Goals for 2026?

[cassettedeath]

Planning to launch three VST instruments next month… Pretty much at the last user testing/website final touches and marketing content phase.

After that I’m really keen to explore easy to use/accessible plug in concepts. I think HISE provides heaps of potential for that.

Then expansions and a drum loop plug in which is in the experimental phase. (Esp with time stretching)

Excited!

[dannytaurus]

@David-Healey @ustk Building an email list was key for me. I don't post my new products on social media anymore. Just send out to my 35k email list. I built my list with free products and a lot of social media interaction. I don't do any of that anymore either.

Also started Instagram ads. The latent revenue from 'old' products went up 5-10x, even with the daily ad spend accounted for.

[David Healey]

@dannytaurus said in Goals for 2026? :

Also started Instagram ads.

I've not tried this specifically, although my generic meta ads are pushed to Instagram too. What kind of ads perform the best for you?

[dannytaurus]

@David-Healey I just made square videos for all my launch videos. My launch videos are all simple animations of the plugin sliding in and out with different presets playing audio in the background.

No human face, no talking, no sales, no discounts, no sensationalism. Just basic product demos.

Some are way too long (4 minutes) and I don't think Meta pushes those ones very much, but the others seem to do well. And when folks land on my site they tend to buy extra related products too.

To be honest I haven't looked at my Meta ads dashboard for about 4 months. I really should do that! But I know the ads are showing because Meta charges me every other day, and the uptick in revenue is consistent.

Some people would live in that dashboard, tweaking ads and launching more campaigns, but my goal is to just put my plugins in front of the right people and let them discover the rest for themselves.

[dannytaurus]

@David-Healey Example ad video here: https://wmd.d.pr/v/qVq1KN

[David Healey]

@dannytaurus I like the sync between the audio and the video. It's simple but effective. I might give this technique a try.

[dannytaurus]

@David-Healey Yeah, a few people commented on that. I used Screenflow to do that video. Easy to do that effect.

I use Motion for demo videos now, so I can get a bit more into audio-reactivity. Screenflow doesn't have that at all.

To be clear - the audio waveform animation in the background was created with VideoBolt, not in Screenflow itself. That's why I'm moving to Motion, because it can do those sorts of audio animations natively.

[griffinboy]

@dannytaurus

My first plugin will be released at the end of this year
It's been a few years since I started development on my largest synth which was before pivoting to Hise (It's been 6 years already!? geez), and I think I'm only halfway through developing it still. So it's time to put together a smaller mvp and get something released already! It's been long enough.

Good luck to everyone

[ustk]

@dannytaurus I'm using Filmora, it's light yet powerful, not expensive, has audio driven effects and much more...

[dannytaurus]

@ustk Nice! I'll take a look. Any links to videos you've made with it?

[David Healey]

@ustk said in Goals for 2026? :

I'm using Filmora

I use Kdenlive, I've used loads of different editors in the past.

[ustk]

@dannytaurus Only a pretty basic and very dull one for now without audio-driven effect, but I've just tested for the next one and it seems very promising! It has audio-driven filters and a lot of audio visualisers too

https://youtu.be/vGjSlHKLIFY
https://youtube.com/shorts/7YJ67qTD2D4

[dannytaurus]

@David-Healey Another one to check out - cheers!

[Christoph Hart]

Anyone care to share their overall plans and goals for the coming year?

Release HISE 5.0. This time for real, guys, come on, trust me.

[HISEnberg]

@Christoph-Hart said in Goals for 2026? :

Release HISE 5.0. This time for real, guys, come on, trust me.

Aligns with my goals for 2026: Get Christoph to release HISE 5.0

[Lindon]

@dannytaurus

Release Atmosia 3.2 - with expansion capabilities, and 3 expansion packs with it

Release Horizen 3.0 - with a truck load of new syntheses and granular processing plus release 1 expansion pack for Horizen every month...this is really Andy who is doing the heavy lifting here...

Release Toy Box - a multi FX plugin a little like Slate Digitals Virtual Mix rack

Release SlingShot - a monster one shot(drum) player

Release Atlantic - all the synth approaches from Horizen without the samplers and loop players....

get more time off - I think the list above precludes this one...

[Felix W]

@Christoph-Hart This is fantastic, it's exactly what I've been waiting for!