Pluck design

Definition and role

A pluck is a short sound with an immediate attack and a fast decay, like a plucked string. In electronic genres it carries arpeggios, riffs and rhythmic chords (house, trance, future bass, tropical house, pop). Its “secret” is the filter envelope (or timbre envelope), not just the volume envelope.

Anatomy

• Amplitude: attack 0–2 ms, decay 150–500 ms, sustain 0–10%, release 100–300 ms (a short release avoids muddy tails, a longer one gives a natural “tail”).
• Filter: 24 dB LP with a low cutoff (200–800 Hz) and a strong positive envelope (+50/+70%) with a decay shorter than the amplitude's (100–300 ms): the sound starts bright and darkens right away, like a string.
• Key tracking 50–100%: high notes stay bright.
• Velocity → filter envelope amount: natural dynamics.

Sources

• Subtractive: saw or square (squares give “woody” plucks, saws brighter ones).
• FM: metallic or marimba-like plucks (1:3 or 1:4 ratio with fast index decay).
• Wavetable: enveloped position.
• Karplus-Strong / physical models: realistic plucks (strings, kalimba).
• Samples: kalimba, marimba, plucked guitar, string pizzicatos.

Basic recipe

Two saws (±10 cents) + a sine an octave below at −10 dB for body. 24 dB LP cutoff 350 Hz, resonance 15%, tracking 80%, filter envelope +60% with decay 180 ms, sustain 0. Amplitude A 0, D 400 ms, S 0, R 200 ms. Effects: dotted eighth-note delay (25% wet, filtered with HP 300 Hz and LP 5 kHz), plate or room reverb 1–1.5 s, sidechain if needed.

Variations

• Tropical house pluck: marimba-like (FM or sample), pitch +12 in the choruses, lots of delay.
• Trance pluck: few-voice supersaw with gate, sixteenth-note arpeggio, delay.
• Future bass pluck: chords with a “chord pluck” + vocal chop, sidechain.
• Lo-fi pluck: guitar or piano sample with light bitcrush and wow/flutter.

Pluck and rhythm

The pluck is a rhythmic instrument: its length (decay) determines the groove. Short decays = staccato, lots of space; long decays = legato, denser. Match the decay to the tempo: at 124 BPM a sixteenth note lasts 121 ms: a decay of 120–180 ms keeps sixteenth-note arpeggios clear.

Example in A minor

House at 124 BPM: sixteenth-note arpeggio over Am7 (A3 – C4 – E4 – G4 – E4 – C4…), Fmaj7, Cmaj7, G6. Subtractive pluck with alternating velocity (100/70) to accent the eighth notes; dotted eighth-note delay creating polyrhythm; base cutoff automation from 250 to 700 Hz in the build. In the breakdown, decay lengthened to 800 ms for a more “relaxed” effect.

Pluck mix

HP at 150–250 Hz; light boost at 2–3 kHz for the attack; if the pluck clashes with the hi-hats, remove 8–10 kHz. Light compression or a transient shaper to control the attack. Pan: arpeggios slightly off-center or with slow auto-pan.

Common mistakes

• Short volume envelope but static filter: it sounds like a “beep”, not a pluck.
• Reverb too long: the arpeggios turn into pads.
• Pluck that goes too low and covers the bass.

Exercise

1. Create the same pluck with filter decay of 80, 180, 400 ms and compare.
2. Recreate a pluck with FM, one subtractive and one Karplus-Strong, and choose the best one for an arpeggio at 128 BPM.

Related topics

“Filters”, “Envelopes, LFOs and modulation”, “Physical modeling synthesis”, “FM synthesis”, “Space in the mix: reverb and delay”.