Claro

Claro is a tone control plugin for music producers. It became the fastest-selling Sonnox product.

As Product Lead I took it from a tension we noticed in user behaviour to a shipped product, shaping the strategy, the interaction model, and the signal processing through iterative prototyping with a small alpha group.

The core insight was that amateur producers need to “mix a little” while composing, but detailed controls pull them out of creative flow. Existing tools forced a choice, leaving producers bouncing between tools for different parts of the process.

We thought there was room for something that let people move fluidly back and forth between fast creative decisions and more detailed control, and that the interface and the algorithms had to be designed together for that to actually work.

A few things I’m particularly proud of: figuring out how simple the simplest view could be without losing usefulness; replacing Hz/dB labels with descriptive language that less experienced users found intuitive, while keeping precise anchors available for experts without cluttering the interface; novel spectral metering to guide decision-making; and moments where listening past what testers were asking for revealed what they actually needed.

“This is like… you’re nailing the main problem here, for producers right now.”

Abbey Road Institute

“I’m a complainer. And really, honestly, everything with Claro is really well thought out.”

Adam Hawkins – Twenty One Pilots, Machine Gun Kelly, Yungblud

Role • Product Lead – strategy, user research, interaction design, algorithm design, visual design, cross-functional delivery