Coffeeshopped

Chadwick Interviewed on Syntaur's "Talking Synths"

Tue, 31 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

A couple of weeks ago I had the pleasure of being interviewed by Lucas Fowler from Syntaur, for their podcast “Talking Synths”.

We talked about the origins of Patch Base, what makes a good synth, and some of the other things I'm up to. Give it a watch!

Better Drum Kit Editors

Mon, 02 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Happy 2026! There have been a lot of small updates and releases for Patch Base in the past couple of months, and today I wanted to spotlight a feature from one of them: an improved drum kit editing experience.

The most recent releases of Patch Base have included updates to the Clavia Nord Lead 2 and Novation Bass Station II editors, each of which have a drum (or drum-like) editing mode. The Nord Lead 2 supports 8-sound drum kit patches. The Bass Station II has its Overlay / “AFX Mode” which maps a different patch/sound to each of the 25 keys on the synth, for creating drum kits (among other uses).

In Patch Base, when you're editing a normal synth patch, you have an in-app keyboard at the bottom of the window which makes for easy auditioning of sounds while you're tweaking parameters. This feature is also mapped to the “asdfghjkl;” row of keys on your computer keyboard, so you can play the sounds in a quick, hands-on way, in a pentatonic scale.

That approach has never been useful for drum kits, which usually map a different drum sound to each MIDI note. Now, Patch Base has an in-app drum keyboard, tailored to the synth you're using it with. Here's a picture (keyboard at the bottom):

The idea is that the 🥁 button will play the current drum sound that you're editing. And if you want to play across the whole drum kit, you can click the keys next to it as usual, to play one drum per key.

What's even better is that this is mapped to the computer keyboard. The “a” key will play whatever drum sound is currently being edited. The “sdf…” keys will then play across the drum kit.

For now, only the Nord Lead 2 and Bass Station II editors have this new keyboard, but I'll be rolling it out across more synths in future updates soon. If there's one synth editor in particular you're wanting to see this new feature on ASAP, let me know!

The Biggest Update That You Probably Won't Care About

Thu, 18 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0000

This is a somewhat geeky post. But a lot of people in the past few months have asked what is currently happening with Patch Base, so I wanted to give everybody an update.

The latest updates to Patch Base for Mac (v1.21) and iPad (v3.27) are now available.

This update has been about two years in the making, but you won't notice much (if any) change. All of the work has been behind the scenes. This release is the first to use a new internal framework for several editors:

Oberheim Matrix-1000, Matrix-6, Matrix-6R
Roland JD-Xi
Waldorf Blofeld
Yamaha FB-01
Yamaha DX11, DX21, TX81Z, DX100
Yamaha FS1R

What is a New Framework? And Why?

Patch Base began its life as CZ Touch, the first synth editor I made for iPad back in 2015. As it was the first synth editor that I made, I had no idea what I was doing. Its internal structure was an absolute mess. But it worked well. Then I made more editors, for the Dave Smith Mopho, the Oberheim Matrix-1000, and so on. Each time, I iterated on the work of previous editors, making new adjustments to the structure to accommodate the new idiosyncrasies of each synthesizer that I worked with.

Fast forward to the 2020's, and by then Patch Base contained editors for dozens of different synths. And although the editors have a similar style to each other on the surface, there were multiple generations of different internal structures working for each of them.

This scenario does not lend itself well to avoiding bugs, nor does it help with implementing new features that should work across all of the editors (e.g. the often-requested ability to map MIDI controls to Patch Base controls). Basically, Patch Base accumulated many years' worth of technical debt.

So, I've decided to pay that debt off. I created a new framework based on everything I had learned in the past near-decade. A framework that did everything the right way as I currently understand it. And it took me close to two years to do it.

Now, the new framework is here. But, building a framework is one thing, and building editors on top of it is another. Once the new framework is ready for the stage, each editor must be re-fitted to use the new framework. Depending on the previous state of the editor, this can be a lot of work, or not much work.

So I picked a small handful of editors that I thought encompassed some of the trickiest aspects of editor-creation, and used them as my first batch of updated editors. And that's what you see in this latest release.

What's Next?

In the immediate future, what's next is moving more of the existing Patch Base editors to the new framework. I want to move all of them. When that is done, the codebase of Patch Base will be much, much smaller, which means it will be easier to fix bugs, and easier to add new features.

After that? I have bigger ideas, but I'll write about those when they've come further along.

I realize that this sort of update is not sexy or exciting. The most common question I get is “what is the next synth you're adding support for?” and as always, I don't publicly forecast that, sorry. But I hope that customers take comfort in knowing that I am working continuously on Patch Base, and that it is a high priority to me for the app to run well, fast, bug-free, and on older hardware when possible. And to do that, I need to do this work.

More soon.

Korg Volca FM2 Editor/Librarian Now Available

Sat, 03 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0000

The latest Patch Base releases (iPad version 3.26 and Mac version 1.20) include an editor/librarian for Korg's (fairly) new Volca FM2, the new version of the highly popular Volca FM, which as you might know is a sort of clone of the original Yamaha DX7.

And there's not too much new about the Volca FM2; it's the same voice architecture as the original, but you now get six voices (like the DX7) instead of three. There's also a built-in reverb now, and a MIDI Out port.

From the MIDI perspective though, there is a big difference with the new Volca FM2! Korg really fleshed out the MIDI implementation on this new synth, allowing for fetching of Voice patches and Sequence patches (including the internal memory banks). And that means that this new Volca FM2 editor in Patch Base gives you full access to detailed editing of internal sequences! Something that, as of this writing, I don't think you can get anywhere else. More on that shortly.

Patch Editor

The Patch Editor here is very similar to the original Volca FM: you get the overall patch visualization in the top-left, showing how the FM ops are connected to each other, and the envelopes and ratios/frequencies of each of them. In my biased opinion, it's one of the clearest ways to intuit what's going on with an FM patch.

Then you have a view of 3 ops at a time for editing, plus the overall patch parameters like the Pitch Envelope, LFO, etc. What's new here are the controls for Modulator and Carrier Attack/Decay on the right; the Volca FM2 (and Patch Base) saves these parameters with your patch, and they're very nice ways of creating larger scale sound changes with a single control.

Sequence Editor

The Sequence Editor on the other hand is totally new to the FM2. In it, you have the ability to edit a 16-step sequence, with up to 6 notes per step. This first page shows you the 16 steps as well as the overall parameters to turn on/off the Arpeggiator, effects, Mono/Unison, etc. The bottom tabs control which of the 6 notes per step you're editing.

The Motion tab lets you edit parameter automation, essentially. The different parameters that can be controlled are listed in the bottom tabs. The left tabs switch between which tools you can use: freehand drawing, line segments, smoothing, randomization, shifting, and scaling. The top checkboxes let you turn on/off automation for a given step in the sequence.

The Notes tab gives you an alternate view of the Note data in the sequence; letting you seeing a given parameter across all 6 notes at once for each step, so you can create chords more easily, alter lengths, etc. There are controls given to also initialize a parameter, or randomize it.

And as usual, you can also Randomize the entire Sequence! This yields some really interesting results for people looking to generate lots of different sound material for sample/chopping or just exploring sound design quickly. A single voice patch can sound like a lot of different things when you get busy with the Motion control.

Bank and Backup Editors

The Volca FM2 editor includes Bank Editors for the 64-patch Voice Bank and the 16-patch Sequence Bank. You can now back up your Volca FM(2)!

Also include is the newer Backup editor, which lets you fetch the Voice and Sequence Banks in one fell swoop, and save it all to a single file.

Full Sequence Editor

Sequences on the Volca control one of the internal (saved) patches. But often you may want to be working on a Voice patch at the same time as a Sequence patch. So, the Full Sequence editor gives you a way to save a Sequence and its associated Voice patch to a single file. So, you can load that file and have a sequence with a custom sound that isn't saved to the Volca's memory. It's also a good format for sharing sequence/sound combos with others.

More info on the Volca FM2 editor
More information about Patch Base

Removing Support for iOS 9, iOS 10, and Mac 10.12 in Patch Base

Thu, 17 Nov 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Patch Base for Mac v1.19.6 and Patch Base for iPad v3.25.4 are both out now, offering bug fixes for the Roland JD-Xi editor.

Unfortunately, these updates will probably be the last that support iOS 9 and iOS 10 on iPad, and MacOS 10.12. The latest version of Apple's development tools, XCode 14, no longer allows me to support these platforms. From the release notes of XCode 14:

Building for deployment to OS releases older than macOS 10.13, iOS 11, tvOS 11, and watchOS 4 is no longer supported.

For now, I'm still using XCode 13 for Patch Base development in order to support these older platforms. But using an older version of XCode means that I can't easily test on the newest versions of Apple's operating systems, which are what the vast majority of users of Patch Base have. So at some point, I have to upgrade.

And beyond that, even if I continued using an older version of XCode for development, at some point I would not be able to update Patch Base for iPad using that older version of XCode, as that is another Apple policy; earlier this year (March 15th, 2022), Apple announced that all App Store submissions will need to be built using XCode 13. A similar announcement requiring XCode 14 is undoubtedly on the horizon.

I regret having to drop support for these older platforms. The spirit of Patch Base is to offer modern support for older machines, both synthesizers, and computers. I have taken many steps over the years to ensure that I can still support iOS 9, an operating system that was first released in 2015. And when Patch Base for Mac was released, it offered support for versions of MacOS that were several years older than what was current at the time.

But at some point, I'm just fighting against the Apple tide, and in this instance it is time to let go and move on.

Roland JP-8080 Editor/Librarian Now Available

Sat, 13 Aug 2022 00:00:00 +0000

The latest updates to Patch Base (iPad version 3.25 and Mac version 1.19) add an editor/librarian for the Roland JP-8080: a dual-timbral virtual analog desktop synth from the late 90's.

The JP-8080 can play 2 patches at the same time, each with its own 2 oscillators, multi-mode filter, envelopes for pitch, filter, and amp, 2 LFOs and effects. Also included is the Voice Modulator section which can turn the synth into a vocoder, or a filter bank processor for the patches or an external input. Each patch can have almost any of its parameters modulated by note velocity as well as external CC control (one CC control can map to all of the parameters). It also sports Motion Control, which can record parameter modulation over multiple bars, as well as a note pattern recorder. So, this synth is very much about modulation and loop creation.

Patch Editor

All the sound parameters on the JP-8080 are wrapped up inside a single Performance. The Performance holds 2 patches: Upper and Lower. These patch editors are shown in first 2 tabs of the Performance editor. All the parameters for a single Patch are shown on one screen, along with the MIDI channel and related performance settings for that patch.

(If you recognize the name of that patch, yes, it was used in the track by the same name).

Each Patch can be named separately, and the “Load/Save” button opens a patch browser to load or save individual Patches from a Performance.

The “Morph Edit” switch in the lower-right toggles into Velocity or Control mode, where you can edit how much the different parameters respond to velocity or external control changes. In the patch above you can see that the “Level” and “A (Attack)” and Filter “Cutoff” parameters are responsive to velocity. The Velocity and Control edit modes are color coded to help make sense of things. Below is the same patch in Velocity edit mode. In this mode, changing any of the knobs will now alter the velocity sensitivity of that parameter:

Voice Mod Editor

The Voice Mod tab lays out all the settings for the Voice Mod section of the synth. The Algo control sets whether the Voice Mod is acting as a vocoder or a filter bank. The rest of the controls handle routing of external input, and the parameters of the different aspects of the voice modulators. Char 1–12 let you tweak the amplitudes of each of the 12 frequency bands in the virtual filter bank.

2-Up Editor

The 2-Up tab shows both the Upper and Lower patches on a single screen. Since not all of the controls will fit nicely, this panel shows the controls that you're most likely going to care about when your two patches are being played together (mainly the oscillator, filter, and amp sections). Morph edit is available here as well, giving you an editing view that isn't possible on the hardware itself.

Bank Editors and Backups

As usual, this editor includes bank editors for the synth, here the Performance and Patch (internal) Banks. You can fetch all of the internal patches and performances, save them to files, and load bank files you already have.

A Backup editor is also included, which is a newer addition to Patch Base. This screen gives you a single place where you can press “Fetch” once to get the Global (system) settings, and the Performance and Patch Banks all downloaded in one go. And you can save all of them to a single file to keep them together. Please note though that Motion and Pattern data aren't included in these backup files, due to technical reasons with fetching them.

These Backup editors are slowly being added to all of Patch Base's existing editors as well, so be on the lookout for updates that include those.

More info on the JP-8080 Editor
More information about Patch Base

Waldorf Micro Q Editor/Librarian now in Patch Base

Thu, 06 Jan 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Patch Base for Mac (v1.17) and iPad (v3.23) now include editors and librarians for the Waldorf Micro Q, a virtual analog polysynth released in the year 2000. The Micro Q is very similar in architecture to the later-released Blofeld, one of the first synths that was supported in Patch Base. As previously with the Korg Prophecy and DSI Tetra, the synth I used for development (and pictured here) was loaned to me by Jesús Navarro! He's hooking the Patch Base community up.

The Micro Q has a lot going on. It's got 3 lovely oscillators capable of all the standard waveforms, but the first 2 of them also support built in wavetables! Each oscillator can also be Frequency Modulated from a variety of sources, allowing for feedback networks of FM synthesis that even most Yamaha FM synths can't do.

The two filters support an array of different modes, including Comb modes, allowing for physical modeling-type synthesis of strings and tubes, which again is a rare find in a hardware synth.

You also get 4 envelopes, 3 LFOs, 16 modulation routings, and 4 Modifier sources (to combine other sources in new ways for modulation). Add to that 2 effects units and a customizable arpeggiator, and you have an enormous amount of sonic flexibility in this little rack unit.

But that's just the synth itself, and all of this power is locked behind a small handful of knobs on the unit. To really explore the Micro Q, a good editor helps, and that's where Patch Base comes in! Below you can see a breakdown of the different parts of the editor.

Voice Editor

The Main page of the Voice Editor shows the most important stuff. You can see all 3 oscialltors and both filters, the mixing controls, and the Filter and Amp envelopes at the same time. You can also tab between the other envelopes and all 3 LFOs, to do all of your main voice design on one page.

The Mods page is where you can see all 16 modulation routings at once, as well as all 4 modifiers, which can be used as custom sources for your modulations. The Envelopes and LFOs are again shown at the bottom of this page, since those are often what you're using for your modulation sources, so you might want to tweak them here.

Unused mod matrix slots are dimmed, to reduce visual clutter when you're designing a sound.

The FX/Arp page finishes out the voice editor. Both Effects units are fully supported with all of their different parameters available for easy configuration. Chorus, Flanger, Phaser, Overdrive, Five FX, Vocoder, Delay, Reverb, 5.1 Delay and 5.1 Clocked Delay are all easy to play with, with all of their custom parameter ranges faithfully shown.

And, visualize the entire Arpeggiator and User pattern on this page as well to create custom arp sequences for your sounds.

Multi Editor

The Micro Q can play up to 16 different parts at the same time in Multi Mode. The Multi Editor is where you can control these multi-timbral setups. Choose the sounds you want to use, mix them, set up key and velocity splits, and more.

Also, you can directly edit all 16 sounds loaded in Multi Mode. Patch Base has 16 separate voice editors, 1 for each part, allowing you to easily switch between parts when you need to make small tweaks (or big changes!) to any of the sounds in a Multi.

Drum Map Editor

Similar to the Multi editor, the Drum Map editor enables customization of Drum sets of 32 different sounds from your Micro Q. Select the sounds you want to use, and mix and transpose them. The editor includes a 32-button grid at the top to audition any of your sounds while you're creating your kit. And the custom Effects and Arp settings for your Drum Maps are also directly editable here.

Bank Editor

The Micro Q has 3 internal voice banks, for a total of 300 sounds that can be stored on the synth. Patch Base's Bank Editor enables you to add new sounds, rearrange the locations of sounds, and backup and load banks of 100 sounds at a time. The Micro Q's 100 Multis and 32 Drum Maps can also be managed directly in Patch Base.

More info on the Micro Q editor
More information about Patch Base

Dave Smith Instruments Tetra Editor Now Available

Tue, 30 Nov 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Patch Base for Mac (v1.16) and iPad (v3.22) now include editors and librarians for the Dave Smith Instruments (now/once-again Sequential) Tetra, a 4-voice multi-timbral analog powerbox. Its little sibling the Mopho (same architecture, but 1 voice) was one of the first editors I ever created, so it's nice to finally get some time with the “TETR4”.

As previously with the Korg Prophecy, the unit I used for development was loaned to me by Jesús Navarro, to whom I'd like to extend a heartfelt Thank You!

A fun and wonderful aspect of the Tetra is that it can be used either as a regular 4-voice poly-synth, or a 2-voice poly-synth with double-stacked voices, or a 4-voice poly-synth where every voice is set to a unique voice, or a quad-stacked mono-synth playing 8 oscillators (plus 8 sub-oscillators!) at the same time. It's versatile, and the sound is massive.

Voice Editor

The Voice editor has 4 pages: 2 for Layer A, and 2 for B. Each Layer is broken into “Voice” (which holds all of the voice-related parameters) and “Seq” (where you can edit the 4 sequence tracks for that layer.

The “Voice” pages give you an overview of the whole voice structure. The oscillators, filter, envelopes, LFOs, modulation routing and more are all here in one place. Envelopes can be copied, pasted, initialized, and randomized. Parts of the editor are faded/dimmed when they're not active, for example if a modulation has its Destination set to “Off”, it's faded to remove visual clutter and let you focus on what's creating the voice you hear.

The “Seq” pages show the 4 sequencer tracks for the selected layer. You can hands-on edit the steps of the sequences, or use the “Edit” buttons to copy, paste, initialize, and randomize sequences.

Lastly, the “Layer A/B” button near the top of the editor lets you copy and paste entire Layers, or initialize or randomize just a single layer in a voice.

Combo Editor

Quite similar to the Voice Editor, the Combo Editor shows Voice and Sequence pages as well, but this time there are 4 total layers to edit.

There are some minor differences in the layout, to accommodate the differences in structure between a Combo and a Voice. For example, the Arpeggiator settings are not shown for Combos (as they're not used), and a single Unison setting is shown for the entire Combo, rather than per-layer like in the Voice editor.

The “Voice/Seq” button in the lower-right has your Copy/Paste/Init/Randomize functions, but additionally there is a Load/Save option, which brings up your Tetra Voice library. From here, you can load any Tetra Voice into the Combo, which will take Layer A from that Voice and paste it onto the chosen part of the Combo. And vice versa, you can also click the Save icon in the Voice Browser here to save the current Combo part to a new Tetra Voice patch, where Layer A will hold the selected Combo part (and Layer B will be essentially blank). These features aid in Combo construction from a library of individual parts.

Bank Editors

Patch Base also has support for organizing, storing, and loading banks in your Tetra, including the 4 Voice Banks and the Combo Bank. Easily save your banks to files, rearrange sounds, and build custom banks from your patch library.

More info on the Tetra editor
More information about Patch Base

Korg Prophecy Editor Now Available

Tue, 19 Oct 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Patch Base for Mac (v1.15) and iPad (v3.21) now include editors and librarians for the Korg Prophecy, a virtual analog lead/monophonic synth released in 1995. I'd been hoping to come across one for quite awhile, and thankfully a generous fellow Texan named Jesús Navarro contacted me awhile back to offer some of his gear for testing and development! Many thanks to Jesús. This synth is capable of a wide variety of sounds, especially due to its different oscillator models, including some physical models of wind and plucked instruments. Lots of fun to be had for sound design.

Voice Editor

The Voice editor shows all of the voice parameters in 4 pages. To the right of these pages are the Envelope and LFO editors, which are always visible for editing, as they are used for modulation across every part of a voice.

The Osc page (above) has oscillator-related settings. Using the “Osc Set” parameter you choose which of the 7 oscillators models to use (Standard, Comb Filter, VPM, Mod, Brass, Reed, and Pluck). Each oscillator model has its own individual control page, shown based on which model you've selected.

To the right of the main oscillator settings are the waveshaper controls for the selected oscillator, to add harmonics and distortion to your voice.

And below all of this are the Noise and Sub-oscillator settings, as well as the Mixer, which allows 2 separate custom mixes of your sound sources, for feeding into the Filters.

The Filter/Amp page have all the parameters for your 2 filters and 2 amplifiers all laid out on a single screen. Above those are some general voice settings such as Portamento and Scale settings.

The FX/Ctrl page shows the settings for Distortion, Wah, EQ, Chorus, Delay, and Reverb. Chorus/Delay or Reverb are shown or hidden depending on which is active.

Below that are the settings for which MIDI controller numbers the on-board wheels and ribbon will control.

Finally, the Perf page shows a full overview of the performance knob settings for the voice. Each knob can be mapped to up to 4 different parameters at the same time, to create highly playable voices.

Arpeggiator Editor

You create your own custom Arpeggiator sequences in the Arp editor. It's a no-nonsense editor that gives you a knob for every parameter of every step in your Arp sequence, as well as the general arp parameters.

Edits to the Patterns will be immediately saved to the synth, as the Prophecy has no “edit buffer” for the arpeggiator. The top selector lets you choose which pattern you want to edit.

Bank Editors

Patch Base also has support for organizing, storing, and loading banks in your Prophecy. Easily save your banks to files, rearrange sounds, and build custom banks from your patch library.

More info on the Prophecy editor
More information about Patch Base

Behringer Deepmind 12 Editor Now Available

Tue, 14 Sep 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Patch Base for Mac (v1.14) and iPad (v3.20) now include editors and librarians for the Behringer Deepmind 12. The Deepmind is the first Behringer synth that Patch Base supports, as we continue to expand our coverage of the many manufacturers out there.

Although Behringer created their own feature-filled editor for the Deepmind 12 on iPad and Mac, as of September 2021, those editors haven't been updated in 3 years, so Patch Base hopes to fill this gap for many owners out there.

Voice Editor

The Voice editor shows all of the voice parameters in 3 pages. The Main page has all of the essentials for a voice: the oscillators, filter, envelopes, LFOs, general settings, and tabbed access to the Modulation matrix. So, most of the design can all happen on this page.

The Mod/FX page also shows the Modulation matrix, but it shows all 8 of them in one view, for full access there. Below, all 4 effects units are shown. Care has been taken to make every effect parameter control adjust its units and name based on the current effect type selected, allowing for very fast and direct design of the effects.

Finally, the Arp/Seq page shows the Arpeggiator settings as well as the Control Sequencer settings. You can freehand draw sequences with your finger or mouse, and also use different tools to craft custom sequences, such as drawing straight lines, randomizing, smoothing, and shifting.

Arpeggiator Editor

Although you select your general Arp settings in the Voice editor, you can create your own custom Arpeggiator sequences in the Arp editor. It's a no-nonsense editor that gives you a knob of every velocity and gate setting of every step in your Arp sequence.

Bank Editors

Patch Base also has support for organizing, storing, and loading banks in your Deepmind 12. Easily save your banks to files, rearrange sounds, and build custom banks from your patch library.

More info on the Deepmind 12 editor
More information about Patch Base

Bass Station II Editor with AFX Mode Support

Tue, 10 Aug 2021 00:00:00 +0000

The newest versions of Patch Base for Mac and iPad include editors and librarians for the Novation Bass Station II. Not only does Patch Base support editing every voice parameter on the BSII (including newer parameters such as fixed duration envelopes and Glide Divergence some undocumented parameters for the sub-oscillator), but the recent AFX Mode is also supported, with a full Overlay editor that also includes every parameter available.

Voice Editor

The Voice editor lays out every Bass Station II parameter on a single screen. The BSII has a lot of knobs that themselves allow for quick patch design, but many of the “deeper” parameters are a little buried behind Function keys that can slow things down. With Patch Base, you can Fetch the current voice settings after you make any tweaks on the BSII's knobs, and quickly try out more complex patch setups.

And as mentioned at the beginning, Patch Base gives access to some undocumented parameters for the Bass Station II's sub-oscillator. Using the “Sub Mode” switch, you can select “Osc 3” mode which makes your sub-oscillator act the same as the other two oscillators, with the same wave shape, octave, and pitch and pulsewidth modulation options! We stumbled across these features as we were inspecting the BSII's patch data, and they can only be set using a full patch editor like Patch Base for now. Possibly Novation will announce these features in the future, but for now they didn't have any comment on it.

Overlay Editor (AFX Mode)

Patch Base now gives full editing capabilities for Overlays! You can see all of the settings for your overlays, and edit them in real-time, for a level of detail that even Novation's wonderful Components software doesn't give you. Again, the Bass Station II itself is great for creating Overlays and tweaking them, but when you want to fine tune them, or build them from a library of sounds, Patch Base is the go-to tool.

You can save individual overlay keys as Bass Station II patches, as well as load voice patches from your patch library as individual overlays. These tools enable you to create complex keyboard layouts and drum setups with a library of sounds you can build over time.

Bank Editors

Patch Base also has support for organizing, storing, and loading banks of 128 voice patches at a time, as well as 8 overlay banks as well, so you can fully back up all the settings from your Bass Station II to files.

To finish, here's a simple video showing the Voice and Overlay editors in action.

More info on the Bass Station II editor
More information about Patch Base

Yamaha Reface DX Editor and Librarian Now Available

Thu, 24 Jun 2021 00:00:00 +0000

The latest updates to Patch Base (iOS version 3.17 and Mac version 1.11) bring an editor/librarian for the Yamaha Reface DX. Released in 2015, the Reface DX is an updated take on Yamaha's many classic 4-op FM synthesizers. People seem to most often compare it to the DX100, which is true in terms of its form and number of operators. But the Reface's updated feedback options give it sonic flexibility closer to that of the TX81z, with its multiple waveform options, or the DX21 and DX11 with their pitch envelopes. And in today's vintage synth market, you can get the Reface DX at about half the price of the DX100, which makes it a very attractive portable, high-quality FM synthesizer.

The Reface DX has 12 different algorithm options (whereas the classics only had 8), and as I mentioned, each operator's feedback setting means the waveform can be shaped to a Sawtooth, Sine, or Square wave, or anywhere in between. The sound quality is also incredibly clean and smooth, as opposed to the DX100's grittiness (which itself is a quality, of course!).

The other notable addition on the Reface DX is the two effects slots, each of which can be set to Distortion, Auto-Wah, Chorus, Flanger, Phaser, Delay, and Reverb. The added effects allow for much richer sounds directly out of the unit.

Patch Editor

The patch editor shows all of the parameters on a single screen, with the usual Patch Base FM visualizer to let you see the structure of your patches. You can also copy/paste envelopes, or complete operators to make patching easier.

And the bank editor lets you organize the 32 sounds stored on your synth, making it easy to swap out a collection of sounds, and create different banks as needed.

Another nice feature of the Reface DX is its USB port, which allows you to connect it directly to your Mac or iPad to use Patch Base or any other MIDI-based application. With Patch Base on iPad and 6 AA batteries to power your Reface DX, this means you can make new patches and swap out banks in the park, or the bus, or a cabin in the woods. It's a similar experience to what you can get with Korg's Volca FM, but with a 3-octave velocity-sensitive keyboard at your fingertips.

Also, many thanks to Martin Tarenskeen, who helped me with some information about fetching and saving voice banks to the Reface DX. Check out his Reface DX Legacy project where you can download his versions of the presets from many of Yamaha's classic 4-op FM synths. And if you like them, consider supporting him with a donation.

More info on the Yamaha Reface DX editor
Resources and Patch Downloads for the Yamaha Reface DX

Roland JD-990 Editor Out Now

Wed, 14 Apr 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Starting today, Patch Base supports the Roland JD-990 on both Mac and iPad. The JD-990 is a sibling to the JD-800, put into a rack form and with some sound engine improvements. It has the now-classic Roland 4-tone voice structure, and a suite of 7 different effects units that can be routed in a variety of different orders, with tons of parameters. In Performance mode, it can play up to 7 different voice parts and a full 61-part drum kit.

A hearty thanks to Jerod McCleland here in Austin for loaning his JD-990 for testing! These synths are becoming increasingly pricey and rare to come by, so the loan was a massive help in getting the editor finished. Also thank you to Julian L.F. in Melbourne and Bob V. in Amsterdam for additional testing help.

Check out the editor page for some screenshots and more detailed information on what you can do.

Access Virus TI Snow, Virus TI, and Virus C Now Supported in Patch Base

Mon, 15 Mar 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Back in November, friend of Patch Base Stefan George (who helped with the MKS-50 and DW-8000 editors) contacted me asking if I'd like to borrow a Access Virus C and Virus TI Snow in order to make editors for them. I gladly took him up on the offer.

December and January were mostly eaten up by fixing bugs and improving performance in Patch Base, not to mention avoiding other viruses, so it wasn't until the end of January that I actually got to work with these synths. And they are complex! Then February came, and almost a week of that month left our home without electricity (and heat) due to the worst winter storm Texas has seen in my lifetime. But now here we are in March, and the new Access Virus editors are here as well.

The Virus is the best-sounding virtual analog synth I've heard. And the TI line in particular has the most parameters I think I've seen! The modulation capabilities and the deep effects sections of the synth are astounding. The editors Patch Base now offers capture all of that depth in a compact form for quick access to any part of the synth. Below I'll go in-depth with the Virus TI Snow editor. The Virus TI editor (which also supports the TI2) is almost identical, with the exception of offering 16-part Multis rather than the TI Snow's 4 parts.

The Voice Editor

The Voice Editor is split into 4 tabs, organizing the hundreds of available parameters into something more digestable.

The Main tab shows you the core of the sound. Here you have full control over the 3 oscillators and all of their modes, the 2 filters, FM, Ring Mod, and sync settings, the Filter and Amp envelopes, and the other "common" parameters for a voice.

The Mod tab is where the modulation happens. You have all 3 LFOs, 2 more envelopes, the full Mod Matrix with 6 sources mapping to 18 destinations, and the Soft Knob settings.

The FX tab shows you all of the Effects section in one screen. You have the Chorus, Phaser, Distortion, Character, EQ, Delay, Reverb, Vocoder, Filter Bank, and Input Follower all on one screen! It's a lot to fit into a single sentence, let alone a single screen. But it's all here, and the controls update dynamically based on which mode you select for each of the Effects.

The Arp tab shows the arpeggiator settings. All of the basics are in the first row, and below that you have full control over the User pattern for the arpeggiator, where you can turn on/off 32 different steps, and control the length and velocity of each step.

The Multi Editor

The Multi editor gives you full control over the embedded multis on the Virus. By "embedded" I mean that both the "general" multi settings are there (volume, key range, midi channel, etc), but also the actual settings for each Voice in the multi are right there as well. Each voice is in its own tab, and is saved with the multi. Voices can be saved and loaded from your library in each voice tab of the multi as well. It's truly a one-stop editor for creating complex multi-timbral setups.

Also, as with other Patch Base editors you have access to our standard bank editors, giving you control for organization and backup of all 512 user-writeable voices as well as the multi bank, too.

Virus C

The Virus C's Voice and Multi editors are similar, though the Voice Editor is actually more compact (2 tabs!) because of the C having a lot fewer parameters than its newer siblings. Also, the Multis are not "embedded" on the C. You can see individual screenshots on the Virus C Editor page.

Ok, more on the way, as usual! I know lots of people have lots of synths they want to see support for. I'll try to keep up.

E-mu Proteus/1 and Proteus/2 Now Supported in Patch Base

Thu, 15 Oct 2020 00:00:00 +0000

The new versions of Patch Base (iOS version 3.14 and Mac version 1.8) add editor/librarians for the E-mu Proteus/1 and Proteus/2. The E-mu Proteus/1 is a rompler/synth first released in 1989 that sold like hotcakes, and the Proteus/2 is the follow-up that came a year later with the same architecture but a different set of sounds (and included the preset "Whistl'n Joe" that makes the iconic sound from the X-Files theme song). There are many more members of the Proteus family, but for now these are the first that Patch Base supports.

Each Proteus voice consists of two "instruments" (samples) that can each be detuned and enveloped independently, along with a wide range of modulation capabilities. Presets can be linked to make larger sounds, and the built-in chorus gives additional width and depth to your voices. The Proteus also allows full microtuning of every key independently, for the adventurous.

Preset (Voice) Editor

The Preset editor gives you quick access to all of the parameters for the Proteus on one screen. Parts of the panel dynamically highlight/dim based on what's active, to make things a bit easier to navigate.

And in addition to the Preset editor, there are also editors for User Tuning, the Master Controls, the Program/Preset Map, and the Bank Editor, to arrange, save, and load banks of 64 Presets at a time.

JX-8P Editor, MacOS Sierra, and AI?

Wed, 05 Aug 2020 00:00:00 +0000

It's August, and here in Austin that means that it's been near-triple-digit hot for at least a month now, and it will be for at least another month (95°F at the moment). I'm listening to the hum of a window-unit air conditioner as I write this. Pictured above is a Turk's Cap from the front yard. Anyway...

Roland JX-8P Editor

A couple of weeks ago an update to Patch Base was released that added an editor/librarian for the highly-requested Roland JX-8P. The editor lays out all of the Tone parameters on one page, and includes the Patch parameters there as well. See more pictures and information on the JX-8P Editor page.

macOS Sierra Support

Around the same time, Patch Base for Mac was also updated for compatibility with macOS 10.12, aka Sierra. When Patch Base was first released, it only supported 10.13 and up. A lot of people are running older versions of macOS/OSX in their studios to keep compatibility with various software. I know how it goes. So this update should make Patch Base available for some more people.

Fun with Machine Learning

The Coffeeshopped Research & Development Department (i.e. Chadwick in his free time) has been doing some work with neural networks in an effort to bring new patch generation tools to Patch Base users. So far I only have some experiments, but thought it might be of interest to some people.

I've been creating and tweaking a Variational Autoencoder trained on the presets in the Oberheim Matrix-1000 in the hopes that it will yield something that generates interesting and useful "random" presets for the Matrix. I had this idea about a year ago, and started work on it, but didn't know what the hell I was doing, and gave up after a couple of weeks. Recently I've come across a couple of stories of similar projects (such as This DX7 Cartridge Does Not Exist) that apparently do a decent job of VAE patch generation, so I was inspired to try again.

Currently my VAE creates somewhat-useful patches, with not a lot of variation. Frankly some of the math involved still eludes me, and my friend who's finishing his PhD in Machine Learning is busy with his summer job and a kid on the way, so progress is slow. But promising. If/when I get a good VAE working (for the Oberheims, then beyond), I can port it to Apple's CoreML framework for inclusion in Patch Base, and you'll have a super-charged "roll the dice" button. That's the idea at least.

Stay tuned!

Roland JD-800 Editor Now Available, Plus Updates to JV-1080 Family

Thu, 09 Jul 2020 00:00:00 +0000

The latest updates to Patch Base (iOS version 3.12 and Mac version 1.6) add an editor/librarian for the Roland JD-800. The JD-800 is a very hands-on digital synth from Roland made in the early 90's — a sort of precursor to the JV-1080 family with its 4-tone voice structure.

But before I get into the details of the new editor, I want to give a very big thank you to Ken DiStefano in New Jersey! Ken did the work transcribing the sysex details of the JD-800 from the manual to spreadsheets (now hosted on the growing Patch Base Synths repository on GitHub). He also tested the editor and helped with the debugging process. This editor wouldn't be finished without his contribution. Thank you, Ken!

Voice Editor

The Voice Editor is the main attraction for the JD-800 editor. Like the other Roland multi-tone editors in Patch Base, the JD-800 Voice Editor gives you access to all of a tone's parameters on a single screen.

But what's more, this new editor introduces a new Palette-style editing mode to Patch Base as well. With these screens, you can see the parameters across all 4 Tones at once, so you can quickly make edits to all of them. Great for so many situations, such as matching envelopes across tones, or quickly changing the samples used in multiple tones.

And of course you have access to all of the Common and Effects parameters on a screen as well. The Effects sections dynamically highlight to show you what's active and what's not.

Special Setup Editor

Perhaps less-used but very powerful is the JD-800's Special Setup section, which is the equivalent of later Rhythm sections in other Roland synths. You can create a 61-voice drum kit with this section (or a multi-timbral instrument, or a sort of prepared piano, if you think about it). Patch Base makes it easy to navigate your Special Setups.

JV-1080, XP-80 and Family Updates

This release of Patch Base also includes updates to the JV-1080 family of editors. The new palette-style editing panels have been added here as well, plus other smaller improvements.

Thanks to Contributors

Some weeks ago I put out an email that mentioned looking for help with part of the editor creation process, specifically the transcription of technical info from the manuals of various synths into a format that's more ready for use in the creation of editors. I got a really big response to that request, and several people have started helping in the time since (you can see some of the progress here on GitHub). It's taken me awhile to get in the swing of coordinating this effort, but I'm starting to get the hang of it (apologies to those who've waited weeks at a time for my replies!). I just want to say many, many thanks to everyone who's helped so far, and offered to help. More specific thanks will come with upcoming releases! This really feels like a big step in a new direction for what's happening at Coffeeshopped, and it's exciting and heartening to know that there's such a great community around Patch Base.

And there's more on the way.

Find out more about Patch Base.
More on the Roland JD-800 Editor and Librarian.

Yamaha DX21 Editor and Librarian Now Available

Sun, 17 May 2020 00:00:00 +0000

The latest updates to Patch Base (iOS version 3.11 and Mac version 1.5) bring an editor/librarian for the Yamaha DX21. The DX21 is another of Yamaha's many 4-operator FM synthesizers from the 80's. It's very similar to the DX100, but includes a Pitch Envelope as well as a Chorus effect. It's also much larger than the DX100.

The DX21 pictured above is the one I recently acquired off of Craigslist here in Austin. It's pretty beat up: the Mod Wheel is half-gone, a couple of the sliders are missing their caps, a couple of the keys don't work, and I think one of the 2 outputs is completely dead. But it makes a trusty testing unit. I'm hoping Syntaur or someone will come through with some replacement parts at some point.

Patch Editor

And the bank editor lets you organize the 32 sounds stored on your synth, making it easy to swap out a collection of sounds, and create different banks as needed.

Other Updates

In addition to the new editor, the latest versions of Patch Base have more changes behind the scenes. I've been restructuring many of the editors internally to be more efficient, and to make the interface respond a little faster.

Patch Base continues to support iPads all the way back to iOS 9. The last releases had some bad crashing bugs on older 32-bits iPads; this was due to a bug in XCode, Apple's development environment. I was able to install an older version of XCode that doesn't have the same bug, and that's what I used to build the latest release, so I believe the crashing bug is gone.

I'm continuing to work on new editors, as well as new features. More coming soon.

Spring 2020 Update

Wed, 29 Apr 2020 00:00:00 +0000

It's been quiet on the Coffeeshopped blog and newsletter for the past month or two. I hope everyone is doing ok. Like everyone else, I've been mostly at home all day. Luckily, home is where I do a lot of my work, and I've taken this time to work on some of the more core parts of Patch Base.

Also, I'd like to say thank you to all of our customers, both old and new. I think a lot of synth lovers have taken this downtime to make some new sounds, and I've heard from a lot of new people in the past month or so. Thanks for supporting the app, all of you.

Here's some of what's new lately:

New Website

One bit of news that wasn't formally announced until now is: Coffeeshopped has a new website (you're looking at it). The new site is faster and a bit easier to navigate. And for Patch Base for Mac customers, you can log in to the website now to manage your All Access subscription, or to look up your Patch Base license codes. More features will be coming to the website soon. Stay tuned.

Patch Base for iPad

The latest update to Patch Base for iPad adds the ability to select separate MIDI ports per editor. For those of you who have more than one MIDI interface connected to your iPad, you can now isolate each editor to only talk to the interface you want.

This update also includes a major bug fix for the Roland XV-5080 editor. iOS 13 had made some changes to file handling that broke this editor previously. The fix required some fundamental platform changes, but it should be good to go now.

Patch Base for Mac

The recent update to Patch Base for Mac has added the ability to set speed limits for each of your MIDI interfaces. Previously, there was a set speed limiter on all MIDI traffic going out of Patch Base, but now you have the ability to change that limit for each MIDI port. Some of the older synths out there will appreciate this.

More on the Way

I am still, as always, working on new editors for Patch Base. But I'm also taking this time to fix a lot of details too, so please bear with me. I'd love to hear any thoughts you have about the new website or updates to Patch Base. Feel free to get in touch.

Yamaha DX7 Patches: 32 Drum Sounds

Tue, 17 Mar 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Here's a bank of 32 FM drum patches designed for the Yamaha DX7 and related synthesizers, available for free download. In the bank you'll find some kicks, snares, claps, hats, and other percussion sounds. The sound bank is compatible with the DX7, TX7, DX7ii, TX802, and TX816. The sounds were designed using Patch Base, but the enclosed SysEx files can be sent to your synth using any SysEx transfer program (such as Sysex Librarian on Mac, MIDI-Ox on Windows, or Sysex Base on iPhone or iPad).

For TX802/DX7ii owners, there's a bank file for the Voices with the same sounds as the DX7, but also including the extra voice data that the TX802 and DX7ii support.

And for TX802 owners, there is also a Performance bank, where I've made 3 separate drum kits set up as Performances, with each separate drum sound on its own MIDI Channel (1-8). The 3 kits are set up to all route audio through both Outputs I and II, and then the "(split)" versions of the kits break the sounds into separate outputs (some on I, some on II) for separate audio processing.

Here are some examples of the drums in use. All of these are played by the TX802, sequenced in real-time, with the audio coming from the combined I and II outputs. I ran one of the outputs through a little chorus and reverb to add some space to the mix.

TX802 Drum Kit Examples

The DX7 is a tricky synth to design traditional drum sounds for. So, you get some (hopefully) interesting near-misses in attempting to create typical drum machine sounds using FM. A lot of the sounds are velocity sensitive so you can be more expressive with them. Some of them respond to different notes (pitch), and some are a fixed pitch.

If you use the sounds and have any feedback about them, please let me know. I may update this bank in the future.

Download

p.s. If you're looking for more DX7 sounds, take a look at our Yamaha DX7 Resources page.

Sound List

Beefkick
Buffkick
DoopKick
GubKik
MildSnare
ResoSnare
FaceSnare
GlassSnare
JunkHat
HolloHat
AuteHat
SwakHat
BublClap
AFXClap
ZapClap
RoboClap
InsectShk
SquirtShk
NzTri
TamboWhistl
Big Tommy
BussTom
NoiseTom
isThatTom?
Wump
Thump
DripChirp
FunBwow
Plasteel
PewPew
VeloBongo
BellsObvi