Work · alternatives · 2026
24 alternatives to I just released my first commercial audio plugin
Hey all. For the last few years, I have been developing a software synthesizer as a side project. It's taken longer than I both hoped and feared, but earlier this week I finally shipped 1.0. Details about the synth itself are up on my website, https://lhiaudio.com/. For those who are unfamiliar, in music production, there are host applications (such as Logic Pro, Ableton Live, or REAPER) in which most of the work (such as recording or sequencing MIDI data) is done. These applications generally have some built-in tools for the actual generation and processing of audio data, but…
Below are 24 products that do a similar job, ranked by how close each is in meaning and then by launch-day votes. I just released my first commercial audio plugin launched in 2018; newer entries below may have overtaken it.
- 1IU
Hi Hacker News, This is definitely out of my comfort zone. I just wanted to show you guys because I'm super proud of it. It's a 100% faithful recreation based off of the schematics, patents, and ROMs that were found online. So please watch the video and tell me what you think https://youtu.be/auOlZXI1VxA The reason why I think this is relevant is because I've been a programmer for 25 years and AI scares the shit out of me. I'm not a programmer anymore. I'm something else now. I don't know what it is but it's multi-disciplinary, and it doesn't involve writing code myself--for…
Jan 2026 · its alternatives →
- 2
I built k-synth as an experiment to see if a minimalist, K-inspired array language could make sketching waveforms faster and more intuitive than traditional code. I’ve put together a web-based toolkit so you can try the syntax directly in the browser without having to touch a compiler: Live Toolkit: https://octetta.github.io/k-synth/ If you visit the page, here is a quick path to an audio payoff: - Click "patches" and choose dm-bell.ks. - Click "run"—the notebook area will update. Click the waveform to hear the result. - Click the "->0" button below the waveform to copy…
Mar 2026 · octetta.github.io · its alternatives →
- 3
This is an web audio experiment I've been wanting to do for a long time. Basically an ambient music composition, but all the sound elements are laid out in space, and that musical space can be explored freely. It's definitely inspired by in-world music that sometimes appears in games. I basically took that concept, keeping the music aspect, and dropping the entire "game" aspect. I also turned it into a more "traditional" non-interactive album, but since I started with code, why not program the whole thing? Had a blast making the entire album from code, the complete source for the album is…
2024 · ambient.garden · its alternatives →
- 4
I recently got Ableton Move and was disappointed by how difficult it was to convert samples into Move-compatible drum racks, so I made a simple CLI tool for that. I hope others find it useful, and at some point, Ableton sees the need and provides us with a built-in solution.
2024 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 5
Sonura Studio▲131so i got sick of scrolling through sample libraries, buying plugins, and trying desperately to make original music and sound design with suno. built a DAW that's free to try for any music producers or content creators! you can generate individual stems, one shots and sfx standalone or in studio mode. you can also share and remix tracks instantly, something incredibly painful in the existing audio space. shoot me an email at [email protected] if you wanna come work on this with me :)
2025 · sonurastudio.com · its alternatives →
- 6
A powerful realtime node-based audio synthesizer. Contribute to monadgroup/axiom development by creating an account on GitHub.
2018 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 7
Ableton Live MCP▲123Ever wanted to control Ableton with just your voice? Me too! I made this MCP server so I could just ask Codex to do anything in Ableton Live for me, while I was nap-trapped by my baby. The chat messages I sent to Codex to make this: in ableton, make a self reflective song, with audio vocals (via macos say) and chip tunes and 80's drum machines. should be a real edm banger i want midi for everything but vocals please, with ableton devices. not prerendered audio for instruments needs some fills and should hit way harder after "3-2-1 i become the sound" the vocals are squished too much (read…
May 2026 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 8
Audio Kit▲96Open-source audio synthesis, processing & analysis platform.
2014 · audiokit.io · its alternatives →
- 9
Hi - I'm part composer, part engineer and big fan of reading blogs where people learn out loud or with the garage door up by sharing their notebooks or journals. I've been doing this in Moleskines for years (going back to the 80s) but made it a new year's in 2024 resolution to post SOMETHING everyday, so long as I created the sound. I have a big archive of demos and seeds of ideas, so I figured it wouldn't hurt to do something with those in the process. Being so steeped in programming for the last 30 years, a healty chunk of this material is made via coding with Csound, TidalCycles, some raw…
2025 · listenfaster.com · its alternatives →
- 10WA
Hi, I'm the author of this little Web Audio toy which does physical modeling synthesis using a simple spring-mass system. My current area of research is in sparse, event-based encodings of musical audio (https://blog.cochlea.xyz/sparse-interpretable-audio-codec-pa...). I'm very interested in decomposing audio signals into a description of the "system" (e.g., room, instrument, vocal tract, etc.) and a sparse "control signal" which describes how and when energy is injected into that system. This toy was a great way to start learning about physical modeling synthesis, which seems…
2025 · blog.cochlea.xyz · its alternatives →
- 11
Free & Open-source iPhone/iPad Synth 🎹
2019 · audiokitpro.com · its alternatives →
- 12AA
Hey y'all, So - the main idea of this is to make a WebAudio synthesis/sequencer tool which humans can use via the UI, but where the big unlock is for agents to drive with MCP It's semi decent as "make a groovy jazz track", especially for retro sounds - but the real use case is more like "make a jetpack whoosh effect I can control via code at runtime - where the sound changes based on character health or how much fuel is left" In other words, the target audience is not musicians (except maybe of the Max/MSP sort), but more like creative coders who want to shape the sound iteratively…
Jun 2026 · audio.awsm.fun · its alternatives →
- 13IB
Hey HN, I’m an ex-Google engineer trying to get back into music production. I needed a way to sequence my hardware synths using AI contexts without constantly switching windows, so I built this. It runs entirely in the browser using WebMIDI. No login required. It connects to your local MIDI devices (if you're on Chrome/Edge) and lets you generate patterns. Tech stack: [React / WebMIDI API / etc]. Link: www.simplychris.ai/droplets Code is a bit messy, but it works. Feedback welcome.
Dec 2025 · simplychris.ai · its alternatives →
- 14
Hello HN, not many will know what this tool is about, but it's launch day and I always dreamed of posting on HN. Let's start! This is a tool for people using eurorack gear. For synth people. What is cool about my tool is that I show the signal flow with a graph. Here's the official press text: After a decade of stagnation in this space we are excited to present patcher.xyz: the modern way to manage everything modular. It’s a tool for professionals, enthusiasts, and casual wigglers. Novadays artists must develop their own means of taking notes, often on paper, since there is no common format…
2022 · patcher.xyz · its alternatives →
- 15PP
Write up of an embedded project I made to control my analogue synthesizer. Happy to answer any questions or provide any further details of this project if wanted.
2024 · doug.lon.dev · its alternatives →
- 16
Hey HN! Last week I was working on a website and needed a way to synchronise visuals with live music. I've used MIDI controllers for this before, but I am travelling right now and don't have mine with me. So I had the crazy idea to build a browser extension that uses the keyboard as input and includes a sequencer. I gave myself 24 to work on it. It ended up taking longer (of course), specially since I ended up creating a demo, a small landing, docs, and an intro video. Took me one week from idea to launch (pushed quite a bit tbh). Features: - Works as a browser extension. Atm distributed…
2024 · minitap.io · its alternatives →
- 17
Have been making music using ML/AI tools for about as long as I've been on HN. Had a recent comment section on HN here [1] and after that thought it might be worthwhile to write out about the journey in greater detail... from crude LSTM models, to hacking around with Jukebox, and now Suno. [1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45388822
Dec 2025 · songxytr.substack.com · its alternatives →
- 18
Hey everyone, I've built a multiplayer audio recorder/looper for songwriting in your browser. It started as a side project in March last year but 3 months ago I quit my job to work on it full-time. I wanted the simplicity of a Portastudio and the utility of a loop station to serve as an easy way to get song ideas together without needing to send files back and forth, or get lost in the complexity of traditional DAWs up front - just record or upload your ideas and share the link with whoever you want to collaborate with. Would love to hear what you think of it! Any feedback, thoughts, or…
2023 · prototape.fm · its alternatives →
- 19
Just wanted to make my first post about something interesting I've been working on for some time. Any ideas/suggestions for new hardware or software I should try out are welcome, though I will only have time for a major overhaul in a month or two where I want to redo and document everything a bit better than how it is currently. Hope this can inspire someone to start their own homelab or give some ideas to already existing ones!
2024 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 20
I have been entranced by Berlin School music for years. I love those evolving and interwoven arpeggios. Latching an arp is often my favorite way to noodle on a synth, and yes it’s because I can’t play to save my life. Last month I got tired of waiting for someone else to build my dream arp machine, so I built my own in the form of a web synth. It is purpose-built for sculpting and performing with melodies. I call it the AM-1 Arpeggio Machine. My next goal is to port the web engine into hardware format (using the Daisy Seed). But in the meantime, since the web app is perfectly usable, I…
Aug 2026 · crux.garden · its alternatives →
- 21
So, I've never written a line of Rust in my life. I wouldn't know an `&mut this` from a mutandis. But I saw a tweet about a month ago that said, in this new era of AI, you'd be able to just take a library that you love, throw a TUI around it, and call it an app. So I spent about 200 bucks last month, here's what I came up with: Imbolc is a DAW that runs entirely in your terminal. It talks to scsynth over OSC and ships 58 instruments and 39 effects. VSTs are a work in progress, also GarageBand loops if you want to recreate "Umbrella". The codebase is about 60k? lines of Rust across 5 crates,…
Feb 2026 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 22
I've going through a backlog of projects and checking them off with Claude Code. What started out as a quick afternoon of coding with claude has relight my love of making.
May 2026 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 23
I know mentioning Michael Seibel is almost cheating, but this week he demonstrated the "leaky pipes" concept to me. Not that I know the guy, but in one of his videos he says something on the lines of "If you are unsure if you app is ready to be launched, just launch it. It's like a house with leaky pipes, just open the main, grab your tools, and start fixing wherever water is leaking". So we did it, we launched drummy earlier this week on /r/InternetIsBeautiful and we got very close to 10k users in just one day! Survived the hug of death, learned a ton, and made changes all around.…
2022 · drummy.io · its alternatives →
- 24
Beautiful Free & Open-source iOS Synth
2018 · audiokitpro.com · its alternatives →
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Ranked by how close each launch is in meaning, then by votes. Prices were read from each product’s own site when checked and can change. Refine with your own description →