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Pluck-Pad Hybrid

Sounds like: A pad with a little plucked click on the front of each note.

Sound type: pad · Genre: House, UK Garage · Style: a pad with a plucky attack transient layered onto a sustained body

A sustained pad with an audible pluck-like transient on the attack — the note announces itself clearly even in a busy mix, then settles into a normal pad sustain.

Open this patch in the interactive Patchpad

Digitone II

Exact match: Pad with a pluck-like attack transient

SYN page 1

SYN page 2 · Operators A & B

FLTR page 1 · Multi-mode

AMP page

FX page

Digitone II's ALGO 3 gives three plain carriers (C, B2, B1) when the FM depth of A and B is off, so LEV (A) and LEV (B) are both 0. MIX -64 selects the X tap (C + B2), and DTUN, which offsets only the ratio of operators A and B2, detunes B2 against C so the two beat against each other. DTUN below 64 is a very slight detune; above 64 is heavier. The pluck comes entirely from the FLTR page's own envelope: ATK 0 with a fast DEC (~130ms feel) closing down to a moderate SUS 51, driven by a strong positive ENV of 70 -- the fast decay is the 'pluck' transient, the sustain level after it is the 'pad' body. The AMP page's own envelope is comparatively gentle (DEC 25, high SUS) so the amplitude itself just sustains normally while the filter does the transient work.

Syntakt

Exact match: Pad with a pluck-like attack transient

SYN — SY RAW

FLTR PAGE 1

AMP PAGE 1

AMP PAGE 2

AMP PAGE 2's MODE must be ADSR (the default for SY machines, but drum machines default to AHD), or the AMP PAGE 1 SUS value is ignored and the pad can't sustain after the pluck.

Compared with other synths: Same mechanism as Digitone II: FLTR PAGE 1's fast DEC (~130ms feel) down to a moderate SUS with a strong positive ENV is what produces the pluck transient ahead of the sustained pad body.

Novation Summit

Exact match: Pad with a pluck-like attack transient

OSCILLATOR 1

OSCILLATOR 2

MIXER

FILTER

MOD ENVELOPE 1

AMP ENVELOPE

FILTER's SOURCE is set to Mod Env 1 rather than the default Amp Env, specifically so the filter can have its own fast-decaying pluck shape (Mod Envelope 1: DECAY 20, SUSTAIN 51) independent of the Amp Envelope's own gentler sustain shape -- Summit's filter has no dedicated envelope hardware, so this SOURCE routing is exactly what makes the two-stage pluck-then-pad character possible here.

Arturia MiniFreak

Exact match: Pad with a pluck-like attack transient

OSCILLATOR · Osc 1

OSCILLATOR · Osc 2

ANALOG FILTER

ENVELOPE

CYCLING ENVELOPE

DIGITAL EFFECTS · FX1

MODULATION MATRIX

Osc 1 is KarplusStr, a plucked-string model: Wave is Bow (keep it low for a plucked, not bowed, tone), Timbre is Position and Shape is Decay. Osc 2 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). Mod Matrix: the CycEnv row to the Cutoff column at +45. The pluck transient needs the filter to snap closed much faster than the sustained amp body does, but MiniFreak's single Envelope is hardwired to the VCA -- so the fast filter decay is routed instead from the separate Cycling Envelope (one-shot Env mode) via the Modulation Matrix, leaving the main Envelope free to just hold the pad's sustain. Values are on MiniFreak's native 0-100 scale.

Dreadbox Typhon

Exact match: Pad with a pluck-like attack transient

FRONT PANEL

FILTER ADSR

AMP ADSR

The FILTER TIME knob turned fast (~1-2 o'clock) scales the whole Filter ADSR faster, so the already-quick FILTER ADSR DECAY (20) closes down even faster in real time -- that's the pluck transient. EG LEVEL turned up high on the FRONT PANEL is what actually lets the Filter ADSR reach the cutoff at all; without it the ADSR shape has nothing to modulate.

ASM Hydrasynth Desktop

Exact match: Pad with a pluck-like attack transient

OSCILLATOR 1

OSCILLATOR 2

MIXER

FILTER 1

ENVELOPE 1

ENVELOPE 2

ENVELOPE 1 is pre-wired to Filter 1 -- its fast 130ms DECAY down to a moderate SUSTAIN of 51 is the real pluck transient, while ENVELOPE 2 (pre-wired to Amp) has a gentler DECAY and high SUSTAIN so the amplitude itself just holds as a normal pad after the filter's pluck has closed down.

How the synths compare

The key is the filter envelope's decay-to-sustain relationship: fast decay down to a moderate (not zero) sustain level gives the pluck-then-pad two-stage character.

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.