SHLabs builds instruments at the intersection of musical use, real computation and unusual control surfaces. A line of VST3 and AU plugins and standalone apps, plus modules for VCV Rack 2.
The brain of a hybrid set.
A four-channel performance mixer, master clock and sync hub in one standalone app. Beatgrid clip players with quantized launch, automatic structure detection, on-device stem separation with quantized stem kills, and an assist layer that can carry a transition. A sample-accurate MIDI clock keeps your modular, drum machines and grooveboxes following you, not the other way round.
A video synth that listens.
A GPU-native visual instrument with five scene families (morphing fields, tunnel, fractals, spectrum, ambient) and a hundred-thousand-particle system on top. Band envelopes and onset detectors drive the image, and it locks to Cadence, to your host playhead or to Ableton Link before going fullscreen on the projector.
The two lock over OSC: Phosphor follows Cadence's clock and beat phase, reads master band energy and kick onsets, and surges when the drop lands. The bundle is the whole studio, with Cell, Contour, Spazio, Glue, Stesso and Tonnetz included.
Generative modules are seedable and every plugin recalls its full state. Stumble onto a sound you love and dial it back any time. Save it, share it, and it plays the same on every machine.
Whether it is a panel in the rack or a plugin window in your DAW, the interface is a control surface, not decoration. Drag-to-assign modulation, MIDI learn, sensible defaults and no telemetry.
The processes are the real thing: analog-modelled circuits, feedback, sampling, stochastic motion. Every tool is voiced as an instrument first, expressive, surprising, and made to be listened to.
An independent audio-tools studio making instruments for the modular world and the DAW. One person, one design language, two branches: plugins and standalone apps for the stage and the DAW, and open modules for VCV Rack 2.