Create Your Own Custom VST Audio Plugins with AI – Audio Plugin Coder Walkthrough Part 2

Part 2 of the free Audio Plugin Coder (APC) walkthrough: turn a vague vinyl idea into a real plugin brief — with sample analysis, parameters, and a creative direction the AI can actually build.

Part 2 — DREAM
/apc-dream VinylNoise · ideation, fingerprinting, parameter spec.

Watch Part 2 on YouTube · Missed setup? Start with Walkthrough Part 1.

The plugin idea: Vinyl Noise

Instead of another generic “vinyl crackle” clone, the goal is a gritty, high-fidelity 1960s broadcast character — dusty, imperfect, and grounded in real turntable captures.

• Emulate imperfect vinyl (noise floor, rumble, crackle) from custom loops
• Optional tape + tube colour — without copying stock “bias / filter” UIs
• Effect amount roughly 0–100 (and beyond, e.g. up to 200)
• ~10 focused controls, not a kitchen-sink panel

Hundreds of loops from an old turntable (and a slightly imperfect cartridge) live in the APC workspace under a vinyl samples folder — those WAVs become the sonic reference.

What /apc-dream does

APC’s Dream phase turns natural language into durable project files so the next agent session does not start from zero:

• creative-brief.md — hook, character, use cases
• parameter-spec.md — knobs, ranges, defaults
• Analysis / fingerprint notes when you feed reference audio
• status.json — phase state for resume / plan

Sample fingerprinting in practice

Because the brief demanded fidelity to the recordings, the agent wrote analysis scripts early — unusual for a pure “planning” step, but useful here. It scanned dozens of loops (44.1 kHz / 16-bit), noting:

• Dark, dusty spectral character and hot levels
• High noise floor with strong rumble and crackle
• Nearly mono program with out-of-phase HF surface noise
• Wow/flutter and THD-style proxies from the captures
• Crackle density varying a lot across the set

That last point sparked a feature request mid-session: map groove position — quality often worsens toward the label (inner-groove distortion as linear velocity drops and HF wavelengths shorten). APC locked that into the brief as a macro control for later phases.

How to run Dream yourself

1. Finish Part 1 setup.
2. Point the agent at your reference audio folder.
3. Run /apc-dream VinylNoise (or your plugin name) and paste a detailed dream prompt.
4. Read the brief, answer clarifying questions, and steer parameters before Plan.

/apc-dream VinylNoise

Tip: be specific about what you do not want (generic crackle packs, boring filter stacks). APC follows creative constraints as well as feature lists.

Outputs to expect

• Plugin folder (e.g. Vinyl Noise) with ideation docs
• Vinyl fingerprint / analysis artifacts
• Status pointing to the next phase: Plan

Next up

Part 3 runs /apc-plan: WebView vs Visage, DSP architecture, and high-risk notes — after optionally clearing chat context so the model reads the files instead of a compressed history.

Get APC: github.com/Noizefield/audio-plugin-coder

Series: Part 1 — Setup · Part 3 — Plan (coming next on the blog)