Intense Tech #10 — Get your Kicks with Version 6, Part 1 (Defense Mechanism)

Wave-channel kicks in lsdj 6, expanding a video tutorial: why the wave channel, the new P/L/V instrument setting and its DRUM mode, a robust kick table, the "Kyoto kick" attack, and two ways to go from kick to bass. A save file for version 6.9.0 accompanies the article (intense-tech, by defense-mechanism).

Key claims#

• The wave channel "generates the lowest pitch of any channel"; a sine from the synth gives "a pure tone around 65 Hz at the lowest note of C1". The quickest kick is a kit kick; otherwise a sine- or square-like synth wave with a command like PC0 sliding down, the note anywhere from C5 to C7 or above "depending on how high-pitched and punchy you want the attack to be".
• Pitch engine history: it changed between version 4 and 5.1.0; until version 6 "there was no way to recreate the old logarithmic pitch". Version 6's instrument setting P/L/V governs how P, L and V behave: FAST (formerly "HF") = fastest rate; A+DOWN → TICK, "a much slower rate that is also affected by the tempo"; again → STEP, P becomes a pitch offset only ("makes P commands on wave drumkit snares a lot of fun"); A+UP from FAST → DRUM, which plays P and L through "a special pitch mode that emulates the logarithmic pitch slides of the previous LSDj versions" via a separate frequency lookup table.
• DRUM caveat in version 6: transpose columns in phrases and tables "will not work as intended", which also rules out kicks that slide into bass notes; set the instrument's TRANSPOSE to OFF when transposing phrases.
• Kick table: line 1 a fast P (the speed of the fall from the played note), line 2 an L with transpose 80 — the pitch slides "to the lowest note possible" and stops, so it never wraps around to the highest pitch; DRUM P/L ignore tempo, so the kick survives tempo changes, and the note (C5 and up) and the P value stay free to tune the transient.
• Kyoto kick ("as popularized by Toriena and others"): a first-tick waveform "that contains some noise and grit", then the normal kick wave — Wave 00 noisy, waves 01–0F normal, F01 on the second table line; or no command at all with PLAY LOOP, LENGTH 1, REPEAT 0, SPEED 01, which plays wave 00 for one tick and then switches to wave 0F.
• DRUM tuning also makes toms and snares "and it works on pulse instruments as well".
• Kick to bass (808 style) in version 6: FAST pitch, instrument TRANSPOSE ON, root note an octave above the bass; table line 1 = one octave up plus a P sliding down for two ticks, line 3 = one octave down plus an L. Or simply change the groove: in groove 10 the first tick count is how long the kick lasts, the second how long the bass lasts — "No fancy kick transposition needed!"

Practical takeaways#

DRUM pitch plus the P-then-L 80 table is the standard LSDj kick; choose the attack with the note and the P speed, sharpen it with a noisy first wave, and use grooves rather than transposes to tighten kick-to-bass timing.

Notable quotes#

"Setting this value means that no matter which note is playing in the phrase, the pitch will slide downwards to the lowest note possible."

Pages touched#

instrument-design · wavetable-programming · pitch-slide-and-portamento · shuffle-funktempo · lsdj · intense-tech · defense-mechanism · octave-bass