Get with the programmers

This month’s free exciter was produced by plugin developers Venomode. Here’s the company’s founder, Adam Rogers, to tell us more…

How did you get into music software? AR “My parents bought me a keyboard at a very young age and supported me messing around and playing music. I’m still playing now, 30 years later! My dad has always been into technology, so we always had a computer in the house. He’d often come home from electronic markets with new gadgets and software, and he encouraged me to get involved, especially in various fields of creative software and programming. Getting hold of Cubase VST 5 was a massive turning point – going from just playing about on a keyboard to recording it into a DAW was mind blowing! After spending years dipping my toes into a bit of everything related to creative arts and technology, I wanted to bring it all together. I studied at university and spent time programming music and interactive software and hardware.”

How did you become successful?

AR “It started simply with creating plugins for my own use. I needed a few particular effects that weren’t yet available on the market, and as I had learned JUCE at university, I created them myself. After releasing some of them as freebies on the web I came across a couple of opportunities to develop audio plugins as a freelancer. Following those releases I turned one of my own plugins (Maximal) into the first Venomode product.”

“From playing on a keyboard to using a DAW was mind blowing”

What makes your software standout in the market?

AR “The plugins are all scratching a personal itch. I don’t want to create yet another plugin where there are hundreds of identical alternatives available – they are all tools I wish were available when producing a track at some point. For example, Phrasebox came about when I was composing an orchestral piece and I wanted to adjust the notes of a polyphonic phrase – it was too complex to play on a keyboard and editing in the DAW was pretty tedious. I wanted a quick way to play a chord and have the pattern applied to those notes. I like to chat with users and incorporate all the feature requests I receive. The plugins start as a tool for me, and evolve with the community into a tool that fits everyone’s needs.”

What would you like to see developed in plugin technology? AR “I’d love to see more creative hardware devices on the market with deep integration with software. Hardware such as the Ableton Push, Akai Fire, Native Instruments Kontrol, and Novation SL let musicians really get hands-on in the DAW. The integration feels fluid, going beyond just tediously mapping MIDI controller knobs to a parameter. A modular device with this level of integration would be phenomenal! I’d also like to see all DAWs opening up their scripting APIs to the public. Programming is no longer a small niche so it won’t be long before music-makers with scripting chops start demanding more flexibility from their DAW. ReaScript and Max4Live really open up a whole world to programmers.”

What have you got planned for the future?

AR “We’re currently in the process of updating all our plugins, overhauling the UI with vector graphics and a consistent style across the board. There’s also a suite of MIDI plugins in development which are designed to work well together, starting with Phrasebox 2 later this year.” venomode.com