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Garage Chord Stab Pluck

Sounds like: A short chord stab that snaps shut, the skip of UK garage.

Sound type: pluck · Genre: UK Garage, House · Style: classic filtered chord-stab pluck used in UK garage/house

A short, filtered chordal stab — three or four notes plucked together with a fast filter close, giving the rhythmic 'skip' so associated with 2-step garage stabs.

Open this patch in the interactive Patchpad

Digitone II

Exact match: Chord played as notes on one track (16 voices)

SYN page 1

SYN page 2 · Operators A & B

FLTR page 1 · Multi-mode

AMP page

FX page

Digitone II has 16-voice polyphony, so play the chord as several notes on one track; there is no need to split it across tracks. FX page DEL is set to a swung 1/8 division at the pattern level for the classic garage skip. 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: SY CHORD machine plays the chord

SYN — SY CHORD

FLTR PAGE 1

AMP PAGE 1

SY CHORD's TYPE picks a real chord or unison (manual Appendix D), so one Syntakt track plays the whole chord; BAL sets the interval mix. TYPE m7 is a typical garage stab; swap it for another chord TYPE. SUS is 0, so either amp mode works. DEL sends to the pattern-level Delay, swung to a 1/8 division for the garage skip.

Novation Summit

Exact match: Plays the chord directly

OSCILLATOR 1

FILTER

AMP ENVELOPE

EFFECTS

Summit's 16-voice polyphony plays the 3-4 note chord directly on one patch, no per-track workaround needed. FILTER's SOURCE + ENV DEPTH route the Amp Envelope into the filter cutoff for the fast close-down snap. DELAY SYNC's dotted-8th division gives the classic garage skip.

Arturia MiniFreak

Exact match: Plays the chord directly

OSCILLATOR 1

ANALOG FILTER

ENVELOPE

DIGITAL EFFECTS · FX1

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 Envelope is hardwired to the VCA, so the same fast Decay also snaps the filter closed via ENV/VELO 55 above. Values are on MiniFreak's native 0-100 scale.

Dreadbox Typhon

Approximation: Only two chord tones (paraphonic)

FRONT PANEL

FILTER ADSR

AMP ADSR

FX3

Typhon is paraphonic (2 voices sharing one filter/amp), so only the two most important chord tones (root + a defining third/seventh) are voiced directly here via VCO1 and the TUNE 2 knob -- the FX3 Delay's repeats then imply the rest of the chord rhythmically rather than playing every note simultaneously. Front-panel knobs are physically unmarked, so WAVE/TUNE 2/CUTOFF/RESON/EG LEVEL/FILTER TIME/AMP TIME are described by clock position, not a percentage.

ASM Hydrasynth Desktop

Exact match: Plays the chord directly

OSCILLATOR 1

FILTER 1

ENVELOPE 1

ENVELOPE 2

DELAY

REVERB

Hydrasynth's polyphony plays the 3-4 note chord directly, no workaround needed. Envelope 1 (pre-wired to Filter 1) drives the fast filter-close snap; Envelope 2 (pre-wired to Amp) matches its timing. The Delay module's dotted-eighth time (BPM sync On) gives the classic garage skip.

How the synths compare

This concept assumes polyphonic voicing (a real chord). Digitone II (16 voices), Syntakt (SY CHORD machine), Summit, Hydrasynth and MiniFreak (6 voices) can all play it natively; only Typhon's guide notes a workaround, since it is paraphonic (2 voices).

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.