Sam Windell's Website

This is my corner of the web where I share things I find interesting — technical insights from building audio software, thoughts on craft and values, and the occasional personal reflection. If you’ve found my work and want to know more about the person behind it, or if you’re exploring similar ideas, this is where we might connect.

About Me

I'm Sam Windell, a software developer from the UK specializing in audio tools.

I care about making tools that respect their users: software that's thoughtfully designed, performs well, and doesn't get in the way of creativity. My professional experience lies mostly in cross-platform native application development (audio plugins) in C++, with a strong interest in Zig and C.

Sam Windell

Projects

FrozenPlain

FrozenPlain is my one-person sample library company. I create cinematic and ambient instruments for composers, handling everything from sound design and instrument sampling to web development, marketing, and support. I collaborate with musicians and sound designers, but also record and process many instruments myself.

Floe

Floe is the open-source sample library platform that powers FrozenPlain’s instruments. Built from scratch in C++ for Windows, Linux, and macOS, it’s designed as a streamlined player and sample-based synth. Floe focuses on familiar, well-established features for finding, performing, and transforming sample-based instruments, with comprehensive search, tagging, and sound-shaping tools all accessible through a consistent interface.

Signet

Signet is a free open-source command-line tool for bulk-editing audio files. It’s particularly useful for sample library developers who need to process hundreds of audio files in consistent ways — normalizing levels, applying fades, converting formats, and preparing samples for use in samplers.

Minor Projects

NoiseRF

NoiseRF is a free open-source noise reduction plugin - a reformatting to CLAP and bug-fix fork of Luciano Dato’s version, converted to CLAP format with Zig build system and various bug fixes. I created this version because I wanted high-quality noise reduction in Linux DAWs and preferred the CLAP API.

Workshop

Workshop is my personal config for my Linux (NixOS), macOS, and WSL machines configured with Nix. Highlights include Neovim and a Hyprland setup. Not really intended for public use, but available for those interested.

Open-source highlights