The Story of This Plugin

As the developer, I want to share what has happened over the course of developing this plugin. This is definitely a condensed version of the whole story, but I needed to get it out there so you can know what I’ve been doing. I have kept everyone mentioned throughout this account anonymous. I hope you enjoy.

A Church’s Need

This plugin had very humble beginnings. A need in a small local church started it all.

Coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic, this church wanted to continue live streaming its services online using OBS Studio and Facebook Live. However, only one member of the church knew how to accomplish this, and he did it all himself. So when the church wanted other people to know how to set up the live streams, he did the best he could to automate the entire process using already existing infrastructure. And he was successful in all areas that he tinkered with - all except for one.

He didn’t know how to tell OBS Studio what to do automatically throughout the church service. The software used to display the lyrics for the worship music could not interact with any other devices other than its own proprietary mobile app. There was nothing he could do. Volunteers had to manually switch scenes in OBS Studio every time something different happened within the church service, and it was very hard to maintain consistency across each volunteer as new updates arrived.

The Spark

And that’s how it stayed for about a year. Until a new member realized something about the lyrics software - it could emit MIDI signals to control lighting scenes during each slide transition. This new person found that lighting scenes were not the only things that the software could control. With proper configuration, these MIDI signals could also be used to control OBS Studio as well!

But when he went to find a solution, all he found was an old plugin that wasn’t reliable and was difficult to understand and set up. It wasn’t worth the implementation into the current OBS Studio setup because it needed to be consistent and easy for volunteers to understand. And that’s when he decided he was going to develop a new plugin himself.

Using the blueprint of the old plugin (you can find it here), this new developer created a new and improved plugin over the course of the next year. And on August 10, 2022, this plugin was released for the first time. It solved the communication problem between the lyrics software and OBS Studio, and although it didn’t involve any physical MIDI hardware at first, it did its job well.

Growth

Up until the spring of 2023, the developer provided many updates to the plugin as users began to transition away from the old and unreliable plugin. Many of them were quality-of-life additions, including MIDI device expansion, custom settings integration, and adding options for MIDI fader support. The developer was quick to accept suggestions and feedback as he was able.

Then the developer hit a road block. He thought he would be finished solving what he set out to do already, but something seemed off to him. He stared at the plugin for a long time before realizing he didn’t like how the plugin looked. It looked stale and bland to him. So he redesigned it over the course of another year, and version 3 came as a result in March 2024. It was the cleanest and best version to date, and he thought that would finally be the end of this plugin’s development forever.

But it seems that the story still is not written. The developer still attended the same church that had those OBS Studio communication problems all those years ago, but he felt that the plugin now served more than just his church. He knew that the needs of his users were important, and they should not be ignored.

Silence

Then life happened. Later in 2024, the developer graduated high school and entered his most stressful semester of college. (College is hard when you are advised to take classes that don’t relate to your major.) On top of that, three of his family members passed away in the fall - two of which he was close to. He spent many a night in tears over their memories and his future. The plugin was inevitably pushed to the side.

It was not forgotten, though. After the crazy end to 2024, the developer spent all of 2025 trying to get updates out to the world. Every so often he would manage to improve a little section, But something else would come up. Whether it be college, family, or responsibility, he would keep putting the plugin off for another day. Ultimately, to his disappointment, 2025 would end with no updates to the plugin.

Today

But in early 2026, he would finally change that. Version 3.1 came with even more customization, better responsiveness, and lots of documentation. It finally solved many of the problems users were having for the past 18 months of silence.

And that’s how the current version stands today. After all of that craziness that life threw at him, he finally got to show his progress with the world. And the plugin is even better than ever.

Thank you for reading my story. I appreciate your time, and I hope you are inspired to finish something you started.