Blog

Notes from building a thing that builds audio plugins — the formats, the DSP, the interfaces, selling what you make, and what it costs to implement it all yourself.

What's new in Sonorie: October 2026

Instruments you play from a keyboard, interfaces built from modelled hardware, edits that change only what you asked for, and a marketplace that sells real binaries.

Plugin interfaces that read like hardware

Why generated plugin faceplates stopped drawing their own meters and knobs: calibrated VU faces, modelled controls, host-measured analysers, and a gate that runs every page.

Modelling analog hardware from the papers

Optical, FET and VCA compressors, tape hysteresis, triodes, a fuzz pedal solved from its schematic, spring and plate reverbs: what each model follows, and what we measured.

How selling a plugin on Sonorie works

Publish a plugin you built, and it is compiled for Windows, macOS and Linux before it goes on sale. Licence keys, payouts, screenshots, reviews and what a seller can see.

Why we wrote our own plugin framework

One clause in a licence made every off-the-shelf option unusable, so we implemented VST3, AU, CLAP, LV2 and a standalone host from their specifications. What that cost.

How to make a VST plugin without coding

The four routes that exist today — visual patchers, generators, hiring it out, and describing it in a chat — what each one costs, and what you end up owning.

VST3, AU, CLAP, LV2: which formats you need

What each plugin format is, which hosts load it, which ones you can legally ship, and why VST2 is not on the list any more. Written while implementing all of them.

Lovable, but for audio plugins

The comparison people reach for, taken seriously: what carries over from chat-built websites to chat-built VST plugins, and the two places it breaks.