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Sync Lead

Sounds like: A screaming, siren-like lead whose tone tears and shifts as the pitch moves.

Sound type: lead · Genre: Techno, Electro · Style: classic oscillator-sync screaming lead tone

An aggressive, harmonically shifting lead built from hard oscillator sync — sweeping the synced oscillator's pitch creates a screaming, siren-like timbral movement.

Open this patch in the interactive Patchpad

Digitone II

Exact match: WAVETONE MOD = HARD SYNC

SYN page 1 · WAVETONE

SYN page 2 · WAVETONE

FLTR page 1 · Multi-mode

AMP page

MOD page 1

Digitone II's WAVETONE machine has a genuine hard-sync mode (page 2 MOD = HARD SYNC): Oscillator 1's phase resets each time Oscillator 2's waveform starts a cycle. TUN2 sets the audible pitch and sweeping TUN1 gives the classic screaming, filter-like sync sweep (the manual's description), here as a one-shot Exponential LFO on TUN1 at every note-on so the scream settles as the note decays; FLTR's high ENV depth reinforces it. Hard sync exists on the WAVETONE machine, not FM TONE.

Syntakt

Approximation: No sync on Syntakt: resonant filter sweep instead

SYN — SY RAW

FLTR PAGE 1

AMP PAGE 1

AMP PAGE 2

Syntakt's Digital machines have no oscillator-sync parameter documented in this project's research — FLTR PAGE 1's high RESO swept by its own envelope (ENV 44, fast DEC) approximates the scream via resonant filter movement instead of a literal synced-oscillator sweep.

Novation Summit

Exact match: Virtual oscillator sync via VSYNC

OSCILLATOR 1

OSCILLATOR 2

MOD ENVELOPE 1

FILTER

AMP ENVELOPE

MODULATION MATRIX

Summit's oscillator sync is real but 'virtual': each of the three oscillators has its own inaudible virtual master oscillator whose frequency offset the VSYNC parameter (0-127) sets, and that master re-triggers the audible oscillator. It is not locked to Oscillator 2. When VSYNC is a multiple of 16 the virtual master is a musical harmonic of the oscillator, and values in between are more discordant, so modulating VSYNC is exactly the classic sync sweep; the manual itself suggests modulating it with an LFO or the mod wheel via the Modulation Matrix. This patch sweeps Oscillator 2's own tuning with Mod Envelope 1 via the matrix, which also moves the virtual master's frequency (it scales with the main oscillator), giving the screaming sweep; sweeping VSYNC itself is the more direct control (an alternative matrix destination).

Arturia MiniFreak

Approximation: No sync: VAnalog Shape sweeps similar harmonics

OSCILLATOR

ANALOG FILTER

ENVELOPE

LFO

MODULATION MATRIX

Osc 1 is VAnalog, whose Timbre knob is the pulse Shape: high values give the harsh harmonics of hard oscillator sync (MiniFreak has no true oscillator sync; this is the closest engine). Detune between its saw and pulse is left at the middle. LFO 1 sweeps Timbre 1 through the Mod Matrix for the screaming sweep. Values are on MiniFreak's native 0-100 scale.

Dreadbox Typhon

Approximation: No sync: swept high resonance instead

FRONT PANEL

FILTER ADSR

AMP ADSR

Typhon has no VCO-sync switch — RESON pushed high and swept hard by FILTER ADSR (with a strong EG LEVEL) approximates the screaming sweep via resonant filter movement instead of a literal synced-slave-oscillator pitch sweep. Front-panel knobs are unmarked, so those values are clock positions.

ASM Hydrasynth Desktop

Exact match: Mutator OSC Sync mode

OSCILLATOR 1

MUTATOR 1

MOD MATRIX

FILTER 1

ENVELOPE 2

Mutator 1's OSC Sync mode is Hydrasynth's real classic-oscillator-sync mechanism, with its own Ratio parameter controlling how many times per cycle the slave resyncs. Routing Envelope 1 into that Ratio via the Mod Matrix produces a genuine synced-oscillator scream, not an approximation.

How the synths compare

True hard sync is literal on Digitone II (WAVETONE), Summit (VSYNC) and Hydrasynth (OSC Sync); Syntakt has none in any machine, so the others use the FM/filter approximations described in their own notes.

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.