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Lathe places EQ bands on harmonics 1-32 of the played note, so a cut on harmonic 3 stays on harmonic 3 on every note. Temper normalises each note's level before an oversampled shaper and tunes its floor, push and bright filters to the note, so every note distorts the same. The note tracker moves from Anvil into common-dsp, together with a state-variable filter, 4x oversampler and harmonic meter. Anvil's behaviour and editor render are unchanged. docs/ideas.md collects all plugin ideas and their status.
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Plugin ideas
A running list of plugin ideas for riddim, dubstep and bass-music sound design. Each entry names the problem first. Entries are grouped as released or idea. Names follow the metalwork theme of Rivet, Patina, Anvil and Crucible.
Problems seen in bass-music production
- Every bass patch brings its own sub level and phase, so the weight of a drop jumps between switch-ups, and layered patches cancel in the sub.
- Patches at the same peak level still differ in perceived loudness and brightness. The usual fix is hand-set gain or clipping per patch.
- Resampling is repetitive: bounce, chop, trim, declick, normalise, find the root key, name, save, load into a sampler.
- Writing wobbles: LFO shapes are drawn, synced, copied and edited for every variation. Triplet and dotted patterns plus per-note changes take long.
- Unison, OTT and stereo distortion widen the mids. Parts disappear in mono or on club systems.
- Kick and bass clash. Sidechain helps, but the sub phase at each note start changes how the kick hits.
- Distortion chains build up harsh resonances. (Patina covers this.)
- Comparing a drop with a reference: the difference is usually sub/mid balance over time, which generic meters do not show clearly.
- Fixed-frequency tools act differently on every note. An EQ boost at 300 Hz lifts the 4th harmonic of one note and the 7th of another; a distortion with a fixed tone filter sounds brighter on low notes than on high notes.
- Layered bass patches partly cancel in the mids, not only in the sub.
Released
Anvil — sub anchor (problems 1, 6)
Replaces the band below a split frequency with a clean mono sine that follows the bass pitch, at one level and one start phase for every note. Pitch comes from detection with 80 ms lookahead or from MIDI. See Anvil.
Crucible — resampler (problem 3)
Records the input continuously. One click captures the last bars on the host bar grid, slices on a grid or on hits, trims, declicks, normalises, detects the root key and exports labelled WAVs, a full loop and an optional Serum/Vital wavetable. See Crucible.
Lathe — harmonic EQ (problem 9)
EQ bands placed on harmonics 1–32 of the detected note instead of fixed frequencies. "+4 dB on harmonic 3, −6 dB on harmonic 7" sounds the same on F1 and on C2. Odd/even balance, tilt over harmonic number, and a Focus control that lifts or cuts everything between the harmonics. Uses Anvil's pitch tracker, or MIDI. See Lathe.
Temper — note-tracked distortion (problem 9)
A waveshaper whose tone filters before and after the shaper follow the note, so every note distorts with the same character and the same harmonic content. Input level is normalised before the shaper, so drive does not depend on how loud the patch is, and the output is gain-matched. Oversampled to keep aliasing (which is never harmonic) out. See Temper.
Ideas
Weld — layer phase alignment (problem 10)
Takes a second bass layer through the sidechain. Per band, it rotates phase with allpass filters (no added delay) and flips polarity so the layers sum instead of cancel. A display shows how much level the cancellation cost. Anvil solves the sub band; Weld solves the mids. Hardest of the list: phase matching against a moving sidechain.
Ballast — switch-up loudness leveller (problem 2)
Measures short-term perceived loudness per note or per switch-up against a target or a reference patch and adjusts gain only, so each switch-up lands at the same loudness without compression changing its character. Earlier working name: Hit Leveler. Pairs with Anvil: Anvil levels the sub, Ballast the whole patch.
Bellows — pitch-tracked resonator
A comb or Karplus-style resonator tuned to the detected note. It turns noise, distortion or drums into pitched metallic tone that is in key on every note. Damping, harmonic spread, single or multiple combs.
Gauge — low-end mono check (problem 5)
Shows phase correlation and mono-sum loss per band and per note in the bass range, and marks the notes where widening breaks the mono sum. Optional fixes: mono below a chosen frequency and phase rotation on the mids. Display-first, so it is a small build. Earlier working name: Bass Mono Check.
Wobble sequencer (problem 4)
Step patterns for volume, filter, formant and pitch with triplet and dotted grids built in. Each MIDI note selects a different pattern, so a switch-up is a different note in the piano roll. ShaperBox overlaps, but it has no note-keyed patterns. No name yet.
Drop compare (problem 8)
Loudness-matched A/B of a drop against a reference, with sub, low-mid, mid and high energy over time: for example "your sub is 3 dB under the reference in bars 2–4". No name yet.