The AI-Generated VST Grift – $99 for 10 Seconds of Prompting?

Is it just me, or has the VST market in 2026 become a playground for low-effort grifters?

The technical barrier to entry has officially hit rock bottom.

With AI doing the heavy lifting, any "entrepreneur" with zero DSP knowledge can now prompt their way to a plugin.

They let an LLM generate a basic script, wrap it in a JUCE or Faust template, and compile it via Visual Studio 2022.

The result? "CoolPlugin.vst" – which is usually nothing more than a recycled tanh() function or a generic library filter.

But the real insult isn't just the lack of talent—it's the predatory marketing.
These people aren't developers; they are grifters looking for a quick exit. The formula is pathetic:

1. Prompt an AI for a "unique analog saturation" script (it's always just basic clipping).
2. Slap a shiny 3D GUI on it to hide the hollow core.
3. Set an absurd "MSRP" of $99.
4. Immediately offer a "generous" 40% or 60% discount to bait people with fake FOMO.

You’re paying $60 for 10 seconds of prompting and a stock JUCE wrapper. These grifters are burying the real innovators—the engineers who actually spend months on custom DSP research and manual optimization—under a mountain of overpriced, AI-generated garbage.


My questions:

- How do you filter out this AI-slop from actual engineering?

- Do you think distributors like Plugin Boutique or ADSR are complicit by allowing this junk on their storefronts just to collect their cut?

- Is the "plugin bubble" finally about to burst under the weight of this low-effort trash?
Let's call this out for what it is. The market is being flooded with hot air and fake discounts.

 

Last edited: Feb 19, 2026 at 12:32 PM

Agreed!

The phenomenon is very much noticeable on the sister site: a ton of new releases, completely new brands and "devs" we have never seen before are comping up with: "vintage looking GUI", yet another analog comp or a new "better" pultec eq attempt...

The cause:
AI programming assistants, with zero code knowledge now, you "can"

at some point, what i believe will happen in the near future:
DAWs will integrate a prompt where you will be like: "i need a preamp that has 1073 character with +6db on track 5 as insert" and bam!

 

What are some examples of what you speak of?

 

The point isn't to name and shame specific brands, that’s a distraction.

The issue is the recognizable pattern of "Prompt-to-Plugin" development that has emerged recently.

You can identify these releases by a few clear technical and marketing red flags:

1. DSP Mediocrity: If you run these plugins through a tool like PluginDoctor, you’ll often see identical harmonic profiles. Many are just basic AI-generated C++ code for a standard Tanh(x) saturation or a generic biquad filter. There is zero custom oversampling logic or sophisticated inter-sample peak handling things that real DSP engineers spend months perfecting.

2. Generic UI Wrappers: Since the "developers" spend no time on the code, they overcompensate with the GUI. You’ll see hyper-realistic 3D knobs on a plugin that only has one or two actual parameters. If the interface looks like a $500 hardware unit but the internal logic is a stock JUCE template, you’re looking at slop.

3. The "MSRP Anchor" Trap: This is the biggest giveaway. The plugin is launched at a fake "premium" price (e.g., $99) only to be permanently "on sale" for $29 or $40. This isn't a discount; it’s a pricing strategy designed to exploit FOMO and trick people into thinking they are getting high-end engineering for a bargain.

4. Lack of Documentation: Real developers provide detailed manuals explaining their unique algorithms or circuit-modeling process. AI-slop sellers usually stick to vague buzzwords like "Revolutionary AI-Driven Analog Magic" because they can't explain the math—they didn't write it.
It’s about the shift from engineering-first to marketing-first products. If a plugin looks like a boutique hardware unit but sounds indistinguishable from a free stock DAW effect, you have your answer.

 

If you prevent amateur chancers with no technical ability from flooding the market with plugins, shouldn't you do the same for all the amateur chancers with no musical abilty who flood the market with music, er, productions?

Leave 'em to it, match made 'eaven innit.

 

That’s a false equivalency.

An amateur musician uploading a bad song to SoundCloud isn't charging $99 for it based on a deceptive marketing campaign.
They are participating in an art form.

The "chancers" I’m talking about are selling a technical product.
If you buy a tool, you expect engineering, not a recycled script hidden behind a shiny UI and a fake discount.

We aren't talking about "bad art" we are talking about the devaluation of software engineering.

When the market is flooded with low-effort, AI-generated wrappers, the real developers—the ones who actually innovate and spend years mastering DSP—get drowned out.

If you’re fine with the "race to the bottom" where marketing budgets matter more than the code itself, that’s your choice.

But let’s not pretend that a cash-grab plugin is the same as someone just trying to write a song.

 

You are either part of the problem or part of the solution.

Either be part of the solution and name the names while ranting to help the community, IE support your initial assertion post when asked... or you are actually part of the problem too.

 

See this:

https://www.synthtopia.com/content/...te-new-effects-instruments-right-in-your-daw/

 

The "solution" is teaching people how to spot bad engineering, not handing out a shopping list of villains.

If you need me to point at specific brands to see the pattern, you’re missing the point of the technical critique.
I’m here to discuss DSP standards and market ethics, not to provide entertainment through naming and shaming.

 

nope, that was 2005.

 

I fully agree with you. You're doing the right thing calling out this thievery.

 

The AI ship sailed long ago, my friend. Embrace the puffer fish.

 

Well said my dude. It's about the structure not the individual players (brands) pumping out the fast food plugins. Those brands come and go. The structure, however, remains, which facilitates and or encourages more of these brands to exist.

Again! Well said! I believe we need to have more of these public discussions about the structures of things before they become systemic. There is a difference between critical thinking and just being critical.

 

Can I get fries with mine?

 

I think the plug-in market was already overcrowded and now this ... Well it is what it is I guess. I like to always believe that the cream rises to the top be it in any field. But for sure this generates more noise.

 

my main reason why i do not even watch a youtubers plugins.... money grabbers!

 

If people (the "I don't know, it just magically opens up the mix in the low-mids, totally different from anything that I've heard before. It's so 3D and this almost sing-songy harmonic quality around 1.3k" crowd anyway) realised how hard they've been fucked with for the past quarter of a century, there'd be a non-insignificant number of hits ordered on retired plugin developers.

 

Not saying that I disagree with the sentiment, I just wish there were actual examples with some supporting evidence that it's just AI prompting instead of pure incompetence/amateurish coding.

I actually find NAM profiles masquerading as plugins much more egregious than anything else. And this is simply because NAM profiles are shit plugins. Take that AnalogX for example, good idea held back by the fact that NAM and its adjacents do not sound any better than algorithmic saturation, but people are willing to fool themselves without comparing. "It sounds great, so analog!", like many algos these days do for a 1/5 of the processing. lol