Synth Kick
A punchy electronic kick drum — the default sound on Track 1. Goes from deep sub thumps to short clicky transients.
Available on: Track 1
Built on: Mutable Instruments Plaits — synthetic_bass_drum model.
Character
A model-based synth kick rather than an analog emulation. The tone control pushes the transient from soft and round to bright and snappy; the decay reshapes the body from a percussive click to a long sustained boom.
Parameters
The db-allparams macro surfaces all seven DSP parameters across two pages:
| Page | Knob 1 | Knob 2 | Knob 3 | Knob 4 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tone | Freq | Tone | Decay | Dirt |
| FM Env | Fm Env | Fm Decay | Fm Accent | — |
Tone
| Parameter | Range | What it does | DSP |
|---|---|---|---|
| Freq | low → high | Base pitch of the kick body | f0 |
| Tone | soft → clicky | Transient brightness | tone |
| Decay | short → long | Body decay length | decay |
| Dirt | clean → dirty | Adds grit / noise to the body (low-pitched kicks only) | dirtiness |
FM Env
| Parameter | Range | What it does | DSP |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fm Env | 0 → high | Strength of the pitch-sweep at the attack | fm_envelope_amount |
| Fm Decay | short → long | Speed of the pitch sweep | fm_envelope_decay |
| Fm Accent | soft → hard | Overall emphasis / velocity scaling | accent |
Set a short
Decaywith a midTonefor fast techno kicks; longDecaywith higherFreqfor tom-like body hits.
See also
- Analog Bass Drum — warmer 909/808-style alternative on the same track.
- FM Kick / Bass — FM-based kick on Track 2.
- Parameter Locks — per-step accent and tone variation.
Origin & credits
Based on Mutable Instruments Plaits’ synthetic_bass_drum voice (Émilie Gillet, MIT-licensed). The TBD-16 integration by Robert Manzke / CTAG (GPL 3.0) adds the trigger pipeline, accent scaling and the preset/parameter surface.
- DSP source:
plaits/dsp/drums/synthetic_bass_drum.h - TBD-16 wrapper:
rack/RackDBD.hpp/.cpp