Learn to create digital guitar pedals and DAW plugins the easy and fun way
If you're a creative musician, then making the effects you hear in your head - the ones you've always wanted and could never find anywhere - has never been easier than it is right now. In this course we show you how to create your own digital guitar pedals and your own plugins for your DAW. You don't need any experience with any of it. All you need is your musicality and your creativity.
Enroll Now: $189or 3 payments of $67
Maybe it's a sound you've had stuck in your head for years. You've tried pedal after pedal chasing it, and every one of them got close in one way and then fell short somewhere else. At some point you start wondering if the only way to get it is to build it yourself.
That's usually where it stops. The DIY route looks daunting when you've never dipped a toe in it, YouTube videos often skip right past the questions a beginner actually has, and forums might assume you already have general engineering knowledge.
The digital side is the worst about it. Almost everything out there is written by people who already write code, for people who care about the engineering. Nobody is writing for the player who knows exactly what a great hall reverb should sound like, or for the part that actually matters, which is making something so inspiring that you just want to sit down and play more.
Maybe you just want to stretch your creativity a bit, make some great sounding guitar effects, and have a lot of fun doing it.
If that's you, this is exactly what you've been looking for.
Let's be honest, we're all musicians here. What we really want is not to learn a bunch of math. We want to figure out new ways to be creative and make cool stuff. I completely understand, so here is how this works.
In this course, the coding part is handled by an LLM and a special series of prompts we built for exactly this. You think of an effect and you describe it in plain English, in whatever words make sense to you. A minute or so later there's working code sitting there. You copy that code, paste it into a free browser tool, and play your guitar through it right then. There's no soldering yet, nothing to buy, and nothing to install. You just listen to it.
If there's something you don't quite like, you say what you don't like and what you'd rather hear instead, and you play through it again. That loop is where the magic happens. And you can say it the way a musician says it. Chewy, glassy, touch sensitive, all of that is understood.
Once it sounds right, you simply flash it to the hardware, and it now lives inside your pedal or inside your favorite DAW. The fun part here is that you can create anything you can dream up. This is all about creativity, not a structured, math heavy engineering course. What you're doing here used to take a team of developers, and it doesn't anymore.
The writing of the actual code is handled for you. And if you ever do get curious about it, it has never been easier to simply ask why it works that way and get a real answer back. The whole system is built to make this as easy and as enjoyable for you as it can possibly be.
You bring the ideas and your ears. Everything else here is handled for you.
Enroll Now: $189 or 3 payments of $67The tech limits are gone. You can create any new effect you can dream up.
Load it up and put it inside your own pedal, built on the platform this course uses, a module called the Daisy Seed.
RUN THE EFFECTS IN NEARLY ANY DAW
Maybe you're more interested in home recording and you don't really need another pedal. Maybe you've got a DAW open half the time and a folder full of plugins you paid a ton of money for, and the idea of paying a monthly fee from here on out just to keep running them in your own workflow is depressing.
That's no problem. You can just create your own with this same system.
That same DSP file converts easily into a plugin for nearly any DAW you'd want to run it in. It builds as a VST3 for Reaper, Cubase, and Ableton, and as an Audio Unit for Logic and GarageBand.
And since you're not limited by space, or by how many knobs you can actually put on a metal box, you can get incredibly creative here. You get stereo in and out, as many controls as you want, and "toggle switches" to flip effects on and off. Morph controls, character changing parameters, whatever you can think of, you can make it. For example, in the course, Sascha Suhr builds one simple plugin that chains an overdrive into a flanger into a delay, each with its own switch, its own knobs and sliders, a dry/wet mix, and a master output. And since it's a plugin now instead of a guitar pedal, you can use it for vocals, keys, drums or anything else running through your DAW, not just guitar. And even better, you can share these with friends, post them in your favorite forum, reddit or discord group, or maybe even offer them to your bandmates.
No subscription, no monthly fee, and no waiting around for somebody else to make the plugin you already hear in your head.
Here's What You'll Learn To Do
Hear It In Minutes
You'll hear your first real effect playing through your own amp in your very first session. You don't need a programming background, and if you're brand new to all of it, we'll walk you through it.
Describe It, Then Hear It
Anything you can describe, you can build. A simple tremolo, or a huge phasing "Grand Canyon" stereo reverb with volume swelling high octaves for a shimmer on top. You describe it, you listen to it, and you change it until it's yours.
Wire The Hardware
You'll wire a full breadboard pedal from scratch. Input and output circuitry, three working knobs, and a live guitar signal running through it. If you've built analog, most of this already looks familiar.
Recreate The Classics
Take a commercial pedal you already know and rebuild it, then push it past what the original could ever do and make it do the thing you always wished it did.
Master The Workflow
Get from an idea in your head to working hardware every single time, without fighting the tools or sitting there guessing at why something won't run.
Make It Permanent
Turn your breadboard build into a real, permanent pedal on stripboard, with links to PCB options if you'd rather have something cleaner for the long haul.
Turn It Into A Plugin
Take that same effect and turn it into a plugin for your DAW, VST3 or Audio Unit, using one easy automated build script.
Go Beyond Hardware Limits
Build plugins that go way past what a pedal can do. Stereo, as many controls as you want, whole chains of effects, and sounds for vocals, keys, and drums, not just guitar.
Unlimited New Effects
Keep creating on your own long after the course is over, with a repeatable method for new effects, plus 25 ready-made effect templates if you'd rather start from something that already works.
Get Unstuck Fast
Get answers quick from a private forum with Sascha Suhr and the support team in it, plus three assistants trained on everything that's in this course.
30-Day Guarantee
Buy it once and own it for life. Love it or full refund. 30 days, no questions asked.
Curriculum
Part 1: Build the Pedal
Welcome and Overview
The roadmap, the full parts list, and a clear picture of where you're headed, so you know exactly what to order before you spend a dollar.
Introducing the Daisy Seed
What the board actually is, how the pins work, and why it's the right platform for what you're about to do with it.
Software and Platform Setup
A one time setup, done right, so you never have to think about it again. Full step by step for both Windows and macOS.
Creating Your Effects (The Core Workflow)
The heart of it. The six step workflow that takes a plain English description and turns it into working, testable code, including your first real effect, a tremolo, and how to refine it and troubleshoot as you go.
Hardware Setup, Making It a Pedal
Off the browser and onto the breadboard. Input and output circuitry, potentiometers, and getting the Daisy Seed ready for its first firmware.
From Code to Daisy Seed
Flashing the firmware, checking your signal and your knobs, and hearing your own effect come through a real amp for the first time.
Recreating Classic Pedals
You'll rebuild the TC Electronic Sub'n'Up Mini Octaver from scratch using the workflow, and then learn how to take it past what the original does.
Wrap-Up
Your breadboard build becomes a permanent pedal on stripboard, with PCB options and a clear picture of where you go from here.
Part 2: Turn It Into a Plugin
Would you rather skip the pedal and just make plugins? No problem at all. It's the same lessons and the same tools, you simply skip around the hardware steps and use your effect as a plugin instead of flashing it to a pedal.
Plugin Environment Setup
Two more free tools installed and set up, with separate walkthroughs for Windows and Mac, so your machine can build plugins.
No Hardware Limits
A method built specifically for plugins, where all the hardware limits come off. Stereo, as many controls as you want, knobs, switches, and whole chains of effects.
Automated Compiler
One automated script turns your DSP file into a real VST3 and Audio Unit plugin. You never write a line of plugin code by hand.
Real-time DAW Integration
Load it up, play through it, tweak it in real time, and hear the same effect you built for your pedal running right there in your sessions.
Is This Course For You?
This is for you if:
- You've built an analog kit or your own basic circuits, and you'd like to add digital to what you can already do
- Or you've always wanted to make your own plugins and were never quite sure where to start
- You looked into building digital effects at some point and it seemed like way too much work, or it just got overwhelming
- You want delays, reverbs, pitch shifters, and modulation, plus creative sounds that analog simply can't do at all
- You record at home, and you want your own effects sitting in your DAW, not just on the floor in front of you
- You can solder and breadboard a basic circuit (unless you only want the plugins)
- You'd rather have one platform that runs everything than a new board for every single pedal
This is not for you if:
- You've never soldered or breadboarded before and you still want to build the digital pedal. There's analog circuitry in this build, so start with the Complete Beginner's Guide to DIY Guitar Pedal Circuits first.
- You want to work at a professional DSP engineering level. This is a musician's, builder's, and creator's course, and it isn't an engineering program.
- You're expecting finished, store-ready plugins with a polished interface. The plugins work and they sound great, but the interface stays basic. Making one look professional means going into JUCE and learning graphic design and C++ yourself, and that's past what this course teaches.
Meet Sascha Suhr
I've been building and designing guitar pedals for more than 20 years. I don't teach a subject just because I can put my name on it. When I add a course, I go find the person who knows the material cold and can teach it without leaving holes in it.
For the digital side, that's Sascha Suhr. He's got an electrical engineering degree and 40 years of chasing tone as a working musician, and he wrote Tracking Down Your Dream Tone, Vol. 1 and 2, which a lot of people in the DIY community already have on the shelf. He also teaches the LTSpice course here on the site. He understands this stuff at the level where he can actually make it simple for you, and that last part is what most people can't do.
Newest Reviews
"This truly opened up a new world."
A very practical course that lets you create new sounds and experiment with pedals that would be costly or impossible to recreate otherwise. Sascha's step-by-step explanations were great. Gives you a solid grounding to go and build on your own.
Giorgio Marfella
"Excelente."
A great course, especially for starting to experiment with digital effects.
Edel Carrillo
$189
- The full course, every video lesson, both the pedal build and the plugin workflow
- Lifetime access. Buy it one time and own it for good.
- A private community forum with direct access to Sascha Suhr and the GuitarPedalCourse.com support team
-
Three custom assistants, one each for Claude, ChatGPT, and Gemini, trained only on the content in this course. These aren't general purpose tools. They know this exact workflow, this hardware, and this method, so when it's midnight and you just want an answer, you get one that actually fits what you're doing instead of one that runs you in circles for an hour.
- 25 ready-to-use effect templates: EQ, compression, de-essers, pitch shifters, flangers, reverbs, rotary, delays, and more. Load them straight to hardware, take them apart to see how they work, or use them as a starting point for something of your own.
- Love it or full refund. 30 days, no questions asked.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I have to build a physical pedal, or can I just make plugins for my DAW?
Either one, and the two halves of this course stand on their own. If you want a real pedal you can stomp on, you build it on the Daisy Seed. If all you want is custom plugins for your recordings, you can skip the hardware entirely. There's no soldering, no breadboard, and nothing to buy. You design the effect in a free browser tool and the plugin builds straight from it. Plenty of people come in for one and end up doing both, but you don't have to. You follow the same lessons either way, and the plugins only path uses the same tools and the same effect creation. You just skip the hardware parts.
Do I really not need to know how to code?
Correct. You describe the effect you want in plain English, the code gets written for you by the LLM and the series of prompts we built for this course, and then you shape it by ear until it's what you heard in your head. It's the same way you've always worked with analog. Change something, listen, change it again. If you've ever swapped a cap and listened to what it did to the sound, you already know how to do this.
What if I actually want to learn to write all the code myself, by hand?
Then this isn't your course, and I'd rather tell you straight than take your money. This course is about being creative and making effects fast, with the code handled for you. If your real goal is to learn C++ from the ground up and write every line of it yourself, that's a legitimate path, it's just a different one. Go get the 1,300-page Stroustrup, the book the language's own creator wrote, and dig in. It's a real undertaking, and if that's the road you want, it's the right place to start.
Do I need to buy expensive software?
No. The browser tool you design your effects in is free, and so is the rest of the toolchain. If you're only making plugins, that free software is everything you need and there's nothing else to buy. If you want the physical pedal too, the only things you're buying are the Daisy Seed and the basic components that go around it, and the full parts list is in Section 1 so you know exactly what to order before you spend a dime.
Does this work on Mac?
Yes. There are full, separate setup walkthroughs for both macOS and Windows, on the pedal side and on the plugin side. Both of them are tested.
Will the plugins work in my DAW?
If your DAW takes VST3 or Audio Unit, yes, and that covers Reaper, Cubase, Ableton, Logic, GarageBand, and most others. One thing to know up front: this builds VST3 and Audio Unit, not native Pro Tools AAX. There are third-party ways to load VST into Pro Tools, but that setup is outside what this course covers.
I already build analog pedals. Is the hardware side going to be too basic for me?
Your analog background is the advantage here. The wiring around the digital module is all stuff you already know, meaning inputs, outputs, power, and knobs. The course moves through that quick and spends its time where the new skill actually is, which is describing effects, dialing them in, and hearing what comes out the other side. That's where you'll spend most of your time too.
What if I get stuck?
You have two ways out. The private forum gets you Sascha Suhr and the support team, people who know this build inside and out and can actually troubleshoot it with you. And at midnight when you just want an answer, the three assistants are trained only on this course, so they know your exact workflow and where it usually goes sideways, instead of handing you the generic answers that run you in circles.