1. Load Voltage Drums
Insert the instrument in a host using the supplied CLAP, VST3 or Audio Unit build. The format changes the wrapper, not the synthesis engine or saved parameter contract.
GUIDE Current pre-release build
Voltage Drums. From first hit to full routing.
This guide covers the capabilities present in the current product wrapper: Voltage 80 and Substance. Voltage 78 is part of the family but is not selectable in the current plug-in.
Load, choose, playStart with the essentialsEssentials
Quick start
2. Choose the instrument
Click the MODEL display in the header to switch between Voltage 80 and Substance. Voltage 80 is selected by default.
3. Choose a starting point
Use the arrows beside the PRESET display. Voltage 80 has eight complete kits; Substance has eleven tested presets. An asterisk after a Voltage 80 kit name means a parameter has changed.
4. Play or program
Send MIDI to either model. On Voltage 80, click voice labels to audition sounds or program the sixteen-step grid and press the panel play button.
| Instrument | Current status | Output | Factory content |
|---|---|---|---|
| Voltage 80 | Playable in current build | Main + 14 individual stereo buses | 8 kits · 24 patterns |
| Substance | Playable in current build | Stereo main; drum auxiliaries silent | 11 presets |
| Voltage 78 | In development; not selectable | Not a current plug-in capability | Not exposed |
Sixteen synthesized voices
Voltage 80
Machine controls
- Master sets the complete main-output level. Individual buses are tapped before Master.
- Accent controls how far accented hits rise above normal hits. It changes the circuit drive, not only the final gain.
- BD Tune continuously retunes the bass-drum resonator from −12 to +12 semitones without changing the measured default at 0.
- MAP / CH16 selects the bass-drum MIDI performance policy described below.
Voltage 80 kits
The preset arrows cycle complete parameter states, so a kit never inherits values from the previously selected kit.
Reference Circuit · Deep Foundation · Tight Current · Airlock Hats · Copper Claps · Tom Voltage · Sparse Start · Full Current
| Voice | Panel controls | MIDI notes |
|---|---|---|
| BD · Bass drum | Level · Tone · Decay · BD Tune | 35, 36 |
| SD · Snare drum | Level · Tone · Snappy · early-unit revision | 38, 40 |
| LT · Low tom | Level · Low tuning | 41, 45 |
| MT · Mid tom | Level · Mid tuning | 43, 47 |
| HT · High tom | Level · High tuning | 48, 50 |
| LC / MC / HC · Congas | Level · shared Low / Mid / High tuning | 64 / 63 / 62 |
| RS · Rimshot | Level | 37 |
| CP · Handclap | Level | 39 |
| CB · Cowbell | Level | 56 |
| CY · Cymbal | Level · Tone · Decay | 49, 51, 57 |
| OH · Open hat | Level · Decay | 46 |
| CH · Closed hat | Level · closes the open-hat envelope | 42, 44 |
| MA · Maracas | Level | 69, 70 |
| CL · Claves | Level | 75 |
Velocity drives accent.
Higher note velocity increases the modelled trigger voltage according to each voice’s response. It is not a sample-layer switch.
Closed hat ends open hat.
A closed-hat trigger terminates the open-hat envelope. MIDI note-off does not choke drum tails.
Tails remain live.
Repeated bass-drum hits re-excite the existing resonator state. Chromatic note-off also leaves the kick tail running.
One editable pattern
Sequencer and Beat Library
Enter hits
Click a cell in an instrument row to toggle that hit on or off. The top ACCENT row marks a column as accented. Click a voice label to audition it without changing the grid.
Set tempo and swing
The panel Tempo and Swing controls belong to the internal sequencer. Swing alternates the two sixteenth-note lengths while preserving the length of each eighth-note pair.
Choose the clock
Set the host parameter Sequencer Clock to Internal, Host or Off. Internal follows the panel play button. Host follows transport, position, tempo, seek and loop. Off generates no pattern hits while incoming MIDI remains active.
Use pattern actions
Copy stores the current grid in the editor clipboard, Paste replaces the grid from it, and Clear turns every step off.
Open the Beat Library
- Double-click the Voltage Drums logo on the Voltage 80 panel.
- Select one of the twenty-four curated patterns.
- Choose Play to audition or Load to place it in the editable grid without playing.
- Choose Stop to end playback. Double-click the logo again to close the library.
Import and export MIDI
- Import reads
.midfiles from~/Music/VoltageDrums/importsand~/Music/VoltageDrums/exports. - Note-ons are quantized to the nearest sixteenth and folded into the sixteen-step pattern. Unsupported MIDI data is ignored.
- Export writes a format-0 MIDI file at 480 PPQ into
~/Music/VoltageDrums/exports. - Export preserves mapped notes, step positions and the normal/accent velocity classes.
Main plus fourteen
Multi-output routing
Signal contract
- Main always carries the complete stereo mix.
- Individual 01–14 are stereo buses carrying the mono circuit tap identically on left and right.
- Individual buses are post-voice-level, pre-master and dry.
- The fixed bus order does not change when the selected model changes.
- Substance uses Main and writes silence to every drum auxiliary.
In your host
Enable the auxiliary outputs exposed by the instrument, route each required bus to a track or channel, then process or print those returns independently. Keep Main when you want the complete mix; mute it if you are rebuilding the drum mix exclusively from individual returns.
Hosts display the stable names Individual 01 through Individual 14; use the assignment table to identify each circuit section.
| Bus | Voltage 80 circuit output | Bus | Voltage 80 circuit output |
|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | Bass drum | 08 | High conga |
| 02 | Snare drum | 09 | Rimshot / claves |
| 03 | Low tom | 10 | Handclap |
| 04 | Mid tom | 11 | Cowbell |
| 05 | High tom | 12 | Cymbal |
| 06 | Low conga | 13 | Open / closed hats |
| 07 | Mid conga | 14 | Maracas |
Bass companion
Substance
Oscillators
Two triangle, saw or pulse oscillators provide independent octave, tune, PWM and level controls. Oscillator two adds hard sync and cross-modulation. A square sub and seeded noise complete the source mix.
Filter and drive
The driven transistor-ladder core provides low-pass, band-pass or high-pass output at 12 or 24 dB per octave, with cutoff, resonance, key tracking, envelope amount and accent amount.
Envelope and LFO
ADSR shapes the VCA and filter path. The triangle, saw or square LFO runs from 0.1 to 20 Hz and can target cutoff, PWM or pitch, with optional retrigger.
Performance
Substance uses last-note priority with fallback to earlier held notes, optional constant-rate portamento, ±2-semitone pitch bend, velocity, accent and channel or poly pressure.
First patch workflow
- Click MODEL until Substance is shown.
- Choose a preset with the header arrows.
- Balance oscillator one, oscillator two, sub and noise.
- Shape the tone with Cutoff, Resonance, Drive, filter mode and slope.
- Use Glide with Portamento for connected mono lines; use the transpose controls for octave moves.
Substance presets
Deep Sub · Fat Stack · Dirty Growl · Acid Bite · Rubber Sub · Funk Pluck · Warm Pulse · Burgs · Hooky Lead · Glide Solo · Hollow Lead
Substance produces audio on the stereo Main output. The fourteen Voltage 80 individual buses remain silent while Substance is selected.
Project state
Save, reload and automate
The selected instrument returns.
The host state records the model and its parameter values. Voltage 80 and Substance parameters retain stable host identities.
The complete sequencer returns.
Clock mode, play state, tempo, swing, Beat Library selection and every grid cell are stored with the session.
One state contract.
CLAP, VST3 and Audio Unit wrappers use the same underlying parameter and state implementation.
What the current build does not claim
Current boundaries
Voltage 78 is not selectable yet.
Its engine is implemented and tested behind a release gate, but it is not part of the current product wrapper described by this guide.
Effects are not onboard yet.
The current Voltage Drums build provides dry synthesis and dry individual circuit buses. Voltage Spaces integration is not part of this build.
The sequencer is intentionally focused.
It provides one editable sixteen-step pattern. Pattern chains, probability, ratchets, polymeters and song arrangement are not current features.
Chromatic performance is kick-only.
Channel 16 retunes the bass drum only, over notes 8–55. It does not add glide or turn the other drum voices into chromatic instruments.
Fast checks
Troubleshooting and support
No sound from Voltage 80
Check the host’s MIDI input, Voltage 80 Master level, the triggered voice level and the note map. If the sequencer is in Host mode, start the host transport and ensure the host supplies musical position.
No sound on an individual output
Confirm that the host has enabled and routed the matching auxiliary bus. The bus carries only its assigned circuit section. All fourteen auxiliaries are intentionally silent when Substance is selected.
Channel 16 does not tune the kick
Click the kick mode control until it reads CH16, send MIDI on channel 16 and use notes 8–55. In MAP mode, channel 16 uses the regular drum map.
The Beat Library is not visible
Switch to Voltage 80 and double-click the Voltage Drums logo. Substance has no drum-pattern library.
MIDI import shows no files
Place .mid files in ~/Music/VoltageDrums/imports, close the import window and reopen it. The browser also lists files previously written to ~/Music/VoltageDrums/exports.
When reporting a problem, include your operating system, host, plug-in format, sample rate and the shortest sequence that reproduces it.
Current status and contactOpen support