The plugin
The Kiwibass plugin is a CLAP and a VST3 instrument. Both are the same engine the standalone renders with, so the same patch sounds the same everywhere.
Take the CLAP where your host loads one. The VST3 is there for the hosts that do not, and it cannot list patches.
What it does not do yet, first:
- It has no editor. Your host shows its parameters as a list of sliders. Drawing and saving a patch happen in the standalone, which is Windows only.
- It has no browser of its own. In a CLAP host, patches are picked in the host's preset browser. A host that does not list CLAP presets cannot load them, and the VST3 lists none at all.
- The pattern does not reach it. A line written on the Pattern tab leaves the standalone as a MIDI file, through Export MIDI in the kiwibass menu.
Installing
CLAP. Put everything in the CLAP download into your CLAP folder, keeping
the kiwibass-presets folder beside kiwibass.clap. A Kiwi host lists the
factory patches from that folder; other hosts get them from the plugin itself.
VST3. Put the whole kiwibass.vst3 folder into your VST3 folder:
C:\Program Files\Common Files\VST3 on Windows, ~/.vst3 on Linux. Nothing
else goes with it. The descriptor and the preset folder are read by CLAP hosts
only.
Loading a patch
In a CLAP host, the preset browser lists the factory patches and every patch you saved in the standalone, by name, tagged with its category. Picking one loads the whole sound: every setting, the arc lanes and the motion cycle. A patch saved in the standalone is in every project from then on.
The VST3 has no such list. It starts from the defaults, and what you set from there is kept the way your host keeps any plugin's settings: with the project, and in the host's own preset format.
A new instance starts from the plugin's defaults, with nothing drawn: the arc is the wander alone and the motion cycle is a sine on Tone and Drive and a ramp on Level.
In your project
The plugin keeps the sound with your host project: every parameter and every drawing, saved and restored when the project is. Changing the patch file afterwards does not change a project that already loaded it; load it again to pick up the change.
Parameters
The host lists every setting the standalone has, under the name its control shows:
| In the host | In the standalone |
|---|---|
| Weight, Drive, Tone | Spectrum tab |
| Punch, Punch time, Shape, Pluck, Glide, Legato, Spread | Voice panel |
| Motion, Motion rate, Motion to Tone, Motion to Drive, Motion to Level | Motion tab: Amount, the cycle length, each lane's Depth |
| Arc amount, Arc bars, Arc drift, Arc to Shape, Arc to Tone, Arc to Drive, Arc to Motion, Arc to Spread | Arc tab: Amount, the phrase length, Drift, each lane's Depth |
The drawings themselves are not parameters: they come with the patch.
The arc and the motion cycle follow the host's transport, so the same bar plays the same way on every playback and a bounce matches what you heard.