Audio Demo has been realized entirely with Ableton Live by using WDK clips only.

The WDK sound set is composed of 138 waveforms.  Classic waveforms, like sine, saw, square, and noise, are included.   But MESA+ pushed the limits to provide cutting edge material for modern drum programmers - WDK contains a wide range of unexpected but useful waveforms extracted from organic materials: wood, metal, glass, rock, liquid and gas.  These waveforms function as PCM oscillators within Sampler and are shaped by unique Ableton features like FM modulation and the waveshaper filter, which combine to play an important part in the final modeling of these transient sounds.  The 700 drum and percussion sounds found in WDK were meticulously developed into Instruments Rack equipped with Macro Knobs for fast editing and easy sound customization.

Instrument Rack presets are subdivided into the following category folders:

BassDrums : 70 sounds Claps : 29 sounds Cymbals : 33 sounds FXs : 55 sounds HiHats : 141 sounds Percussions : 141 sounds Rims : 43 sounds Snares : 74 sounds Toms : 114 sounds

All of the Instrument Racks created with Sampler have been converted into Simpler presets, allowing WDK to be used in Ableton Live versions 7 and 8, including LE versions.

In addition to category folders, Instrument Racks have been specifically named to help users quickly identify the type of sound the preset contains.  The name of each Instrument Rack begins with a capitalized abbreviation that indicates which category the sound belongs to – i.e. ”BD 909“ indicates a bass drum sound.  This naming method is very useful for Drum Racks, since it allows WDK users to instantly visualize the type of sound loaded into the pads.

The following list shows what the abbreviations in Instrument Rack names stand for:

BD RIM SN CLP TOM HH ”“ C HH ”“ P HH ”“ O CRS CYM RD BL BNG CNG ETH MRC TIM FX BassDrum Rimshot Snare Clap Tom HiHat Closed HiHat Pedal HiHat Open Crash Cymbal Ride Bell Bongos Congas Ethnic Maracas Timbales Effect

WDK also contains 40 distinct and production-ready Drum Racks, each one loaded with 22 pads. The grouping arrangement of the pads is the same for each WDK Drum Rack, so that the individual parts in the included MIDI clips play the same type of drum sound, no matter which Drum Rack is loaded. Furthermore, WDK is partially compatible with the General MIDI (GM) drum standard, making it possible for Ableton users to import and play any GM compatible MIDI drum file along with WDK. GM compatibility adds further flexibility and usefulness for WDK users.

WDK Drum Racks have been programmed to make use of choke groups. While helping to reduce CPU usage, choke groups also allow WDK users to build interesting beats and grooves. Of course, choke groups can be easily removed if not desired or needed.

The following table shows the corresponding MIDI note, drum/percussion type, choke group number, and GM compatibility for each WDK drum sound in a :

Note   B0 C1 C#1 D1 D#1 E1 F1 F#1 G1 G#1 A1 A#1 B1 C1 C#1 D1 D#1 E1 F1 F#1 G1 G#1 WDK Sounds   BassDrum Low BassDrum Rimshot Snare Clap Snare Very Low Percussion Closed HiHat Low Percussion Pedal HiHat Low-Mid Percussion Open HiHat Mid Percussion Mid-High Percussion Crash Cymbal High Percussion Ride Cymbal Long Fxs Short Fxs Long Maracas/Shaker Bell Short Maracas/Shaker Choke   1 1         3 2 3 2 3 2 3         4 4 5   5 GM Sounds   Accustic BassDrum BassDrum Rimshot Accustic Snare Clap Electric Snare Low Floor Tom Closed HiHat High Floor Tom Pedal HiHat Low Tom Open HiHat Low-Mid Tom High-Mid Tom Crash Cymbal High Tom Ride Cymbal China Cymbal Ride Bell Tambourine Splash Cymbal Cowbell GM compatible GM not compatible

The WDK Library contains 150 MIDI drum clips in the style of modern electronic dance music.  The musical genre of the included MIDI clips goes from House to Techno, from Deep to Minimal - styles which match up well with the sound character of WDK.  However, feel free to experiment with, or abuse, other musical styles by adding the future-funky vibe of WDK sounds to your productions.

Several MIDI clips are included for the 40 Drum Racks in the WDK library.  Each MIDI clip in the library is named the same as the corresponding Drum Rack which was originally used to create the clip.

The MIDI clips are located in the WDK subfolder in Ableton Live’s clip library (the exact location is defined by the individual user).  The files in the WDK subfolder are saved into two different formats: Ableton Live’s native .als format and the FLAC audio format.  The WDK MIDI clips are embedded in Ableton Live’s native .als format and contain a relatively large amount of data (MIDI, samples, instruments, effects, settings, etc.), resulting in slower clip preview performance in Live’s browser.  On the other hand, the folder named ”Rendered“ contains WDK clips rendered into the FLAC audio format.  Although audio only and not containing any MIDI data, the FLAC audio format creates a simple audio file which allows for fast loading and preview in Live’s browser.  MESA+ rendered these clips into the FLAC format as an added value and convenience for WDK users.