Modular drum synthesis for techno: kicks, hats & rumble

In a modular techno set there is no drum machine to fall back on: the kit is patched from oscillators, noise, filters, and envelopes, and it has to hold a dancefloor for an hour. This module builds the whole task — a complete kit whose every voice is tuned around the kick — because in this genre the kick is a pitched instrument, not just a thump, and everything that doesn’t gel with its fundamental will clash on a big PA.

The arc starts supported: patch a single voice and give it punch with a fast pitch-envelope sweep (“A short pitch-envelope sweep at note onset adds punch…”), then build the classic noise hat (“A basic hi-hat patch routes white noise through a highpass filter and a VCA…”). From there, complexity layers in: alternate open/closed articulation by clocking the decay time, replace plain noise with detuned FM oscillators for genuinely metallic hats, and derive a rumble layer from the kick’s own reverb tail (“A techno rumble kick is the kick’s own reverb tail filtered to sub-bass…”). The capstone strips the scaffolding: patch the full kit from scratch and perform live decay and pitch tweaks over a one-minute groove — which is why live drum-module tuning is drilled as a performance gesture, not a setup step.

Each required atom gates the capstone directly: without the pitch-tuning principle the kit won’t sit together; without the FM and rumble procedures two of the three demanded voices can’t exist. Supporting atoms enrich the same moves — why saw modulators beat sines, why the HPF converts FM drone into metal, how parallel channels and sidechain pumping seat the kit in a mix — depth to pull in once the core patch stands.

Runnable examples

Generated from the context/ instrument corpus by concept (redistributable idioms only). Do not edit — regenerate with gen-module-examples.mjs.

resonant-filter

SinOsc s => LPF f => dac; 400 => f.freq;

_{chuck-0002 · MIT}

play :e2, cutoff: 90, res: 0.9, release: 0.3

_{sonicpi-0022 · CC0}

noise-percussion

s("white").hpf(4000).decay(0.08).gain(0.3)

_{strudel-0207 · CC0}

synth :noise, release: 0.04, cutoff: 115, amp: 0.5

_{sonicpi-0038 · CC0}

fm-timbre

note("c3").s("sine").fm(4).fmh(2).fmi(3)

_{strudel-0204 · CC0}

osc (midicps 24 * (1 ~~ 4 $ osc 110)) >> audio

_{punctual-0006 · CC0-1.0}

sub-bass

osc 27.5 >> audio

_{punctual-0002 · CC0-1.0}

synth :subpulse, note: :e1, sustain: 0.4, amp: 1.4

_{sonicpi-0016 · CC0}

saturation-drive

d1 $ sound "bd*2" # shape 0.4

_{tidal-0033 · CC0}

{ (SinOsc.ar(110) * 5).tanh * 0.2 }.play

_{supercollider-0009 · CC0}

sidechain-pump

note("c2").s("sawtooth").duckorbit(1).duck("bd*4")

_{strudel-0017 · CC0}

~duck: imp 4 >> envperc 0.001 0.15 >> mul -1.0 >> add 1.0
out: saw 110 >> lpf 600 1.0 >> mul ~duck >> mul 0.3

_{glicol-0029 · MIT}