Audio apps & plugins
MiniKeys
Virtual MIDI keyboard + controller builder for macOS.
Plays notes from your computer keyboard, builds custom CC/NRPN control surfaces, and pipes everything through an arpeggiator, chord engine, scale filter and live quantizer before hitting your DAW.
Background
MiniKeys started as a bored-on-a-train scratchpad and turned into a full virtual studio gadget: a layout editor with knobs, sliders, ADSRs, X/Y pads and ADAT-style group sections, snapshots, undo/redo, and a Finder-style browser for 300+ hardware synthesizer presets sourced from the pencilresearch/midi database. Bidirectional MIDI feedback means moving a hardware knob updates the on-screen UI in real time.
Specifications
- Hardware-scancode keyboard mapping (layout-independent)
- Knobs, sliders, buttons, toggles, selects, ADSR, X/Y pad
- 7-bit and 14-bit CC + NRPN, snapshots and 50-step undo
- Device browser: 300+ synths and effects, CC or NRPN per device
- Tools: metronome, live quantizer, scale engine, arpeggiator, chord engine
More from Audio apps & plugins
-
GramofonA native macOS player for the indie music web.
A SwiftUI app that unifies Bandcamp, Jamendo, Radio4000, Internet Archive, Discogs, MusicBrainz and ListenBrainz into one player and library — explicitly not a Spotify or Apple Music client. Includes a full multi-band IIR EQ for speaker, headphone and room correction profiles.
-
ProggyNative macOS programmer for flash, EEPROM, FRAM, SigmaDSP and more.
A no-nonsense Swift app for embedded engineers: CH341A SPI/I2C, ESP32 family flashing over UART, RP2040/RP2350 over SWD via the Pi Debug Probe, and full ADAU14xx SigmaDSP support including Safeload and biquad EQ.
-
Spice FXOpen-source analog saturation plugin (VST3 · AU · LV2).
A high-quality JUCE-based saturation and cab-sim plugin with ten different analog distortion models — tube, transistor, transformer, tape, diode, germanium, FET, op-amp, fuzz, ribbon — plus mid/side processing, 10-cab simulation, oversampling and 50+ factory presets. Open-sourced in October 2025.
-
LiveArtA web VJ tool driven by MIDI controllers.
A browser-based VJ environment for real-time generative visuals — 2D and 3D scenes controllable via WebMIDI, with parameter mapping, presets, post-processing effects and per-visualization parameter blocks. Plug in any MIDI controller and play the visuals.
-
modep pi4 aarch64Tweaks and config for modep-host / modep-ui for Raspberry Pi 4/400
Tweaks and config for modep-host / modep-ui for Raspberry Pi 4/400.
-
VCV Rack · Ableton LinkAbleton Link transport in a VCV Rack 2.0 module.
A proof-of-concept VCV Rack 2.0 module that joins an Ableton Link session and outputs a constant clock, a 16-beat reset, and start/stop transport gates so the modular patch follows whatever DAW or app is hosting the Link session.