Bomb FX 💣

A modern VST3/AU audio effects plugin built with JUCE, featuring four high-quality effects with independent mix controls, a striking chrome-and-purple UI, and full preset management.

Features

🎛️ Four Effect Processors

• Reverb — Spacious, smooth reverb with room size, damping, and stereo width controls
• Delay — Clean digital delay with feedback and adjustable time (1-2000ms)
• Chorus — Rich modulation with rate, depth, and center delay controls
• Filter — Multi-mode filter (LP/HP/BP) with cutoff, resonance, and drive

🎨 Premium UI

• Chrome knobs with metallic gradients, 3D highlights, and center caps
• Purple LED indicators with glow effects and white pointers
• Vertical mix faders for each effect (mixer console style)
• Enhanced gradient background with noise texture and section glows
• Section backgrounds with rounded corners and purple glow borders
• Gradient dividers with elegant fade effects
• Custom branding with logo and enhanced title styling
• Parameter labels above every knob for clarity

🎚️ Signal Chain

Input → [Reverb | Delay | Chorus] (parallel) → Mix → Filter → Output

All three time-based effects process in parallel with independent mix controls, then the combined signal passes through the filter for final shaping.

🎯 Presets

27 factory presets organized by category:

Reverb (6):

• Cathedral — Large hall with long decay
• Small Room — Tight, intimate space
• Vocal Plate — Classic plate reverb
• Huge Hall — Massive concert hall
• Dark Chamber — Dark, damped reverb with LP filter
• Spring Tank — Vintage spring reverb with BP filter

Delay (6):

• Slapback — Quick, tight echo
• Dub Echo — Spacey feedback delay
• Ping Pong — Stereo bouncing delay
• Dotted Eighth — Rhythmic echo
• Triplet Delay — 333ms triplet timing
• Long Tail — 1.2s long delay with LP filter

Chorus (6):

• Lush Chorus — Thick, wide modulation
• Subtle Shimmer — Light movement
• Wide Stereo — Expansive stereo field
• Studio Thickener — Professional doubling
• Vibrato — Heavy modulation (5Hz, 90% depth)
• Ensemble — Classic ensemble chorus

Combo (9):

• Ambient Space — Reverb + delay + chorus blend
• Dream Machine — Ethereal, atmospheric
• Infinite Void — Deep, endless space
• Vocal Air — Transparent space for vocals with HP filter
• Synth Pad — Lush reverb+chorus+LP filter
• Guitar Shimmer — Guitar-optimized reverb+delay+chorus
• Lo-Fi Vibes — Dark, filtered, warbled character
• Psychedelic — Heavy effects with BP filter and resonance
• Epic Drums — Big room for drums with HP filter

💾 User Preset Management

Save your own presets:

1. Dial in your perfect sound
2. Click Save button (top-right)
3. Enter a custom name in the dialog
4. Preset saved to ~/Documents/BombFX/Presets/

Load user presets:

1. Click Refresh button to scan for new presets
2. User presets appear under "--- USER PRESETS ---" in dropdown
3. Select any preset to load instantly

Share presets:

• Presets are saved as .bombfx XML files
• Share files with other users
• Edit manually if needed (all parameters are human-readable)

🔧 Format Support

• VST3 — Industry-standard plugin format
• AU — macOS Audio Unit
• Standalone — Run as a desktop application

Installation

Pre-built Binaries (Recommended)

Download the latest release for your platform:

→ Download Latest Release

macOS

1. Download BombFX-macOS.zip
2. Unzip the file
3. Copy Bomb FX.vst3 to ~/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST3/
4. Copy Bomb FX.component to ~/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/Components/
5. Rescan plugins in your DAW

Windows

1. Download BombFX-Windows.zip
2. Unzip the file
3. Copy Bomb FX.vst3 to C:\Program Files\Common Files\VST3\
4. Rescan plugins in your DAW

Linux

1. Download BombFX-Linux.zip
2. Unzip the file
3. Copy Bomb FX.vst3 to ~/.vst3/
4. Rescan plugins in your DAW

Build from Source

Requirements

• CMake 3.22+
• C++20 compiler
• JUCE 7.0.12 (fetched automatically via CMake)

macOS

cmake -B build -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release
cmake --build build --config Release -j8

Plugins auto-install to:

• AU: ~/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/Components/Bomb FX.component
• VST3: ~/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST3/Bomb FX.vst3
• Standalone: build/BombFX_artefacts/Release/Standalone/Bomb FX.app

Windows

cmake -B build -G "Visual Studio 17 2022"
cmake --build build --config Release

Linux

cmake -B build -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release
cmake --build build --config Release

Parameters

Reverb (4 parameters)

• Mix (0-100%) — Reverb wet level (vertical fader)
• Room Size (0-100%) — Size of the simulated space
• Damping (0-100%) — High-frequency absorption
• Width (0-100%) — Stereo width

Delay (3 parameters)

• Mix (0-100%) — Delay wet level (vertical fader)
• Time (1-2000ms) — Delay time
• Feedback (0-95%) — Delay feedback amount

Chorus (4 parameters)

• Mix (0-100%) — Chorus wet level (vertical fader)
• Rate (0.1-10 Hz) — LFO modulation speed
• Depth (0-100%) — Modulation intensity
• Center Delay (7-30ms) — Base delay time

Filter (5 parameters)

• Mix (0-100%) — Filter wet level (vertical fader)
• Cutoff (20-20,000 Hz) — Filter cutoff frequency
• Resonance (0-100%) — Filter resonance/Q (0.7-20)
• Drive (1-10x) — Saturation/distortion amount (soft clipping)
• Type — Filter mode: Low Pass / High Pass / Band Pass

Total: 17 parameters (16 float + 1 choice)

Architecture

Signal Processing

1. Input is split into three parallel paths
2. Reverb, Delay, and Chorus process independently
3. Each effect's wet signal is scaled by its Mix fader
4. All three wet signals + remaining dry signal are summed
5. Combined signal passes through the Filter (cutoff, resonance, drive)
6. Filter's wet/dry mix applied for final output

DSP Implementation

• Reverb: JUCE DSP Reverb module
• Delay: Custom delay line with feedback
• Chorus: Custom LFO-driven delay modulation
• Filter: JUCE StateVariableTPTFilter with tanh saturation

Preset System

• Factory presets: Hardcoded in C++ for instant loading and reliability
• User presets: XML files stored in ~/Documents/BombFX/Presets/
• XML format: All parameters saved as attributes with float values
• Auto-load: User presets loaded on plugin startup
• Real-time animation: UI controls animate smoothly when presets change

UI Layout

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  [Logo]  BOMB FX              PRESET: [dropdown ▼] [Save] [Refresh]         │
├─────────────┬──────────────┬──────────────┬──────────────┐
│   REVERB    │    DELAY     │    CHORUS    │    FILTER    │
│             │              │              │   [Type▼]    │
│    MIX      │     MIX      │     MIX      │     MIX      │
│    [█]      │     [█]      │     [█]      │     [█]      │
│             │              │              │              │
│   ROOM      │    TIME      │    RATE      │   CUTOFF     │
│    [◯]      │     [◯]      │     [◯]      │     [◯]      │
│   DAMP      │    FDBK      │    DEPTH     │    RESO      │
│    [◯]      │              │     [◯]      │     [◯]      │
│   WIDTH     │              │    DELAY     │    DRIVE     │
│    [◯]      │              │     [◯]      │     [◯]      │
└─────────────┴──────────────┴──────────────┴──────────────┘

• Width: 1100px
• Height: 550px
• Chrome knobs: 70px diameter with purple LED indicators, 3D gradients, white pointers
• Mix faders: 60px wide × 280px tall, vertical linear sliders
• Labels: 11pt font, light gray (0xffaaaaaa), positioned 15px above controls

Development

Project Structure

BombFX/
├── CMakeLists.txt
├── Source/
│   ├── PluginProcessor.h/cpp      # Main audio processor + APVTS
│   ├── PluginEditor.h/cpp         # UI, layout, presets
│   ├── BombFXLookAndFeel.h        # Custom knob/fader styling
│   └── FX/
│       ├── ReverbProcessor.h/cpp
│       ├── DelayProcessor.h/cpp
│       ├── ChorusProcessor.h/cpp
│       └── FilterProcessor.h/cpp
├── Presets/
│   ├── Reverb/    # 6 presets
│   ├── Delay/     # 6 presets
│   ├── Chorus/    # 6 presets
│   └── Combo/     # 9 presets
└── Resources/
    └── logo.png   # UI branding (embedded via CMake)

Key Decisions

• JUCE 7.0.12 chosen over 8.0.0 for macOS 15 SDK compatibility
• Parallel FX routing for independent mix control
• Filter at end for creative shaping and character
• Hardcoded factory presets for instant loading (faster than XML parsing)
• AudioParameterFloat operator= for clean parameter updates and UI notification
• Custom processors for delay and chorus (precise control)
• Soft clipping in filter drive for musical distortion
• Binary data for logo embedding (juce_add_binary_data)
• User preset directory in Documents folder for easy access/sharing

Testing

Load into your DAW (tested with Bitwig Studio):

1. Scan for new plugins
2. Load "Bomb FX" from VST3/AU menu
3. Select a preset from the dropdown
4. Watch knobs/faders update in real-time
5. Tweak parameters to taste
6. Click Save to store your settings
7. Click Refresh to reload after adding presets
8. Automate any parameter from your DAW

Known Issues

None! User preset loading bug fixed in commit 49b6836.

Contributing

Pull requests welcome! Areas for enhancement:

• Tempo sync for delay
• Envelope follower or LFO modulation for filter cutoff
• Additional combo presets
• Preset browser UI
• Undo/redo for preset changes

License

MIT

Links

• Repository: https://github.com/Justin-Kase/BombFX
• Issues: https://github.com/Justin-Kase/BombFX/issues

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Built with JUCE 7.0.12 • VST is a trademark of Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH