Osziskope
An oscilloscope plugin for your DAW. Shows what effects do to your signal.
Osziskope is an oscilloscope as a VST3 plugin. It draws the waveform of your signal and can lock it to your DAW's bar grid. The main trick: several instances can see each other. Put one before and one after an effect, and both traces are drawn on top of each other, so you see right away what the effect does to the signal.
Try it
Recreated in the browser, no download needed.
Recreated in the browser. Magenta is a drum loop before the compressor, cyan after it. Play with threshold and ratio and watch what happens to the peaks.
What Osziskope does
Beat Sync
The display window follows your DAW's bar grid: 1/16, 1/8, 1/4, 2/4, 3/4, 1, 2 or 4 bars. The trace is written from left to right and stays until the next cycle starts. Beat numbers and a write cursor show where you are.
Compare before and after
Instances in the same group (1 to 8) can show each other's traces with “Show Others”. Each instance has its own colour out of eight and takes the track name and colour from your DAW if the DAW provides them. A small legend shows which trace belongs to which track.
dB grid with headroom
The 0 dBFS lines are marked in red, with about 3.5 dB of headroom visible above them. Overs are not cut off but land in a slightly red zone. Reference lines at −6, −12, −18 and +3 dB help you read levels.
Transients stay visible
The trace is drawn as a min/max envelope, so short peaks like a kick's attack don't get lost when the display is scaled down.
Time mode with trigger
Instead of the bar grid, Osziskope can also run on a fixed timebase from 1 ms to 2 s. The trigger reacts to rising or falling edges, with adjustable threshold and holdoff, or runs freely.
Channels, gain and freeze
Show the left or right channel, the mono sum or mid-side. Vertical gain from −24 to +40 dB enlarges quiet signals. Freeze holds the picture.
How to see what a compressor does
- Put Osziskope on the track before the compressor and a second instance right after it.
- Set both instances to the same group and turn on “Show Others” on the second one.
- Choose Beat Sync with 1 bar. Now both traces sit on top of each other: you see how much the peaks get flattened and how the decay changes.
Key facts
- Price
- free
- Format
- VST3
- System
- Windows (64-bit)
- Tested in
- FL Studio
- Type
- Analyzer / oscilloscope
- Version
- 0.1.1
- Status
- finished, in use
- Built with
- JUCE (C++)
Osziskope is a hobby project, built with a lot of help from AI (vibe-coded). It is finished and I use it in my own productions.
Installation
- Download the ZIP file and unzip it.
- Copy the “Osziskope.vst3” folder to C:\Program Files\Common Files\VST3.
- Let your DAW rescan for plugins. In FL Studio, use “Find installed plugins” in the Plugin Manager.
SHA-256 checksum: fcdc845a9588c5ce64f95064949939b6ad19d429f67c9dd42e5e64d22c2fd0b4
The files are not digitally signed. Use at your own risk, no warranty.
FAQ
›What does an oscilloscope plugin do?
It shows the waveform of an audio signal over time, so you can see level changes, transients and overs that a level meter doesn't show.
›How do I compare a signal before and after an effect?
Put one instance before and one after the effect, set both to the same group and enable “Show Others”. Both traces are drawn on top of each other in different colours.
›Does the display follow my DAW's tempo?
Yes. In Beat Sync mode the display window follows your DAW's tempo and bar grid, from 1/16 up to 4 bars.
›Can I look at mid and side separately?
Yes. Osziskope can show the left or right channel, the mono sum or mid-side.
›Is Osziskope free?
Yes. You can download and use Osziskope for free.
›Which DAWs does Osziskope work in?
I tested it in FL Studio. Since it's a regular VST3 plugin, it should work in any DAW that supports VST3, for example Ableton Live, Cubase, Reaper, Bitwig or Studio One.
›Does Osziskope run on a Mac?
So far there is only a Windows version (64-bit). I haven't tested macOS, so I'm not offering it yet.
Questions or ideas? Get in touch.
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