A lo-fi drum machine plugin

VD-1 is a drum machine plugin built around a simulated DSP chip. You can open it up, swap the chips on its circuit board and load different firmware, each with its own sounds. It also has 16 tracks, a step sequencer with parameter locks, pattern banks and a song mode.

CLAP first · Windows and Linux next, VST3 and AU planned

A simulated DSP chip

The sounds are synthesized on a simulated fixed-point DSP running at 44.1 kHz, with 24-bit words and a fixed cycle budget per voice. Delay and reverb share a limited delay memory. These limits shape the sound, and a render is the same every time.

Swap the chips

The board (the gear button) shows the inside of the unit. You can replace the DSP with a 16- or 12-bit version, change the size of the delay RAM or the converter, or add a sample ROM. Each chip changes the sound. Changes are marked on the board and saved with the project, and Restore Stock resets everything.

Load a different firmware

The firmware decides which sound machines are available. Besides the stock firmware there are FM, ROM (sample playback) and PHYS (physical models). Flashing takes about two seconds, and your patterns are kept.

Each firmware has its own display

Every firmware comes with its own display colours and font. From here on, this page switches between them as you scroll. You can preview them here:

Step sequencer

16 tracks, each with up to 64 steps. The display shows the whole kit as a grid. Each track can have its own length, so parts of different lengths can run against each other.

Patterns and songs

64 pattern slots in four banks. A queued pattern starts when the current one ends. Patterns can be arranged into a song with repeats, which follows the position of your DAW. With chain capture on, the patterns you queue while playing are written into the song.

LFOs

Each track has four LFOs, each with a page of eight controls: destination, shape, speed, multiplier, depth, mode, phase and polarity. An LFO can modulate a machine or an FX parameter, and the modulated knob shows its range. LFO settings can be locked per step too.

Track FX and master effects

Each track has an FX page with filters, sample-rate reduction, volume, pan and sends to the delay and reverb. The master bus has three pages of its own: a tempo-synced delay with ping-pong, saturation and sample-rate reduction, a reverb with pre-delay, damping, gate and bit depth, and a compressor with a sidechain high-pass and a limiter.

Parameter locks

Hold a step and turn a knob to give that step its own value. Locks work on the machine, LFO and FX pages and are shown in amber. Each pattern has 64 lock rows; a row is one parameter on one track.

TRY IT

Try the interface

This is the plugin's interface running in the browser, without sound. You can click the pads, drag the knobs (Shift for fine steps), hold a step to lock it, or open the board with the gear button and flash a firmware.

FLASH STOCK FM ROM PHYS OPEN BOARD SONG BANK

DOWNLOAD · V1.0.0

Download

The first build will be published on GitHub Releases: macOS CLAP first, then Windows and Linux. VST3 and AU are planned.

FIND VD-1 ON

FAQ

Questions