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Ostinato Designer VST3 Plugin

Ostinato Designer 1.1 — ADRENALINE SCORES. Tension on tap.

Hold a chord. Get a chase scene. Hold a drum kit. Get a groove.

Ostinato Designer is a free VST3 MIDI plugin that turns notes into driving, cinematic patterns, locked to your DAW's tempo. You draw the rhythm once: up to 16 notes with accents, ties, rolls and rests. It then plays whatever you hold, so change the chord and the pulse follows. Hold the pads of a drum kit and the same engine becomes a drummer. You don't even need a keyboard: give a preset its own notes and it plays them by itself.

920 factory presets, including 550 for drums

- Cinematic (320): Action, Chase, Tension, Epic and Odd Meter bass pulses, braams, heartbeats, ticking clocks and trailer builds.

- Drums (550): built for Ableton Drum Racks and any General MIDI kit, in eight categories:

- cinematic Drums: taiko, trailer, tension, chase

- Drum & Bass: two-step, jungle, liquid, neuro

- Rock & Metal: rock, shuffle, blast beats, punk

- Hip-Hop & Trap: boom bap, trap, R&B, UK drill

- House & Techno: house, techno, garage, afro house, EDM

- Latin & World: reggaeton, salsa, bossa, samba, afrobeat, reggae

- Funk & Pop: funk, disco, pop, jazz swing

- Neuro & Bass: neuro bass, dubstep, bass house

- Hold kick C1, snare D1, closed hat F#1 and open hat A#1, and every drum preset plays your kit. Press play with nothing held and it plays those pads anyway, so you can drag a finished beat straight into Live.

- Plus 50 general-purpose grooves, favourites, and a "surprise me" dice.

Find it fast, make it yours

- Preset search: type-ahead search across all 920 presets, matching names, categories and styles like trap, 808, taiko, fill or polymeter. Best matches come first; press Enter to load.

- Your notes, per preset: click any note shown above the staff, then play, drag, scroll or type a new one, such as a different kick or a new bass root. The preset remembers them and plays them by itself whenever nothing is held.

Built for momentum

- Eight banks: chain them into an evolving sequence, or stack them as layers that play together, even at different lengths for instant polymeter.

- Expressive notes: octave jumps, ties, ratchet rolls, chance, scale steps, and articulation keyswitches for orchestral libraries.

- Perform it live: an Intensity fader, a Fill button, octave offset and range, and keyswitches to switch banks mid-take.

- Shape the feel: swing, humanise, gate, chord mode and latch, set per bank.

- Pattern tools: a Euclidean generator, tap-to-record, transforms and Mutate.

- Drag to your DAW: drop any pattern onto a track as a MIDI clip.

Make it look yours too: 48 colour themes, six languages, a resizable window, and help text on every control.

What you get: the Ostinato Designer VST3 plugin, a full user manual (including a Drums chapter with a tempo guide and worked examples), and a quick start guide with setup for Ableton Live 12 and Reaper.

Installing

1. Unzip the download into C:\Program Files\Common Files\VST3\. Windows will ask for administrator permission.

2. You'll get a Fronbondi Skegs folder with the plugin, licence and manuals inside.

3. Rescan plugins in your DAW. Ostinato Designer appears under Fronbondi Skegs.

Good to know

- Windows, 64-bit VST3.

- It's a MIDI generator: route it to any instrument (strings, synths, drum racks).

Price: FREE

If Ostinato Designer earns a place in your heart, then please consider buying me a coffee to show your support. ☕

(c) 2026 - Gavin Mogensen / Fronbondi Skegs