SHLabs builds instruments — for the rack and the DAW.
SHLabs is a small independent studio making music software across formats. The catalog started with modules for VCV Rack, and is now growing a second branch of DAW-ready plugins — VST3 / AU and standalone apps that run in Ableton Live, Logic, Bitwig and beyond. Whatever the format, we design instruments that put real processes on the panel — modulation and LFOs, sequencers, generative sources, gate logic and stochastic motion — drawn from the older tradition of analog computing, where a calculation was something physical and visible rather than hidden behind function calls.
On the rack side the catalog is organized into families, each with its own character and visual language: Mashina, Lucida, Atmos, Rikoshet and Stochast. Some are free; others are paid releases that fund continued development.
The plugin branch is just beginning. Contour — a multi-LFO modulation rack built around a draggable curve editor — is the first SHLabs VST, with Phosphor (an audio-reactive video synth), Slicery (a slice instrument) and Metro 185 (a MIDI step sequencer) close behind. These are paid, closed-source releases; the VCV modules stay open and community-first.
Every one of them is built to the same standard — real processes under the hood, recallable so you can dial back a patch you love, and panels designed to be played, not just admired. If a tool earns a place in your setup or makes an idea click into place, the most useful thing you can do is make something with it and tell someone about it.
A founding story.
SHLabs began as evenings spent patching, asking a simple question: what if the maths that usually disappears inside code were laid out as something you could turn, patch, and hear? The first modules were built to scratch that itch — a sequencer here, a generative source there — and they kept growing into families.
Today SHLabs is a one-person studio that ships polished, dependable instruments to the VCV Rack community — and now, with the first plugins arriving, to anyone working in a DAW. The same ideas carry across: whether it's a module you patch or a plugin you insert, it should be real under the hood and a pleasure to play. New families, plugins and updates are released as they're ready.