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windell

12 karma · joined August 18, 2026

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windell··on Show HN: Floe – an open-source plugin for sample libraries – CLAP/VST3/AU
Interesting! Thank you for the explanation. I wonder what file permission issues we might face trying to write adjacent to the plugin file. I'll see what Surge does.
windell··on Show HN: Floe – an open-source plugin for sample libraries – CLAP/VST3/AU
Thank for the excellent suggestions! I'll definitely take a look.

Perhaps the key difference is that Decent Sampler allows you to create a custom GUI for your sample library. Floe does not, it's a standard, complete set of parameters that explore into the realm of sample-based-synthesis moreso than just performing virtual instruments.

I do wonder about offering an API for creating custom GUIs, but I'm unsure how it would interact with the existing firmly ingrained GUI. Maybe it would have to be a wrapper API mostly - allowing sample libraries to 'grab' into the existing set of parameters and expose and reconfigure them into custom elements.

windell··on Show HN: Floe – an open-source plugin for sample libraries – CLAP/VST3/AU
Interesting, I'll take a look at the Surge source, they're a clever bunch. If you have a moment - I'd like to understand this use-case more. What do you mean multi room studio? Does a per-user installation help, vs an all-users installation?
windell··on Show HN: Floe – an open-source plugin for sample libraries – CLAP/VST3/AU
It can run from any path so long as your plugin host or DAW is happy to load it from there (the plugin APIs define standard folders plugins should be installed to, but lots of host allow other paths).

Once running it will try to create some directories in known locations on your OS for storing libraries, presets, preferences, etc. https://floe.audio/docs/reference/file-locations

windell··on Show HN: Floe – an open-source plugin for sample libraries – CLAP/VST3/AU
Not quite as generic as that. I suppose there's 2 types of users at the moment.

Musicians who just want load up virtual instruments (whether that's 'real' instrument, or synthesised-based), play them, but then also use Floe's GUI to morph the sound into something different using layers, granular, FX, etc.

Or alternatively, sample library developers who want to create a curated sample library package for musicians. They configure the sample library using Lua (and set a background image and icon) and create a bank of presets - and then musicians can load that packagr into their Floe instance.

windell··on Show HN: Floe – an open-source plugin for sample libraries – CLAP/VST3/AU
Since early 2026 it's mixed AI and handwritten. Before that it was mostly written by hand. Quite a lot of the code goes back to 2018 even. Typically, I do back and forth with Claude Code agents on new features and bug fixes, reading and editing code along with it.