Introducing

Imagine Plugins: Build VST3, AU, and AAX audio plugins without code

World’s First No-Code Plugin Builder

Design, build and sell the plugin you’ve always imagined

imagineplugins.com/yoursound
Imagine Plugins signal flow editor
Imagine Plugins GUI design page
Imagine Plugins build & submit page

Features

Everything you need to build & sell your own signature plugins

No hiring developers  ·  No waiting  ·  No endless back-and-forth

Sound Design

Shape your sound. Choose from a library of high-quality DSP components - including analog-modeled processors, and advanced routing utilities - and chain them any way you imagine

Plugin theme — variant 1

Hear It In Your Browser

Audition your plugin right in the browser.

Plugin theme — variant 2

Design GUI

Design your plugin GUI. Choose from high-quality themes and components. Use your own images and logo. Customize layout of UI elements. Make it your own.

Plugin theme — variant 3

Patch Front to Back

Connect GUI elements to one or more DSP parameters. Set ranges and default values. Every plugin includes a preset manager.

Plugin theme — variant 4

Build your Plugin

Export your plugin for review. If approved, you will receive your plugin in VST3, AU and AAX format within 4 business days.

Go to Market Fast

Work at your pace. No waiting on developers or designers, or going back and forth to explain your vision.

Pricing

Simple, transparent pricing

Creator

For creators with revenue under $150k/year.

$1k/ plugin
  • VST3, AU, AAX Formats
  • macOS & Windows
  • Unlimited Tweaks (before export)
  • 2 post-submission revisions
Get Started

Professional

For creators with revenue between 150k-$300k/year.

$5k/ plugin
  • VST3, AU, AAX Formats
  • macOS & Windows
  • Unlimited Tweaks (before export)
  • 4 post-submission revisions
Get Started

Premiere

For creators with yearly revenue over $300k/year.

Contact
  • Everything in Pro
  • Project manager
  • Phone support
Contact Us

The Alternative

Traditional Development Costs

Invoice Estimate

Standard Industry Rates

DSP Developer$35,000.00
Graphic Designer$10,000.00
Code Signing$5,000.00
TOTAL$50,000.00

No back-and-forth with developers. No chasing designers. No explaining your vision twice., Not needing to figure out code signing, or how to test and ensure compatibility, or how to sell the plugin

Priceless

Start building your plugin

Build and sell your signature plugin

Frequently Asked Questions

Not at all. ImaginePlugins is a completely visual, no-code environment. We handle the complex C++ code generation in the background.
Your imagination is the limit. We sourced and developed a rich library of high-quality DSP. This toolset includes the building blocks of nearly every effects plugin or chains you can think of. From bread and butter effects, creative DSP, advanced routing utilities, and classic analog modeled components - developed in-house and licensed from the industry's best DSP developers. All of which can be routed, chained and served in flexible ways. Offering an environment for serious, quality plugin development.
Nope. ImaginePlugins is a fully browser-based plugin builder. This includes creating DSP chains from our high-quality DSP code blocks, auditioning the sound of your chains and settings, designing a GUI from our themes and GUI elements including knobs, faders, and meters, connecting the GUI elements to parameters in the DSP blocks, and finalizing the project to receive your plugins.
We support the industry standards: VST3, AU and AAX for Windows macOS (Intel & Silicon).
Absolutely. We provide you with ready-to-distribute plugins (binaries) that you can sell. This is a professional tool designed for creating professional quality plugins that can be sold. SoundBetter offers a Storefront and plugin marketplace where you can sell your plugin if you wish.
No. Our pricing is based on a per-plugin creation fee. If you choose to sell your plugin on SoundBetter's Storefront or plugin marketplace, there is a small fee for these sales.
We have a small handful of very limited spots for top tier producers/mixers/artists to collaborate on signature co-branded plugins. If you fit this description, are an industry ‘household name’, and want to discuss building your signature plugin/s together, please contact us.

Plugins built with ImaginePlugins generally work with:

macOS: 10.13 or newer. (Usually works on 10.12 but not officially supported). Native support for Apple Silicon chips.

Windows: 8.1 or newer. (May work on Windows 7 but not officially supported).

DAWs: Major DAWs that support 64-bit VST3, AAX, or AU.

**Note that we cannot guarantee compatibility or stability with every single DAW and OS. Debugging specific DAWs or OS is not included in the build price. We do offer paid hourly support from professional DSP developers. If your plugins don't work at all in major DAWs listed in the compatibility section above, and you contact us within 5 days of receiving your plugin binaries, we will attempt to debug the issue free of charge. If we cannot get your plugin to work within a time that we think is reasonable, we will offer you to either hire our developers at their hourly fee, or receive a refund for your build.

The revenue brackets for the pricing is designed to allow creatives to create and sell their signature plugins. The revenue brackets are for any revenue - not only for plugin sales, and the same whether you are a company or individual. If you are a company or individual and earn over $300k/year, you need to purchase a ‘Premium’ license by contacting us. Note that purchasing an license when your revenue exceeds the stated bracket for that license is a violation of our terms of use, and any use or sale of the plugins would also be a violation of the terms of use.
We have experienced plugin developers and graphic designers you can hire at an hourly or per-project fee. Contact us with your questions or needs.
ImaginePlugins has this capability, but we are disabling it temporarily and requiring all plugins to go through our review, to ensure quality and learn about usage. We may enable this feature in the future.
We plan to offer licensing and copy protection options in the near future. Stay tuned.
Yes. You can add images to plugins. As a logo, a background, etc and make it your own.
You can add a variety of meters to the plugins you create. Visualizers are coming soon.
Every plugin includes a preset manager. After you receive the plugin files you can load them in your DAW, create and save presets, and include those presets with the plugin files you distribute.
Yes.
Yes. Plugins exported by ImaginePlugins will be signed, which means they should be scanned by DAWs and load without warnings or errors.
Before submitting your plugin for build, you can make unlimited tweaks. After submission, the Creator Tier includes 2 post-submission revisions, the Professional Tier includes 4. Revisions must take place within 60 days of the original submission, can include unlimited tweaks and produces one new build. Revisions are intended for refining your plugin - they must retain the same plugin name and general DSP architecture as the original submission. Building a substantially different plugin requires a new build fee.
SoundBetter is the team behind ImaginePlugins. SoundBetter is the world's leading marketplace of music production professionals, having delivered over $120M to the creative pros on the platform. SoundBetter also created Butterfly Effect and Halo Effect used by top industry mixers, producers and composers. The founders of SoundBetter previously worked at Waves Audio and Apple. We also licensed audio DSP for Imagine Plugins (including Analog Models) from the industry's best developers.
Vocal Effect — a plugin built with Imagine Plugins

Get Vocal Effect Plugin

For a limited time, get Vocal Effect, valued at $79, for free. See what Imagine Plugins is capable of. Vocal Effect uses high quality analog modeled DSP and a mixing engineer’s signature chain.

Created entirely in Imagine Plugins.

$79FREE
Limited
time

VST3, AU, AAX · macOS & Windows