FlukeDrums

A Schwung drum machine built on 'happy accidents'.

FlukeDrums is a Schwung module that fills Move's 16 pads with random samples pulled from a folder you choose...including subfolders. Built from the excellent 'Mr Drums'

Like a pad? Lock it. Hit Roll again and only the unlocked pads change. Keep rolling, keep locking, and when the kit sparks something, Save Kit copies it into your Samples folder so Move's own browser can use it.

It's a happy-accident machine. You don't build a kit, you find one.

Status: v0.4.1, early. It works on a real Move, but it's new. Back up anything you care about before installing, and read Schwung's important notice (including DFU restore), as with any Schwung module.

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Features

• Roll all 16 pads, or just one, from a pool of thousands of samples
• Lock any pad so rolls leave it alone
• Undo Roll, 32 levels deep, for when you rolled away something good
• Folder picker with sample counts: your Samples (My) or Ableton's library (Core), up to three levels deep, with subfolders included
• Kit Mode: the bottom two rows roll a real kit (kick, snare, clap, hats, cymbal, tom) found by sample names; the top two rows stay wild
• Max Len filter keeps 4-minute stems out of your kick slot
• Save Kit writes the 16 files and a manifest of where each came from
• Everything MrDrums does: per-pad volume, pan, tune, start, envelope, choke groups, and loading Move .ablpreset kits
• Glitch-free: all disk work happens off the audio thread, so rolling while Move plays doesn't drop out

Requirements

• Ableton Move with Schwung installed
• Some WAV or AIFF samples on the Move. Ableton's built-in library counts.

Install

1. Download flukedrums-module.tar.gz from the latest release.
2. On a computer on the same network, open http://move.local:7700 (Schwung Manager).
3. Choose Install Custom Module and upload the file.
4. Restart Schwung.

To update, do the same thing with the newer file. Your settings and locks are kept.

Quick start

1. Load FlukeDrums into a Schwung slot, like any sound generator.
2. Point a Move track at it: hold Shift, press the track button, and set that track's MIDI out to the slot's channel.
3. Knob 1 (Folder): pick where samples come from.
4. Knob 4 (Roll): turn it, then play the pads.
5. Like a pad? Hit it, then turn knob 5 (Lock) clockwise.
6. Roll again. Repeat until it's good. Knob 7 is Undo.
7. Knob 8 (Save Kit). The kit shows up in Move's browser under Samples/Schwung/FlukeDrums/.

The first page's knobs read left to right as the steps, so a fresh session goes 1 → 8 and you rarely need to leave that page.

The User Guide covers every control, tips, and troubleshooting.

Controls at a glance

Jog moves between five pages, in the order you'll use them:

1. Roll: the whole loop, left to right

Knob	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8
	Folder	Up One	Max Len	Roll	Lock	Roll Pad	Undo	Save Kit
	choose the pool			roll	work the kit			keep it

On screen, knobs 1–4 are the top row and 5–8 the bottom row.

• Folder: where samples come from, from a list with sample counts. Up One: widen the pool a level.
• Max Len: skip samples longer than this many seconds (default 2, 0 = off).
• Roll: new random samples on every unlocked pad.
• Lock: clockwise locks the current pad, counter-clockwise unlocks it.
• Roll Pad: reroll just the current pad. Undo: put back what the last roll changed (32 deep). Pads you've locked or swapped by hand since stay put.
• Save Kit: copy the kit into your Samples folder.

Roll, Undo and Save Kit fire from a single turn of their knob (one flick = one press), or a click.

2. Pad: shape the pad you last hit. Vol, Pan, Tune, Start / Attack, Decay, Choke, Mode.

3. Pad 2: the pad's Sample (pick by hand), plus Rand Pan, Rand Vol, Rand Decay and Chance.

4. Pool: Kit Mode, Subfolders, Rescan, Browse (deeper folders), Unlock All, and readouts: Pool Size, Kit Parts, Status (Undos and Last Kit on the page after).

5. Global: master volume, polyphony, velocity curve, humanize.

Misc

Developer docs:

• PLANNING.md: how it works and why
• TASKS.md: roadmap
• CLAUDE.md: conventions and traps, for humans and AI agents
• docs/RELEASING.md: cutting a release

Credits

• FlukeDrums by Andy Tanguay.
• Built on MrDrums by handcraftedcc (MIT). The sample engine, pad controls and .ablpreset loading are theirs.
• Runs on Schwung by Charles Vestal.
• Developed with AI assistance (Claude). All code is reviewed and tested; see PLANNING.md for how.

Not affiliated with or endorsed by Ableton.

About the name

A fluke is a lucky accident, which is the whole idea. It's also a nod to W.S. "Fluke" Holland, Johnny Cash's drummer and one of rock and roll's first drummers.

License

MIT