Plugmon is a Japanese sound and visual design company that creates eye-catching GUI skins for U-he synthesizers, leveling up the plugins.
If you work with synthesizer plugins, an exemplary user interface is essential. It promotes workflow and also creativity. Programming sounds is more fun and pleasing on synths with an attractive UI.
The German company U-he has an excellent reputation in the plugin world. Their synthesizers are high-end quality and have been made in many templates by award-winning Hollywood composers. Regarding UIs, U-he is not top-notch. They are modern and usable but don’t have a wow factor. There is still room for improvement.
It’s good that Plugmon exists. It’s a sound and visual designer company from Japan that creates stunning, alternative UIs for U-he plugins. For me, they are so eye-catching and lovely designed that they take the plugins to a new visual experience level. They almost make a new instrument out of them.
Plugmon has no news, so this article is not part of the daily news coverage. I want to highlight their work in the “in-depth” series mainly because little is said about the designers connecting with U-he.
Plugmon
Diva, Zebra 2, ACE, Bazille, Hive, Zebrallette 2, and Tyrell N6. These are all U-he synthesizers and the synths for which the Japanese developers have already made UIs—two great examples.
The most recent project is the Diva Mona skin (red/grey) for the analog modeling Synthesizer Diva. When I saw the skin for the first time, I thought to myself: “Does Urs Heckmann secretly release Diva 2?” But it’s just a new skin that, in my opinion, shows Diva in an entirely new light.
The Plugmon designers have not only added a keyboard to it but also rearranged the features to make them easier and more intuitive to work with. It now has way more of the vibe of programming a hardware synth.
The modulation system has also been simplified with color coding, etc. According to the designers, it’s inspired by the NI Massive mod system.
Another highlight of this skin is the lovely embedded mini menu above the main features., allowing you to select the different oscillator, filter, LFO, and envelope modules with a single click. In the original GUI, the functionality looks very old-fashioned.
In addition, each engine (Minimoog, MS-20, Juno, etc.) has its own newly designed theme that matches the new layout. A linked a video with the official demonstration of the UI.
Bazille Tokyo Ghost
The alternative GUI for the Bazille FM Synthesizer is just as well designed. Bazille’s sound and feature set still impress me today as they did on the first day.
Conversely, the GUI has stood still and seems old-fashioned, industrial, and too dim for me. The arrangement of the elements is also a bit wild. Check this GUI now.
Plugmon has modernized the whole thing with its Tokyo Ghost GUI, which is more friendly, brighter, and more compact, shortening the parts.
A highlight of the GUI is the ghost mode, which hides all cables with a single click. “However complex your patch becomes, you can work in dead silence,” the developers said.
In addition to these two example GUIs, Plugmon has made others. If you use Zebra 2 a lot and want to give the design a breath of fresh air, check out Plugmon’s releases. They are more fun than the original.
There are also some neat freebies, like the designs for the U-he Tryell N6 or Hive Synthesizer.
Plugmon’s GUIs aren’t cheap, but for me, they’re a massive visual upgrade over the regular U-he plugins. They are fun to work with and bring fresh life to the plugins. A tip: download the demo before diving into the Plugmon GUI verse. They are larger than the original U-he designs.
The GUIs are available now and range from free to $34,99 for the DIVA Mona skin.
More information here: Plugmon
U-he plugins are available at my partner
Make no sense at all. First, for indepth synths like Diva, we have ALREADY taken much time to learn our way around the synth. Why would we spend $35 to paint over it to have to re-learn our way around the synth again? Once you know the navigation of a synth, pretty or not, this company offers some eye candy that also makes you relearn new navigation. And $35? Crazy, not well thought out for a business model.
Counterpoint: DIVA is a great softsynth with an unappealing layout and look. Re-skinning DIVA has been popular as long as DIVA has been popular. Aesthetics and layout matter, especially in creative fields like music composition and production. It’s worth a real money to a lot of people to be able to alter or improve how their tools work.
As far as the ‘business model’ is concerned, it takes N man hours to create each of these (nothing too substantial, I assure you) and once they’re completed they can just be sold as digital goods a with no real overhead for as long as the underlying synth product remains available and popular. It’s hitting all of the Rules of Acquisition at once!
some folks just want another design right from the getgo. i wouldnt pay that much tbh, but plugmons designs are certainly VERY tasteful.
U-he should really license this skin or make similar changes- I bet it would increase sales in a big way
Yushi (aka Plugmon) makes skins that go way beyond being eye candy. There’s really a strong consideration for function and usability, making the synths much more satisfying as hands on creation tools. I use quite a few of his skins on a touchscreen monitor and they really have enhanced my workflow. (I can understand, however, that if you’ve been working with the original interface for a long time his skins might not be as useful.) The folks at u-he seem to appreciate his work since they included his Izmo skin in the Hive 2.1 installer as an alternate.
Anyone who thinks a good design on a screen involves a twisting action just doesn’t know basic ergonomics. Knobs are not designed from my design for twisty things like wrists.