PinchFX

PinchFX is a VST3 effect for synth-style pinch harmonics.

Current wet path:

1. Stereo input -> mono sum
2. Pitch estimate (PitchTrackerACF)
3. Smoothed control pitch (PitchTrackerAlgo)
4. AGC drive
5. Harmonic resonator (TwoPoleResonator)
6. Heat blend (clean vs tube nonlinear)
7. 4-pole tone lowpass
8. Peak limiter
9. Wet/dry mix

MIX uses a wet-biased equal-power taper so wet content is audible earlier in knob travel.

Exposed plugin controls

• TRIG (legacy/manual trigger input; currently no direct DSP effect)
• POSITION (harmonic index: 5, 7, 9, 12, 15)
• RES (resonator Q)
• TONE (4-pole lowpass cutoff)
• MIX (wet/dry)
• MONITOR (debug output taps)
• HEAT (tube drive + tube blend amount)

SQUEAL, GLIDE, MODE, and SENS are kept as hidden legacy state slots for preset compatibility and are not exposed as active controls.

Build

Prereq: set VST3_SDK_ROOT to your VST3 SDK path.

set VST3_SDK_ROOT=C:\projects\ableplugs\vst3sdk
cmake -S vst3 -B build
cmake --build build --config Debug
cmake --build build --config Release

Quick path:

build.bat

Deploy

Use:

deploy.bat

It copies the built bundles to:

• C:\ProgramData\vstplugins\DebugPinchFX.vst3
• C:\ProgramData\vstplugins\PinchFX.vst3

If deployment fails, close Ableton Live first so the installed plugin bundle is not locked.

Release Zip

Use:

release.bat

This creates PinchFX.vst3.zip in the repo root from build\VST3\Release\PinchFX.vst3.

Simulator

The simulator project is in sim/vsproj/ (PinchFxSim.vcxproj is deprecated).

• Input file: sim/pluck.wav
• Output file (generated by sim): sim/bin/Debug/out.wav

Build:

msbuild sim\vsproj\vsproj.vcxproj /t:Build /p:Configuration=Debug /p:Platform=x64