Welcome to WAVFin (Part 2) - The Rebuild

I’m not 100% sure how to start this. How we ended up here isn't something I’m entirely proud of, but I believe in transparency.

The main reason I had to completely recreate the website comes down to technical debt. I originally used a service called Replit to build the first version. At the time, I didn't know web design at all, I didn’t even know what NextJS was when I started so it felt like a necessary shortcut to get my plugins out to the public (which didnt work as intended)

Over the last few months, however, the cracks started showing. The Replit agent wasn't making requested changes, and the API routes were essentially taped together (and honestly, not secure). It got to the point where if more than one user tried to download a plugin at the same time, the site would essentially crash.

This technical breakdown led to a major decision: I refunded all users who had purchased the Paderns VST3 plugin.

It was only 7 people ($5 a piece, totaling $35), but the principle mattered. I’ve decided to pivot. I decided to make all of the existing plugins free. No DRM, no authentication services, just dope plugins that you can use entirely for free. I didn't feel right keeping money from people when I knew I planned to make them free anyway, so the refunds were mandatory in my eyes. 

The Future of WAVFin Audio

Now that the confusion is out of the way, here is the plan going forward:

Paderns VST3: We have finished the plugin. It will be released shortly to all users once we complete internal testing. We have a few beta users we're waiting on feedback from before the official 1.0 release. We also need to finalize the built in EQ, it is functional but sometimes cause CPU usage spikes. I have found the root cause for this and will have the solution implemented before our 1.0 release.

MaestroKit for Android: This is now 100% complete and tested internally. We are looking for external testers. If you were previously helping test MaestroKit, check your email for a Firebase invite link. We also removed the account requirements—they were more prohibitive than helpful. Currently at this stage the only thing we need to do is get our Play Developer account approved and we will upload the Android Application to both the Google Play Store and F-Droid in case Google wants to play games with their Play Store policies as usual.  At this time, I do not have any intentions on porting MaestroKit to iOS, I used android specific libraries, meaning that I will need to rewrite a good portion of the app in order to have it work on iOS. At this time, this is just not feasible for me as I am still learning C++, JUCE and still familiarizing myself with modern web technologies, down the road when I am more experienced I will reconsider.

MIDITools: As many of you know, we teased this VST3 plugin on the old site. I'm proud to say we are now in the internal testing phase, there are still some bugs that need to be resolved, and we need to finalize the Bassline generation which is built into the Chords. Multi MIDI out is complete, for programs like Ableton you will need to use 3rd party tools to utilize the Multi MIDI out, we will provide instructions and links to these tools upon release.

The Blog: Obviously, the blog is back. Why? Because I hate posting on social media. Too many people there have no idea what we do and simply wont bother to give me the time of day to read the posts. At least here, you know why you're reading this. We will continue to share these posts on Social Media (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram) to bring traffic back to the site, once I find that the social media posts dont bring traffic the blog update posts will end.

The Goal: My goal was never to get rich from plugins, the market is far too saturated for my skill level. The long-term plan is to partner with other companies to help them create their VST plugins, which will bring income to the site. I considered ads, but I’ve decided against them until backend costs can no longer be covered by my disposable income. My next blog post will go into detail on the lessons I learned, the critical mistakes and bad choices I made and how they helped me get where I am right now. 

A Personal Note

Right now, WAVFin isn't my only nor primary focus; I also work a full time job which at this time is my priority as it pays my bills. The goal is that within the next year or two we will have enough traffic and projects with other companies so I can allow myself to be 100% locked into WAVFin. 

Thanks for sticking around for the rebuild. as the image states

Welcome to WAVFin, we love you.