What is Acid Techno ?

Acid techno appeared in the 80s with the marketing of the TB-303 by Roland. Since its creation, acid remains an emblematic sound of the world techno scene.

Nowadays, the artists of the scene, continue to use this type of sounds in their productions, as Amelie Lens, Charlotte de Witte, FJAAK, Sam paganini, Richie Hawtin and many others.

Acid continues to evolve with the appearance of new vst's that allow the creation of new bass acid with a different feature of the TB 303. This is the case of the Serum VST which is a very complete vst that will allow you to create incredible bass acids with infinite variations of sound.

In this article you will learn how to easily recreate your own acid bass ready to be used in your techno tracks via the VST (Virtual Synth) Serum.

We will see together how to do it in 4 steps. To implement the steps indicated you must have Serum and a DAW (Digital Audio orkstation) software like Fl studio, Ableton, Logic Pro X etc.. A summary video will be available at the end of the article.

Step 1 : Open Serum.

To start, you need to open your Serum software in your DAW software. Once this is done, you need to select the Serum base Acid wavetable.

Step 2 : Create your envelope.

1. Click on "ENV1", the envelopes can be assigned by "drag & drop" to any pot in Serum. After assigning ENV1 to the volume parameter of oscillator A for example, draw an envelope by playing the attack or the sustain (release), then play a note. You will then see that the volume of the oscillator adapts to the shape of your envelope. By default, envelope 1 controls the master of your sound. You can add other envelopes if needed.

1. Set the substain pot to 0 db and the decay to about 600 ms.

Step 3 : Modulate your envelope.

Click on envelope 2, then set the Sustain to 0% and the decay to 700 ms. Once that is done drag and drop ENV on the WT post button.

Then set your blue curve pot between 60 and 70. To do this you will need to click on the blue button that is displayed on the top left as you can see on the picture below. (Function of the button)

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Step 4 : Add effects.

For this part, you will be able to apply the effects that you want. I recommend you to use a distortion as well as the Hyper/dimension effect which will give some grain to your bass and also a reverb to give it some depth.

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Step 5 : Create your acid melody.

Once your sound is created, you can go in your Piano Roll for Fl studio and compose your melodies. For this preset, I advise you to use the notes between C2 and B2 to have a bass well grace.

You can have fun copying the melodies below and then adapt it to your song. 

What you need to remember.

Here is a simple way to create your own acid bass with Serum. Of course, you can modify some steps according to your sound tastes. For example the effects to apply on the bass or the shape of the Wavetable.

You can also add a Filter to play on the Cutoff and Resonance pot of your bass.

What I can propose to you in addition is the Neos Sound Acid Techno pack. Where you will find several Acid presets and many others to create your own acid sounds via Serum.

Moreover, you will have 30 free MIDI melodies to use in your productions. 

If you need more information or have any questions, don't hesitate to contact us !