chowkick

chowkick · sources · schema v1

Punchy synth-kick voice — hand-port of ChowKick by Jatin Chowdhury / chowdsp (github.com/Chowdhury-DSP/ChowKick, BSD-3-Clause). Gate-triggered single-voice kick: a tight pulse shaper (Width / Amp / Decay / Sustain) plus a gated transient-click noise burst (Amount / Decay / Cutoff + 4 noise types: Uniform / Gaussian / Pink / Velvet) PINGS a true 2-pole resonant BODY that rings a bipolar decaying sine at Freq (+ 1V/oct pitch CV). The body's pole RADIUS is set by Damping (the ring-time control: low = long boom, high = short thud), the pole ANGLE by Freq; Q sharpens the resonance; Tight adds symmetric tanh drive (fatter, odd harmonics) and Bounce an asymmetric skew (even harmonics). A per-trigger downward PITCH ENVELOPE (Pitch Amount / Pitch Decay — sweeps the body from ~3.5× Freq down to Freq on each gate) gives the kick its punch; a Drive stage adds weight + small-speaker translation; an internal 25 Hz DC blocker keeps the output bipolar. A first-order Tone LPF (50..2000 Hz) and dB Level (-60..0) form the output stage; Portamento (0..100 ms) smooths Freq under V/oct sweeps; LINK couples Q + Damping (midpoint blend) for a single "tightness" macro. Defaults ship punchy out of the box (short 0.5 ms pulse, ringing body @ damp 0.4, click @ N Amt 0.2, pitch sweep 0.6, drive 0.3, tone 2 kHz). All 20 knobs/toggles are CV-able with per-port cvScale hints (log/linear/discrete) per ADR-004. The card mirrors the source plugin's two-band UI (Pulse Shape + Resonant Filter, with a third PUNCH fader row) and live canvas previews of the envelope shape + body response. Mono audio_out. (NOTE: the earlier port shipped a coefficient bug — an inverted peaking-EQ that NOTCHED the body — so it emitted a pitchless unipolar DC blob; PR feat/chowkick-oomph replaced it with the ringing resonator + punch chain.)

A physical-modeling synth-kick voice, ported from Chowdhury DSP's ChowKick. Instead of a simple sine + envelope, it strikes a tuned 2-pole resonant filter with a shaped pulse plus a noise burst — the filter rings like a struck drum body, so the character comes from how you excite and tune that resonator. The signal path is two bands you tune separately: a PULSE SHAPE band (the click/transient and its noise) feeds a RESONANT FILTER band (the pitched body), then a pitch-sweep 'punch', drive saturation, and tone/level on the way out. The card draws a live preview of the pulse envelope and the filter's resonant peak so you can see the kick you're sculpting. Trigger it from a gate; tune the body with the Freq knob or a 1V/oct CV. Every knob also has a CV input for animated, per-hit kicks.

the faceplate

20 inputs · 1 outputs · 20 params

about this module

Hover a control, or open the patch panel and hover a jack.

inputs

id	cable	what it does
`gate_in`	gate	The trigger: a rising edge strikes the resonator (fires the pulse + noise burst that excite the body). Each edge is one kick; the hit's length comes from the decay/damping controls, not how long the gate stays high. gate / trigger
`pitch_cv`	cv	A 1V/oct pitch input applied as a multiplier on the body Freq (the worklet does freq × 2^pitch_cv), so it tracks pitch correctly across octaves — patch a sequencer here to tune kicks melodically. This is separate from the freq_cv summing input. control voltage (CV)
`width_cv`	cv	CV that scales the pulse Width (log). control voltage (CV); modulates width (multiplicative ≈ octaves — ±1 CV spans the param’s log range)
`amplitude_cv`	cv	CV that adds to the pulse Amp (the excitation strength). control voltage (CV); modulates amplitude (additive offset — ±1 CV sweeps the full range, centered on the knob)
`decay_cv`	cv	CV that adds to the pulse Decay. control voltage (CV); modulates decay (additive offset — ±1 CV sweeps the full range, centered on the knob)
`sustain_cv`	cv	CV that adds to the pulse Sustain floor. control voltage (CV); modulates sustain (additive offset — ±1 CV sweeps the full range, centered on the knob)
`noise_amount_cv`	cv	CV that adds to the Noise Amount (how much transient noise is mixed into the strike). control voltage (CV); modulates noise_amount (additive offset — ±1 CV sweeps the full range, centered on the knob)
`noise_decay_cv`	cv	CV that adds to the Noise Decay. control voltage (CV); modulates noise_decay (additive offset — ±1 CV sweeps the full range, centered on the knob)
`noise_cutoff_cv`	cv	CV that scales the Noise Cutoff (log) — the brightness of the click. control voltage (CV); modulates noise_cutoff (multiplicative ≈ octaves — ±1 CV spans the param’s log range)
`freq_cv`	cv	CV that scales the body Freq (log, summed) — for filter/pitch sweeps that aren't 1V/oct-tracked (use pitch_cv for true octave tracking). control voltage (CV); modulates freq (multiplicative ≈ octaves — ±1 CV spans the param’s log range)
`q_cv`	cv	CV that scales the resonator Q (log) — the sharpness/ring of the body. control voltage (CV); modulates q (multiplicative ≈ octaves — ±1 CV spans the param’s log range)
`damping_cv`	cv	CV that adds to Damping (the ring time: long boom vs short thud). control voltage (CV); modulates damping (additive offset — ±1 CV sweeps the full range, centered on the knob)
`tight_cv`	cv	CV that adds to Tight (the tightness macro affecting the body's snap). control voltage (CV); modulates tight (additive offset — ±1 CV sweeps the full range, centered on the knob)
`bounce_cv`	cv	CV that adds to Bounce (extra resonant feedback/saturation character). control voltage (CV); modulates bounce (additive offset — ±1 CV sweeps the full range, centered on the knob)
`tone_cv`	cv	CV that scales the output Tone low-pass cutoff (log). control voltage (CV); modulates tone (multiplicative ≈ octaves — ±1 CV spans the param’s log range)
`portamento_cv`	cv	CV that scales the Portamento glide time (log). control voltage (CV); modulates portamento (multiplicative ≈ octaves — ±1 CV spans the param’s log range)
`level_cv`	cv	CV that adds to the output Level (dB). control voltage (CV); modulates level (additive offset — ±1 CV sweeps the full range, centered on the knob)
`pitch_amount_cv`	cv	CV that adds to the Pitch Amount (depth of the per-hit downward pitch sweep — the 'punch'). control voltage (CV); modulates pitch_amount (additive offset — ±1 CV sweeps the full range, centered on the knob)
`pitch_decay_cv`	cv	CV that adds to the Pitch Decay (how fast that sweep settles). control voltage (CV); modulates pitch_decay (additive offset — ±1 CV sweeps the full range, centered on the knob)
`drive_cv`	cv	CV that adds to Drive (the body saturation/overdrive). control voltage (CV); modulates drive (additive offset — ±1 CV sweeps the full range, centered on the knob)

outputs

id	cable	what it does
`audio_out`	audio	The mono kick voice — the excited resonant body, pitch-swept, driven, and tone/level-shaped. Patch to a mixer or bus. audio signal

params

id	label	range	default	curve
`width`	Width	0.1..50ms	0.5	log
`amplitude`	Amp	0..2	1	linear
`decay`	Decay	0..1	0.3	linear
`sustain`	Sustain	0..1	0	linear
`noise_amount`	N Amt	0..1	0.5	linear
`noise_decay`	N Dec	0..1	0.07	linear
`noise_cutoff`	N Cut	20..8000Hz	5500	log
`noise_type`	N Type	0..3	0	discrete
`freq`	Freq	20..500Hz	80	log
`q`	Q	0.1..10	1.6	log
`damping`	Damp	0..1	0.4	linear
`tight`	Tight	0..1	0.6	linear
`bounce`	Bounce	0..1	0	linear
`tone`	Tone	50..4000Hz	3200	log
`portamento`	Porta	0..100ms	0.5	log
`level`	Level	-60..0dB	0	linear
`link`	Link	0..1	0	discrete
`pitch_amount`	P Amt	0..1	0.9	linear
`pitch_decay`	P Dec	0..1	0.28	linear
`drive`	Drive	0..1	0.5	linear

controls

control	what it does
Amp	PULSE SHAPE: strength of the excitation pulse (0..2) — how hard the body is struck.
Bounce	RESONANT FILTER: extra resonant feedback/saturation character on the body (0..1) for a livelier, springier ring.
Damp	RESONANT FILTER: the ring time / pole radius (0..1) — low = a long boom, high = a short thud.
Decay	PULSE SHAPE: how quickly the pulse falls after its hold (0..1).
Drive	PUNCH: body saturation/overdrive (0..1) — adds harmonics and loudness/heat to the kick.
Freq	RESONANT FILTER: the body's tuned frequency (20–500 Hz, log) — the kick's pitch; the resonant peak is shown in the filter preview. The pitch_cv input tracks this in 1V/oct.
Level	Output level in dB (-60 to 0).
Link	Tightness LINK toggle (0 = off, 1 = on): when on, Q and Damping move together as one 'tightness' macro, the upstream plugin's coupled behavior.
N Amt	PULSE SHAPE: how much filtered noise is added to the strike (0..1) — adds click/snap and grit to the attack.
N Cut	PULSE SHAPE: low-pass cutoff of the noise (20–8000 Hz, log) — the brightness/color of the click.
N Dec	PULSE SHAPE: decay time of the noise burst (0..1).
N Type	PULSE SHAPE: the noise color (discrete: Uniform, Gaussian, Pink, Velvet) — different textures for the strike's noise.
P Amt	PUNCH: depth of the fast downward pitch sweep at the start of each hit (0..1) — the chirp that gives the kick its punch.
P Dec	PUNCH: how fast that pitch sweep settles to the body Freq (0..1) — short for a sharp click, longer for a deeper drop.
Porta	Pitch glide time between consecutive notes (0–100 ms, log) — for sliding kick tunings.
Q	RESONANT FILTER: resonance sharpness (0.1–10, log) — higher Q rings longer and more tonally.
Sustain	PULSE SHAPE: the floor the pulse decays toward (0..1) — raise it to sustain the strike rather than let it die fully.
Tight	RESONANT FILTER: the tightness macro (0..1) tightening the body's snap; when LINK is on it moves together with Q and Damping.
Tone	Output low-pass tone (50–4000 Hz, log) — rolls off the top end of the whole kick.
Width	PULSE SHAPE: width of the excitation pulse (0.1–50 ms, log) — how long the strike pushes the body before it decays; shown in the envelope preview.

source

chowkick.ts on GitHub.