Stochas GGD

A drum sequencer plug-in (CLAP note effect) for programming GetGood Drums patterns directly in your DAW. It is developed and tested mainly in Bitwig Studio on Windows.

Signal chain:

Stochas GGD -> Kontakt / GGD -> audio

Stochas GGD started from the open-source Stochas sequencer. The current product is built around semantic GGD articulations, an event timeline, groove and pattern libraries, and fast drum editing.

New in 2.0: time-signature changes no longer throw patterns off the bar grid, plus a rebuilt editor and a new look. See RELEASE_NOTES.md.

Download

Use the Releases page of this repository. Each release publishes:

• Stochas.GGD.clap for direct installation
• Stochas-GGD-<version>-Windows-x64.zip

Features

• Event-based drum patterns at 960 PPQ: straight, triplet and off-grid hits side by side.
• Eight pattern slots, each with its own time signature (1-32 over 2, 4, 8 or 16) and bar count.
• Host-bar sync: every pattern bar starts on a host bar line, so host time-signature changes never shift the groove. Free run is available for polymeter.
• Meter and bar changes keep hits in their bars. Hits that don't fit are hidden (and saved with the project) and come back if the pattern grows again.
• Semantic storage: hits are stored as articulations (snare.hit, hihat.open_2...) and the active kit map decides the MIDI note.
• Built-in maps for GGD P V, P IV and Modern & Massive. The grid shows only the active kit's articulations, in its own order.
• A Drum machine kit for any other instrument: up to 32 pads that you name and map to notes yourself (16 pads on C1 - D#2 to start), saved with the project.
• Draw and Select tools: paint, erase, box select, move, duplicate, nudge, velocity and timing editing.
• Ghost, Accent, chance (probability), Quantize, Humanize, Flam and Double, plus ramps, dynamics, fill, mirror, thin and row selection.
• Undo/redo per pattern slot that also restores the selection.
• GGD MIDI groove import with velocity and performance timing kept; native .sggdp pattern files that move between kits.
• Grooves and Patterns library with live filtering.
• Native MIDI drag-out of the current pattern, plus MIDI file export.
• Live MIDI passthrough and a per-project Seq On / Seq Off switch.
• Smooth playhead, follow scrolling for long patterns, and played-note feedback driven by the notes the engine actually plays.
• Four themes: Graphite, Midnight, Ember and Contrast.

Setup in Bitwig

1. Put Stochas.GGD.clap where Bitwig scans for CLAP plug-ins (on Windows C:\Program Files\Common Files\CLAP\).
2. Add Stochas GGD as a Note FX before Kontakt / your GGD instrument.
3. Pick the matching kit in the toolbar (P V, P IV or Modern & Massive), or Drum machine for any other drum instrument (see below).
4. Draw a pattern or double-click a groove in the library, then start the transport.

Stochas GGD sends mapped notes to the instrument and passes your own MIDI (controllers, clips) through.

The window

• Header: pattern slots 1-8, the pattern name, the Pattern menu, the transport display (bar.beat and host meter), Seq On/Off, Drag MIDI, the library toggle and settings.
• Toolbar: Draw/Select, undo/redo, meter, bars, grid, zoom, kit and sync mode.
• Timeline: articulation rows grouped by instrument. Click a group header to fold it; click a row name to audition its note. With the Drum machine kit, double-click a row name to rename that pad.
• Context strip: tools for the current selection, or the mouse gestures of the current tool.
• Library: grooves (.mid) and patterns (.sggdp).

Drum machine kit

Choose Drum machine in the kit selector to drive a drum machine, sampler or any instrument that isn't a GGD library. It starts with 16 pads on C1 - D#2 (MIDI 36-51, middle C = C3 as in Bitwig and Ableton), the layout most pad controllers and drum racks use.

Click Pads next to the kit selector (or double-click a row name) to open the pad sheet:

• Name each pad (Kick, Rim, Closed hat...). Empty names show as Pad 1, Pad 2... Press Return to move to the next pad.
• Note: pick the MIDI note the pad sends, any note from 0 to 127.
• Pads: 1 to 32. Pads you add continue up the keyboard from the last one. Removing pads hides their rows but keeps their hits, so they come back if you add the pads again.
• Play auditions the pad; Reset to C1 - D#2 goes back to the 16 default pads.

Changes apply immediately, also while playing, and are saved with the project. Pads are addressed by number (pad.01...pad.32), so .sggdp pattern files move between projects that number their pads the same way. MIDI grooves imported into the Drum machine kit are placed by note number: a note lands on the pad that sends that note; other notes are reported as unresolved.

Time signatures and sync

Each slot has its own meter and bar count. Change them in the toolbar; hits keep their bar and their position in the bar. If a hit no longer fits (a 4/4 bar becomes 3/4, or bars are removed), it is hidden rather than deleted. The toolbar shows how many are hidden, and they come back when the pattern grows again. Undo works across all of this.

Sync (per project) decides how patterns line up with the host:

• Host bars (default): bar 1 of the pattern starts on a host bar line, and multi-bar patterns follow the host's bar number. When the host changes meter, the next host bar simply starts the next pattern bar. If a pattern bar is shorter than the host bar it rests until the next bar line; if it is longer it is cut short. The transport display warns when the meters differ.
• Free run: the pattern loops on its own from the song start, regardless of host bar lines. Use it for deliberate polymeter. This is how 1.x behaved.

This is the beginning of the README. Read the rest at the original. Read the full README ↗