Workshop 4: Accessible Artful Plugin Design with Phausto and JUCE
Artful Design is a design practice in search of the sublime, where form follows function and aesthetics is coupled with ethics. It is design that is expressive, socially meaningful, and humanistic. But designing audio plugins usually means fighting with C++ before you ever hear a sound. This workshop flips that order. Using Phausto, a DSP DSL inside the live Pharo environment, you will prototype an artful multieffect, with no C++ for the audio engine. Phausto's JUCE exporter then hands you a complete project: Projucer and CMake files, the processor and editor definitions and implementations, and the glue code that ties them together. The only C++ you write is the UI, which you will sketch quickly in Bloc and p5.js and translate into JUCE components with help from an LLM. By the end you will have built, assembled, and tested a working plugin in your own DAW, and seen how an accessible workflow leaves more room for design that has character. And you will have learnt how to design sound, graphics, and interaction together for play and delight.
Session 1 (40 min): Introduction
- What Artful Design means and why it matters for audio tools: designing for expression and with a fundamental emphasis on aesthetics, not just spec compliance.
- Quick tour of Pharo as a live environment and Phausto as a DSP DSL that hides the C++ from you.
- What JUCE is and where it sits in the plugin world.
Session 2 (40 min): Prototype and export
- Build an Artful multieffect live in Phausto, shaping the sound by ear inside the running image.
- Walk through the JUCE exporter: the Projucer and CMake files it generates, the processor and editor definition/implementation files, and the glue code it writes for you.
- Open the exported project and confirm the DSP core is ready before any UI exists.
Session 3 (50 min): Sketch the UI
- Sketch the interface fast where sketching is cheap: Bloc in Pharo and/or p5.js on the web.
- Use an LLM to help translate those sketches into JUCE components, mapping visual ideas to real controls.
- Focus on the design intent first, the JUCE syntax second.
Session 4 (30 min): Assemble and test
- Bring the exported DSP and the hand-written UI together, build the plugin, and load it in your DAW of choice.
- Test, tweak, and discuss where to take it next.
Domenico Cipriani
Researcher / Software Developer
EVREF / Inria
Domenico Cipriani (aka Lucretio) is a minimalist dance music producer and sound researcher with over 100 vinyl releases and performances at iconic clubs including Berghain, Tresor, Rex, and Fabric. He is co-founder of the influential label Restoration, a key player in the vinyl resurgence of the late 2000s.
Holding an M.A. in Linguistics from the University of Padova, Domenico bridges research and music technology. Since discovering Symbolic Sound Kyma in 2016, he has specialized in Open Sound Control protocols and presented an interactive network performances at the >>Sonic Experiments<< festival at ZKM.
He currently conducts computer music research with the Inria EVREF team in Lille and develops audio plugins with the indie company Soft Computing, all while remaining active as a DJ and live performer.
Domenico is also the creator of Coypu and Phausto. With Coypu, he has performed at the International Live Coding Conference in Shanghai (2024) and Barcelona (2025).