An 808-style kick/bass mono synthesizer (VST3, built with JUCE). Additive harmonic control, expressive legato glides, a clean sub oscillator, and a tempo-syncable LFO — everything you need for deep, modern bass lines.
Supported: macOS 11.0+ (Universal: Apple Silicon + Intel) / Windows 10+ (x64)
- 8-harmonic additive oscillator — shape the tone with one fader per harmonic, plus inharmonicity (H.DETUNE) for metallic stretch and shimmer
- SUB oscillator — independent sine / triangle / square (polyBLEP) sub with its own tune (−24 to 0 st) and detune (±50 cents). Runs on a clean path that bypasses saturation and the filter, and ignores the pitch punch — the low end stays solid
- PUNCH — the classic 808 pitch-drop attack ("knock"), with amount and decay
- GLIDE & note modes — auto-glide with on/off switch and time, plus a LEGATO / RETRIG note mode (seamless pitch slides vs. per-note retriggering)
- UNISON — a detuned voice pair layered onto the upper harmonics while the fundamental stays mono for a tight low end
- DRIVE — tanh saturation with dry/wet mix
- FILTER — TPT state-variable low-pass, switchable 12/24 dB per octave, with a decay envelope mod for expressive filter sweeps
- LFO — sine / triangle / square / sample&hold, routed to cutoff, pitch, or amp. Free-running in Hz or tempo-synced (1/1 … 1/32 with triplets) and beat-locked to the host. FREE / KEY trigger mode restarts the phase on every note
- TUNE — fine tune (±100 cents) and transpose (±24 semitones)
- ADSR amp envelope, velocity sensitivity, and a one-click RESET for all parameters
| Section | Controls |
|---|---|
| HARMONICS | H1–H8 levels, H.DETUNE (inharmonicity) |
| SUB | LEVEL, TUNE (−24..0 st), DETUNE (±50 c), WAVE (SIN / TRI / SQR) |
| GLIDE | ON/OFF, TIME, MODE (LEGATO / RETRIG) |
| UNISON | DETUNE, MIX |
| DRIVE | DRIVE, SAT MIX |
| ENVELOPE | ATTACK, DECAY, SUSTAIN, RELEASE |
| PUNCH | AMOUNT, DECAY |
| FILTER | CUTOFF, RESO, ENV AMT, ENV DEC, SLOPE (12/24 dB) |
| LFO | RATE (Hz or beat division), SYNC, DEPTH, TRIG (FREE / KEY), WAVE, TARGET |
| TUNE | FINE, TRANSPOSE |
| OUT | LEVEL |
Tips: double-click (or Cmd-click) any control to reset it to its default; values pop up while dragging.
Download the latest VST3 from the Releases page and copy it to your VST3 folder:
- macOS:
~/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST3 - Windows:
C:\Program Files\Common Files\VST3
The builds are unsigned. If macOS Gatekeeper blocks the plugin, run:
xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine ~/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST3/Bass808.vst3cmake -B build -G Ninja -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release
cmake --build build --target Bass808_VST3See CLAUDE.md for the full development guide (architecture, tests, linting, CI).
AGPLv3. Built with JUCE 8 (AGPLv3 / commercial dual license), fetched at build time via CMake FetchContent — JUCE is not vendored in this repository.