Hartley DSP makes audio plugins focused on realism, authenticity, and emotional connection. We believe that even when you're working in the box and on a budget, your productions can have the warmth and immediacy of a live performance.
Our Approach
We won't offer a huge range of tools you already have. Instead, we develop a small number of bespoke plugins - whether they deal with space, dynamics, timing, or tone - each one designed to genuinely add to your creative options rather than duplicate what's already out there.
Every plugin gets individual care and attention, from development through to long-term support. We're building tools we'd want to use ourselves, and we plan to keep improving them for as long as you're using them.
When you buy a Hartley DSP plugin, you keep it. We plan to provide ongoing support, free updates, and discounted upgrades for as long as you need them. No subscriptions necessary, no planned obsolescence - just tools that work for you, for the long term.
Get in Touch
We'd love to hear from you — whether you have questions about our products, suggestions for future development, or just want to say hello.
Founder
Tom Hartley is a former academic, neuroscientist and psychologist with extensive experience of scientific programming and a lifelong interest in audio and computing (he owned his first DAW in the early 1990s).
His school and undergraduate projects both focused on human sound perception. His PhD was concerned with neural network modelling of rhythm and auditory memory, and as an academic he combined this work with a research specialism in spatial cognition.
Having taken early retirement from academia in 2024, he is focused on software development and creative projects including music production and mixing. He founded Hartley DSP and the parent company Hartley Works Ltd in November 2025. Hartley DSP's products are informed by his expertise in psychoacoustics, signal processing, and human perception, and by his decades-long experience as an avid collector, and user, of audio hardware and software.