How to Use Amorph: Install, Setup and Your First Plugin

It is an effect, so it needs audio going into it. Check that the track it sits on is actually playing something, and check your DAW routing.

It needs MIDI. Add a MIDI clip on the track, or check that your keyboard is reaching it.

Correct. It outputs MIDI, not audio. Put an instrument after it on the same MIDI path, and that is what you hear.

If Play is empty, the patch has no custom interface yet. Compile in Build and Amorph shows automatic dials. For a custom interface, ask for one in Build, for example "create a custom UI for this effect". On a brand-new install, an empty Play is the start screen: create a new patch or install one from Explore.

Load the Audio Unit in Logic. For Amorph MIDI, use a MIDI FX slot. The VST3 MIDI version often never appears in Logic at all. If an Audio Unit is missing, open the Plug-In Manager and check whether it failed validation rather than being absent.

Some DAWs open it behind the main window. Click the gear icon again, or look behind your DAW window.

Read the message in the Console. Press Copy fix prompt and paste it back to whichever AI wrote the code, or describe what went wrong. Errors are normal, and recovering from them is part of the workflow.

It needs an OpenRouter key, or an OpenAI one. An Anthropic-only key does not carry voice, whichever provider you are using for the code itself.

Over MCP, a model that is reasoning hard can take twenty or thirty minutes on one build. Watch the dot in Build: green means connected, and you will see it move from reading to working. Keep the plugin window open the whole time. Minimised is fine, closed is not.

You have an older copy of Amorph installed somewhere else. See updating from an older version.

Yes. The plugin is free to download and use, and every patch in the community library is free. If you use the built-in assistant, you pay your AI provider directly for what you use, and nothing to us.

No. The AI writes the DSP. The code is there, readable and editable, for when you want it, and ignorable when you do not.

Patches sit on your computer, play offline and save with your session. Compile and play work on your machine. Explore, sign-in, sharing by link and the built-in assistant need a connection.

The Cmajor source Amorph generates is yours to read, edit and keep. It sits in a normal folder on your own machine.

Anything that loads VST3 or AU. See Load the right plugin for how to place each of the three, and use the Audio Unit in Logic.

The DSP language Amorph generates. It is designed for real-time audio and compiles to native speed. You do not need to learn it to use Amorph, but the reference is at cmajor.dev if you want it.

Yes, over MCP. See Connect your coding agent.

This is Amorph, a free audio plugin. You build, play and share audio tools inside your DAW. The tools are yours: the sound, the knobs, the code. They sit on your computer. They play offline. They save with the session.

In this video I will show you the whole thing: install, the window, the ways to build, controlling patches remotely, Explore, sharing, and what to do when it breaks.

We call these tools patches. A patch can be an instrument, an effect or a MIDI processor. It can have its own sound, its own knobs, its own interface. You do not need to code. You do not even need to build. But if you want to, you can start small and go pretty far.

First, download Amorph from the official page. The link is under this video. VST3 and AU, Mac and Windows.

On a Mac, run the installer like any other. On Windows, the beta is not signed yet, so you might get a warning even when you downloaded it from us. More info, Run anyway. And do not switch Windows security off. If the DAW does not see it, rescan the plugins.

There are three different plugins. Amorph Instrument sits on an instrument track. Notes in, sound out: synths, drums, samplers. Amorph MIDI sits on a MIDI track in front of any other instrument. Notes in, notes out. It stays quiet. Arpeggiators, chords, or a sequencer. What you hear is the instrument after it. Amorph FX sits on an audio track. Sound in, processed sound out. Delay, ducker, reverb, anything on audio you already have.

I am putting the FX on one audio track. The first time you open it there is a short welcome, then two buttons. New: you can make a new patch, or install one from a link someone shared, or from a file. Explore is something that already exists.

I want the sound first, so we explore. I pick one, I install it, and I play. I just want to hear it is alive before we go anywhere else. I move the controls. I can also automate them from the DAW. That is the whole thing. Load it, play it.

Top left is the patch. That is the patches you have saved, the ones you have been working on. Save patch: give it a name and you have a copy. Same patch, another name. The circling arrows reload the project from the folder. If something out there wrote into that folder, this pulls it back in. The folder icon opens that place on disk. That is where the code lives. The plus is a new patch.

Just under that, snapshots. That is the dials: this sound, these knobs. You save one, you recall one. Like any plugin, they are for this patch.

Three tabs up top. Play is where we are right now: the tool when you are using it. Build is where the patch gets made. The code is here and Compile is here. On the right you get the Assistant or the Console, depending on how you work. Explore is the library: what is on your computer and what you can install from the cloud. The gear is Settings: how you want to build, key options, and remote control.

If you are here for building, there are two cards: Outside Amorph and In Amorph. Whichever you pick, the Build interface adapts to that way. That becomes the standard.

Outside Amorph is two methods. Copy and paste: if you are just after something simple, you do not need to put a key in. You write your idea and Amorph prepares some context for your AI, whichever you like. You take it out and bring the code back. Live via MCP: if you are aiming at something heavier, a real plugin as close to one shot as it gets, you need an AI app that connects: Claude, Codex, Antigravity, Perplexity. That is the one method we recommend when the job is heavy.

In Amorph: if you want to stay inside the plugin, the chat is here. You get knobs, preset settings. You can also use speech to text via the mic icon, and you need a key. We recommend OpenRouter. You can switch later. The next part shows each way.

This is one of the simplest and cheapest ways to get started. You can use a browser, so no key is needed in Amorph.

First, create a new project. In Settings, make sure that Outside Amorph, Copy and paste, is selected. Down here you can prompt your idea. I type what I want. Now you copy the DSP prompt. That is my idea plus the technical context. One paste to your AI in the browser. Now you copy the code back, paste it into the DSP tab, and hit Compile. Compile is the live sound. Each time you compile, the patch saves a snapshot of the current state. Now you can go back to Play and hear it.

The user interface: if you compiled a DSP, one gets generated automatically, but you can overwrite this by going back to Build, going to the UI tab, and prompting your idea at the bottom as before. You just click Copy UI prompt. Same rule: when it comes back, paste it in and hit Apply UI. This brings you directly to Play.

Sometimes the code that comes back does not compile. So, Copy fix prompt: that takes the error. Paste what it gives you. Compile again. When it is good, Compile goes green and the sound is live.

This one is an AI app that can connect. It uses the Model Context Protocol, a sort of standard for AIs to talk to applications. I check Settings: Outside Amorph, Live via MCP. I first create a new effect. I call it tape delay. Now I am in Build. That is where to look first. The grey dot means it is waiting for me to tell the AI to connect to this instance. I must keep the window open, or minimise it, but never close it.

I already have a Claude session that knows Amorph. I just ask it to create a vintage tape delay with some time controls. I send it and Claude starts on it. If I look at Amorph again, at some point the dot goes green. This means it found the patch, and you can see the activity starting. It is reading the DSP: a clean new patch, ready to be written. Then it gets to working. This means the AI is writing into it. If it is reasoning hard, like here, that can take up to 20 or 30 minutes. That is Claude thinking.

When you come back here, you can see the result already applied from Claude. You can keep talking to it. Same patch, same connection. It just keeps changing.

This one lives inside the plugin. You need a key. Settings, In Amorph. OpenRouter is the one we recommend. Create a new project, and now I am in Build. That is where I look first. The chat is here. Ask answers. Plan writes a plan. Agent changes the patch. I am on Agent now. You pick the model here too. With OpenRouter you can choose among 400 different models. You can also select the reasoning effort.

I tell it what I want: a vintage tape delay with musical times and a nice user interface. It thinks, it edits, it compiles. At the end I can choose whether to apply. And here it comes on my track. Sounds good. One of the tape dials is not working and the wow effect is too subtle, so I can just prompt to fix it. Now it sounds right.

If you are using the In Amorph setting, at the top you can see this circle icon. If you click on it, you can chat with the agent in Play. And the handiest thing: you can say the preset you want directly, and it changes the dials of the patch.

If you want to share, there are two ways: via link, and by exporting the file.

Share link is the cloud. You have to be logged in. I already am. Write the description. Pick a category. Under Advanced you can set the licence, add tags, and include the knob presets with it. Share, Share link. It makes a link. Copy. That is what you send to whoever you want. They open it in the browser. It tells them how to install: New patch, From link, and paste it. Just follow what is there. That is the whole install. To see the links you have already shared: Explore, on the right, click your account, Shared links. That is the list.

The other way works offline. No account. Share, Export file. You pick where it goes. That is a file. To load it: New patch, whatever you are on, From file, and you pick the .amorph file. It loads straight away.

You lock a patch when you want to send a sound, not the source. They can play it. The code stays closed. Go to Build. If the chat is open, collapse it at the top so you can see the code. At the bottom of the window you see the lock. The password is needed twice, so remember it or write it down. There is no recovery. That password encrypts the file. You can watch it close. Humans cannot read it. Agents cannot read it. Unlock with the same password and the source comes back.

Remote is for when you want the plugin in your hands: another device, real time, a phone, a tablet. Just scan a QR code and you are on the knobs. Go to Settings, click Remote. Same Wi-Fi as the computer. Scan the QR. Now they are tied together. I move a knob on the phone, it moves here. The sound still runs on the computer.

That is Amorph. There are already a lot of shared patches out there, so get inspired, and if you make one, inspire us. Join Discord. The link is under the video. We really want to hear what you build.