tips for creating acid lines in a piano roll?

[5meohd]

I'm curious.. what makes that little box (303) so special? the filter.. yep. the electronic quirks.. yep. the sequencer? hmm.. how come?

any thoughts on getting similar vibes from a piano roll like the one in Live?

cheers!

[pafufta816]

set the piano roll to limit the pattern size to 16 or 32 notes. you need a synth that can make good acid sounds. something monophonic, with a good LP cutoff filter and hot resonance (one that offers robust harmonics), square or saw wave oscillators, you can run it through distortion if you want a really raw sound.

[steevio]

you cant make acid lines on a pianoroll.

infact you cant make real acid lines on anything other than a 303 or clone, (and some people would debate that even a clone isnt good enough)

everything about the 303 is different to the normal standard synth sequencer set-up. people use the term acid line too loosely, you can't for instance make an acid line on an SH101. the TB303 has an unusual system of accent and slide which works differently to normal portmento, as it is applied at the end of the gate.

its totally unique.

i really dont know what people mean by 'acid sounds' the sound of acid house is the sound of the TB303 very specifically.

[AK]

Hard thing to emulate as already said. The best you could do is use either a swatooth or square waveform, an 18db/per octave filter and reduce the synth/samplers polyphony to 1 note and pop it into legato mode. That way, when you overlap notes in the sequencer, they will glide to the next rather than retrigger. Some amount of portamento might be needed too. Never tried it and I'm just guessing as I don't know what the results would be like.

[steevio]

haha sometimes i just talk my shite.

i spent the evening trying to make a convincing acid line on my moog, and as long as i kept the filter closed down low i just didnt care anymore that it wasnt a 303, that kind of acid sound could maybe be made on many synths, its when you try emulate those higher squelchy sounds, and you can hear everything clearly, the 303 is obvious.

still taking my shite

[pafufta816]

i'd say the 303 is where the acid sound started. there are many acid house tracks from the 80's that use other synths, or no 303 at all. the klf is considered acid house, and many of their tracks lack a 303 in them. there are a limited number of 303's in existence, so most people opt for hardware clones or software emulations.

[steevio]

i'd say the 303 is where the acid sound started. there are many acid house tracks from the 80's that use other synths, or no 303 at all. the klf is considered acid house, and many of their tracks lack a 303 in them. there are a limited number of 303's in existence, so most people opt for hardware clones or software emulations.

the clones and emulations arent too bad really, but i still maintain Acid is the 303, i ran an acid techno label for 6 years in the 1990s, no-one would have dreamed of using anything other than a tb303 to make acid techno, and real acid house was the sound of the 303 plain and simple. i dont know why there's even an argument, make what is being called an 'acid line' on any other synth and its just a riff on a synth, it doesnt have what it takes to be that sound.

to quote wikipedia; 'term Acid house was "Coined in Chicago in 1987 to describe the sound of the Roland 303 bass machine'

i would never have called the KLF acid house.

[pafufta816]

The KLF (also known as The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu, The Timelords and other names) were one of the seminal bands of the British acid house movement during the late 1980s and early 1990s.

that's funny, i consider the KLF as classic acid house. just browse their early singles, almost all of which are categorized as "house" and "acid". the same wikipedia article doesn't arrive at any conclusion over the term "acid house" etymology or definition. the 303 is one component of this, but there are some other hardwares that contributed to the acid house sound. and yes there are many "acid house singles" from around 87-90 that did not have a squeeling 303 in them. acid house was a term at that time which referred to alot of house music, only later did a stereotype form around the 303 as the "acid" part of acid house.

i'm not arguing, i find this type of conversation very interesting as it shows the elasticity of certain terminologies in EDM.