The Audio Programmer Podcast

Karanyi Sounds founder Dani Karanyi joins The Audio Programmer to break down what actually sells audio plugins, and why most never do. We get into pricing and why you cannot win the race to the bottom, the marketing funnel behind a real plugin brand, why email quietly out-earns every other channel, a candid take on piracy and DRM, building an audience from day one, and where AI still falls short in plugin design. A refreshingly honest look at the business behind the plugins. Guests: Dani Karanyi (Karanyi Sounds)

Josh sits down with Max Shafer, co-founder of Just for Noise, on building an AI foundation model for drum and sample generation. Max shares the origin story — from a drum machine that wouldn't turn on and 20 minutes lost hunting for a single kick, to reframing the problem as generating samples on the fly. We get into designing an intuitive interface beyond the "empty prompt box," building a proprietary dataset by ripping drum machines in studios across LA, New York, Berlin and London, and the pivot from plugin company to a licensable infrastructure/API layer. Max also opens up on the funding journey — contacting ~170 investors over three months at roughly a 1-in-100 yes rate — why he preferred VCs over angels, and his candid caution that raising isn't right for every company. Plus the music-tech landscape, community-driven beta testing born in the Audio Programmer Discord, and how AI can support rather than replace the creative process. Guests: Max Shafer

Inside Google & Samsung's open source spatial audio project, Eclipsa Audio. Jani Huopinen (Product Lead, Eclipsa Audio at Google), Scott Kramer (Founder, Greenfield Sound; former Netflix Sound Director), and Klaus Trelby (immersive music engineer/producer, Marshmallow Skies) discuss how IAMF — the royalty-free immersive audio format from the Alliance for Open Media — is bringing spatial audio to YouTube, Android, Chrome, and beyond. Topics include the Eclipsa DAW plugin, comparisons with Dolby Atmos, dual audio for dialogue control, the film/TV pipeline, and what success looks like for open source immersive audio. Guests: Jani Huopinen, Scott Kramer, Klaus Trelby

What does it actually take to get your audio plugins up and selling? In this episode, Josh sits down with Tobias Madsen from Moonbase to talk about the business side of plugin development - the part most developers find harder than the code. Tobias shares his journey from building plugin stores and licensing systems for companies like Yum Audio and Black Salt Audio, to turning all of that experience into Moonbase - a platform now powering over 200 audio software businesses. They cover the real challenges of selling plugins, what a modern business stack looks like for plugin developers, and where things are heading next. Guest: Tobias Madsen (Moonbase - https://moonbase.sh) More at theaudioprogrammer.com

How do you actually get started with DSP? Josh sits down with Sam Fischmann, technical co-founder of Musik Hack, for a wide-ranging conversation on practical Digital Signal Processing - what it is, where to begin, and how to build audio software with clear, expressive controls that don't require a doctorate to use. Sam makes products for artists, musicians, producers, and audio engineers at Musik Hack, where the philosophy is to keep the user experience simple even when the underlying signal processing is complex. Guest: Sam Fischmann (Musik Hack - https://musikhack.com) More at theaudioprogrammer.com