I've made a brand new video that's all about my latest thrift store acquisition: a Charango from South America. As usual, I don't want to give away too much information here, because I think it will be much more fun to watch it as a video. Enjoy!
– Dave
2025-10-11 16:39:58 +0000 UTC View Post
A charango is a small, high-pitched South American stringed instrument traditionally made with an armadillo shell body, featuring five pairs of strings and commonly used in Andean folk music. I had the extremely good luck to find one in a thrift store on South Street in Philadelphia. I made a video about my experience here.
This sample library contains three light samplings of the Charango, as well as three light sampl...
2025-10-11 03:38:02 +0000 UTC View Post
This is the video that I've been working on for the last two weeks. It ties in with the sample library I just uploaded.
Enjoy!
– Dave
2025-09-12 22:05:05 +0000 UTC View Post
Here is a brand new sample library which features the (surprisingly) cinematic sound of a homemade guitar I found on the street. A video about this guitar will be posted tomorrow morning. I don't want to say too much about this instrument before that video goes up as it might spoil your enjoyment of watching the video. I will fill this description with more information once that video goes live. :)
As you usual, this sample library can also be downloaded here or from within the DecentSa...
2025-09-12 20:08:06 +0000 UTC View Post
For the past few weeks, I've been playing with a beautiful and unique synthesizer called the Chromaplane. You can see a video about my experiences here.
As part of those experiments, I have (of course) recorded the synthesizer – both on its own, as well as through a range of outboard effects. I have now turned those recordings into this Decent Sampler library.
In my latest video, I check out the Chromaplane, a beautiful and unique instrument by Passepartout Duo and KOMAelektronik. The instrument enjoyed a v...
2025-08-16 11:17:14 +0000 UTC View Post
As promised, here is my latest video – it's all about the new version of the Novation Bass Station II. I had lots of fun making this one!
– Dave
2025-07-20 16:10:52 +0000 UTC View Post
A few months ago, I went to the annual Superbooth synthesizer festival in Berlin. One of the things I saw there was a beautiful new version of the Novation Bass Station II. While I had some familiarity with the original Bass Station from the 90s, I had never touched its modern counterpart. I gave the instrument a quick spin at the Novation b...
2025-07-17 14:20:47 +0000 UTC View Post
In May 2025, I had the pleasure of going to Berlin to attend the annual Superbooth synthesizer festival. This time, I decided to tack on an extra day to my trip, and I'm awfully glad I did, because that Sunday ended up being full of adventures...
The full video can be seen here:
As usual, this sample library can be downloaded from within 2025-06-12 20:51:45 +0000 UTC View Post
In April 2025, I had the good fortune to be sent Polyend's new effects pedal: MESS. It's an extremely flexible multi-effects pedal with sequenceable parameters. In my video about the pedal, I experimented with various sound sources, both organic and synthesized. I was surprised to discover how much I liked the sound of my ancient E-MU Proteus/2 Rompler when...
2025-05-29 21:06:48 +0000 UTC View Post
Two weeks ago, I had the pleasure of traveling to Berlin to attend the annual Superbooth synthesizer festival. And about two weeks before that, I purchased an OP-1 on eBaY. If you don’t know what that is, it’s an iconic little synthesizer by Teenage Engineering. I’ve personally wanted one of these forever, and I figured a trip like this would be the perfect chance to get to know this instrument.
In this video, I do just that, learning the ins and outs of the OP in its natural habi...
2025-05-23 22:32:41 +0000 UTC View Post
Hi all!
My latest video is all about making music on the Nintendo Gameboy, the Nintendo DS, as well as the Xiphonics Pico Tracker. I cover so much in the video that I felt like it only made sense for me to write a blog post just to provide all of the details. Everything below is going to be super technical, so only read it if you are interested in recreating something from the video.
The software I used in the video was LSDJ, which can be...
2025-04-25 23:29:57 +0000 UTC View Post
Last spring, as I was walking through the flea market in Philadelphia, I stumbled on a vendor who had dozens of wooden flutes for sale. At the time, I didn't find it all that exciting. In fact, since I had already bought a bunch of stuff at the market that day, I was about to walk on, but then, at the last minute, I changed my mind and bought a couple. I brought them home, put them on the shelf in my studio, and promptly forgot about them. Well anyway, a few weeks ago, I rediscovered them on ...
2025-04-25 21:42:33 +0000 UTC View Post
Last week, I got to borrow a Casio DG-20 from Max Goldberg, so I made a video...and a sample library. The sounds can be downloaded here or within the DecentSampler plugin.
– Dave
2025-04-03 14:13:30 +0000 UTC View Post
Hi all,
A few folks have reached out and asked for Bandcamp download codes for my last record. I'm pasting a bunch in the comments below this post. You can redeem them here. If you use a code, reply to the comment containing the code you used so that folks know not to bother trying that code. :)
Enjoy!
– Dave
2025-03-19 13:29:25 +0000 UTC View Post
My latest video is finally done! In this installment, I explore an often overlooked gem from Casio's past: the MT-70 sine wave synthesizer. And yes, there's also a sample library. I want to give a huge thank you to Russ Paladino who very generously sent me this keyboard.
– Dave
2025-03-12 02:23:56 +0000 UTC View Post
The Casio MT-70 is an electronic keyboard from 1984. What makes it unique is that, unlike most other Casio keyboards, its sounds are generated by adding together sine waves, an approach that is often called additive synthesis. As a result, this keyboard is particularly good at producing mellow organ and flute tones. This sample library captures all twenty of the MT-70s presets. It also adds an extra loopi...
2025-03-12 02:10:28 +0000 UTC View Post
I recently got to take a trip to Milkboy Studios in Philadelphia, where I sampled this very cool piece of American synth history: a Baldwin Interlude (aka Fun Machine) electronic organ.
Download samples here: https://www.decentsamples.com/product/milkboy-organ-baldwin-fun-machine-interlude/
2025-02-27 16:23:08 +0000 UTC View Post
This is my latest video. :)
Here is the song from the video: https://manwomanchild.bandcamp.com/track/force-that-smile
And here is the free sample library of the bass: https://www.decentsamples.com/product/short-scale-bass/
I bought the bass guitar in this video from Amazo...
2025-02-05 04:02:15 +0000 UTC View Post
I made a new album! As you all know, every few weeks I publish a Youtube video about a different musical instrument. Each video contains at least one new piece of original music, and yet, because of time constraints, I almost never end up releasing the music from those videos as tracks. With this release, I'm hoping to change that. This album contains fourteen tracks that were written for video.
Unfortunately, while Patreon is very well set up for sharing individual tracks, it is not gr...
2025-01-28 17:13:02 +0000 UTC View Post
A couple of months ago, my wife got me this beautiful tongue drum as a gift, and it's been a fixture in my studio ever since. It has a very pleasant, meditative sound. The instrument consists of a single, bean-shaped pod of metal with eight U-shaped slits cut into the top. The slits form the tongues, which give the instrument its name. When struck with a mallet, each tongue produces a different note. It came with two rubber mallets, but I prefer the slightly more distinct sound of my...
2025-01-25 00:10:25 +0000 UTC View Post
I recently got my hands on a pretty neat vintage item: the Panasonic Do-Re-Mi. It’s essentially a little analog synth / organ with a built in record player. Panasonic also sold a version with a built-in tape deck, and another even rarer unit that just contained the synth portion on its own. All three versions were released in 1977, along with the Panapic multimedia system.
2025-01-11 14:08:09 +0000 UTC View Post
About a year ago, I found this old bicycle wheel in the trash, and, being the person that I am, I saved it. Well, in my last video, I finally got to put it to some good use. I clipped on some contact microphones, and soon discovered that a whole host of sounds could be teased from its rusty spokes. Each one has a slightly different pitch and timbre. They could be plucked for a gentle, metallic instrument, which sort of ...
2024-12-20 17:07:00 +0000 UTC View Post
I made a video about contact mics! This one was lots of fun.
2024-12-07 12:48:19 +0000 UTC View Post
I recently took a trip to one of my favorite thrift stores in Philadelphia. Amidst the old kitchen appliances, VHS cassettes, and assorted cultural detritus, I stumbled on this charming antique toy piano. It was in pretty rough shape, but I decided to try out anyway. As soon as I pressed down on one of its keys, I immediately knew that I had to buy it and sample it. It has a charming, bell-like sound which bears little resemblance to an actual piano – most toy pianos use a system of tines i...
2024-11-27 22:12:23 +0000 UTC View Post
A while back, I made a video about some electro-mechanical experiments I had been doing. Specifically, I took an electric motor, attached a piece of metal wire to it, and then used a guitar pickup to record the sound of the metal as it spun around and around. Astute viewers pointed out that I had basically reinvented the tone wheel organ. Be that as it may, the resulting sounds ranged from warm and pleasant waveforms to...
2024-10-31 14:25:54 +0000 UTC View Post
A while back, I made a video about some electro-mechanical experiments I had been doing. Specifically, I took an electric motor, attached a piece of metal wire to it, and then used a guitar pickup to record the sound of the metal as it spun around and around. Astute viewers pointed out that I had basically reinvented the tone wheel organ. Be that as it may, the resulting sounds ranged from warm and pleasant waveforms to...
2024-10-28 02:07:37 +0000 UTC View Post
This is a video I've been working on for the last 7 days. I'm going to be officially releasing it on Saturday. It's about a guitar that I bought in Lambertville, NJ. I made a free sample library of the guitar, which you can find here.
Also, you can hear the ...
2024-10-16 13:23:32 +0000 UTC View Post
I'm releasing this video tomorrow!
2024-09-27 22:35:07 +0000 UTC View Post
I recently had the pleasure of visiting the Swiss Museum of Electronic Musical Instruments, which boasts the largest collection of synthesizers in the world. I'm hopefully going to make a video about the experience, depending on how my footage looks. Anyway, while my visit was regrettably brief, I did get to spend about an hour and a half in the museum's playroom – a space where members of the general pub...
2024-09-17 19:33:47 +0000 UTC View Post