Windows 10 and 11, 64 bit · All the common plugin formats

Every plugin and sample you own, one search away.

GroundLab Crate reads every plugin, sound, preset and project on your machine, listens to each sample once, and loads any of them straight onto the track you are working on.

Download the free trial See what it does

14 days, everything on. No account and no card. Version 0.4.0, 23 MB, Windows 10 and 11.

GroundLab Crate sound map: every sample in the library plotted as a coloured dot, grouped into clouds by type

You already own the sound you are looking for. This is the shortest way back to it.

What it changes

  • Search the way you think

    Type a maker, a category and a word in any order: "tape comp", "plate reverb". Ctrl+K from anywhere, arrow keys through the results, Esc to clear.

  • Hear it, do not just read it

    Every sample is listened to once in the background. Tempo, key and timbre are measured, so a loop whose name says nothing still arrives tagged 128 BPM, F minor.

  • One keystroke onto the track

    Double-click a plugin and it opens inside a GroundLab Rack on the mixer track you have selected. No hunting through a menu of four hundred names.

  • It learns from your songs

    Your project files are read for the plugins and samples they use. Sounds you have already used carry an "In my songs" tag, and a plugin's page says how many of your songs use it.

How it works

  1. Install

    One installer puts down the app, both GroundLab Racks and the DAW link. Your computer asks for permission once, and it uninstalls cleanly like any other app.

  2. It reads your machine

    The file pass takes about ten seconds and everything appears at once. Details and pictures fill in behind you, cached until a plugin file changes.

  3. Load into the song

    Add a GroundLab Rack to a track once. After that, anything you pick in the app lands in it, in time with the song, and saves with the project.

A closer look

Plugins

Your library, with its face on

Every plugin is a card showing a picture of its own window, captured once in the background. The ones that will not load say so plainly, and the dashboard counts duplicates, 32 bit leftovers, disk use and how much of the library has pictures.

  • The common plugin formats, read without loading them first
  • Favourites, tags and your own categories survive every rescan
  • Install by dropping a plugin file, a .zip or a maker's installer on the window
  • Uninstall moves files aside with a manifest, it never deletes on its own
GroundLab Crate library dashboard: plugin counts, favourites and a library health panel

Sounds

Your samples as a map you can hear

Every sample is a dot. By type gathers them into clouds: kicks, snares, hats, 808s, vocals, loops. By sound spreads them by pitch across the mixing bands, with how long they ring running bottom to top. Hover a dot and it plays.

  • Tempo and key measured from the audio, not only read off the name
  • Fits key keeps only the sounds that sit well with what is playing
  • Similar finds the closest sounds by timbre and key
  • Drag a dot straight into your DAW
GroundLab Crate sound map: every sample in the library plotted as a coloured dot, grouped into clouds by type

Presets, MIDI and projects

The rest of the library, same treatment

Presets sit under the plugin that plays them. MIDI clips show a mini piano roll and preview with a kit, a bass or a pad chosen to match the part. Your songs are listed with templates marked, so a new track starts from a copy.

  • Rate anything one to five stars, then sort by what you rated
  • Command palette on Ctrl+P: "sync 140", "fits f#m", "load reverb"
  • Spectrum, vectorscope and meters run while you preview
GroundLab Crate preset browser: presets grouped by plugin with star ratings

In your DAW

It plays in time with the song

The app follows your project tempo, so loops and clips preview at the song's speed and line up with its bars when you press play. In supported DAWs, a link set up by the installer sends what you load to the mixer track you have selected.

  • GroundLab Rack FX for mixer slots, Rack Instrument for channels
  • The Rack keeps working with the app closed
  • The project saves the plugin, its preset, the sample and the clip
  • Works in any DAW that loads plugins; supported DAWs also get the track-aware link
GroundLab Crate guided tour explaining how a GroundLab Rack links the app to your DAW

The library, from above

Every sound you own, in one shape

The app places each sound by what it is and how it sounds, bright ones towards the top, deep ones below. Turn it, stop on a point and hear it. This is that view, in miniature.

Everything it does

Plugins

  • Finds every plugin you have installed, in all three common formats
  • A real picture of each plugin's own window on its card
  • Makers, categories, your own tags, favourites and five-star ratings
  • Duplicates folded into one, and the broken ones say so
  • Hide, uninstall or restore, with nothing deleted behind your back

Sounds, clips and presets

  • One library for samples, MIDI clips, presets and your own projects
  • Presets sit under the plugin that plays them
  • Stray system files hidden and duplicates folded away
  • Ratings and tags on anything, then sort by what you rated
  • MIDI clips preview with a sound you choose: keys, strings, a kit

It listens to your library

  • Tempo, key and tone measured from the audio, not read off the name
  • Fits key leaves only the sounds that sit well with what is playing
  • Similar finds the closest sounds by tone and key
  • The sound map and the globe place every sound by what it is
  • Hover a point and it plays

In your songs

  • GroundLab Rack, FX and Instrument, loads any plugin into the song
  • Browse plugins as picture cards from inside the Rack
  • Loops preview at the song's tempo, on its bars, keeping their pitch
  • Drag a sound straight onto a track
  • Mix, Output and Bypass, A/B compare, preset stepping and a live meter
  • The saved project remembers the plugin, preset, sample and clip

Around the app

  • Command palette on Ctrl+P, show and hide with Ctrl+Alt+G
  • Sits in the tray and can start with Windows
  • A guided tour, a see-through window and themes
  • Spectrum, stereo scope and meters while you preview
  • It reads your projects to learn which plugins and samples you use

Yours, privately

  • Feature counts stay on your machine, and you can switch them off
  • File names and paths are never recorded
  • Nothing is uploaded unless you enter an address yourself
  • No account and no sign-in
  • A licence key is checked on your machine, with no server to call

What you need

  • Windows 10 or 11, 64 bit. It does not run on a Mac
  • Any DAW that loads plugins, for the GroundLab Rack
  • The track-aware DAW link uses a virtual MIDI port, offered during setup
  • Installer is 23 MB; the library lives in your user folder
  • If the download stops early, start it again — it carries on where it left off

Free for 14 days, then one payment

$25 USDPaid once, no subscription.

  • 14 days with everything on, no account and no card
  • After that, browsing, search, previews and the sound map stay free
  • A key turns loading into your songs back on, and unlocks the Rack
  • A key covers two of your own computers
  • No sign-in and nothing to activate: it works offline, for good

You can use the trial today. Buying is not open yet, so leave your address and you will hear on the day keys go on sale.

Your key is sent by email within 24 hours of the order. Because of the 14 day trial, purchases are not refunded as a rule.

Licence terms and refunds

Licence terms and refunds

The trial

Fourteen days with every feature on, and no account or card needed. After it ends, browsing, search and previews keep working. Loading into your DAW, Send to DAW, Sync and the GroundLab Rack browser need a key. Songs you have already made keep playing.

Your licence

GroundLab Crate costs USD 25, once. Your key is sent by email within 24 hours of the order.

It is a personal licence, for one person on up to two computers you use. It does not expire and it works offline. The key carries your name and email, so please do not share or publish it, and do not resell, rent or redistribute the software or its keys.

Your music is yours

Everything you make with it belongs to you. GroundLab claims no rights over your projects, your sounds or your music, and the app never uploads your files.

Refunds

Because you can try every feature free for fourteen days before paying, purchases are not refunded as a rule. If your key does not work, you bought twice by mistake, or something else went wrong with your order, write to info@blackroutstudios.com and it gets fixed or refunded.

The software itself

GroundLab Crate and GroundLab Rack are provided as is. They are built to be reliable, but we cannot take responsibility for lost work, or for how other people's plugins and software behave. Keep backups of your projects.

Getting hold of us

Write to info@blackroutstudios.com and a person answers.

This is the whole of it, in plain English. Questions to info@blackroutstudios.com.

Questions

Which plugin formats does it read?

All three common plugin formats on PC, 64 bit. It first reads what each file says about itself, then opens the quiet ones in a separate probe, four at a time. A plugin that crashes takes down only its own probe, never the app.

Do I need a particular DAW?

No. Any DAW that loads plugins can load a GroundLab Rack, and the app previews through it. Supported DAWs get one extra thing: a link that sends what you pick to the mixer track you have selected.

Will it move or delete my plugins?

Not unless you ask it to. Uninstalling from inside the app moves the files into a GroundLab "Uninstalled" folder with a manifest, where you can restore them. Delete permanently is the only step that erases anything, and it asks first.

What does it send over the internet?

Nothing. It keeps a count of which features you use and what errors happened, on your machine only: Settings, then Diagnostics shows those counts, exports them or clears them, and switches the counting off. They are only uploaded if you type in an address yourself. The update check is not switched on yet, and when it is, it sends the version number and nothing else. File names and paths are never recorded.

How long does the first scan take?

About ten seconds for the file pass, and every plugin appears as soon as it is read. The details and picture passes run once in the background and are cached until a plugin file changes.

Why does my computer warn me when I install it?

Because this build is not signed yet. Your system's download protection warns about any installer it has not seen before. A code signing certificate is being sorted; until then, choose More info and then Run anyway if you are happy the file came from us.

How many computers can one licence cover?

Two of your own, a studio machine and a laptop say. The key is a signed string you paste in once: there is no server to check in with and nothing to deactivate, so moving to a new machine is just pasting it again.

Can I try it first?

Yes. Fourteen days with every feature on, no account and no card. When the trial ends nothing you made goes away: your favourites, tags and ratings stay on your machine, and browsing, search, previews and the sound map keep working for free. A key turns loading into your songs back on. Songs you have already made keep playing either way, because nothing inside a saved project is ever switched off.

How do I check the download is the real one?

The file is GroundLab-Crate-Setup.exe, 23,021,193 bytes. Its SHA-256 is 529da98f1e9b566df2086dec39833692616e027a4c3ab5de777a6ba5c00a6fba. In PowerShell, Get-FileHash .\GroundLab-Crate-Setup.exe should print exactly that. Every build is published on the releases page, with its own notes and checksum.

I already have GroundLab Index installed. What happens to it?

The installer replaces it and keeps everything: your library, favourites, tags, ratings and settings all carry over. GroundLab Index was this app's old name, so there is nothing to move by hand and nothing to uninstall first.

Releases

  1. 0.4.0Current build

    The 14 day trial and the unlock screen. Star ratings on plugins as well as sounds. Plugin library with pictures and library health. Sounds, MIDI, presets and projects. The sound map, globe and scopes. The command palette, and diagnostics that stay on your machine.

Support

Write to us and a person answers. Bug reports are welcome: Settings, then Diagnostics, then Export report attaches the counts and crash logs, with no file names in them.

info@blackroutstudios.com

The app sends nothing. It counts which features you use, on your machine only, and Settings, then Diagnostics shows those counts, clears them or switches the counting off; nothing is uploaded unless you enter an address yourself. File names and paths are never recorded.

By GroundLab, a Black Rout company