i'm uh, starting a business?

Submitted by hollyhoppet in yourpersonalblog (edited )

left a mobile dev job a few months ago and don't think i can stomach going back to the industry. started pivoting into making plugins for DAWs and like... i'm actually pretty good at this?

i have plans for four novel offerings, and more in the pipe. my investment costs are basically my cost of living. i've done some rudimentary market research and sales projections and there's a chance i can make it work! i'm almost 40 and i have some saving built up so like... i'm going to shoot my shot and take a risk for the first time in like 15 years.

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nomorepie wrote

Yay ^⁠_⁠^ this sounds exciting!! And it seems you've got the right attitude!

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cowloom wrote

That's great! What plugin ideas do you have so far? I'm not a music professional by any stretch, but I have played around with DAWs before.

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hollyhoppet OP wrote

  • A plugin that will let you control and automate the Roland Sound Canvas SC-88. This one probably won't be very popular but it's what I'm using to get my feet wet. Currently thinking of pricing it $30. I would like to expand this to a series that supports more hardware too, like the rest of the sound canvas line, and the Roland JV-1080. Maybe also the Korg M1 if that niche isn't filled yet.
  • A plugin that will let you apply a curve to any CC, Velocity, Pitch bend, or whatever using a nice curve editing graph UI. Will support 14 bit to 7 bit, vice versa, and same to same. Map any type of param to any other type of param. Probably about $7.
  • A sort-of-delay focused on attempting to humanize and "ensemblize" an audio source. Not sure on pricing for this one yet since it needs more design work.
  • And the most ambitious: a modular physical modeling synthesizer using an approach that you're "building" a fantasy instrument. Take one or more impulse generators: blowing, a plucked string, etc, and send that through simulated instrument bodies, sympathetic string responses, wind tubes, and/or more digital things like filters and the like. This one will be in the $30-$100 range, ultimately depending on scope once I lock down the design more.
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cowloom wrote

That's awesome! Have you heard of Tao before? It's an unfinished FOSS physical modeling synthesizer that sounds a lot like what you're describing. The UI is... about what you'd expect for it being one guy's college project from 20 years ago, but I've managed to make a few neat sounds with it.

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hollyhoppet OP wrote

i have, though i'm looking to build something a little more user friendly than tao haha. something more like phaseplant or a simpler vcv rack

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cowloom wrote

I wish you the best of luck! I went down the physical modeling rabbit hole a few years ago, though I didn't end up creating anything more than a few test programs.

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hollyhoppet OP wrote

i'm gearing up to Read Papers and do the work like my livelihood depends on it lol

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twovests wrote

i know very little about music and what i learned was from the backwards so i am reading this with non negligible fascination

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