Drag & drop sampler
Drop any WAV / AIF / FLAC / MP3 / OGG on the panel. Browse a folder with − / +. Eight loop slots saved to 1–8.
a sampler, looper and field recorder
in the spirit of the $1,599 Teenage Engineering TP−7.
Everything the TP-7 does for capture, looping and live performance — ported into a plugin you can drop on any track. Plus things the hardware can't: chromatic MIDI playback with a built-in arpeggiator, a one-button LO−FI mode that re-skins the whole device, drag-out export, and host-tempo sync.
Drop any WAV / AIF / FLAC / MP3 / OGG on the panel. Browse a folder with − / +. Eight loop slots saved to 1–8.
One-button capture from the channel input. Stops → auto-loops (RC-505 style). Live scrolling waveform as you record.
1/16 · 1/8 · 1/4 · 1/2 · 1B · 2B size buttons. Drag-highlight any region. NUDGE wheel translates the selection live.
Grab the spinning vinyl with your mouse, scratch in either direction. Cartridge LP gives it real vinyl warmth, not digital artefacts.
FILTER (LP/HP DJ sweep + tempo LFO), GHOST (filtered feedback delay), HAZE (six-preset reverb — VAULT/CHROME/NEST/MIST/ABYSS/AURA shimmer). Drag the knob icons to reorder the chain.
Internal BPM with drag + TAP. In a DAW, the host transport tempo wins automatically — effects and loop sizes follow.
Hold and drag the ↓ button to drop the current loop region as a WAV onto any DAW track. Effects baked in. Instant audio clip.
VINTAGE / FET / OPTO — 24:1 compression on both record and playback, with distinct attack, release and saturation per voice.
Double-click the SP·L logo to randomise the accent colour. The whole panel re-tints in unison. Try it →
Polyphonic 8−voice MIDI sampler. C4 = root; every other note is pitch−shifted from there. Routes from any DAW MIDI track or the on-screen keyboard.
Two octaves with pitch wheel + mod wheel. Type a w s e d … to play; z / x shifts octaves. SP·L-themed brushed-metal keys.
Hold a chord, hit ARP. Pattern cycle: UP / DN / UPDN / RND. Mod wheel selects the rate (1/4 → 1/32). Tempo-synced to host BPM.
Warm tanh saturation + 5−bit crush + HF rolloff on the master out, plus a full pink−purple chassis reskin with animated film grain. Dialled with the dry/wet knob under the pill.
Every knob is a 3D-shaded aluminium disc with a radial gradient, faint concentric "brushing" rings, a recessed dark well with a chrome specular highlight on the rim, and 13 tick marks around the perimeter — the one closest to your current value brightens to the accent colour.
Neon-glow BPM readout next to a dedicated TAP button. Drag it to fine−tune; tap it in time to lock onto an unknown sample's tempo. Per-slot BPM is stored, so each of your eight slots can have its own groove.
Press and drag the ↓ export button to drop the current loop region out as a WAV file — lands as an audio clip wherever you drop it. FILTER, GHOST, HAZE and TAPE are all baked into the file.
Toggle the ♫ KEYS pill and the editor grows a bottom drawer: a 2-octave SP·L-themed keyboard, pitch wheel, mod wheel, ARP toggle and pattern cycle. The keys send MIDI through the same engine as a hardware controller — or just type on your computer keyboard.
Hit the framed pink pill under the SP·L wordmark and the whole device shifts character. The output runs through warm tanh saturation + a gentle 5-bit crush + a 7 kHz rolloff, blended by the dry/wet knob directly below the pill. At the same time the chassis re-skins pink−purple with animated film grain — not a hue overlay, an actual alternate palette.
SPOOL has a sibling: DRIFT, a Big−Time-style hybrid analog/digital echo plugin. Run both as standalones and they share audio directly via a custom shared-memory link — no virtual audio cable, no DAW, ~one audio-block of latency.
DRIFT subscribes to a named shared-memory mapping. SPOOL writes its output buffer into the same mapping. A heartbeat in the header lets each side detect whether its partner is alive. Under the hood: Win32 file mapping plus a single-producer / single-consumer lock-free ring buffer — the trick is no other plugin suite is doing it.
Ableton, FL Studio, Reaper, Bitwig, Cubase, Studio One, anything VST3-compatible.
Download SPOOL.vst3 from the latest GitHub release.
C:\Program Files\Common Files\VST3\~/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST3/~/.vst3/In Ableton: Preferences › Plug-Ins › Rescan. SPOOL appears under itselliott. Drop on an audio track.
No DAW needed. Runs as its own app. Captures from the system audio input.
Download SPOOL.exe (Windows) or SPOOL.app (macOS) from the latest release.
Double-click. First launch: the standalone window's Options menu lets you pick your audio device and input channel.
Drag a WAV onto the panel, or arm REC and capture from your input. Save to slots 1–8 with mouse-click.
CMake 3.22+, C++17 toolchain (MSVC, Xcode, GCC, Clang). JUCE 8.0.4 is pulled in via FetchContent.
git clone https://github.com/itselliott/spool.gitcmake -S . -B build
cmake --build build --config Releasebuild/SPOOL_artefacts/Release/Contains Standalone/, VST3/, and AU/ on macOS.
If it earned a spot in your toolbox, you can keep development going with a one-off or recurring contribution. Zero pressure — the plugin stays free either way.