Machines¶
The TBD-16’s GrooveBoxRack instrument hosts 17 Machines — small DSP voices that run on its 16 tracks. Each track has its own selection of Machines, hard-wired in the DSP for low-latency switching. A Machine is the engine that makes the sound; a preset (loaded from the device’s macro/preset system) stores parameter values for it.
Tip
Just want to play the TBD-16? The user-facing catalogue with sonic descriptions, tips and parameter details lives at docs.dadamachines.com/tbd-16/machines/. This page is the developer view — same Machines, but with the rack-internal id, the track it lives on, the source code, and a link to the per-Machine deep dive.
Building a new Machine? Start with the Hello, Machines tutorial (~15 minutes) and the Writing a Machine reference.
First time here? The Plugins section has the shared developer workflow (Quickstart, Simulator, Architecture, Build & Flash, Web API). Machines build on top of that knowledge.
Use the search box below to filter by name, type, or origin. Click any Machine name to read the user-facing documentation.
| Machine ↕ | Id ↕ | Type ↕ | Tracks | Origin |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Synth Kick | db |
Drum | CH01 Kick | Mutable Instruments Plaits synthetic_bass_drum |
| Analog Bass Drum | ab |
Drum | CH01 Kick | Mutable Instruments Plaits analog_bass_drum |
| FM Kick / Bass | fmb |
Drum | CH02 Kick2 | CTAG FmKick (custom FM drum voice) |
| Digital Snare | ds |
Drum | CH03 Snare | Mutable Instruments Plaits synthetic_snare_drum |
| Analog Snare | as |
Drum | CH03 Snare | Mutable Instruments Plaits analog_snare_drum |
| Hi-Hat 1 | hh1 |
Drum | CH04 Hat | Mutable Instruments Plaits hi_hat |
| Hi-Hat 2 | hh2 |
Drum | CH04 Hat | Mutable Instruments Plaits hi_hat (alt preset) |
| Rimshot | rs |
Drum | CH05 Rimshot | CTAG Rimshot |
| Clap | cl |
Drum | CH06 Clap | CTAG Clap |
| TBD03 | td3 |
Synth | CH09 Bass, CH10 Bass2 | Mutable Instruments Braids oscillator + diode-ladder filter |
| Mono Synth | mo |
Synth | CH11 Lead, CH12 Lead2 | Mutable Instruments Braids macro oscillator |
| Wavetable Osc | wtosc |
Synth | CH12 Lead2 | Mutable Instruments Plaits wavetable oscillator |
| TBDaits | tbdait |
Synth | CH12 Lead2 | Mutable Instruments Plaits macro voice (24 engines) + CTAG AHR envelope |
| TBDings | tbd |
Synth | CH12 Lead2, CH15 Chordo | Mutable Instruments Rings (Modal + Plucked resonator) |
| PolyPad | pp |
Synth | CH15 Chordo | CTAG ChordSynth / PolyPad |
| Rompler | ro |
Sampler | CH01…CH15 (every voice track) | CTAG RomplerVoiceMinimal (reads the sample-rom) |
| Input | in |
Input | CH16 only | External audio passthrough (line-in → mixer → FX) |
17 of 17 machines shown
Building a new Machine¶
A Machine is a small mono DSP voice that lives inside the TBD-16’s GrooveBoxRack.
The rack handles level / pan / FX-sends / mixing and dispatches MIDI notes — your
code just renders one block (32 samples) of mono audio per Process() call.
Reading order:
Hello, Machines — Tutorial — ~15 minutes, end-to-end: write a 12-line descriptor, run
rackgen.js -i, fill in ~15 lines of DSP, hear it in the simulator. Self-contained.Writing a Machine — the reference: every parameter macro, the voice registry helpers, the channel-mixer surface, the trigger / noteOn / noteOff contract.
Note
Machines build on top of the Plugins section’s
knowledge. If you haven’t yet, read at least Quickstart,
Desktop Simulator and Plugin Architecture
first — the simulator, the parameter system, the build workflow are all the same
between Plugins and Machines. The two Machine pages above stay readable solo,
but they assume you can run the simulator and know what a ctagSoundProcessor is.