BP-Trigger is a volume shaper for rhythmic ducking, sidechain-triggered movement, and creative modulation. Draw a gain curve, run it from the DAW clock, trigger it from an incoming signal, or combine both approaches.
The plug-in plays a sixteen-point gain curve. At 0%, a point applies the full amount set by Depth; at 100%, it leaves the signal unchanged. Points between those values define the movement between the initial duck and the return to full level.
That curve can be started in three ways:
- Grid follows the host transport. Pick a division from one bar to a sixteenth note, with triplet options included.
- Sidechain starts the curve when the sidechain signal crosses the threshold.
- Grid and Sidechain follows the grid but lets sidechain hits take over when the sidechain input crosses the threshold.
The Speed control changes the rate at which the curve is read. Ramp Down and Ramp Shape let you shape the movement immediately before the first point. Pre-duck adds up to 10 ms of look-ahead to the main signal, so the duck can begin just ahead of a detected hit.
Turn on Sidechain Solo when setting the threshold. It mutes the normal output and plays only the sidechain signal that reaches the detector threshold, so you can hear what is actually being picked up.
Detector Release controls how quickly the detector resets after a hit. Its range is 1 to 100 ms. Faster settings are useful for short, closely spaced transients; longer settings keep the detector open for longer material.
Ringmod Sidechain uses the incoming sidechain signal to modulate the shaped audio. Ringmod Intensity sets how strongly it is applied. This is independent of the trigger mode, so it can be used as a texture tool as well as part of a sidechain setup.
Enable Band to split the signal at Band Cutoff (20 Hz to 20 kHz). The main curve then shapes the low band. Enable High Curve to give the high band its own sixteen-point curve and High Depth control. This makes it possible to keep a kick-driven duck focused in the low end, or create different movement above and below the split.
Depth sets the amount of reduction for the main curve, or the low curve in Band mode. Mix blends the dry and shaped signals. With High Curve enabled, High Depth sets the amount of reduction for the high band.
Both the main curve and the optional high curve have sixteen editable, automatable points. Use Curve Presets to save or load a shape. Presets are stored as .triggercurve files in:
- macOS:
~/Documents/BLIND PRODUCERS PLUGINS/BP-Trigger - Windows:
Documents\BLIND PRODUCERS PLUGINS\BP-Triggerin your user folder
The files are the same on both systems, so curves can be shared between them.
The interface is fully keyboard accessible. When the plug-in window opens, the focus is on Trigger Mode. Tab and Shift+Tab move through every control in every section. , and . jump to the previous or next section: Timing, Sidechain, Output, and the curves.
Change the focused value with the arrow keys. Hold Shift for finer adjustment where available. Page Up and Page Down move ten steps, Home goes to the top of the range and End to the bottom. In Trigger Mode and Grid Division, Home and End pick the first and last choice. Each slider is followed by its value box, where you can type a value and press Enter. Press Enter on a check box to turn it on or off.
Every curve point is individually focusable and exposed to supported screen readers with its position and value. On macOS that is VoiceOver; on Windows, NVDA, JAWS and Narrator.
Clone the repository:
git clone <repository-url>
cd bp-triggerOn the first configure, CMake downloads the pinned JUCE source snapshot automatically. An internet connection is required for that first step. To use a JUCE checkout you already have at the same commit, add -DFETCHCONTENT_SOURCE_DIR_JUCE=<path to JUCE> to the first cmake command.
With CMake 3.22 or newer installed, build the plug-in:
cmake -S . -B build -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release
cmake --build build --target BPTrigger_All -j 10The build outputs are placed in:
build/BPTrigger_artefacts/Release/AU/BP-Trigger.component
build/BPTrigger_artefacts/Release/VST3/BP-Trigger.vst3
The development bundles are ad-hoc signed.
Install Visual Studio 2022 with the Desktop development with C++ workload, which includes CMake. In a Developer PowerShell:
cmake -S . -B build -G "Visual Studio 17 2022" -A x64
cmake --build build --config Release --target BPTrigger_VST3Windows builds the VST3 only; Audio Units are a macOS format. The build output is placed in:
build\BPTrigger_artefacts\Release\VST3\BP-Trigger.vst3
Copy the whole BP-Trigger.vst3 folder to C:\Program Files\Common Files\VST3, or to %LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\Common\VST3 for your user only, and rescan plug-ins in your host. No Visual C++ redistributable is needed.
Configure with -DBP_TRIGGER_BUILD_TESTS=ON to add the test tools. BPTriggerCheck loads the built VST3 as a host does and checks the sound in every trigger mode. BPTriggerUiTest drives the editor from the keyboard while BPTriggerUiaProbe records what UI Automation tells a screen reader; with --vst3 it also opens the built VST3 in a host window and sends it the key messages a host passes on. The test windows stay in the background, so a running screen reader does not read them.
cmake --build build --config Release --target BPTrigger_VST3 BPTriggerCheck BPTriggerUiTest
build\BPTriggerCheck_artefacts\Release\BPTriggerCheck.exe build\BPTrigger_artefacts\Release\VST3\BP-Trigger.vst3
build\BPTriggerUiTest_artefacts\Release\BPTriggerUiTest.exe --vst3 build\BPTrigger_artefacts\Release\VST3\BP-Trigger.vst3