AciDS - An ACID Sequencer Groovebox for NDS - Downloadable ROM - V1.3.2B (07/27/26)
AciDS turns a Nintendo DS into a self-contained acid machine.
Two independent basslines each run the classic circuit: a band limited saw or square oscillator into a resonant 4-pole ladder filter, with the envelope squelch, ACCENT kick, and gliding SLIDE that define the sound. Distortion per device, one shared delay, and a mod wheel that rides the envelope depth live.
The drum machine is synthesized at boot from classic analog recipes, a bridged-T kick, sine-partial snare over shaped noise, six-oscillator metal hats and cymbals, the famous square-pair cowbell in four kits from boomy to tight. Eight TR-style lanes with per-step accent, ratchets, and probability.
The sequencer is the family's deepest: 32 steps × 16 patterns, per-step velocity/gate/ratchet/probability, TIE and SLIDE, live and step record, motion recording and p-locks on every knob (drums included), swing, and a 64-slot song mode with per-slot repeats, mutes, and tempo overrides.
Plug an mDS cart into slot-2 and AciDS is a MIDI instrument: play both basslines and the kit from a DAW or keyboard, sync to external clock, or drive the knobs by CC.
- 2 × 303-style basslines (saw/square, ladder filter, accent, slide, dist)
- 8-lane analog drum machine, 4 kits, synthesized, no samples
- 32-step × 16-pattern sequencer, motion/p-locks, song mode
- Shared delay + per-device distortion
- MIDI in/thru/clock via mDS slot-2 cart; GM-safe CC map
- Saves to SD (`/acids*.dat`)
Use at your own risk. AciDS is homebrew software, provided as is with no warranty of any kind, and the author accepts no liability for damage to hardware or loss of data. It writes to your SD card only when you save; back up anything on that card you care about. It never writes to console firmware or settings, and only ever reads a slot-2 cart.
*AciDS is an original work. Not affiliated with, endorsed by, or derived from Roland, Sequential, Oberheim, Nintendo or any other manufacturer. No third-party samples, trademarks or trade dress are used. All synthesis is original and generated on the device.*
*Built with devkitARM. Includes calico (Zope Public License 2.1, copyright fincs and devkitPro), libfat (BSD 3-clause, copyright 2006 Michael "Chishm" Chisholm), libnds (zlib license) and newlib.