For some time I have been doing effects, I have never released anything since I have never dedicated the time to finalize a product. Many times I have asked myself if the market really needs another plugin.
I've searched for fresh ideas, but I have not found anything worthwhile. Most companies launch classic compressors/EQ/pre and all these compete for who does it better (and who is the one who makes the most beautiful GUI)
I have spent a lot of time thinking about new ideas, but I feel that this market is similar to what happens in the world of guitars (there are many good new ideas, but the guitarist doesn't want these things)
Maybe I'm seeing this market from an erroneous point of view.
I would like to read your opinions.
New ideas in the plugin market
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- KVRer
- 14 posts since 31 Jul, 2012
Yes it's true, those bread & butter plugins are all around, with decent to inspiring GUI.
GUI is very important, especially readability-contrast,
and the high resolution 4k+ displays these days need scalable gui which is a whole another issue.
But innovative processing, and fresh idea's are still found every now & then.
And I'm always on the lookout for them
For example, there are alot transient shapers/enhancing plugins,
Control the transient + sustain, but bozlabs made transgressor,
with a 3band eq for the transient signal & a 3band for the sustain signal.
As an producer/engineer,that was innovation for me, and opened new possibilities compared to the other transient shapers I have, like the multiband transient shaper in Izotope Neutron.
Things like this is needed, a level up innovation on current tech.
The release of old classics are always a good thing.
As cpu /dsp processing gets more powerful, a fresh take, better precision, and new features are always welcome.
Take brainworx Console E,G, N for example with their TMT technology & THD feature.
EQ with compressor like behaviour were once up-coming as well,
now those "dynamic eq's" are common with many developers.
Which is great, yielding alot of choice, both free & extra featured editions.
But quality-stability must match it ofcourse.
A mindblowing plugin that crashes often is no good to anyone.
Cpu resources heavy is a balancing act as well.
About the market..
Tho there are a lot of music making people out there,
the biggest plugin consumers are in the producing, mixing/master engineering fields.
They use/rely on them daily, their career, reputation hangs in the balance to what they do music wise, as well as the artists, future stars they work with.
Also note that every upcoming dj is a "producer/mixer plugin" user as well.
I think there you'll find the major target group of users.
I have lots of innovative idea's myself for plugins, but I can't code at all.
I've tried JUCE but can't wrap my head around it lol. C++ is almost chinese handwriting to me.
My ideas & sketches of modules & workflow are collecting dust this way.
Tho I'm good with tweaking basic .png gui skins, and contrasting text for better readability.
I'd love to work together with a C++ or juce developer/coder and release some innovative plugs
one day
But hope you see that it's worth doing, and to dedicate finishing a plugin. (And maintaining it)
Honestly lot of people are screaming for features that needs to be developed
Keep going Cheers
GUI is very important, especially readability-contrast,
and the high resolution 4k+ displays these days need scalable gui which is a whole another issue.
But innovative processing, and fresh idea's are still found every now & then.
And I'm always on the lookout for them
For example, there are alot transient shapers/enhancing plugins,
Control the transient + sustain, but bozlabs made transgressor,
with a 3band eq for the transient signal & a 3band for the sustain signal.
As an producer/engineer,that was innovation for me, and opened new possibilities compared to the other transient shapers I have, like the multiband transient shaper in Izotope Neutron.
Things like this is needed, a level up innovation on current tech.
The release of old classics are always a good thing.
As cpu /dsp processing gets more powerful, a fresh take, better precision, and new features are always welcome.
Take brainworx Console E,G, N for example with their TMT technology & THD feature.
EQ with compressor like behaviour were once up-coming as well,
now those "dynamic eq's" are common with many developers.
Which is great, yielding alot of choice, both free & extra featured editions.
But quality-stability must match it ofcourse.
A mindblowing plugin that crashes often is no good to anyone.
Cpu resources heavy is a balancing act as well.
About the market..
Tho there are a lot of music making people out there,
the biggest plugin consumers are in the producing, mixing/master engineering fields.
They use/rely on them daily, their career, reputation hangs in the balance to what they do music wise, as well as the artists, future stars they work with.
Also note that every upcoming dj is a "producer/mixer plugin" user as well.
I think there you'll find the major target group of users.
I have lots of innovative idea's myself for plugins, but I can't code at all.
I've tried JUCE but can't wrap my head around it lol. C++ is almost chinese handwriting to me.
My ideas & sketches of modules & workflow are collecting dust this way.
Tho I'm good with tweaking basic .png gui skins, and contrasting text for better readability.
I'd love to work together with a C++ or juce developer/coder and release some innovative plugs
one day
But hope you see that it's worth doing, and to dedicate finishing a plugin. (And maintaining it)
Honestly lot of people are screaming for features that needs to be developed
Keep going Cheers
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- KVRist
- 323 posts since 19 Jul, 2008
Although this is a bit of an oversimplification, every innovation in the history of humanity is a combination of two or more previous ideas. There are 1000 VST compressors and 100,000 machine learning applications, but only now has someone released an AI compressor. (Okay, I don't know if they're the first, or if what they're doing can be considered machine learning, but you get my point.)
Another interesting observation is that although an innovation might be incredibly popular, it might be produced by combining two unpopular innovations of the past. So read DAFx proceedings, look through old abandoned KVR VST plugins, and research other non-music-related topics for inspiration for combining elements together to make new inventions.
Another interesting observation is that although an innovation might be incredibly popular, it might be produced by combining two unpopular innovations of the past. So read DAFx proceedings, look through old abandoned KVR VST plugins, and research other non-music-related topics for inspiration for combining elements together to make new inventions.
VCV Rack, the Eurorack simulator
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- GRRRRRRR!
- 15939 posts since 14 Jun, 2001 from Somewhere else, on principle
What you need to understand is that most people who buy this stuff have no idea what they are doing. You don't need a good idea, just good marketing, and they will beat a path to your door.
NOVAkILL : Asus RoG Flow Z13, Core i9, 16GB RAM, Win11 | EVO 16 | Studio One | bx_oberhausen, GR-8, JP6K, Union, Hexeract, Olga, TRK-01, SEM, BA-1, Thorn, Prestige, Spire, Legend-HZ, ANA-2, VG Iron 2 | Uno Pro, Rocket.
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- KVRAF
- 3390 posts since 5 Mar, 2004 from Gold Coast Australia
The Boned one is right. In my SynthStudio Pack heyday, I made a few things that were ahead of the curve like PreRoll Recorder and Mod-u-Law but they were not popular. A few people really got them and loved that they offered something not readily covered. Sadly most people just wanted the usual stuff they already understood.
That doesn't mean that you shouldn't make a device with something new or different, just don't expect the popularity of a Synth1, Sylenth or Serum (which are all more of the same ideas - well done). The key there is well done and well marketed. Rob Papen made good synths but realized that it was not the synth that sold itself but the massive number of presets promising to deliver instant genre hits that brought in the numbers.
Benedict Roff-Marsh
http://www.benedictroffmarsh.com
http://www.benedictroffmarsh.com
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- KVRist
- Topic Starter
- 65 posts since 1 Apr, 2016
I believe that the AI will facilitate our work, but it will also make them boring.
The musician will benefit, since he does not have to worry about learning how to mix.
About the new ideas: don't misunderstand me, I think there are good ones, but I feel that the public is not waiting for those ideas.
The musician will benefit, since he does not have to worry about learning how to mix.
About the new ideas: don't misunderstand me, I think there are good ones, but I feel that the public is not waiting for those ideas.
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- KVRian
- 513 posts since 4 Apr, 2006
I believe most innovation lie in the general design of the synth and the ui design nowadays. Look at what a hit Sausage Fattener became by just being simple, fun looking and good sounding. Or if you look at the before mentioned Transgrassor by Bozlabs. It's really nothing new if you look at the individual parts that make it up, but the way they're connected and quickly accessible is what makes it useful.
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- KVRist
- 187 posts since 6 Jun, 2019
I wonder to what extent the AI buzzword is just marketing, as the concept seems to evade clear definition. Especially with the increasing appearance of quite pompous claims of AI utilization correlating remarkably well with the concept of AI itself breaking through into the consciousness of the general public due to the media "campaigning" to educate them about the latest advances in software development. Obviously there's a lot of competition for research and investor money and now that everyone and their dog knows AI is the next big thing, rebranding boring stuff like "algorithms" (ugh! please at least tell me that's edible or I'm zoning out!) as artificial intelligence, calling any and every if-then-else block intelligence is staying current with the realities of the market, while technically not clearly definable as lying. ;-)
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Zaphod (giancarlo) Zaphod (giancarlo) https://www.kvraudio.com/forum/memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=111268
- KVRAF
- 2596 posts since 23 Jun, 2006
AI is a superset of machine learning
Machine leaning is a superset of deep learning
You can have maybe if-then-else blocks in AI, or even in machine learning (way less frequently), but not in deep learning. So you know exactly which technique was used, at least you have a rough idea about it.
Machine leaning is a superset of deep learning
You can have maybe if-then-else blocks in AI, or even in machine learning (way less frequently), but not in deep learning. So you know exactly which technique was used, at least you have a rough idea about it.
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- KVRist
- 187 posts since 6 Jun, 2019
There exists an entire poorly paid industry around cooking novel terms for the most mundane and familiar things - it's called the academia. The terms you list sound like the bastard children from the unholy marriage of those people and the advertisement and marketing industry. It's all just abstract data structures with functional relationships that are translatable to most boringly simple procedures inside a deterministic machine.
That's not meant as a jab at you or any AI enthusiasts (I dig tech), I just feel strong resentment towards sophisticated BS. :-) I'm not an expert on AI but I know more than the average joe and as we're living the brief period between AI being novel, futuristic and exciting, and AI being another technology that permeates our everyday mundane world (brevity whereof always came as a surprise in retrospect), mostly trivializing boring, invisible tasks (except to people who need to acquire new skills due to being made redundant by code), the time to financially leverage the mismatch between reality, and the limitless creative imagination of the folks selling stuff and the limitless gullibility of the folks buying stuff, is now... :-P
P.s. just for the record, AI is immensely useful. But I associate the excitement with digital computing technology on the whole, because that's the actual identity of the real superset of technology which I (and now apparently everyone else) am fascinated with. AI is just another natural consequence of the inception of abstract computation models and the invention of diode and transistor.
That's not meant as a jab at you or any AI enthusiasts (I dig tech), I just feel strong resentment towards sophisticated BS. :-) I'm not an expert on AI but I know more than the average joe and as we're living the brief period between AI being novel, futuristic and exciting, and AI being another technology that permeates our everyday mundane world (brevity whereof always came as a surprise in retrospect), mostly trivializing boring, invisible tasks (except to people who need to acquire new skills due to being made redundant by code), the time to financially leverage the mismatch between reality, and the limitless creative imagination of the folks selling stuff and the limitless gullibility of the folks buying stuff, is now... :-P
P.s. just for the record, AI is immensely useful. But I associate the excitement with digital computing technology on the whole, because that's the actual identity of the real superset of technology which I (and now apparently everyone else) am fascinated with. AI is just another natural consequence of the inception of abstract computation models and the invention of diode and transistor.
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- Banned
- 658 posts since 4 Oct, 2018
Well, if after a lot of thinking you can not come up with anything and have to ask on a forum for ideas, then maybe this field of work is not for you.
To prove to yourself that you *could* do it, just finish one or two 'basic' effects. No bugs, good UI, good concept, well-written code, etc. And only then start thinking about 'what's never been done'.
How old are you, BTW, fifteen?
To prove to yourself that you *could* do it, just finish one or two 'basic' effects. No bugs, good UI, good concept, well-written code, etc. And only then start thinking about 'what's never been done'.
How old are you, BTW, fifteen?
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- KVRist
- 187 posts since 6 Jun, 2019
I believe somebody famously said that "necessity is the mother of invention."
So if you want to come up with new tool ideas, it helps if you actually work with said tools.
So if you want to come up with new tool ideas, it helps if you actually work with said tools.
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Zaphod (giancarlo) Zaphod (giancarlo) https://www.kvraudio.com/forum/memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=111268
- KVRAF
- 2596 posts since 23 Jun, 2006
the excitement with digital computing technology is the main reason why digital audio exists as we know it. Excitement is exactly what we need. Also people are way more educated today than few years ago. They know immediatly what they are looking for, and if a statement is true or not. There are many examples around.
