little-scale — the LSDJ kit releases, and the stock kits extracted (2008–2014)

Six years of giving lsdj kits away, from Street Fighter voices in 2008 to a louder TR-808 in 2014. Individually these are announcements; together they are the record of who supplied the scene's kits, and one of them hands the wiki the complete list of LSDj's own stock kits.

Key claims#

The complete stock-kit list (2014-04-20)#

All Classic LSDJ Kits as WAV Files is a bare download link, but its screenshot is a Finder window titled LSDJ Kits, "22 items", one folder per kit. Read from the image:

AA-EL · ACIEED · ANIMLZ · CR-78 · CR8000 · DMX · DR-55 · DR-110 · DRUMUL · EL-KK2 · GHETTO · KK3-TH · KR-55 · LINNDR · RHYACE · TOM · TR-606 · TR-707 · TR-727 · TR-808 · TR-909 · TT-ZZ

Most are drum machines under LSDj's three-to-six-character naming — the Roland TR and CR series, Boss DR-55 and DR-110, Korg KR-55, Oberheim DMX, E-mu Drumulator, LinnDrum, Ace Tone Rhythm Ace. s-lsdj-manual lists a partial set ("TR-808/909/606/707/727, CR-78, LinnDrum, DMX, Drumulator…"); this is all 22, extracted as WAVs so they can be re-cut, re-levelled or used outside the Game Boy.

The same day: two remastered kits#

TR808L — "LSDJ Kit: Loud TR808" — and ACTFD1, each posted with "the LSDJ kit, original, edited and converted samples". A stock kit rebuilt for level is exactly what the chipmusic-org kit-volume thread had wished for a year earlier: herr_prof, 2013, "I kind of wish someone would do a remaster of all the stock kits… they really are quiet for no reason!" (source: s-chipmusic-lsdj-kit-threads). The 2014 post does not mention the thread and claims no connection; the sequence is recorded here, not a causal link.

The 2008–09 catalogue#

• Custom LSDJ Kits (2008-09-11), two months before the how-to that made him the reference (s-little-scale-lsdj-kits) — and the entry that shows a "kit" is often a set of kit slots: Mario Paint, "29 samples from the SNES program spread across two kits"; Street Fighter 2, "17 samples in 6 kits, including the announcer's voice, insert credit, 'Tiger Uppercut', 'Sonic Boom' and of course 'Hadouken!'"; Street Fighter Alpha, 34 samples in 4 kits with one kit per character; Star Trek: The Next Generation, 5 samples in 2 kits including Picard's "Engage!".
• Debussy (2008-11-07) and more Debussy (2008-11-09), from Voiles, Danseuses de Delphes, La Cathédrale Engloutie and Le martyre de Saint-Sébastien. The claim worth keeping: "These beautiful piano chords crushed down to 8 bit / 11.468 KHz actually sounds much better than I had anticipated."
• Chopin (2008-11-09) from the Waltz Op. 64 No. 1 ("Minute") and the Cello Sonata Op. 65 III. Largo; Mega Drive, "Ten sounds sampled from a Mega Drive. Using a variety of settings"; Atari 2600, "Twelve little sounds in one big-sounding kit".
• Donk (2008-11-03), Sega Master System SN76489 (2008-11-13, cut from his own sample pack), Nanoloop 2.3 (2009-02-15), YM2413 drums (2009-10-25).
• Scriabin, Ellington, Mozart, HAL9001, HAL8999, Elektron Rock (2009-02-17).

The composer kits are the ones that stuck: Chopin, Debussy and Mozart are still being named in the 2013 forum threads (source: s-chipmusic-lsdj-kit-threads).

Practical takeaways#

• The stock kits exist as plain WAVs, so the standard answer to "the kits are too quiet" — rebuild them with gain — starts from the originals rather than from a re-recording.
• A themed kit usually will not fit one slot. Budget two to six slots for a voice or sample set and split by character or function, as he did for Street Fighter.
• Acoustic piano survives the 3FA0/11.468 kHz crush better than people expect; his Debussy kits are the evidence he offers.

Notable quotes#

"These beautiful piano chords crushed down to 8 bit / 11.468 KHz actually sounds much better than I had anticipated."

"Twelve little sounds in one big-sounding kit!"

Relevance to the wiki#

chip-samples documents how to prepare a kit and lsdpatch how to install one; this documents what was actually released and, from the screenshot, what LSDj ships with.

To verify#

• The kit list is from a 2014 screenshot of whatever LSDj version he had; later versions may differ, and the wiki has no other source for the full set.
• Expansions of the abbreviations are only obvious for some (TR-808, LINNDR, CR-78); AA-EL, EL-KK2, KK3-TH, TT-ZZ, ACIEED, ANIMLZ and GHETTO are given as they appear, unexpanded.
• All the .zip downloads point at milkcrate.com.au and were not fetched; whether they still resolve is unknown.
• Nothing states what "Loud TR808" actually did to the levels — only that original, edited and converted samples ship with it.

Pages touched#

chip-samples · lsdj · lsdpatch · little-scale · chipmusic-org · nanoloop · multisampling · levels-and-headroom