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docs/chain.md gives the plugin order for a bass track and the bus, the latency each plugin adds, and the measured octave error of downstream note trackers after Knurl: from C2 up the tracker reads an octave low about 85 % of the time, and timing jitter adds 5-25 false note starts per second. Knurl and Anvil guides point there and recommend MIDI as the pitch source after Knurl. docs/ideas.md gains the production-flow audit, next steps for every released plugin, new ideas (Forge, Planish, Quench, Scribe, Bevel, Peen) and a build order.
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Signal chain
The order of the Bass Foundry plugins in a chain matters. Anvil, Lathe, Temper and Knurl each detect the pitch from the audio they receive. If a plugin earlier in the chain changes the audio, the pitch detection after it can go wrong.
Recommended order
bass track: synth → Lathe → Temper → Knurl → Patina → Weld
bass bus: Anvil → (bus compression, clipping) → Crucible
- Lathe and Temper before Knurl. They hear the plain synth, where the pitch is clear.
- Knurl last among the tracked plugins. See below.
- Patina after the tracked plugins. It does not detect pitch, so the order does not change its result.
- Weld after every plugin with latency on its track. Weld can delay its own layer but cannot move it earlier. If FL Studio does not compensate the sidechain route, any latency added after Weld's input on the main layer makes that layer late.
- Anvil on the bus, in MIDI mode when Knurl is in the chain.
- Crucible at the end of the chain you want to resample.
Knurl and pitch detection
Knurl's patterns make every second (or third) cycle quieter. That is a real sub-octave in the signal, so a pitch detector after Knurl hears the note one octave low, or with Triple an octave and a fifth low. Measured with the suite's tracker on a saw bass:
- From C2 (65 Hz) upwards, Double, Fry (the default), Triple and Gallop make the detector read the wrong octave for about 85 % of the note.
- Below C2 the false sub-octave is under 30 Hz, out of the detection range, so low notes are tracked correctly.
- Level and time jitter add 5–25 false note starts per second. Anvil restarts its phase on each, Lathe and Temper retune on each.
When a tracked plugin must come after Knurl, select MIDI as its pitch source and route the bass's MIDI notes to it.
Latency
Each tracked plugin adds its own lookahead: Anvil 80 ms, Lathe and Temper about 67 ms, Knurl about 71 ms, Patina about 45 ms. A full chain is about 330 ms. FL Studio compensates this for playback and rendering, but playing a MIDI keyboard through the full chain is not practical. Write with a shorter chain and add the rest for the mix.