Modular Multi FX plugin in the works

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Hey I have been working for a while on a plugin I wonder there is any interest for this

It's a modular audio effects design environment built around a visual node graph. It lets users create custom signal-processing chains by adding modules, connecting audio/control/modulation signals, and shaping parameters directly inside an interactive editor.

I know I know! It's been done before, but I think I have something good here.

I have designed every module carefully and let's just say to me it sounds pretty similar to what's out there. The reason I did this was I was angry about being limited to the constrained parameters of the existing plugins and they sometimes didn't sound right to me. It really started with that I couldn't get reversed delays how I wanted them. The knob should have had an 11. Well now you can. And the modular environments were missing features, or were geared towards something else. Annoying when a flanger doesn't get deep enough, and you just wanted to push it a bit further. :D So I used my 25+ years of software engineering experience to create this.

So Technic Lego for effects, but not molding your own plastic, and not Duplo either. :D

The current version already has the graph editor, patching, parameter editing, automation integration, preset save/load, and a growing set of DSP/control modules. I’m planning a separate control-panel/front-end view too, so a finished patch can have a clean interface while the modular graph remains available for deeper editing.

The idea is that you shouldn't be constrained! You can even modulate with audio inputs at audio rate if you so wish. It's per-sample processing so feedbacks are handled well, and performance seems to be comparable with commercial plugins producing the same effect. It will of course use a bit more given that it runs per sample and not per block, and the fact that it is run time modular. But the overhead seems negligible

--> Alpha Testers wanted for Windows / PC <-- :phones: :help:

Features
  • Visual node graph for building custom effects
  • Audio, modulation, and control signals as separate patchable domains
  • Modules can expose parameters directly in the graph
  • Host automation support
  • Macro/control modules for driving multiple parameters
  • Preset save/load
  • Zoomable/pannable editor
  • Module selection and inspector-style editing
  • Dynamic modules with variable numbers of inputs/outputs where it makes sense
  • Audio-rate and modulation-rate processing paths
  • Feedback-aware graph compilation, per sample processing (allows creating custom flangers, choruses, and reverbs by inserting modules in the feedback path)
  • Stereo and multi-channel routing support
  • Layout tools for keeping larger patches readable
  • GPU-based rendering with optional catenary cables like Reason (with the option to switch between normal and GPU-based rendering for now)
  • Modulate any parameter with audio / mod source through a audio -> control bridge
  • Tempo sync for time-based/modulation parameters with grid selections (dotted, 1/4, etc.)
  • Patch Browser
Planned features
  • Undo/redo
  • Dedicated front-panel/control view for finished patches
  • MIDI input/control
  • More modules
  • Better patch organization tools
  • More performance/workflow polish, especially on the UI
  • Nested Submodules
  • Preset Variations (similar to Nord Modular, allowing different presets on the same patch without duplication)
Current module categories

I/O and routing
Audio inputs/outputs, channel routing, utility routing, split/merge style modules.
Mixing and level
Mixers, stereo mixing, gain/level utilities, panning/spread-style controls.
Delay and time-based effects
Basic delays, modulated delays, stereo delay structures, multi-delay/tap-style building blocks.
Pitch and modulation effects
Pitch shifting, pitch-modulated delay structures, chorus/flanger-style building blocks.
Filters and tone shaping
High-cut/low-cut style modules, tone shaping, resonant/character filters, general filter utilities. (even has MS20 filter which is a favorite of mine)
Diffusion and space
Diffusor/allpass/chorus-like building blocks for building reverbs, smeared delays, ambience, and spatial effects.
Modulation sources
LFOs (can sync to each other, polarity, offset ++) and modulation generators for moving parameters and audio-rate modulation targets.
Control/math utilities
Add, multiply, scale, invert, distribute, and shape control/modulation signals.
UI/control modules
Knobs, macro controls with selectable step size, parameter-style modules, and eventually front-panel controls.
Dynamics
Duck, envelope follower, amplitude modulator
Bridges
Audio / mod to parameter control

External/User
Pure Data module. Load your pure data file, add a manifest for mapping to my graph system, and you can either prototype your own effects and use other people's effects inside my engine

The goal is not to replace every normal plugin, but to make an environment where you can build the kind of effect that usually does not exist as a fixed plugin, or take a familiar idea and push it much further. ;)

Samples:
pitch shifted stereo delay with LFO controlling the pitch:
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/baifsxm7 ... 2e8lu&dl=0

Reverb - diffused modulated delays
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/t2b5jj7b ... g9v2g&dl=0
2026-05-28_04-39-10.gif
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Last edited by Ad0 on Thu Jun 11, 2026 10:15 am, edited 17 times in total.
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Of course there's always interest in such things. Certainly this is the only one I know of with a startcraft lookin UI. :)

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Haha! I wanted it to look futuristic! I intend to have theming for it defined in a json file, but I have to get more features in first and make the patch format completely stable so I don't have to convert people's patches :) But I am getting there. As for molding plastic I also added pure data support so you can load PD files in it with a manifest mapping I/O and params but it is at 64 samples so it won't work well in a feedback path if the timing is important!
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Ad0 wrote: Mon May 25, 2026 8:36 pm Haha! I wanted it to look futuristic! I intend to have theming for it defined in a json file, but I have to get more features in first and make the patch format completely stable so I don't have to convert people's patches :) But I am getting there. As for molding plastic I also added pure data support so you can load PD files in it with a manifest mapping I/O and params but it is at 64 samples so it won't work well in a feedback path if the timing is important!
That sounds interesting for sure, will be following this thread. :tu:

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Interesting! More details, please!
ABX is enemy to GAS

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whassup wrote: Mon May 25, 2026 9:20 pm Interesting! More details, please!
moved this answer to main post :)
Last edited by Ad0 on Tue May 26, 2026 4:03 pm, edited 4 times in total.
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I like the concept. Always wondered why a modular Muti-FX with this kind of routing and modulation setup hasn't taken off. The AxeFX guitar modelers have a similar setup, but with fixed lanes.

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A Sample based / buffer effects system would be nice for loopers and whatnot. Got to have loopers, Granular and Stutter effects these days imo. :tu:

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billinder33 wrote: Mon May 25, 2026 9:34 pm I like the concept. Always wondered why a modular Muti-FX with this kind of routing and modulation setup hasn't taken off. The AxeFX guitar modelers have a similar setup, but with fixed lanes.
User experience maybe. You have Reaktor, Max/MSP, PD, Faust and probably some others. but I think they are too deep and technical for most people. Things being used at universities as a teaching tool doesn't translate well to design FX on the go :D
pekbro wrote: Mon May 25, 2026 9:38 pm A Sample based / buffer effects system would be nice for loopers and whatnot. Got to have loopers, Granular and Stutter effects these days imo. :tu:
I have to think about it ! Then it will turn more and more into an instrument :) But at least I can have a module or facilitate to play random offsets at audio that comes in!
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OS?
Commercial? Price?
Sample based modulation?
ETA?
ABX is enemy to GAS

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whassup wrote: Mon May 25, 2026 10:05 pm OS?
Commercial? Price?
Sample based modulation?
ETA?
OS = win/mac/linux . I will force it to build on all systems although I only have PC. But I will buy a mac to get it working, I've worked on macos before and it has to be my next laptop because the PC laptop market is just messed up
Commercial yes. and with that serious support. I take that very seriously!
Price? I haven't decided yet. Not expensive, I don't want it to be prohibitively expensive, but not $10 either. I will support it and it won't be that rent to own, or subscription. When you buy it, you OWN it.
ETA? I just have to come up with a name and hand out free alphas and betas to willing testers! And as a thanks for helping you get the plug of course. Anyone interested can just PM me and as fast as I come up with a good name, I will hand it out!

Sample based modulation? If you mean per sample / audio rate modulation, then YES. Default is 1/4 but in settings you can set it to 1/1 (audio rate)
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Looks interesting, looking forward to trying it out.

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Does this allow one to put insert FX within the delays feedback path?

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Funkybot's Evil Twin wrote: Tue May 26, 2026 1:03 am Does this allow one to put insert FX within the delays feedback path?
no it doesn't host plugins. I mean it's technically possible but as the first I want it to be rock stable so I can survive the day (it has so far though).

The thing is that if you put a plugin in the feedback path it has to process the block first. and some don't like very small block sizes, and different plugins have different quirks. it takes years for a daw to handle all the different plugins reliably, that's why I choose not to do it now. you see the changelogs of misc daws and VST hosts that "Fixed strange behavior caused by plugin X"

however, it is multi in and out if you configure it to be, so you can route the plugin into the audio ins and outs of my plugin and get it in the feedback path there. I will try this myself, I have done it before in other plugins!

Video:
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/yxh2g4vh ... nmsun&dl=0

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Last edited by Ad0 on Tue May 26, 2026 2:43 am, edited 1 time in total.
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https://msh.audio/

https://www.erikssonjonas.com/modularfiasco

https://marionietoworld.com/mnodes/

https://www.phasetape.com/

And I know of one more currently in closed beta.

It's about to be a very crowded market for such a thing!

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