Imaginando

Overview

Imaginando is a music-software studio in Braga, Portugal, founded in 2014 by solo developer Nuno Santos as, in his own telling, “a manifestation of the will to create” — and one of the few music-tech companies of its size whose whole arc is publicly traceable from a single side project. Santos spent the late 2000s in two parallel lives: working on a team that built touch technology for public installations in places like museums while gigging as a DJ on Native Instruments Traktor and producing with Ableton Live (Music Connection).

The company itself grew out of LIVKONTROL, an Ableton Live controller for mobile devices Santos built and earned money from; he used those earnings to self-fund Imaginando’s launch rather than taking outside investment (Music Connection). Twelve years on, the company still describes itself as a small Braga team that “doesn’t ship until it sounds right,” and claims more than 30,000 active users across 153 countries with an average 4.32-star rating — a self-reported figure that reflects the brand’s appeal but has not been independently audited (Imaginando).

The instruments era: controllers, synths and effects

Imaginando’s first official product was TKFX, a full-featured Traktor controller for iOS and Android with decks, looper, mixer, a jog dial, and X/Y pads per effect unit (Music Connection). In 2015 it released LK, which converted the LIVKONTROL side project into a flexible remote application offering tight integration with Ableton Live projects as well as generic MIDI control and sequencing (Music Connection).

The company then moved from control surfaces into sound itself. In 2016 it released DRC, a polyphonic virtual-analog subtractive synthesizer that recreates analog character through circuit modeling across Windows, Mac, iOS and Android, designed to capture what Santos calls “all the great features of ’80s synths” (Music Connection). FRMS followed in 2020 as the company’s second software synth, combining granular, subtractive and FM synthesis in a flexible four-layer system, with a 100-plus sample library, 150 preset patches, live-audio granulation, and Imaginando’s Cloud Sync technology built into every version (Sonicstate).

FRMS also revealed Imaginando’s unusual business model for an independent developer: alongside a one-time EUR 119 desktop license, it offered a rent-to-own plan at EUR 11.90 a month for twelve months, with mobile versions at EUR 14.99 and a 50 percent launch discount (Sonicstate). K7D, the company’s vintage tape delay plugin emulating classic delay hardware with analog-modeled noise, tape distortion and mechanical vibration, received a 1.4.0 update adding VST3 compatibility; Nuno Santos framed the philosophy as “blend[ing] the nostalgic appeal of analog sound with the precision and flexibility of digital innovation” (Rekkerd).

The audio-visual thread and BAM

In 2021 Imaginando released VS (Visual Synthesizer), a tool that turns audio and MIDI into real-time reactive visuals through a multi-layered shader system — the company’s first product centered on visual art rather than sound alone (Music Connection). It became the most successful product the company had released to that point, and development continued: the March 2024 1.5.0 update added the “Textural Memories” preset pack from German new-media artist Perplex On, with 31 materials and 84 presets, priced at EUR 9.99, alongside a 50 percent discount on VS itself (MixOnline). The company has since shipped VS 2, with VS 2.3.0 bringing the app to Android, plus expansion packs such as Minimal and Granular (Imaginando).

BAM, released in November 2023, is in many ways the sum of these experiences: a complete music-production studio, beat maker and groovebox that gives users every tool they need to turn ideas into tracks quickly (Music Connection). Independent reviewers described it as a 16-track DAW built around a non-linear arranger driven by per-track step sequencers, with no conventional linear tracks — a pattern-focused design similar in concept to Ableton Live’s Session View, priced at EUR 149 (MusicTech). Each track chains modules (trigger, modulators, a sound-generation engine, two effect slots) into an output mixer with two global send effects, and the sound engines range from a generic drum synth and TR-808-inspired units through a sampler and two-oscillator subtractive synth to the Hofmann, a recreation of the classic MC-303 groovebox (MusicTech). The same review praised the polyrhythmic potential — independent time signatures and groove per pattern, probabilistic triggering — while noting that the iPadOS version, where AUv3 hosting is supported, was clearly the best experience, and that the desktop build lacked expected interactions like tooltips and drag-to-edit values, with no linear recording at all (MusicTech). An updated BAM 1.1.0 arrived in April 2024 with audio-loop support and a house-themed sound bank (Music Connection).

The company kept expanding after BAM. In October 2024 it released TV3, an acid bass synth and one-click pattern generator for Mac and Windows with drag-and-drop MIDI export, free until 1 December 2024 at a regular price of EUR 19 (Sonicstate). In April 2025 it released GRFX, a granular effects plugin positioned as a sequel to FRMS, built around a “Harmonic Triangle” pitch controller, four drag-and-drop LFOs and a per-grain routing system, priced at USD 39 (USD 29 introductory) and reviewed as a hands-on budget alternative to pricier granular effects like Output Portal (We Rave You).

What this profile does not claim

This profile does not claim any verified sales or download figures: the 30,000-plus user count, 153-country reach and 4.32-star average are the company’s own website statements, presented as such. It does not assert the exact release months for products whose sources only give years. The rent-to-own pricing described is from FRMS’s 2020 launch and may not reflect current offerings. Imaginando’s new-media installations — including a 2015 Noite Branca street installation in Braga and a 2017 GNRation digital music-box project — are documented in tertiary references but were not independently verified in a citable source for this rewrite and are not asserted as fact here.