Traditional percussion: the recorded hit beside the modelled one
The BANG BANG Groovebox has six kits of traditional percussion: tabla, taiko, Chinese opera, gamelan, samul and Vietnamese. Each has 12 sounds. For 27 of the 72 a real recording under an open licence was found. This page plays each of those beside the modelled sound it would replace.
Nobody has listened to these yet. Every recording was chosen by measurement: its pitch, how long it rings, where it starts. Your ears are the first.
For each pair: does the recorded one sound like the instrument, and is it better than the modelled one? Where it is not, the modelled one stays.
Each sound is taken from the packed kit file and played the way the groovebox would play it: same start, same level. A card with an orange edge has something to listen for, said on the card.
The recorded hit plays at the pitch it was recorded at. The modelled one plays at the pitch its Tune knob shows. Where the two are far apart the card says so.
Tabla kit: 7 of 12 recorded
Tabla ge
Recorded: tabla, bass stroke ghe.
One of the eight furthest from the pitch its Tune knob shows.
Tabla na
Recorded: tabla, ringing stroke na on the dayan.
Tabla te
Recorded: tabla, closed stroke te.
Tabla re
Recorded: tabla, closed stroke re.
Tabla ghe bend
Recorded: tabla, bass stroke ghe, long.
Tabla tun
Recorded: tabla, ringing stroke tun on the dayan.
Tabla ke
Recorded: tabla, closed stroke ke.
Taiko kit: 3 of 12 recorded
O-daiko
Recorded: FluidR3_GM taiko drum, the note G2 as it is.
Suzu bells
Recorded: suzu bells, struck once.
Mokugyo
Recorded: mokugyo, a small wooden fish from Koya-san.
One of the eight furthest from the pitch its Tune knob shows.
Chinese opera kit: 9 of 12 recorded
Tanggu
Recorded: dagu (huapengu), the Chinese bass drum, centre stroke, loud.
Bangu
Recorded: danpigu, the drum of the bangu pair, one stroke (bangu_21).
One of the eight furthest from the pitch its Tune knob shows.
Ban clapper
Recorded: ban, the clapper of the bangu pair, one stroke (bangu_06).
By measurement, packing may add a little ahead of this stroke (21 dB under its peak). Listen for a smear before the clap.
One of the eight furthest from the pitch its Tune knob shows.
Naobo
Recorded: naobo cymbals, one stroke (naobo_05).
Xiaoluo
Recorded: xiaoluo, one stroke (xiaoluo_34).
Muyu
Recorded: temple blocks, the first block of five, Chinese sticks.
Daluo
Recorded: daluo, one stroke (daluo_01).
One of the eight furthest from the pitch its Tune knob shows.
Big gong
Recorded: VCSL Gong 1, struck forte.
Tanggu rim
Recorded: dagu (huapengu), rim shot from both sides, loud.
Gamelan kit: 5 of 12 recorded
Kendang dah
Recorded: kendang, the last of seven strokes in the file.
Ceng-ceng closed
Recorded: Balinese ceng-ceng, recording 11, short.
Ceng-ceng
Recorded: Balinese ceng-ceng, recording 10.
Kempul
Recorded: Balinese gamelan Bwana Kumala, Gong recording 10.
Gong ageng
Recorded: Balinese gamelan Bwana Kumala, Gong recording 01, the low gong.
One of the eight furthest from the pitch its Tune knob shows.
Samul kit: 1 of 12 recorded
Kkwaenggwari
Recorded: a Korean gong, not named further on its page; small and bright by its pitch.
Its page calls it only a Korean gong. It is placed as the small gong by its pitch. If it does not sound like a kkwaenggwari, it comes out and the modelled one stays.
Vietnamese kit: 2 of 12 recorded
Viet small gong
Recorded: Vietnamese gong, about 30 cm.
One of the eight furthest from the pitch its Tune knob shows.
Chieng gong
Recorded: Vietnamese gong, about 43 cm.
One of the eight furthest from the pitch its Tune knob shows.
Whose recordings these are
These four ask for their names to be shown, and they are owed on the groovebox page as well:
- Mi Tian, Ajay Srinivasamurthy, Mark Sandler and Xavier Serra: Beijing Opera Percussion Instrument Dataset, played by Ying Wan of the London Jing Kun Opera Association. Licence: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0. The daluo, xiaoluo, naobo, bangu and ban.
- redafs on Freesound: Kendang, Kendhang or Gendang. Licence: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0. The kendang.
- cdrk on Freesound: a Korean gong and two Vietnamese gongs (big, small). Licence: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0.
- Frank Wen: the taiko drum of the FluidR3_GM soundfont. Licence: Creative Commons Attribution 3.0. The o-daiko.
The rest were given to the public domain (Creative Commons Zero) by the people who made them, with thanks: the tabla strokes by mmiron (formerly dio_333) on Freesound; the Balinese gongs and ceng-ceng of the University of North Texas gamelan Bwana Kumala by cpolcyn; the Chinese bass drum and temple blocks by sazanami12; the mokugyo by jonopodmore; the suzu bells by DiSK; and the big gong from the Versilian Community Sample Library.
Each recording was cut to one stroke, faded, levelled and packed as a small mp3. Three had low rumble filtered out (mokugyo, tanggu rim, muyu). The Freesound ones are from the preview each sound's page serves; the originals can be swapped in later.
The gong ageng and kempul are Balinese gongs under the Javanese names the kit uses. The tanggu is a dagu, the Chinese bass drum. The muyu is one of a set of five temple blocks.
Made 12 October 2026 for the BANG BANG Groovebox. A working page for the team, not for sharing.