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Getting started

Your first patch

The Patch shows how a sound is wired. Add a module, wire it, and you hear the change at once.

New words

The Patch is the sound's modules and the wires between them.

A module is one box in the Patch, such as an Oscillator, a Filter or an LFO.

A wire is a line from one module's output to another module's input.

1Read the Patch

Open Acid Starter. Each box is a module. The sound runs left to right: Voice, Oscillator, Filter, VCA, Output. Click a module and the line under the Patch says what it's wired to.

  1. Step 1: Acid Starter's Patch. The Patch: Voice, Oscillator, Filter, VCA and Output, with the Envelope wired in. (larger)
  2. Step 2: Outputs right, inputs left. The Filter close up: its inputs on the left (in, env, mod), its output on the right (out). (larger)
  3. Step 3: Click a module. The Filter chosen, outlined in blue. (larger)
  4. Step 4: What it's wired to. The line under the Patch: the Filter’s inputs and outputs, and what they come from and go to. (larger)

2Add a module

Keep the Filter chosen and click + Add a module. Pick Shaper, then Add after Filter. It goes into the wire after the Filter, so you hear it at once.

  1. Step 1: + Add a module. The + Add a module button above the Patch. (larger)
  2. Step 2: Pick Shaper. The module browser, the Shaper tile chosen. (larger)
  3. Step 3: Hear it, then add. The Shaper’s details: Add after Filter, and Hear it beside it. (larger)
  4. Step 4: In the wire. The Patch with the Shaper between the Filter and the VCA. (larger)

3Turn it up

The Shaper has its own card with knobs. Turn Drive up and play: the sound gets grittier.

  1. Step 1: Its card. The Shaper's card among the cards on the right. (larger)
  2. Step 2: Drive up. The Drive knob turned most of the way up. (larger)
  3. Step 3: Play a few notes. A low key held. (larger)

4Wire it by hand

Adding a module leaves the Patch in editing: Edit the wiring now reads Done (if it doesn't, click it). Click + Add a module… and add an LFO: it arrives on its own, with no wires. Click the LFO's out, then the Filter's mod. The Filter's cutoff now wobbles with the LFO.

  1. Step 1: Editing: Done. Edit the wiring, reading Done while you edit. (larger)
  2. Step 2: An LFO on its own. The LFO in the Patch with no wires. (larger)
  3. Step 3: Out, then mod. The LFO’s out chosen, and the line under the Patch: Now tap an input to wire LFO out to it. (larger)
  4. Step 4: The new wire. A wire from the LFO’s out into the Filter’s mod. (larger)

5Take things out

Click a wire, then Delete the wire. Click a module, then Remove under the Patch, or press Delete. Undo brings either back. Click Done when you've finished.

  1. Step 1: Choose a wire. The LFO’s wire chosen, and Delete the wire in the bar above the Patch. (larger)
  2. Step 2: Choose a module. The Shaper chosen, and the Remove button under the Patch: a bin, a coloured dot and Shaper. (larger)
  3. Step 3: Undo takes it back. The Undo button, saying what it takes back: here, Undo Connect LFO to Filter. (larger)
  4. Step 4: Done. Done clicked: the button reads Edit the wiring again. (larger)

Adding the built-in modules, wiring, removing and turning knobs are all free. A tile marked Pro in the browser (visuals, circuits, Code modules and modules of your own) needs SynthMaker Pro.

Acid Starter's Patch, and a keyboard below.
Play the keys: the sound before any change. Open the example sound: Acid Starter ↗ (opens in a new tab)

Try it

  1. Open Acid Starter, click the Filter, then + Add a module, Shaper and Add after Filter.
  2. Click + Add a module…, add an LFO, then click its out and the Filter's mod.
  3. Play a long low note: the sound wobbles. Turn the LFO's Rate to hear it speed up.
Open the example sound: Acid Starter ↗ (opens in a new tab)

On the Mac, the pencil button on the Patch is Edit the wiring. While you edit, + adds a module, the bin deletes the wire you've chosen, and Done finishes.

Remember