Chavo

Chavo is a DX7-emulation VST3 plugin with a genre-conformance navigator front-end.

Overview

Chavo pairs the Dexed FM synthesis engine with a semantic UI layer that helps users navigate the DX7 preset space by genre. Instead of browsing a flat list of 40,000+ patches, users:

1. Select a genre (Bass, Piano, Organ, Strings, etc.)
2. See genre conformance for the current patch (0-100%)
3. Turn semantic knobs (Grit, Warmth, Brightness, etc.) that morph patches toward genre centroids
4. Toggle "Expert View" to access Dexed's traditional FM operator interface

Architecture

SemanticEngine

• GenreData.h/cpp: Genre centroids (14 FM parameters) and knob bundles (weights per parameter)
• DX7Bridge.h/cpp: Maps abstract parameters (0-1) ↔ Dexed's CtrlDX operator controls

UI

• GenreNavComponent.h/cpp: JUCE component with genre buttons, conformance bars, semantic knobs
• DXLookNFeel.cpp: Toilville brand tokens (primary blue #7394C8, gold accents #E1B659)

Building

cd chavo
mkdir -p build
cmake -B build -G Xcode
cmake --build build --config Release

Features

• ✅ Genre-aware preset navigation
• ✅ Real-time conformance scoring
• ✅ Semantic knob morphing toward centroids
• ✅ Toggle to Dexed operator view
• ✅ Toilville brand theming

Derivation

Chavo is derived from:

• Dexed — FM synthesis engine (JUCE/C++)
• OPSL — preset deduplication & import tooling (Python)
• Genre Navigator Prototype — L2-distance KNN reclassification (Python)

See Docs/ for architecture notes and prototype code.

Status

🚀 Ready to build and test.