As we’re using Ableton we load up the Overdrive device on our synth (whatever DAW you’re working in, the native distortion plugins will do the trick nicely here). Here are examples of how both sound with our MIDI clip: If you keep the synth in legato mode then there will only be glide between notes that overlap.
Increasing the glide time creates the pitch transition between notes, so the synth bends from one note to the next for that classic 303-style effect – how high you go with the glide control is of course up to taste, and dependent on the source material.Ĭhanging the mode to mono means the synth will only play one note at a time, however we still have glide between all notes. In the tuning section we turn up the first glide control to a third of the way, then in the section underneath we change the mode from legato to mono. Setting the resonance this high creates those distinctive resonant sweeps when moving the cutoff frequency up and down, synonymous with the acid sound. Heading back to the main synth section, we turn up the feedback control in the mixer section to a third in order to add bite, then in the VCF (voltage-controlled filter) section we push up the emphasis (resonance) control and increase the cutoff frequency. We head straight to the Patches tab and initialise the patch by selecting the ‘INIT Minimono’ preset from the Templates section. We begin by loading a new instance of Diva. Here’s an audio example of the synth we’ll be creating: Īnd here’s a screenshot of the MIDI pattern we’ve used for the melody:
Taking inspiration from the classic Roland TB-303, we’ll also look at a couple of different ways to set the synth up for variations on the sound. In this instalment of Synth Secrets we’ll look at creating a relatively simple acid sound using U-He’s Diva plugin.
Synth Secrets is a series of programming tutorials in which we show how to make a range of classic and new synth sounds using plugins such as Massive, Sylenth and Diva.