SoundBetter Launches Imagine Plugins, the World's First No-Code Platform for Building Audio Plugins

SoundBetter today launched Imagine Plugins, the world's first no-code platform for building professional audio plugins. The product aims to do for audio software what Squarespace did for web development: take a specialized technical discipline and put it in the hands of the creators who need it.

Audio plugins, the software tools used to process sound in every DAW and present on every album made in the last two decades, have remained one of the most inaccessible corners of the creator economy. Building one traditionally required DSP engineers, graphic designers, code signing, and months of iteration, with costs routinely exceeding $50,000. Before Imagine Plugins, engineers, producers or artists that wanted to create a signature plugin, monetize their brand or platform, or share their knowledge in the form of a plugin, found the path expensive, time consuming, and reliant on the availability of others.

With Imagine Plugins, creators design plugins visually in the browser, create chains with high-quality DSP — including of classic analog modeled hardware — auditioning the result in real time using their own audio, build a GUI with drag-and-drop components, and submit for automated compilation and delivery as professional VST3, AU, and AAX plugins compatible with every major DAW wrapped in an elegant installer. No code required, no developer involved.

“For decades, plugin development has been locked behind a wall of code, capital, and specialist teams. Some of the most sonically distinctive people in the industry have always had plugin ideas they couldn't build. Now they can. At their own pace, without ever explaining their vision to a developer.”

— Shachar Gilad, Founder and CEO, SoundBetter

Who it's for

Imagine Plugins is built for anyone with a sound worth sharing and an audience that would value it, whether that's a few hundred followers or a few hundred thousand.

Working mix engineers and producers with chains they've developed over years and been asked about ever since. Mastering engineers and vocal specialists whose processing approach clients keep requesting. Educators and content creators who want to turn their perspective into a tool that lives in their followers' DAWs. Artists who want their name in the plugin dropdown. Anyone who's had a plugin idea and never had a path to build it.

The traditional options were limited: hire a developer at $30,000–$60,000+, wait six to twelve months, and hope the result sounds like what you heard in your head. Or learn C++ and DSP fundamentals yourself, which takes two years most working engineers don't have. Some platforms offer commission-based models, but revenue share arrangements typically cost more than a fixed fee once you've sold more than a few dozen copies. Imagine Plugins charges a flat fee per build, takes no cut of sales, and delivers a commercial-grade installer in days.

“I can now recreate the chains I reach for every day as a single plugin, with DSP that actually sounds right. And the fact that any engineer can build their own signature plugin without writing a line of code is genuinely novel. Now the people who shape records get to shape the tools that shape records.”

— Darrell Thorp, 10-time Grammy-winning engineer (Foo Fighters, Radiohead, Beck)

How it works

The sound design side will feel familiar to anyone who's patched effects. Imagine Plugins offers dozens of professional DSP blocks, including analog-modeled compressors, EQs, tape emulations, filters, dynamics, modulation, and creative effects, with modulators and utilities for routing and control. The library combines components developed in-house with modules licensed from leading industry DSP developers.

The platform auditions plugins in real time, in the browser, using your own audio. No export step, no compile cycle. By the time you reach checkout, you've already heard the finished result.

The GUI designer uses a themed component system: matched plates, knobs, faders, and meters designed to look good together, with the flexibility to mix, customize, and upload your own graphics and logo. Every plugin includes a preset manager. Once submitted, SoundBetter's build system handles compilation, code signing, and notarization for VST3, AU, and AAX formats, following a brief quality review. Turnaround is days.

“Curating high-quality DSP from top developers, delivering it through the browser without installation or code, and producing plugins stable and professional enough to commercialize — that was the real challenge. And it's the one we set out to solve.”

— Itamar Yunger, Co-Founder and CTO, SoundBetter

Pricing and ownership

Pricing starts at $1,000 per plugin, with higher tiers for established commercial creators and companies. Signature collaborations with well-known names are available by application.

Creators own their plugins outright and keep 100% of what they sell. Plugins can be distributed and sold anywhere, including directly through SoundBetter Storefront, the company's creator marketplace.

“What surprised me wasn't just that I could build a plugin — it's that I could build five of them in a weekend, trying ideas I'd never have committed to a developer. The cost of experimentation just collapsed. That's the part of this that's going to change how plugins evolve.”

— Jimmy “The Senator” Douglass, 5-time Grammy-winning producer and engineer (Rolling Stones, Justin Timberlake, Jay-Z, Missy Elliott)

Technical credibility

SoundBetter already develops successful commercial plugins, including Butterfly Effect and Halo Effect, used by top mixers, producers, and composers across music and film. The founders previously worked at Waves Audio and Apple. SoundBetter has facilitated over $120 million in earnings since 2012, on their services marketplace serving more than 500,000 creators worldwide.

A free vocal plugin, built in Imagine Plugins

SoundBetter built a vocal plugin entirely in Imagine Plugins and is releasing it free at launch. Vocal Effect is a multi-effect vocal channel strip: classic analog-modeled EQ and compression, tape saturation, ping-pong delay, reverb, and other shaping effects, built using only the tools available to any creator on the platform.

“We wanted to release something that proves the platform can produce professional-grade plugins. Vocal Effect is a plugin we'd happily release commercially. Instead, we're giving it away.”

— Shachar Gilad, Founder and CEO, SoundBetter

Vocal Effect is available as a free download for a limited time at imagineplugins.com.

Imagine Plugins is available now at imagineplugins.com.

For press inquiries, brand assets, product screenshots, and the launch video, visit the Imagine Plugins press kit.