VZenit

A native macOS voice editor and SysEx librarian for the Casio VZ-1, VZ-10M, and VZ-8M synthesizers.

Built in Swift / SwiftUI. No dependencies. Bit-accurate handling of the full 336-byte VZ voice format, verified against Casio's official spec.

Status: Source code complete for the core editor; 28 unit tests passing; first preview cut as v0.0.1 (hardware-untested). Build instructions in SETUP.md.

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What it does

• Live MIDI editing — receive a patch from the synth, edit it visually, send it back. Auto-update mode pushes changes after every parameter tweak.
• Visual signal flow — see the iPD module routing (M1–M8 across Lines A–D) at a glance, with click-to-edit module blocks.
• Drag-to-edit envelopes — Canvas-based 8-step envelopes with movable sustain and end markers, plus 6-point key-follow breakpoint editing.
• Patch library — JSON-backed library with full CRUD, multi-patch .syx import/export, and per-patch metadata.
• All three VZ models — VZ-1, VZ-10M, and VZ-8M (operation editor for multi-timbral mode is planned).

Requirements

• macOS 14 Sonoma or later
• Xcode 15+ (to build)
• XcodeGen — brew install xcodegen
• A USB-MIDI interface connected to your VZ synth

Getting started

git clone git@github.com:iraaron/VZenit.git
cd VZenit
brew install xcodegen      # one time
xcodegen generate
open VZenit.xcodeproj

In Xcode, set your Team under Signing & Capabilities, then ⌘R. Full walkthrough in SETUP.md.

Building a distributable for testers

To produce an ad-hoc-signed .app zipped up for sharing:

./scripts/release.sh
# → dist/VZenit-<version>.zip

The recipient (who doesn't have Xcode) clears the quarantine attribute and runs it:

xattr -cr ~/Downloads/VZenit.app && open ~/Downloads/VZenit.app

Or in Finder: right-click → Open → confirm the Gatekeeper dialog.

Project layout

VZenit/
├── README.md                 ← you are here
├── SETUP.md                  ← detailed setup walkthrough
├── project.yml               ← XcodeGen spec — single source of truth
├── scripts/
│   └── release.sh            ← one-shot build + zip for distribution
├── Sources/VZenit/
│   ├── App/                  ← @main entry point + root view
│   ├── Models/               ← 336-byte voice model, SysEx codec, randomizer, library
│   ├── MIDI/                 ← CoreMIDI wrapper, SysEx streaming
│   └── Views/                ← Voice editor, envelope editor
└── Tests/VZenitTests/        ← 28 unit tests

Roadmap

• Operation editor (multi-timbral mode)
• On-screen MIDI keyboard preview
• Patch compare / morph
• Undo/redo
• 64-patch bank dump/restore
• App icon
• Hardware verification on real VZ-1 / VZ-10M / VZ-8M units

Acknowledgements

The 336-byte voice format was cross-referenced against the riban-bw/vzeditor project's VZ sound creation.txt documentation.

License

MIT. Portions of the SysEx specification derived from the Casio VZ-1 Service Manual and riban-bw/vzeditor (LGPL-3.0).