bass-foundry/docs/forge/README.md

# Forge

Forge is one tracked channel strip: Lathe, Temper and Knurl run behind a single
note tracker, in the order you choose. Current version **0.1.0**.

Each of the three plugins detects the played note itself. In a row, their
lookaheads add up (Lathe 67 ms, Temper 68 ms, Knurl 71 ms: more than 200 ms),
and a tracker after Knurl hears Knurl's sub-octave and follows a note an octave
low. Forge reads the note once, from its input, and every module follows that
one tracker. In a test with Knurl's sub-octave pattern in front of Lathe, a
standalone Lathe after Knurl followed the note an octave low in every frame;
Lathe inside Forge followed the played note in every frame.

![Forge](assets/editor.png)

## Install on Windows

Copy `Forge.clap` into `C:\Program Files\Common Files\CLAP\`. In FL Studio
2024.1 or newer, open Options → Manage plugins, enable Verify plugins, and Find
installed plugins. Load Forge in the mixer slot of the bass, right after the
synth. Keep the font license with redistributed packages.

## Work with it

1. Choose **Pitch from** in the header: **AUDIO** detects the note from the
   input; **MIDI** follows MIDI notes sent to the effect. All modules use it.
2. The **Chain** row shows the modules in processing order. Click a module's
   name to edit it below; **ON** switches it on or off. The button between two
   modules swaps them. The default order is Lathe, Temper, Knurl, as in the
   standalone chain.
3. Each module's page is its standalone editor: [Lathe](../lathe/README.md),
   [Temper](../temper/README.md) and [Knurl](../knurl/README.md) explain the
   controls. Temper's **AUTO GAIN** sits in the Chain row while its page is
   open.
4. The **Gate** knob on every page is the one shared tracker gate: turning it on
   one page turns it on all.

**Bypass** in the header crossfades the whole strip to the delayed input.

## How it works

The tracker reads the strip's input, and the audio is delayed by its lookahead
once. Every module gets the note events delayed by the latency of the modules
in front of it, so each module sees a note start exactly on the attack of the
audio it receives. A single module on its own in Forge gives the same output,
sample for sample, as its standalone plugin, in every position of the chain.

Temper's **Normalize** measures each note's level one lookahead ahead. In Forge
it measures the strip's input, not the output of the modules in front of it.
Lathe and Knurl change the level about equally on every note, so the notes
still reach the shaper at one level.

## Timing and limits

Latency is the tracker's lookahead (about 67 ms), Temper's oversampling filters
(under 1 ms) and Knurl's room for timing jitter (about 4 ms): about 72 ms in
all, reported to the host. A module that is off still delays its audio by its
own latency, so the latency stays the same in every order and with any module
off.

Changing the order while audio plays switches the routing at once and can
click. The standalone plugins stay: use them when you need only one module, or
when another plugin must sit between two of them.