Acid Pluck

Sounds like: A short, rubbery squelch: one quick resonant blip per note.

Sound type: pluck · Genre: Acid House · Style: resonant filtered short pluck in the acid house tradition

A short, squelchy pluck — the same resonant-filter DNA as Acid 303-Style Bass and Acid Lead, but decayed much faster for a percussive, single-hit character rather than a sustained sweep.

Open this patch in the interactive Patchpad

Digitone II

Exact match: Short squelchy filter pluck

SYN page 1

• ALGO: 1
• RATIO C: 1.00
• MIX: -64

SYN page 2 · Operators A & B

• LEV (A): 0
• LEV (B): 0

FLTR page 1 · Multi-mode

• FREQ: 51
• RESO: 83
• TYPE: 0 (LP)
• ATK: 0
• DEC: 18
• SUS: 0
• ENV: 60

AMP page

• ATK: 0
• DEC: 20
• SUS: 0
• REL: 12
• MODE: ADSR

FX page

• OVER: 15

ALGO 1 gives one plain, unmodulated carrier -- no FM edge needed since the squelch comes entirely from the resonant filter. RESO 83 sits well into self-oscillation territory; the strong positive FLTR ENV plus its own very fast DEC yanks the cutoff down hard on every hit for the classic acid squelch. Light OVER on the FX page adds a touch of grit without turning this into a distortion patch. ALGO 1 routes operator A (and B) into carrier C, so LEV (A) and LEV (B) are set to 0 on SYN page 2 and MIX is -64 (the X output, C only): that leaves C a plain, unmodulated carrier.

Syntakt

Exact match: Short squelchy filter pluck

SYN — SY RAW

• WAV1: Saw
• TUNE: 0
• OVER: 10

FLTR PAGE 1

• FREQ: 51
• RESO: 83
• TYPE: Lowpass
• ATK: 0
• DEC: 18
• SUS: 0
• ENV: 60

AMP PAGE 1

• ATK: 0
• DEC: 20
• SUS: 0
• REL: 12

SY RAW's plain saw waveform keeps this simple -- the acid character is entirely a filter-envelope effect, not a machine choice. AMP PAGE 1's SUS sits at 0 so either amp mode works here. Resonance this high self-oscillates readily, so back off RESO slightly if the pitch of the resonant peak becomes distracting.

Novation Summit

Exact match: Short squelchy filter pluck

OSCILLATOR 1

• WAVE: Sawtooth
• RANGE: 8'

FILTER

• SHAPE: LP
• SLOPE: 24dB
• FREQUENCY: 51
• RESONANCE: 100
• SOURCE: Mod Env 1
• ENV DEPTH: 45

MOD ENVELOPE 1

• ATTACK: 0
• DECAY: 18
• SUSTAIN: 0
• RELEASE: 10

AMP ENVELOPE

• ATTACK: 0
• DECAY: 20
• SUSTAIN: 0
• RELEASE: 12

Mod Envelope 1 is routed in via FILTER's SOURCE knob purely to drive the squelch, independent of the Amp Envelope's own short shape.

Compared with other synths: The 24dB slope plus RESONANCE near 100 gets close to self-oscillation, matching the other synths' acid-style resonant peak.

Arturia MiniFreak

Exact match: Short squelchy filter pluck

OSCILLATOR

• TYPE: BasicWaves
• WAVE (Morph): 50 (pure sawtooth)
• TIMBRE (Sym): 0
• SHAPE (Sub): 0
• VOLUME: 100

ANALOG FILTER

• TYPE: Low Pass
• CUTOFF: 40
• RESONANCE: 65
• ENV/VELO: 60

ENVELOPE

• ATTACK: 0
• DECAY: 20
• SUSTAIN: 0
• RELEASE: 12

DIGITAL EFFECTS · FX1

• TYPE: Distortion
• AMOUNT: 15

Osc 1 is BasicWaves with Morph at 50 (pure sawtooth): the Morph knob runs from a square (0) through a sawtooth (50) to a double sawtooth an octave up (100), Sym only changes the pulse width below 50, and Sub adds a sine an octave down (0 here). The short-form relative of Acid 303-Style Bass, translated to MiniFreak's real architecture: there's one Envelope (hardwired to the VCA), so the filter's own squelch motion comes from that same envelope via the ANALOG FILTER page's ENV/VELO knob rather than a separate filter envelope. Values are on MiniFreak's native 0-100 scale.

Compared with other synths: Real onboard Distortion (Digital Effects) supplies the light grit Digitone II gets from its FX page Overdrive.

Dreadbox Typhon

Exact match: Short squelchy filter pluck

FRONT PANEL

• WAVE: ~4 o'clock (mostly VCO1 saw, VCO2 blended low)
• CUTOFF: ~10-11 o'clock (~40% open)
• RESON: ~1-2 o'clock (well past center, near self-oscillation)
• EG LEVEL: ~2 o'clock (strong filter-envelope amount)
• FILTER TIME: ~4 o'clock (toward the faster end)
• AMP TIME: ~4 o'clock (toward the faster end)
• VOLUME: ~12 o'clock

FILTER ADSR

• ATTACK: 0
• DECAY: 15
• SUSTAIN: 0
• RELEASE: 10

AMP ADSR

• ATTACK: 0
• DECAY: 15
• SUSTAIN: 0
• RELEASE: 10

FX1

• CUTOFF: 20 Hz (fully open HPF)
• TYPE: Hard Clipping
• GAIN: 20
• LVL: 15
• MIX: 20

The short-form relative of Acid 303-Style Bass. Typhon's 8 front-panel knobs are physically unmarked, so CUTOFF/RESON/EG LEVEL/FILTER TIME are described by clock position, not a percentage. RESON this far clockwise self-oscillates readily, same as the resonance-forward synths in this family.

Compared with other synths: FX1's Hard Clipping is a light touch, matching Digitone II's light Overdrive -- keep GAIN/LVL low so it adds edge rather than becoming its own distortion patch.

ASM Hydrasynth Desktop

Exact match: Short squelchy filter pluck

OSCILLATOR 1

• MODE: Single
• WAVE: Saw
• SEMI: 0
• CENTS: 0
• KEYTRACK: 100%

FILTER 1

• TYPE: LP Ldr24
• CUTOFF: 55.0
• RESONANCE: 90.0
• ENV 1 AMOUNT: 63
• VEL ENV: 0
• KEYTRACK: 0%

ENVELOPE 1

• DELAY: 0 ms
• ATTACK: 0 ms
• HOLD: 0 ms
• DECAY: 90 ms
• SUSTAIN: 0.0
• RELEASE: 60 ms

AMP

• LFO 2 AMOUNT: 0
• VELOCITY: 0
• AMP LEVEL: 110.0

ENVELOPE 2

• DELAY: 0 ms
• ATTACK: 0 ms
• HOLD: 0 ms
• DECAY: 90 ms
• SUSTAIN: 0.0
• RELEASE: 40 ms

Envelope 1 is pre-wired to Filter 1 and Envelope 2 to Amp, so the fast DECAY on both keeps the squelch and the amplitude falling together. Kept dry, no Pre/Post-FX -- the filter resonance carries the whole character.

Compared with other synths: LP Ldr24 is the real 24dB self-oscillating ladder type -- pushing RESONANCE this high gets the same squelchy near-self-oscillation as the other synths' resonant filters.

How the synths compare

Same family as Acid 303-Style Bass and Acid Lead, decayed down to a short pluck — all three share the high-resonance-plus-fast-filter-envelope core idea.

Patchpad is a free reference of drum patterns and synth patches written for real hardware: Digitakt II, Digitone II, Syntakt, Novation Summit, Arturia MiniFreak, Dreadbox Typhon and ASM Hydrasynth Desktop.