VXN1b

VXN1b is a dual-layer subtractive polysynth, shipped as a CLAP and a VST3 plugin for macOS and Windows. A patch is two independent layers, each with its own analogue-style voice and its own 16-slot modulation matrix.

Nothing is hard-wired. Every modulation route in the instrument is a slot you assign yourself, which buys a lot of freedom and asks for a little patience in return.

The voice

• Oscillators. Two, with variable pulse width, plus a sub and a noise source. Hard sync, phase modulation and ring modulation are available as cross-modulation modes between the pair.
• Filter. A 4-pole ZDF ladder with a switchable high-pass.
• Envelopes and LFOs. Two ADSRs and two LFOs, per layer.
• Effects. A bucket-brigade chorus, phaser, delay, reverb and dynamics.

Two layers

A patch is two independent voices with their own matrices, played together or split across the keyboard — a pad under a lead, or one sound thickened against a detuned copy of itself.

Mod matrix

Sixteen slots per layer. Each takes a source — envelopes, LFOs, velocity, the wheels, aftertouch, per-note randomness — and points it at anything worth moving, through a linear, exponential, logarithmic or bipolar curve. A second source can scale the whole route, so one modulation can gate another.

Voice stacking

Play one note and hear up to 32.

Detune fans them out in pitch. A little thickens the unison and sets a slow beat running underneath it. A lot opens into the wide supersaw that cuts through a busy mix. Space the lanes evenly for a smooth chorus, cluster them to hold the stack near the centre with a few outliers hanging off the edges, or scatter them so no two chords land the same way twice.

Phase offset sets how the stack starts. Line the lanes up and the attack is hard and focused. Push them apart and it softens and blooms — a string section rather than a single player.

Spread is a modulation source in its own right. Route it to pan and one note fills the stereo field. Route it to cutoff and the lanes sit at different depths behind the filter. Route it to cross-modulation and the stack grades from clean in the middle to metallic at the edges. Route it to pulse width and it runs hollow to full — a fatter chord with no detuning at all.

All of it works the same in Poly or Solo, with legato on its own switch.

Automation

185 host parameters, with each layer’s controls addressed separately, so anything you can set you can also automate or map to a controller.

Install

Unpack the archive and copy the plugin into the matching directory, then rescan plugins in your DAW.

The Windows CLAP download is the bare .clap file — copy it straight in. Every other download is a zip archive.