Making plugins with VibePlugin

Install it, and make your DAW see it

VibePlugin is a VST3 plugin. It loads in any DAW that supports VST3 — FL Studio, Ableton Live, Reaper, Bitwig, Studio One, Cubase and others. There are two of them: VibePlugin FX for audio tracks, and VibePlugin Synth for instrument tracks.

1. Download the build for your system

   Grab it from the Downloads page. macOS builds are signed and notarized by Apple, so there is no security warning to click through.

2. Unzip it and copy both .vst3 bundles into your VST3 folder

   macOS	~/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST3
   Windows	C:\Program Files\Common Files\VST3
   Linux	~/.vst3

3. Rescan plugins in your DAW

   Every DAW keeps a cached list of the plugins it knows about, so it will not notice a new one until you tell it to look again. Find your DAW below:

   DAW	Where to rescan
   FL Studio	Options ▸ Manage plugins ▸ Find more plugins. Tick Verify plugins if it still doesn't show up. Newly found plugins land in the Installed ▸ New list.
   Ableton Live	Settings ▸ Plug-Ins ▸ turn on Use VST3 Plug-In System Folders, then press Rescan.
   Reaper	Options ▸ Preferences ▸ Plug-ins ▸ VST ▸ Re-scan (use Clear cache and re-scan if it's stubborn).
   Bitwig Studio	Settings ▸ Locations ▸ Plug-in Locations ▸ Rescan Plug-ins.
   Studio One	Studio One ▸ Options/Preferences ▸ Locations ▸ VST Plug-Ins ▸ Reset Blocklist, then restart.
   Cubase / Nuendo	Studio ▸ VST Plug-in Manager ▸ the refresh icon. Check the Blocklist tab too.
   Logic Pro	Not supported. Logic loads only Audio Units, and VibePlugin is VST3 only. Run it in any other DAW on the same Mac, or use an AU-wrapper host inside Logic.

   They appear as VibePlugin FX under effects and VibePlugin Synth under instruments, both from the manufacturer VibePlugin. Search your plugin browser for vibe — that's the fastest way to check the scan worked.

If your DAW still can't see it

• Check you copied the whole bundle. On macOS a .vst3 is a folder that looks like a file. Copy it whole; don't open it and copy the contents.
• macOS quarantine. Downloads are tagged by the system. Current releases are signed and notarized by Apple so this shouldn't bite, but if the Mac refuses to load it, run:
  xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine ~/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST3/"VibePlugin FX.vst3"
• Windows. Use the standard C:\Program Files\Common Files\VST3 folder. If you put it somewhere custom, add that folder to your DAW's VST3 search paths.
• 32-bit hosts won't work. VibePlugin is 64-bit only.
• Blocklists. If a DAW ever failed to scan it (an old, broken build, for instance) it may have permanently blocklisted it. Clear the blocklist and rescan — this is the single most common reason a correct install stays invisible.

FX or Synth — which one, on what track

The download contains two separate plugins. They share the same editor and the same AI, but your DAW treats them completely differently, and picking the wrong one is the most common reason a first attempt makes no sound.

Both are stereo. A mono track feeds the same signal to both channels, which is fine — but there is no mono-only or multi-out version, and there is no sidechain input. If you want a ducking effect, ask for an envelope follower on the main input rather than a sidechain.

Getting notes into VibePlugin Synth

It's an ordinary instrument: put it on an instrument track, point a MIDI clip or your keyboard at that track, and play. The host converts note numbers to frequency for the generated code, so anything it makes is automatically playable across the whole keyboard.

• FL Studio: the plugin loads into a Channel Rack slot; draw notes in its piano roll.
• Ableton Live: drop it on a MIDI track; arm the track to play live.
• Reaper: add it as the first FX on a track, arm the track for MIDI input and enable input monitoring.

Generated interfaces often include an on-screen keyboard as well — clicking it plays notes directly, which is handy for auditioning without arming anything.

Connect it to an AI

This is the one piece of setup VibePlugin can't do for you. The plugin is the workshop — the AI is what actually writes the DSP and the interface — so until you've told it how to reach a model, Generate has nothing to ask.

VibePlugin itself is free and open source. What can cost money is the AI — and even that is optional. There are three routes, and you pick between them with the Generation source setting and the Model dropdown in the toolbar. Set one up now; you can switch at any time, and swapping routes doesn't change anything about the plugins you've already made.

Not sure? Start with route 2. It costs nothing, needs no key and no signup, every feature works through it, and you can try the plugin properly before deciding whether the one-click routes are worth it to you. Use route 1 if you already have an Anthropic API key. Route 3 exists only for people who want neither a key nor the copy-paste step.

What's in the Model dropdown

The dropdown shows the models for whichever generation source is selected in Settings. These are the options:

There is also a Thinking control next to it. More thinking gives better results on complicated plugins and costs more; Medium is a sensible default. Big, elaborate interfaces are worth generating with the strongest model.

Route 1 · Your own Anthropic API key

The most direct option if you already have an Anthropic account. The plugin talks to Anthropic directly and you're billed by them for exactly what you use.

1. Get a key

   Create one at console.anthropic.com. It looks like sk-ant-…. You'll need some credit on that Anthropic account.

2. Open Settings and paste it in

   Set Generation source to My own Anthropic API key, paste the key into the Anthropic API key field, and press Save settings. The key is stored locally on your machine and never sent anywhere except Anthropic.

   

3. Pick a model and generate

   The Model dropdown now lists the Anthropic models. Type a prompt and press Generate. That's the whole loop from now on.

Route 2 · Claude in your browser, free

This route needs no API key and no card. VibePlugin writes the prompt for you; you paste it into claude.ai and paste the reply back. Every feature of the plugin works this way.

1. Type your description, then press Copy to chatbot

   A dialog opens with a complete, self-contained prompt already built from your description and copied to your clipboard.

   

2. Paste it into Claude

   Open a new conversation at claude.ai, pick Opus, and paste. The prompt tells the model exactly what to produce: three fenced code blocks — the audio code, the interface, and the parameter list. Let it finish completely; these replies are long.

3. Copy the whole reply back

   Select the entire response and paste it into the big box in the dialog. You don't need to pick the code blocks out yourself — VibePlugin finds them. If the answer got cut off, ask it to continue and use the Three parts mode to paste each block separately.

4. Press Apply & build

   VibePlugin extracts the code, compiles it, and loads the plugin — exactly as if it had called an API. If the code doesn't compile, the dialog shows the error and gives you a Copy fix request button: paste that back into the same conversation, paste the new reply, and try again.

Route 3 · VibePlugin Cloud credits

The convenience option: one-click generation, no API key to create or manage. Your requests run on our key and are billed against a prepaid credit balance.

1. Click Account and sign in

   The Account button is in the top-right of the plugin window. Create an account or sign in to an existing one. Your remaining credits are then shown in the header, next to the button.

   

2. Buy credits

   With an empty balance, Buy credits opens a checkout page. Pick a pack and pay; your balance updates against the email you signed up with.

3. Choose a Cloud · model and generate

   Set Generation source to VibePlugin Cloud in Settings, then pick one of the Cloud · entries in the Model dropdown. Generate as normal.

What a generation actually costs

It is not a subscription and not a flat fee per prompt. You buy a balance up front, and each generation costs an amount based on how much work the AI actually did — how long the code and interface came out, how much the model had to think, and which model you picked. That's a wide spread: a simple effect sits near the bottom of the range below, an elaborate synth with a large interface can go well past the top of it.

After every generation the plugin tells you exactly what it charged and what your balance is, so you're never guessing. If you run out, generation pauses until you top up — plugins you already made keep working, and so does everything else in the app.

Make your first plugin

With a route from step two set up, you're ready to build something. Add VibePlugin FX to an audio track that's playing something — a drum loop or a guitar part is ideal, because you'll hear the effect immediately. Open the plugin window and you'll see this:

1. Describe the plugin you want

   Type it into the box at the top in plain language. Be specific about the controls you want — that is what becomes the knobs. For example:

   a warm tape saturator with drive, tone and a wow-and-flutter control

   

2. Press Generate

   Or press Cmd+Enter (Ctrl+Enter on Windows and Linux). A plain Enter just adds a new line, so you can write a long multi-line description without setting a build off half-way through. VibePlugin asks the AI for the audio code and an interface, compiles the result, and loads it live. This usually takes a few seconds to about a minute depending on the model and how complex the plugin is. You can watch the model's reasoning by clicking See reasoning under the status line.

3. Play your track and turn the knobs

   The interface in the GUI tab is live and wired to the audio. Your DAW can automate the knobs too — they show up as normal plugin parameters.

4. Save it

   Save writes a small .vstai file anywhere on disk, which you can reopen later with Load. Your DAW project also stores the plugin, so reopening the session brings it back exactly as it was — no need to save separately just to keep your work.

The plugin window, part by part

Everything in the window, top to bottom. You can ignore most of it and still make plugins — this section is here for when you want to know what a particular button does.

The header

The prompt row

The toolbar

The status line

Under the toolbar. It tells you what's happening — Generating…, Compiling…, Ready. — and after a cloud generation, what it charged. When a model has been thinking, a ▸ See reasoning link appears: click it to read how the model approached your request. That's often the quickest way to understand why you got something you didn't expect.

The seven tabs

Writing prompts that actually work

This is the part that decides whether you get something great or something disappointing. The model is writing real audio code from scratch — it will make whatever you describe, so the more precisely you describe it, the less you'll have to fix afterwards.

Name the controls you want

The single highest-value habit. Controls you name become knobs; controls you don't name get guessed at, or baked in as fixed values you can't change afterwards.

Say what the ranges and units are

If a control has a natural unit, give it. a delay time knob from 20 ms to 2 seconds, with a tempo-sync switch gets you a usable range; "a delay knob" might get you 0–100 ms and nothing useful. This matters more than it sounds, because those ranges become the ranges your DAW automates over.

Describe the sound, not just the category

Reference points work well — the model knows what famous gear is supposed to sound like. a bucket-brigade style analogue delay: dark repeats that get murkier each pass, gentle wow on the delay line, self-oscillates when feedback goes past 90% gives it far more to work with than "an analogue delay".

Ask for the interface you want

The look is generated too, so it's fair game: lay it out as three big knobs in a row with a VU meter above them, vintage cream-and-brown faceplate with chunky metal knobs, add a waveform display showing the incoming signal. If you'd rather it match a consistent house style, pick a design school in Settings and leave Use Settings design ticked.

Build in layers

Don't try to specify a 30-knob synth in one prompt. Get the core sound working, then add to it one message at a time — refinements are faster, cheaper and much more likely to land than one enormous request. A good sequence looks like:

1. Core

   a two-oscillator subtractive synth with a resonant lowpass filter, ADSR envelope, and detune between the oscillators

2. Character

   add an LFO that can modulate pitch or filter cutoff, with rate and depth knobs and a destination switch

3. Polish

   add a simple stereo chorus after the filter with a bypass switch, and make the whole panel darker with amber accents

Things worth knowing before you ask

• Mod wheel, expression, pitch bend, aftertouch. Instruments can respond to MIDI controllers — use the mod wheel for dynamics and CC11 for expression is a fair request, and the sustain pedal works for every instrument automatically.
• Step sequencers can lock to your song. Plugins can follow the DAW's play state and bar position, not just its tempo, so a built-in pattern stays in time with your arrangement.
• Tempo sync works. The plugin feeds your DAW's current BPM to the audio code every block, so delay time synced to the host tempo, in note values or a tempo-locked LFO is a reasonable thing to ask for.
• Samplers can load your own audio. Ask for a sampler, granular engine or convolution reverb and the generated interface can include a file picker or drop zone; it decodes the file and hands it to the audio code. Roughly five minutes of stereo audio fits.
• Up to 63 knobs. That's the hard limit on automatable parameters. Plenty for anything reasonable, but a giant modular monster will hit it.
• Stereo in, stereo out. No sidechain input, no multi-out, no surround.
• It can't call the internet or read your disk. The generated code runs in a sandbox: audio in, audio out, plus a sample you explicitly load. This is also why a finished plugin is safe to hand to someone else.

Refining, and the History timeline

The prompt box doesn't go away after the first generation. Send another line and VibePlugin edits the plugin you already have instead of starting over. Useful things to say:

• add a mix knob so I can blend it with the dry signal
• the drive is too subtle — make it much more aggressive at the top of its range
• add a VU meter above the knobs
• make the interface darker and use a single accent colour

Every version — generated, AI-fixed or hand-compiled — is snapshotted onto a timeline in the History tab. Pick any entry and press Restore to go back to it; the audio engine, the interface and the code editors all roll back together.

Living in your DAW

Once a plugin exists, it is an ordinary VST3 and your DAW treats it like one. This section covers the things that matter when you actually make music with it rather than make it.

Automation

Every knob the AI creates is exposed to your DAW as a real, automatable plugin parameter. Move a knob in the plugin's interface and the DAW sees it move — so automation recording, parameter learn, and "last touched" mapping all work the way they do with any other plugin.

There is one quirk worth understanding, because it looks odd the first time:

So: to automate Drive, look for a parameter actually called Drive in your DAW's automation list. The quickest route in most DAWs is to touch the knob in the plugin window and then use add automation for last touched parameter.

Regenerating changes the mapping. If you have automation written and then ask for a substantially different plugin, slot 3 may no longer be the same knob. Automation follows the slot, not the name. Refinements that only add controls are safe; a full rebuild is not. If a project depends on written automation, save the .vstai and stop regenerating that instance.

MIDI control

Because the knobs are normal parameters, your DAW's own MIDI-learn does the job: right-click a parameter (or use your host's remote-control mapping) and move a knob on your controller. VibePlugin doesn't need its own MIDI mapping layer.

Rendering, bouncing and freezing

A generated plugin renders offline exactly like it plays live, and needs no internet to do it. Freezing and bouncing tracks work normally. Two things to know:

• Very large buffer sizes. The audio engine handles blocks of up to 8192 samples. If a host hands it something bigger — which some do during offline bounce with an unusual buffer setting — the plugin passes audio straight through instead of processing it. If a bounce sounds dry when the live playback didn't, drop your buffer size and render again.
• Latency. The plugin doesn't report latency compensation, so if you ask for something that inherently delays the signal (lookahead limiting, for example), align it by hand.

CPU

The audio code runs in a sandboxed WebAssembly engine, which is fast but not free — expect somewhat more CPU than a hand-optimised native plugin doing the same job. A handful of instances is fine; forty of them on one project is asking a lot. If a specific plugin is heavy, say so in the prompt (this uses too much CPU, simplify the oversampling) — the model can usually make it cheaper.

The plugin window itself (the editor, the code tabs) also costs something while it's open. Use Hide editor ▴ or just close the window while you're mixing.

Multiple instances

Each instance is completely independent — its own plugin, its own code, its own history. You can run a generated saturator on one track and a generated reverb on the next. What they share is the settings that live on your machine: your API key, the design school, and the Standard UI kit.

Saving, recall, and what your project stores

There are two independent places your creation lives, and it's worth knowing which is which.

When you reopen a project

The plugin comes back exactly as you left it — parameter values are restored, the audio engine is set from them before anything plays, and the interface's knobs redraw at the saved positions. (A project saved with a much older version of VibePlugin may carry an interface that shows its defaults until you touch a control; the sound is right either way.)

Sharing a .vstai

Anyone with VibePlugin can Load it — no key, no account, no internet required, and nothing regenerates. If you want to give a plugin to someone who doesn't run VibePlugin, use Export plugin… instead and hand them a real .vst3.

Editing the code by hand

You never have to look at code — but all of it is right there if you want it. The DSP (AssemblyScript) tab holds the audio code and GUI HTML holds the interface, both in a full editor with syntax highlighting.

• Save & Compile rebuilds and swaps the plugin in live. If it doesn't compile, your current sound keeps playing and the errors appear in the Notes tab.
• Fix with AI hands the code and the compiler errors back to the model to repair.
• Revert restores the last version that compiled.

The editors work offline and ship inside the plugin — there's no external editor and nothing is sent anywhere when you compile. Cmd/Ctrl+S compiles from either editor.

The Notes tab

After every build, the Notes tab holds the AI's own explanation of what it made — which control does what, what the ranges are, anything it decided on your behalf. When a build fails, the compiler's errors land here too. It's the first place to look when something is confusing.

The Standard UI tab — restyling everything at once

Generated interfaces are built from a shared component kit: the knobs, sliders, buttons and meters. The Standard UI tab is that kit's source, and it's editable.

• Save Standard UI stores your edited kit on this machine. Every plugin you generate from then on is built from it.
• Reset puts the built-in kit back.

Change the accent colour there and everything you make afterwards picks it up — much less work than asking for the same visual tweak in every prompt.

Design schools

In Settings there are eighteen complete visual styles — minimal, vintage analog, brutalist, neon cyberpunk, glassmorphism, bauhaus, terminal phosphor, skeuomorphic, colour pop, modern flagship, pro tool, and seven studied from the best-selling synth plugins: hybrid indigo, mono flat, header bars, silver rack, digital FM, wood & taupe and hardware faceplate. Picking one does two things: it restyles the live interface, and it gets described to the AI in every build prompt so new plugins are designed to match.

• Leave Use Settings design ticked (next to the prompt box) for a consistent-looking collection.
• Untick it when you want the AI to invent a look for one specific plugin.
• Export selected… saves a style as a file; Import design… loads one — so you can build your own house style and reuse or share it.

UI libraries

Below the design schools, UI library lets the AI build knobs, sliders and switches with a ready-made open-source library — webaudio-controls, jQuery Knob or NexusUI — instead of drawing its own. The library is inlined into the plugin, so it stays a single file. Press Show example on a card to see a working GUI built with it in the GUI tab (while no plugin is loaded).

Publishing, the gallery, and standalone export

The gallery, from inside the plugin

Gallery in the toolbar browses the public catalogue without leaving your DAW. Search it, open an entry to see what it is, and press Load Plugin to pull it straight into the instance you're working in — it downloads and starts playing on the spot. Nothing is overwritten permanently; your previous creation is still in History.

It's also the best way to learn what to ask for. Load something that impresses you and read its Notes and code.

Publishing your own

Publish uploads the loaded creation to the web gallery, where it plays live in a browser and anyone can download it. You'll be asked for a name. Publish only what you're happy to share publicly — the code and interface go up with it.

Exporting a standalone plugin

Export plugin… is how you hand a finished instrument to someone who doesn't care that an AI wrote it — or who doesn't have VibePlugin at all.

• You give it a name, and out comes a self-contained .vst3 with that name on it.
• It opens straight to the finished interface — no prompt box, no code tabs, no Settings. It looks and behaves like a normal plugin.
• Each export gets its own plugin identity, so exports sit alongside each other and alongside VibePlugin in a DAW's plugin list without collisions.
• It needs no API key, no account, and no internet.

On macOS, fill in a Notarization profile in Settings and exports are signed and notarized automatically as they're built, so they open on other Macs with no security warning. Leave it blank and export still works — the recipient will just have to right-click ▸ Open the first time.

Exported plugins inherit VibePlugin's licence terms; if you plan to sell what you export, read the licence first.

Diagnostics: seeing what it's doing

A DAW hides everything a plugin prints, which makes "it just hangs" very hard to debug. So VibePlugin keeps its own log: Settings ▸ Diagnostics, newest entries at the bottom.

It records, for this session:

• every generation — which model, how long it took, how many tokens it used;
• every compile, and the errors from any that failed;
• what was loaded, restored or saved, and when.

Copy all puts the whole log on your clipboard. If you report a problem, pasting that log — plus your OS, DAW and the version badge in the header — turns a hard bug report into an easy one.

Troubleshooting

It won't load

The plugin doesn't appear in my DAW

Check the .vst3 bundles are in the right folder and rescan — see Install, which lists where the rescan button lives in each DAW. The two usual culprits are a cached plugin list and a blocklist entry from an earlier failed scan; clear the blocklist and rescan. On macOS, if the system refuses to load it, right-click the .vst3 ▸ Open, or run xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine "VibePlugin FX.vst3". Remember Logic Pro can't load it at all — it's Audio Units only.

It scans, but fails to load in the project (Windows)

Older builds could be found by a scan and then silently refuse to instantiate on Windows, because a library inside the bundle wasn't on Windows' search path. That's fixed — install the latest release over the old one, and make sure you deleted the previous .vst3 rather than installing alongside it.

The window looks wrong

The interface is blank, or says "juce.backend couldn't be reached"

Sound worked and the code tabs were fine, but the GUI panel was empty. This was a limitation of the embedded browser on older systems (macOS 11 and earlier). Current versions detect it and draw the interface a different way automatically, so update to the latest release. If you still see it, please open an issue with your OS and DAW — and in the meantime the plugin is still usable: the audio runs and the interface source is visible in the GUI HTML tab.

I get an Internet Explorer error page instead of the interface (Windows)

An old-build symptom: the embedded browser fell back to Internet Explorer. Fixed in current releases. Update, and make sure the WebView2 runtime is installed — it ships with Windows 11 and current Windows 10, but a stripped or very old system may not have it.

Sound problems

There's no sound at all

• Did you generate anything yet? A fresh instance has no plugin in it — what you see is a style demo, not an instrument.
• Right plugin for the track? VibePlugin FX needs audio arriving at it; VibePlugin Synth needs MIDI notes. See FX or Synth.
• Synth: are notes reaching the track? Test with the on-screen keyboard in the generated interface if there is one — if that makes sound, the problem is your MIDI routing, not the plugin.

A knob doesn't do anything

It happens — the AI wired a control it then didn't use. Just say so: the tone knob doesn't change anything, please fix it. Refining is much cheaper than generating from scratch.

The bounce sounds different from the playback

If the rendered file sounds dry or unprocessed, your host probably handed the plugin an unusually large buffer during offline render. The engine passes audio through untouched above 8192 samples per block. Lower the buffer size and render again.

Notes hang and won't stop (FL Studio, macOS)

Caused by the embedded browser swallowing key-release events, so the note-off never arrived. Fixed in current releases — update. As an immediate rescue, any DAW's panic / all-notes-off stops it.

Generating

Trying to generate opened a payment website

You had VibePlugin Cloud selected as the generation source, which is the pay-as-you-go route. Switch to route 2 (free) or enter your own API key as in route 1.

Generation fails, or the reply won't build

Open Notes for the compiler errors, and press Fix with AI — repairing a failed build is what it's for. On route 2, use Copy fix request and paste it into the same conversation. If the answer was truncated, ask it to continue and use Three parts mode to paste each block separately. If replies repeatedly fail to build, check which model wrote them: this route is built for Claude Opus, and other assistants often return code that won't compile. Your previous working plugin keeps playing throughout; a failed build can't break what you had.

My automation is pointing at the wrong knob

Automation follows the parameter slot, not the name, and regenerating a plugin can shuffle which knob sits in which slot. See Automation. Restore the earlier version from History to get the old layout back.

General

Does it need an internet connection?

Only to generate or edit a plugin. Once a plugin exists it runs entirely offline — in your DAW, in a saved .vstai, and in any plugin you export. On the chatbot route, the plugin itself never connects at all; you carry the text.

Where does my data go?

Your API key is stored locally on your machine. On route 1 your prompts go directly to Anthropic; on route 3 they pass through the VibePlugin Cloud server; on route 2 nothing leaves the plugin at all. Your creations are never uploaded anywhere unless you press Publish.

Something else is broken

Copy the Diagnostics log, note your OS, DAW and the version badge in the plugin header, and open an issue.