After many years of listening and contemplating it, I finally decided to dive in recreate Daft Punk’s classic acid house burner with my modular synth setup.
Every sound you hear was created on the gear you see! The drums are hexinverter 909 modules (the sub bass comes from the kick), and some samples on the Squarp Rample (hi hats, drum break, horn stab). The first bassline is on the Novation Bass Station II using some external feedback looping for more growl. The classic 303 line is recreated using my open-source Super Sixteen sequencer, MFOS VCO as an oscillator, Yusynth Moog Ladder Filter, and a SansAmp Para Driver. Some EQ and buss compression was added to the recording.
I have to give a lot of credit to Attack Magazine’s write up on “Deconstructed” where they analyze the original in great detail and provide a good structural map of it. They also led me down a rabbit hole into discovering this lovely filter feedback patch on this Yamaha CS-15 which is an absolute deadringer for the original synth sound:
Finally, there is the mysterious “screechy_horn.wav” sample that was unearthed on the Daft Club forums quite a few years ago. Its origin remains uncertain but most likely it was an orchestra hit included on some kind of ROMpler or sample library in the late 80s to mid 90s.