Muted Analog Pluck

Sounds like: A soft, dull, palm-muted pluck, as if wrapped in a cloth.

Sound type: pluck · Genre: Minimal House, Trip-Hop · Style: soft, damped pluck with minimal brightness or attack transient

A soft, damped pluck — filtered well below its full brightness with a gentler attack than the other plucks in this library, reading as muted or palm-damped rather than sharply struck.

Open this patch in the interactive Patchpad

Digitone II

Exact match: Soft, damped, dark 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: 38
• RESO: 13
• TYPE: 0 (LP)
• ATK: 6
• DEC: 40
• SUS: 0
• ENV: 19

AMP page

• ATK: 6
• DEC: 50
• SUS: 0
• REL: 25
• MODE: ADSR

ALGO 1's plain, unmodulated carrier keeps this dark and simple -- FREQ well below the other plucks in the library (38, roughly 30% of range) reads as filtered well below full brightness, and the small non-zero ATK on both AMP and FLTR softens the transient into a muted/palm-damped feel rather than a sharp pick. 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: Soft, damped, dark pluck

SYN — SY RAW

• WAV1: Triangle
• TUNE: 0

FLTR PAGE 1

• FREQ: 38
• RESO: 13
• TYPE: Lowpass
• ATK: 6
• DEC: 40
• SUS: 0
• ENV: 19

AMP PAGE 1

• ATK: 6
• DEC: 50
• SUS: 0
• REL: 25

SY RAW's Triangle keeps the harmonic content gentle. FREQ dark (38) plus a small non-zero ATK on both the filter and amp envelopes gives the muted, palm-damped attack this patch wants.

Novation Summit

Exact match: Soft, damped, dark pluck

OSCILLATOR 1

• WAVE: Triangle
• RANGE: 8'

FILTER

• SHAPE: LP
• SLOPE: 12dB
• FREQUENCY: 38
• RESONANCE: 13
• SOURCE: Amp Env
• ENV DEPTH: 19

AMP ENVELOPE

• ATTACK: 6
• DECAY: 50
• SUSTAIN: 0
• RELEASE: 25

Triangle plus a dark cutoff and a small non-zero Attack (6, not 0) softens the transient for a muted, palm-damped feel rather than a sharply plucked one.

Arturia MiniFreak

Exact match: Soft, damped, dark pluck

OSCILLATOR 1

• TYPE: SuperWave
• WAVE (Waveform): Triangle
• TIMBRE (Detune): 0
• SHAPE (Volume of copies): 0
• VOLUME: 100

ANALOG FILTER

• TYPE: Low Pass
• CUTOFF: 30
• RESONANCE: 10
• ENV/VELO: 15

ENVELOPE

• ATTACK: 4
• DECAY: 35
• SUSTAIN: 0
• RELEASE: 18

Osc 1 is SuperWave used as a clean triangle: Detune and the copies' volume are both 0, so it is a single triangle wave. The darkest, softest pluck in the library -- a useful contrast to Classic FM Pluck and Digital Glassy Pluck's brightness. The Envelope's gentle Attack (4) also softens the filter's own opening via ANALOG FILTER's ENV/VELO 15 above, matching the amp's soft entry. Values are on MiniFreak's native 0-100 scale.

Dreadbox Typhon

Exact match: Soft, damped, dark pluck

FRONT PANEL

• WAVE: ~11 o'clock (VCO1 triangle-leaning, soft VCO2 blend)
• CUTOFF: ~9 o'clock (dark)
• RESON: ~8 o'clock (low)
• EG LEVEL: ~8 o'clock (low)
• FILTER TIME: ~9 o'clock (slow)
• AMP TIME: ~9 o'clock (slow)
• VOLUME: ~12 o'clock

FILTER ADSR

• ATTACK: 10
• DECAY: 40
• SUSTAIN: 0
• RELEASE: 25

AMP ADSR

• ATTACK: 10
• DECAY: 50
• SUSTAIN: 0
• RELEASE: 25

The dark CUTOFF position plus a small, deliberately non-zero ATTACK stage on both ADSR pages gives the soft, muted entry this patch wants, rather than the instant snap most other plucks in this library use. Front-panel knobs are physically unmarked, so WAVE/CUTOFF/RESON/EG LEVEL/FILTER TIME/AMP TIME are described by clock position, not a percentage.

ASM Hydrasynth Desktop

Exact match: Soft, damped, dark pluck

OSCILLATOR 1

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

FILTER 1

• TYPE: LP 1 Pole
• CUTOFF: 38.0
• RESONANCE: 13.0
• ENV 1 AMOUNT: 19.0
• KEYTRACK: 0%

ENVELOPE 1

• DELAY: 0 ms
• ATTACK: 5 ms
• DECAY: 100 ms
• SUSTAIN: 0.0
• RELEASE: 60 ms

ENVELOPE 2

• DELAY: 0 ms
• ATTACK: 5 ms
• DECAY: 130 ms
• SUSTAIN: 0.0
• RELEASE: 60 ms

The darkest, softest pluck in the library -- a useful contrast to Classic FM Pluck and Digital Glassy Pluck's brightness. Envelope 1 (pre-wired to Filter 1) and Envelope 2 (pre-wired to Amp) share the same small non-zero Attack (5ms) for the muted, palm-damped entry.

How the synths compare

The darkest, softest pluck in the library — a useful contrast to Classic FM Pluck and Digital Glassy Pluck's brightness.

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.