Getting started with LSDj with Infu (course)

A single-page beginner course in fourteen sections by infu (CC BY-NC 4.0): setup and emulators, the sequencer, the ENV envelope, commands, three noise drums, a snare table, a wave kick and bass, the synth screen, and workflow tips such as silent chains. It is deliberately practical — "ABSOLUTELY NO MUSIC THEORY IS REQUIRED" — and gives concrete values for every instrument it builds.

Key claims#

• Setup: hex counting; emulators BGB (Windows), SameBoy (Mac), Lemuroid (Android); use the latest development ROM from littlesounddj.com (the guide follows 9.2.A; the stable 8.5.1 was "months old"), but "give it a week or two in case of any critical bugs" — and "BACKUP OFTEN!"
• Channels: pulses for melodies, bass, leads, arps and kicks/toms; the wave channel "has the lowest octave, making it good for bass, kicks, and has sample playback"; noise for hi-hats, snares, cymbals "or noisy detuned bass".
• Sequencer: A on the song screen places chain 00, SELECT+RIGHT enters it, A again places phrase 00; chains are "Music Books" of 16 phrases, phrases "Music Sheets" of 16 steps; phrases are shared globally, so editing one changes every use — clone when a variant is wanted. A+LEFT/RIGHT moves a note by a semitone, A+UP/DOWN by an octave; A,A gives tooltips and picks the next free instrument/phrase/chain number; START plays the current phrase, chain or song depending on the screen; SELECT+START plays all channels from any screen. Copy: SELECT+B,B,B marks a phrase, B copies, SELECT+A pastes; SELECT+B then the D-pad makes a custom selection. Cursor over a phrase edge scrolls to the neighbouring phrase in the chain. B+LEFT/RIGHT on the instrument screen switches instruments; INSTR 40 is reserved for speech.
• ENV: three boxes; each is a volume (left, A+UP/DOWN) and the speed to reach the next box's volume (right, A+LEFT/RIGHT); speed 0 holds; lower speeds are shorter, "much like the 'release'"; [88][00][--] is the default, [07][88][--] fades in, [18][C5][0-] rises from 1 to C at speed 8 then falls to 0 at speed 5. Notes packed too tightly cut each other off.
• Commands: P positive 01–7F, negative FF–80 (FF = −1), keep values within about 20 of each other "to avoid a laserbeam"; C47 major, C37 minor, more in LazierGunz's chart (s-chipmusic-tables-and-chords-threads); PITCH changes how P behaves, CMD/RATE slows C; the command list is in Project → Help.
• Noise drums (one instrument each, named): the note column offers two-digit "white noise" values (39, 2B, 3A) and note + octave "metallic noise" (D 0). Hi-hat: ENV [75][00][--] with R02; cymbals from a high metallic note like C 7. Kick: ENV [F4][00][--], note D 0, a P command next to it (PF0); the long release keeps the punch but lets the P bleed into the next sound. Snare: default [88][00][--] at volume 9, plus a table.
• Snare table (table 00): alternating O pan commands ("wide on the speakers"), a transpose column that starts raised "as this is how real snares sound like", a slow upward V and a downward P at the same time ("similar but still different" from a plain P01/P02), ending with A20 — "there are only 1F tables. So A20 is effectively impossible and regarded as 'no table'", which stops the table while running effects continue. Tables run at "1 row per tick", i.e. up to six rows per phrase step at the default groove.
• Wave kick: a high note with a new WAVE instrument, a table with P around D0; low notes make "the pitch wrap back to the highest octave" unless PITCH is DRUM, which keeps the slide short at the top and slow near the bottom; K00 on table step 6 ends the kick before the bass. KIT instruments play samples (two kits, an extra phrase column, the same sample in both kits = louder, possibly into DIST) but cannot be pitched directly.
• Synth and wave screens: the Wave screen browses up to FF waves per song with B+D-pad; the Synth screen groups them in 16 and interpolates each parameter from its first to its last frame; a bass uses the same synth as the kick with PLAY ONCE/LOOP/PINGPONG, SPEED and LENGTH. Parameters: CUTOFF and Q are the filter; PHASE "allows for easy PWM modulation"; VSHIFT moves the signal up, "good for triggering the DIST"; LIMIT lowers the actual volume precisely. DIST: CLIP stays at the maximum, FOLD mirrors, WRAP wraps to the opposite side. Tips: Q does little until CUTOFF moves; VOLUME above 20 triggers DIST; LIMIT above 0F "does not bring good results easily"; instrument LENGTH shrinks the synth by skipping waves; SPEED and LENGTH can be set from the phrase with W.
• Workflow: SELECT then B, A on a chain number clones chain and phrases in place; silent chains (7E short, 7D full-length, made of empty phrase FE in chain 7F) keep playback in sync wherever START is pressed; changing TEMPO changes every table, arp and retrig, so sound design shifts slightly; CLEAN SONG DATA frees unused chains/phrases. Old tutorials differ: noise notes follow another pattern in 8.5.1, and the envelope "previously and confusingly called 'ADSR'" was more limited. Communities: ABOC, pUwUlsewave, GeekbeatRadio.

Practical takeaways#

Three drums, one snare table and one wave kick are enough to start; name instruments, keep silent chains for gaps, back up, and read PITCH = DRUM as the fix for wrapping kick slides.

Notable quotes#

"It is more of a mini-Phrase screen that runs at full speed or 1 row per tick."

Pages touched#

instrument-design · instrument-tables · adsr-envelope · wavetable-programming · song-init-and-looping · tracking-workflow · chord-arpeggio · stereo-panning · lsdj · infu · levels-and-headroom