CREATE A PLUGIN WITH HISE

You can whip up your own instrument from scratch with this free open-source app – no geeky coding required!

Use the free modular environment to roll your own

If you’re anything like us, you’re obsessive about plugins. You collect them, create music with them, curse the buggy ones, and pine for those not yet released. You check Music Radar and KVR daily for the latest updates and new releases, ready to splash hard-earned cash for those that promise to inspire or improve upon your creative efforts.

But what if you could take control of your obsession? What if you could make your own plugins and do so with almost zero knowledge of computer programming? Well, with Cristoph Hart’s HISE, this is entirely possible – and it won’t cost you a penny! HISE gives you the power to create sample- and/or synthesis-based instruments, complete with custom interfaces and export them as Audio Unit, VST, or AAX plugins for Windows, Mac, and even Linux, not to mention standalone and i OS apps!

HISE provides everything you need to make just about any instrument you can think of. Though it’s designed especially for creating and distributing sample-based instruments, it’s perfectly capable of generating the usual assortment of synthetic waveforms without the use of samples. Filters, modulation sources, and effects are also included, and can be routed as you see fit. Parameters may be modulated internally or assigned to knobs, sliders and other widgets.

Unlike some plugin creation environments, HISE itself looks a bit like an instrument rather than a graphical programming language, acting as a fully kitted-out alternative to software samplers like HALion or Kontakt – and can be instantiated as a VST or AU plugin in your preferred DAW. HISE is released under the GPLv3 open-source license. It’s free to download and use, and you can even share anything you make with it – provided that it’s released under the GPLv3 license.

Throughout our step-by-step tutorials, we’re going to take you through the process of building and exporting a sample-based plugin – an ARP 2600-emulating synth instrument – in HISE. When we’re through, you’ll have your very own plugin that you can use, share, customise and expand as you see fit.

Keep in mind that HISE is constantly under development, so some of what you’ll see over the next five pages might change from version to version. Let’s get pluggin’!