

Intro A
Intro B
Verse 1A
Verse 2A
Chorus
Second Chorus
Stripped Chorus
Chorus no Snares
Fill 1
Fill Snares
Fill Toms
Transition A
Bridge
Bridge with Cowbell
Refrain
Climb
Coda
Finale
Fadeout

If the name is related to the function the pattern fulfills, you’ve done your job as far as naming goes. Anything that helps you keep track of the patterns you are managing will do.

Diode-108 free

You can save songs and patterns in Diode-108, but not in Diode-108 free.

Saving Your Song

As you work, save your song. If you have made changes to the drum kit in the Drum Machine view, you’ll be asked if you want to save the kit. You probably should save the kit, unless you want to revert back to how it was before you made alterations. If the kit is specific to the song, save it with a name that will help you remember that. For instance, if your song is named “Oh Billy”, then name the kit “Oh Billy” and the song “Oh Billy” as well. The kit will be “Oh Billy.kit” and the song with be “Oh Billy.sng”.

Edit mode on the Song view (deleting and renaming patterns)

If you want to delete patterns from the pattern list or the song list, it’s time to learn Edit mode. Edit will allow you to delete patterns, rename patterns, and change the tempo and swing of a pattern. When you’re done editing, you might want to toggle Edit mode back off so you don’t accidentally delete anything.

The Kits

99Sounds

These are kits we’ve put together along with from our partner 99Sounds. The samples come from various 99Sounds products, including the popular 99 Drum Samples collection.

99Sounds Mostly Acoustic	A nice mix of acoustic and “other” sounds. The hallmark of this kit is variety and versatility. It’s a great kit for sketching out new ideas.
99Sounds Acoustic	A traditional-sounding acoustic (that means “real”) drum kit.
99Sounds 8bit	Two bytes of nostalgia in one great-tasting drum kit. Combines Commodore 64 sounds with Gameboy sounds, for when you you know you want chip sounds, but you just can’t decide which ones.
99Sounds C64	Sound samples from the Commodore 64’s amazing SID chip, which was by far the standout computer sound chip of its generation. Harsh and bright, with a rare on-board analog filter, it’s a great source for percussion sounds.
99Sounds GB	The Gameboy square wave sound launched the 8-bit live performance movement. The sound is simultaneously sweet and biting. It has a distinctive percussion sound, but you may prefer to layer in some 808 or 909 kick and snare if you’re looking to make a dance hit.
99Sounds Electrohats	This is the perfect kit in which to build some high-hat heavy dubstep patterns. It’s all about double-time hats with lots of variety, so use the roll and flam FX on several different hat instruments.
99Sounds Hands Make Sounds	What can you do with a kit full of claps and snaps? Quite a bit, actually! Try making a song with another kit and then switch over to this one. You can also heavily alter these natural sounds into exciting unnatural sounds on the FX page. Try pitch dives and soars, or make a melody from the finger snaps by going into the pitch Node Mode.
99Sounds Misc	The 99 Drum Samples collection is so strong that endless combinations can be put together that are still breathtaking. This kit is a delight, but feel free to mix and match samples to create your own signature sound.
99Sounds New Old	New sound combined with old sounds. This kit takes its name from two of its samples, and it fits! A versatile kit that makes for a great inspiration.
99Sounds 808 Silver	9Sounds’ 99 Drum Samples includes lots of synthesized 808 sounds. Enough to make a great-sounding kit, in fact. Also check out the Red and Blue 808 kits from Samples From Mars.

Dubsounds

Dubsounds Auto-Vari 64	The Hammond Auto-Vari 64 is a 1974 analog drum machine for organ players. It’s a close relative of the Roland TR-77 (made for Hammond by Roland). Best feature: Fresh, smoother, more refined versions of some TR-77 sounds. More info at the Auto-Vari 64 samples page at Dubsounds.
DubSounds CR-8000	The 1980 Roland CR-8000 is somewhere between the CR-78 and the TR-808 in character, with amazing hihats. Famous for: The disco music at Taffy’s in the film Blade Runner. More info at the CR-8000 samples page at Dubsounds.
Dubsounds DMX Black	The 1980 Oberheim DMX is a digital sample drum machine with warm Curtis filters. Famous for: Hip hop. Along with the 808, this was one of the drum machines present at Hip Hop’s birth. More info at the DMX samples page at Dubsounds.
Dubsounds DMX Orange	To best use all the samples Dubsounds provided us, we created two different DMX kits. Try them both!
Dubsounds DR-55	The Boss DR-55 was a popular analog drum machine from 1981 that the masses could afford. Boss was Roland’s budget brand, so this is one of Roland’s last analog drum machines, coming out just before the TR-606 and Boss DR-110. More info at the DR-55 page at Dubsounds.
Dubsounds DR-110	The 1983 Boss DR-110 is quite a step up from the earlier DR-55. Some even prefer its tones to that of the TR-606, and there are several popular modifications commonly applied to the DR-110 to enlarge its capabilities. This is the penultimate Roland analog, with only the PB-300 coming later. More info at the DR-110 page at Dubsounds.
Dubsounds DR-220E	The 1985 Boss DR-220E, unlike the earlier Boss machines, is a digital drum machine. It’s focused on “electronic” samples, and it sounds similar to the Simmons SDS-V. More info at the DR-220E page at Dubsounds.
Dubsounds DRM 32	The 1979 Electro Harmonix DRM 32 is an electro drum machine, featuring a crazy space tom drum. It’s a rather rare machine, and a nice kit to choose when you want to go for something different. More info at the DRM 32 page at Dubsounds.
Dubsounds MP-3	The Korg Mini-Pops 3 (also sold as the Univox SUPER RHYTHMER SR-55) is a 1969 analog drum machine. Famous for: Used by Jean Michel Jarre, Lee “Scratch” Perry, and Kraftwork. More info at the Mini-Pops 3 samples page at Dubsounds.
Dubsounds FR6	The 1974 Ace Tone Rhythm Ace FR6 is a predecessor of Roland drum machines (Ace Tone was Ikutaro Kakehashi’s earlier company before he formed Roland). This is basically the same drum machine as the Roland TR-55. More info at the FR6 samples page at Dubsounds.
Dubsounds KR-55	The Korg KR-55 was a 1979 analog drum sound that introduced metically and sharp sounds that were extremely fresh at the time. It’s the first drum machine with a variable swing control. Famous for: Its use on the Depeche Mode's "Speak & Spell" album. More info at the Korg KR-55 samples page at Dubsounds.
Dubsounds MT-68	Casio’s 1983 Casiotone MT68 was a very popular home keyboard that had an analog percussion accompaniment section featuring a terrific hi hat sounds. It’s a rather unusual choice, but it’s begun to show up on electronic and dance tracks lately. More info at the MT-68 samples page at Dubsounds.
Dubsounds PB-300	Roland’s final analog drum machine was the 1984 multi-function PB-300. It sounds like a mix of some of Roland’s earlier machines. More info at the PB-300 samples page at Dubsounds.
Dubsounds R-12	The Rhythm-12 is the first drum machine from Electro-Harmonix, dating from 1976. It features a great kick sound. More info at the Rhythm-12 samples page at Dubsounds.
Dubsounds TR-66	The 1974 Roland TR-66 is surprisingly great-sounding for a drum machine of its era. In fact, Dubsounds claims it has the best overall snare drum sound of any of the 1970’s Roland drum machines. Famous for being used in Roxy Music's "Dance Away". More info at the TR-66 samples page at Dubsounds.
Dubsounds TR-77	The 1972 TR-77 was Roland’s very first drum machine. It’s also one of the warmest-sound of Roland’s machines. Famous for being used by Gary Numan, Squeeze, and Duran Duran. More info on the TR-77 samples page at Dubsounds.
Dubsounds TR-330	The 1973 Roland TR-330 has a great kick and high hats and unusual congas. More info on the TR-330 samples page at Dubsounds.
Dubsounds SM-8 + SR-88	Some classic drum machines just don’t have very many sounds. We’ve put together sounds from the 1980 SoundMaster SM-8 and the 1981 SoundMaster SR-88 to make one drum kit. These drum machines are not heard much, so use them to keep people guessing. More info on the SoundMaster SM-8 and the SoundMaster SR-88 pages at Dubsounds.

Samples From Mars

SFM 808 Blue	Perhaps the most iconic of all drum machines, the 1980 Roland TR-808 is the drum machine that launched the hip hop revolution, and has since been the basis for dozens of electronic music genres. All the 808’s sounds are iconic, and they are all here in these two kits, which we’ve color coded red and blue.
SFM 808 Red	The 808’s diving bass drum is legendary for its ability to produce the low frequency booming that drives folks to the dance floor. For information on how Samples From Mars recorded and processed these classic sounds, see the 808 From Mars page.
SFM 909 Green	The 1984 Roland TR-909 was designed to be an improvement on the earlier 808. The hihats and cymbals are sample-based to compete with the digitally sampled drum machines which were becoming increasingly popular. The 909 is a versatile machine, and we are providing two kits based on its samples, color coded green and yellow.
SFM 909 Yellow	The 909 eventually became the anchor drum synth for house, acid, techno, and other electronic genres. For information about how Samples from Mars sampled and processed the 909, see the 909 From Mars page.
SFM CR-78 Gold	Before the 808 and the 909, the 1978 Roland CR-78 was the peak of drum machines. It was used in used in countless hit records in the 1970s and 1980s. But it’s not just for pop and rock. Samples From Mars has brought the CR-78 up to date with a careful recording session and modern processing.
SFM CR-78 Gray	The CR-78 has a pretty well-known sound. Despite its old-school reputation, it has solid techno cred. For information about how Samples from Mars sampled and processed the CR-78, see the CR-78 From Mars page.
SFM Custom	Samples From Mars put together this combination kit for us, using the other drum machines mention here, plus a few surprises.
SFM DTRAX Cyan	Samples From Mars created these drum kits to be reminiscent of the processed early digital drum machines of the 80s, like the Linn machines and the 1984 Sequential Circuits Drumtraks. Each hit was carefully processed to give it what it needs for modern music production. We have two kits, color-coded Cyan and Magenta.
SFM DTRAX Pink	The Linn and the DrumTraks are famous for being used in many 1980 songs. Both machines were used in many Prince songs, and countless others. For information about how Samples from Mars sampled and processed the Drumtraks, see the CR-78 From Mars page.
SFM Simmons	The early-80s analog Simmons SDS-800 is famous for its synthetic tom sound. The kick is great, and works best layered with DrumTrax or 808 kicks. (It’s easy to layer kicks on the Diode-108. Just load in one machine’s kick in over top one of the two kicks of the other machine’s. See the mix-and-match section of the manual.) Simmons From Mars.

Orange Tree Samples

OTS Jazz Funk Orange	This kit is pure acoustic. It’s 16 samples from a small jazz drum kit. Perfect for jazz and funk.
OTS Jazz Funk White	The white version of the OTS Jazz Funk kit uses completely different samples and gives you a different sound. Program a pattern and switch between the two kits to see how different they sound.

Human Beat Box

Human Beats

The Human Beats kit is 100% pure human sound, voiced by competitive beatboxer Dakota Lyn.

With Diode-108’s FX, you can mangle these sound beyond its humanity. If you like your beatbox mixed with other percussion sounds, that’s easy to do. Just substitute other drums in for some of the human hits.

VDE

vde Semi-Acoustic

Electronic drum sounds along with some acoustic handheld percussion. Great for making patterns that include some melody lines.

Don’t forget, you can borrow samples from any kit to substitute into any other kit.

vde Synthdrum Black

Synthesized electronic drum sounds.

vde Synthdrum White

Synthesized electronic drum sounds.

Tips and Tricks for Groovemakers

Layer different bass drums. It’s common to blend two bass drums together. Often a boomy 808 has a brighter bass drum overlapping it. How do you do that? Find a kit with two bass drums, or make your own kit.
Add variety. Make subtle (or not so subtle) changes to each hit. Especially on common sounds like the hats and the bass and snare. Remember that every hit of a real analog drum machine is slightly different.
Add ghosts notes. What’s a ghost note? It’s a quiet version of a drum hit that comes right before the expected hit. Try making it much quieter than the main hit, using the per-step volume control.

Our Partners

Sound Design

We’ve worked hard to track down the best drum samples on the internet, fully licensed from the people who made them.

Dubsounds

Dubsounds, run by producer / sound engineer Shaun Brooks, is home to one of the world’s greatest collections of classic drum machine samples.

At Dubsounds, you’ll find enormous bundles of samples in .wav format, plus a comprehensive collection of rx2 (ReCycle) loops. Samples from vintage synthesizers in the popular sf2 format are also available.

For the Diode-108 drum machine, Shaun provided a hand-picked selection of samples from various classics.

Samples From Mars

Samples From Mars was founded by Eddie Mars, a Brooklyn NYC musician, DJ, producer, and engineer.

The company provides huge, high-quality sample libraries of carefully recorded and processed drum machines, giving classics like the 808 and 909 a modern bite. Check out their website to learn more about their analog recording process.

For the Diode-108 drum machine, Samples From Mars provided custom-recorded and processed samples from some of the world’s greatest drum machines, including the 808, 909, CR-68, DrumTrax, Simmons, and more.

99 Sounds

99Sounds is run by Tomislav Zlatic, who also runs the popular BedroomProducersBlog site, one of the premier sites for people making and producing music at home on their computers.

99Sounds offers free sample sets featuring drum machines, synth, chip sounds, and more.

For the Diode-108 drum machine, Tomislav provided sounds from the 99Drums and HandMakeSounds collections.

Orange Tree Samples

Orange Tree Samples is a premium provider of sample kits for the KONTAKT sample player where you will find large collections of meticulously recorded basses, guitars, keyboards, and other acoustic instruments.

Orange Tree's goal is to produce high-end sample libraries that sound virtually indistinguishable from a live performance.

For the Diode-108 drum machine, Orange Tree provided a lively set of samples from an acoustic jazz drum set.

Downloading More Kits

Diode-108 kits are easy to make and share. In the future we’ll be offering more kits for free. But we’re also happy to have users make and trade their own.

Making Your Own Drumkits

Modifying a drum kit

The Diode-108 has a set of built-in kits. Those will always be there for you. There is a lot of variety so you may make several songs before you even think about going beyond the built-ins.

But suppose while making a song, you find that one of the instruments is too loud, or should be panned to the left or right, or needs reverb? You can make changes to the kit on the Drum Machine view. To save the changes, press SAVE on the Drum Machine view. Save to “Custom Kits” and your altered kit will be preserved for the song you’re working on, and any future songs where you might want to use the kit.

Diode-108 free

You can export to Dropbox in Diode-108, but not in Diode-108 free.

Notice that you can also choose “Export to Dropbox”. This saves all of the settings (and all of the wav files that aren’t built into Diode-108) into a zip that you can save off as a backup, email to friends, or post on the web. Yes, you can share kits with your friends!^[8]

Mix & Max -- Making a new drum kit from two or more other kits

With just a few exceptions, the built-in kits in the Diode-108 are pure--all the 909 samples are in 909 kits, all the TR-66 samples are in the TR-66 kit.

That’s normally a great thing. Classic drum machines are classics for a reason. All the circuits are of the same era, and designed to sound good together. And we’re use to hearing them together.

But layering different sounds together, and mixing different sounds from different drum kits can give you a whole new palette to play around in. Suppose you want a kit that’s basically an 808, but with a CR-78 guiro and a clap from the Boss DR-110, and you want the second snare and the second bass drum to come from the 909 (for lots of variety).

That’s no problem with the Diode-108. Let’s do it. First, load up one of the 808 kits. We’ll use the SFM 808 Red kit. Load that kit now.

Next, find the cymbal. We’re going to replace it with the CR-78 guiro sample. The cymbal is the last instrument, way over on the right. The name of the sample is “cymbal” and the voice name for the kit is “CYMBAL”. Click on either of those words.

In the SAMPLE SOURCES list, choose SFM CR78, then tap guiro in the SAMPLE BROWSER. You can audition the sound by clicking on the symbol that looks like a play button inside a dotted circle. Type Cr78 Guiro in the VOICE LABEL so we remember where this sample comes from. Then tap Load. You now have an 808 kit with one substitution.

Do the same with the other instruments we talked about changing. When you’re done, it’ll look something like this:

Play a pattern. It’s not a huge change, is it? These are all Roland sounds. But now you can use the 808 kick and snare for awhile, then switch to the 909 kick and snare. And try layering them.

The DR-110 clap is sweet, but let’s do something a little more radical. Give up the analog clap and choose a clap from the Hands Make Sounds SAMPLE SOURCE.

Add some reverb. Now that sounds different!

Diode-108 free

You can export to Dropbox in Diode-108, but not in Diode-108 free.

Make all the changes you want, substituting any instrument for any other. When you’re happy with your new kit, name it and save it. If you want, you can export it to Dropbox as a zip. That file can be imported back in, or given to a friend so that they can use your kit.

A Kit from Scratch

What if you want to start from scratch, with your own sounds?

Diode-108 can import samples. You’ll want to plan your kit. A kit is always 16 samples. If you want to organize it like most of the built-in kits, it will look something like this:

Sample 1	Kick Drum
Sample 2	Alternate Kick Drum
Sample 3	Snare Drum
Sample 4	Alternate Snare Drum
Sample 5	Closed High Hats
Sample 6	Open High Hats
Sample 7	Tom 1
Sample 8	Tom 2
Sample 9	Tom 3
Sample 10	Tom 4
Sample 11	Clap
Sample 12	Clave
Sample 13	Cowbell
Sample 14	Tamborine or Maracas
Sample 15	Rimshot
Sample 16	Cymbal

Of course, not all drum kits will have all these sounds. You’re free to lay out your drum kit however you like, but conforming to roughly this pattern will enable you to more easily reuse patterns from other songs.

How Imported Kits are Handled

BETA

Note that this section of the manual refers to features found in the current beta version of the software. It’s under development.

Previous versions of Diode-108 (before version 1.4.0) were prone to having the Imported Samples directory grow in size as users imported more and more kits (each of which has up to 16 unique samples). Since we’d like our users to share kits with each other, we changed Diode so that imported kits would instead bring their samples into their own directories.

Cleaning Up Your Imported Samples Directory

You can use the fact that Diode-108 creates special folders for imported kits to clean up your Imported Samples directory. Simply export your kit to Dropbox, then import it back in. The import procedure will create a directory with the samples used in the kit. Now you can delete those samples from the Imported Samples directory. You may want to keep backups of your samples elsewhere before doing this, just to make sure you don’t delete a sample used in a different kit. You may want to do this as you create kits so that the Imported Samples Directory never gets too large.

Resources for Beat Construction

Drum Programming

The Theory of Drum Programming

YouTube links of interest

Moby's Drum Machine & Synth Collection

BBC Radio 1 Stories - Roland TR-808 TR-909 TB-303 Documentary

9-9-09 (An Oral History of Drum Machines)

Phil Collins demonstrates Roland CR-78 drum machine

Blondie - Heart Of Glass - making of documentary.

SynthMania quick tip #6 - Marvin Gaye's "Sexual Healing" Roland TR-808 pattern

Roland TR-808 - Famous Drum Beats

Credits

Art, Animation, Visual Design, UI

Alex Swanson

Technical Assistance

Michael Jones mikejonesaudio.com

[1] We have a handy guide to the bpms of many types of popular songs here.

[2] Want to find out more about our high-quality samples and the people who made them? Click here.

[3] Tone controls are unusual in sample-based drum machines, but the tone control is an essential tool for creating varied drum sounds. And for making bass drums even boomier!

[4] All instruments that use reverb use the same REVERB OPTIONS settings.

[5] In fact, some sadistic cover bands and DJs delight in playing songs that sound danceable, but because of their changing time signatures, cause unsuspecting dancers to get lost and look foolish. If you’re ever on the dance floor and someone starts playing Pink Floyd’s Money, Peter Gabriel’s Solsbury Hill, or Genesis’ Turn It On Again, someone is feeling ornery, and you’ve got a great excuse to leave the dance floor for another drink or go use the restroom. And, especially, beware Björk, who likes to write songs that are partially 17/4 or 17/8.

[6] These songs are all from Wikipedia’s list of best-selling singles of all time.

[7] The reverb step effect can be found on four steps in the song. Listen closely at: 24 seconds, 28 seconds, 29 seconds, and right at the final beat at 37 seconds into the song.

[8] In fact, sharing kits is a great way to MAKE friends! Of course, you should only share samples that are legal to share!