Buttons from Hell (Decent Sampler instrument)

My original plan was to capture some instrument with cassette recorder, but I quickly realized that the recorder’s buttons had an interesting sound of their own. That discovery led me down a different path: I began recording every switches and buttons I could get my hands on — a guitar pedal, a light switch, a power strip, computer keyboard…

To capture every tiny detail, I placed the microphone so close to the button that sometimes I could barely fit my finger between the mic and the switch to press it. Editing revealed even more possibilities. With heavy saturation and processing, a small mechanical click could transform into something entirely new — a booming metallic percussion, a gritty industrial thud.

At first, my plan was to simply place DecentSampler controls over a photographic background. But that didn’t feel right for the sound. Instead I decided to design everything myself, all built from vector graphics and photos I collected from different materials. That part of the process ended up taking even longer than the audio, but the result finally reflected the rough, mechanical character of the instrument.

NOTICE:
This instrument needs free Decent Sampler player, it is not a standalone.