Sweet Berta

A thumb piano: a triangle tine with a bright FM ping at 3 to 1 on its strike, decaying quickly into a round, woody tone in a small room. Play pentatonic patterns and interlocking ostinatos. Macros: Ping, Ring, Room. Macro 8, Master, is the output level.

A biting, vocal pluck: osc 2 hard-synced to osc 1, the envelope sweeping its pitch down through the harmonics on every note, with a quick dotted echo. Play staccato hooks and sharp off-beat stabs. Macros: Sweep, Decay, Echo, Bright. Macro 8, Master, is the output level.

A bright, singing steel drum: a triangle struck by osc 1 at three times its pitch, so the octave and the twelfth bloom out of every hit and fade into a round hum, with a quick wobble on the strike. Play bouncy calypso melodies and quick rolls in the middle of the keyboard; harder hits ring brighter. Macros: Ring, Shine, Roll, Space. Macro 8, Master, is the output level.

Drops falling into a still pool: a pure triangle whose pitch leaps up into the note on every strike, a liquid plip, echoing from side to side in a cave. Play sparse single notes high up and let the echoes answer; a quick run sounds like a dripping tap. Macros: Echo, Cave, Length. Macro 8, Master, is the output level.

Two detuned saws through a moderately resonant ladder with key tracking, legato glide and vibrato on the mod wheel: a singing, expressive monophonic lead. Macros: Bright, Bite, Vibrato, Glide, Thick, Attack, Tail and Master.

A soft, warm hand-played steel tongue: a triangle with an octave overtone, struck gently with the fingers and left to hum for seconds in a wide, calm hall. Play slow, meditative melodies over a low root, letting each note ring into the next. Macros: Ring, Overtone, Warmth, Hall. Macro 8, Master, is the output level.

Bronze bars tuned in pairs a little apart, as a gamelan is, so every note shimmers with a slow beating wave; the two triangles also modulate each other for a metallic edge on the strike. Play interlocking patterns on a few notes and let the beats ring out. Macros: Shimmer, Bronze, Ring, Hall. Macro 8, Master, is the output level.

A tiny toy piano with metal rods for strings: a thin, plinky narrow pulse and a high triangle a touch out of tune with it, all treble and no body, dying away fast. Play simple nursery melodies high up, or a slightly eerie music-room line. Macros: Plink, Tune, Ring, Room. Macro 8, Master, is the output level.

A hollow bamboo tube knocked with a hard mallet: a dry, inharmonic FM clack at 2.76 to 1 with a tap of noise, gone almost before it starts. Play fast, busy percussive patterns and tumbling runs. Macros: Clack, Hollow, Length, Room. Macro 8, Master, is the output level.

A wooden xylophone with gourds under its bars, each gourd's thin membrane buzzing on the strike: the round knock of an FM bar, with the voice fed back into the mixer for the rattle. Play driving, repeating figures; dig in and the buzz gets louder. Macros: Buzz, Knock, Ring, Room. Macro 8, Master, is the output level.

A string section plucking with their fingers: two saws a little apart snapping shut through a soft 12 dB filter, thickened by a light chorus and placed in a concert hall. Play staccato, tiptoeing lines and short chords; soft notes stay round. Macros: Snap, Section, Length, Hall. Macro 8, Master, is the output level.

Pairs of steel strings struck with little hammers and never damped: two bright saws a little out of step, thinned by the high-pass filter, every note ringing on under the next. Play fast folk melodies and let the strings blur into a shimmering wash. Macros: Courses, Hammer, Ring, Hall. Macro 8, Master, is the output level.

A buzzing, sympathetic string: the envelope works the ladder backwards, so a resonant peak opens up through the harmonics as each note fades, the way a sitar's bridge makes it bloom, and the voice runs back through the mixer for the buzz. Play slow melodies with bends over a drone note. Macros: Bloom, Buzz, Ring, Hall. Macro 8, Master, is the output level.

A café accordion with its reeds tuned wet: two pulse reeds a few cents apart, so every held note wavers, breathing in from the bellows and stopping clean. Play waltzes and held chords with the right hand, and a bouncy bass-and-chord left hand low down. Macros: Wet, Reed, Bellows, Room. Macro 8, Master, is the output level.

A chord in one key: two saws a fifth apart, snapped shut by the filter and pushed through a dirty squeeze, the stab of early rave tracks. Play short hits on the off-beat and shift them up and down the keyboard; the fifth moves with you. Macros: Bright, Snap, Dirt, Room. Macro 8, Master, is the output level.

Osc 1's narrow pulse (measured at 16% on the hardware) with osc 2's square an octave up: a reedy, nasal lead. The mod wheel adds pulse-width modulation to both. Macros: Glide, Bright, Bite. Macro 8, Master, is the output level.

A deep, dubby minor chord stab: a saw and a square a minor third apart, filtered dark and thinned below, thrown into dotted-eighth echoes on the song's tempo that bounce from side to side and fade into a hall. Play one short stab a bar and let the delay play the rest. Macros: Echo, Feedback, Open, Hall. Macro 8, Master, is the output level.

The big-room pluck: two wide saws an octave apart, snapped shut with a little resonance, echoing in clean dotted eighths on the song's tempo and spread by a deep chorus. Play bright off-beat chords and rolling sixteenth arpeggios by hand. Macros: Bright, Echo, Width, Decay. Macro 8, Master, is the output level.

Mellow keys through an old amp: a triangle and a soft square swirling in a harmonic tremolo, splashing into a second Big Red turned well up. Play slow, moody chords and twangy single-note lines, and let the springs drip. Macros: Spring, Tremolo, Speed, Tone. Macro 8, Master, is the output level.

Every key kicks the spring tank: the gate patched into a second Big Red's Kick, so each new note boings the springs, shaking up what the last one left ringing. Play short square plucks in a steady rhythm for a clanging, rattling bed; leave gaps for quieter boings. Macros: Spring, Pluck, Bright. Macro 8, Master, is the output level.

An 8-bit game console's lead channel: a square and a thin pulse an octave up, no filter in the way, each note blipping out and decaying, with a short 12-bit echo. Play fast, catchy melodies and trills, like a level's theme. Macros: Pulse, Length, Echo. Macro 8, Master, is the output level.

A guitarist's trick: the inverted envelope rides Puzz's Cleanup, so every note hits fully fuzzed and cleans up as it rings out, the way rolling back a guitar's volume does. Play picked riffs and let notes hang to hear them turn clear. Macros: Fuzz, Clean, Ring, Room. Macro 8, Master, is the output level.

Keys played backwards: each note swells up out of nothing, brightening as it comes, then stops dead at its peak, leaving only the hall and the echo behind it. Play chords and single notes slightly ahead of the beat so the swell lands on it. Macros: Swell, Bright, Echo, Hall. Macro 8, Master, is the output level.

A long silk-strung zither: a thin saw and narrow pulse, plucked with a pick so each note starts a little sharp and settles into pitch, ringing in a quiet wooden room. Play pentatonic melodies and slow, spacious phrases, with the odd bend. Macros: Pick, Thin, Ring, Room. Macro 8, Master, is the output level.