Hartley Works Ltd
A bucolic countryside scene with green wheat and blue sky. Hartley Works Ltd is based in York, UK
Hartley Works Ltd based in York, UK

Hartley Works Ltd is the parent company of Hartley DSP, founded in November 2025. The business is the centre of commercial activity arising from founder Tom Hartley's creative projects, which combine computing, audio processing and music with insights from scientific programming, psychology, neuroscience, education, and communication.

Our focus is on developing high-quality software tools and overseeing creative projects that combine technical expertise with a commitment to craft and authenticity. As well as making plugins, we're available for local and remote music production and mixing - contact us.

Band playing live music at a packed venue.
Capturing the energy of performance. Building tools that last, with care and attention to detail. Services that inspire trust and respect your vision.

Our mission is to create products and services for professionals and enthusiasts alike, with a focus on long-term value, user satisfaction, and continuous improvement. Hartley DSP represents our first venture into audio plugin development, bringing together expertise in psychoacoustics, signal processing, and human perception.

We believe in trust, sustainable business practices, transparent communication, and supporting our customers for the long term. When you choose a Hartley Works product or service, you're investing in quality, reliability, and ongoing support.

Statement on AI

Member of an Italian band playing trumpet while resting a guitar across his lap. A busy crowd can be seen in the background. Music is about people.
Music is about people.

While we think generative AI (e.g., LLMs) has its place in programming, in supporting business planning and even in drafting marketing material for a website (!), we do not think it has any place* in art, which is about humans intentionally expressing human experience for other humans to engage with. Our products and services will not insert AI-generated content into your creative work, or allow your creative work to be exploited in training AI.

Other forms of machine learning (such as pattern recognition and function approximation) may be included in our products and services in the future.

* OK, maybe - analogous to a collage - fragments of AI output might be intentionally assembled by a human artist, to affect a human audience. That's for the artist to decide, not for a tech product or service like those we develop.

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