Justin Gammella has production credits on Bella Poarch’s “Build a Bitch,” Benson Boone’s “Let Me Go,” and vocal producing FINNEAS’ album Optimist. Rather than adding another endorsement deal to that list, he built his own plugins. Pizza Bagel Plugins launched this week with three tools — Schmear, JJG Vocals, and Salt — and the company’s approach to design is immediately different from most DAW-folder clutter you’ll pick up this month.
Schmear: Three Settings and Free, For Now
Schmear is a micro-pitch widener. Two modulated delay voices, one pitched sharp and one flat, in fixed increments of 3, 6, or 9 cents. That’s the architecture; it’s not new. What Gammella claims — and what the plugin’s decade of in-session use is meant to validate — is that the specific processing built around those pitched voices keeps vocals cutting through rather than getting swallowed by the width. No chorusing, mono-safe, phase-safe. The interface is hand-drawn, sketchbook-style, and deliberately sparse: the detune increment, a dry/wet “bagel” dial, and input/output trims. That’s it.
The part the press release glosses over: the site’s own banner says “SCHMEAR IS FREE. FOREVER? FOR NOW? WHO KNOWS. GRAB IT BEFORE IT GOES BACK TO $19.” That’s not quite the “free, for good” framing in Gammella’s pitch. You need to create a Pizza Bagel account and complete a $0 checkout to register the license — which means if the free window closes and you haven’t checked out, your download has no license behind it. Grab it properly while it’s there.
What is genuinely notable is that Schmear is playable directly in the browser on the product page before you download anything. For a brand-new plugin company, shipping a working web demo at launch is a meaningful commitment — it suggests the team is confident enough in the sound to let producers try it with zero friction.
JJG Vocals and Salt: The Paid Half of the Lineup
JJG Vocals is a vocal channel strip modelled on Gammella’s actual hardware signal chain. Inside one window: a preamp, tape saturation, compressor, EQ, gate, de-esser, and Salt — the company’s enhancer — in a fixed order that mirrors how he builds vocal chains for records. The logic here is identical to what made the Neve 1073 channel strip compelling in the first place: workflow decisions already made, signal path already optimised, just dial in the amount.
Salt, sold separately, is built from modelled Dolby Type B and C curves — a noise reduction technology repurposed here as an enhancer. Dolby’s curves attenuate high frequencies during recording and restore them on playback; Salt applies the restoration side to add upper-end air and low-end body without the brittle edge of a simple high-shelf lift. It works on any signal, not just vocals.
Try Before You Download
All three plugins — Schmear, JJG Vocals, and Salt — are playable directly in the browser on their respective product pages, no account required. You can load audio, adjust settings, and hear exactly what each tool does before you hand over an email address or a credit card. That is not the industry standard. Most plugin companies offer video demos at best, and gated trial periods at worst. Shipping a working web instrument at launch, for all three products simultaneously, is a real statement of intent — and for a debut company with no installed user base to leverage, it’s a smart one. The only catch is these demos are desktop-only; the canvas collapses on mobile.
The Look: Sketched on a Napkin, on Purpose
The brand name is Pizza Bagel. The interfaces match. Every plugin ships with a hand-drawn, sketchbook aesthetic — illustrated knobs, doodle-style typography, and a warm cream-and-terracotta colour palette that looks closer to a deli menu than a pro audio plugin. That’s clearly intentional. The plugin market defaults to dark-mode, photorealistic hardware recreations or clinical flat-UI minimalism, and Pizza Bagel Plugins goes in the exact opposite direction. It’s not entirely unprecedented — Safari Pedals (now Safari Audio) built a whole catalogue around similarly irreverent, cartoonish interfaces — but Pizza Bagel commits to the bit harder, and more legibly. Whether that reads as charming or distracting depends on your studio monitor’s ambient lighting, but it’s at least consistent with the brand: informal, food-themed, built by a producer who names his dry/wet dial a “bagel” knob. The hand-drawn UI is also a practical differentiator — these things don’t look like anything else in your plugin folder, which helps when you’re scrolling through a hundred icons looking for the widener you used three sessions ago.
Pricing Details
The pricing structure is worth reading carefully. JJG Vocals launches at an introductory $49 against a full price of $150 — a 67% discount that will not stay. Salt is $19 intro versus $49 full. There is also a first-1000-orders launch promotion running 50% off sitewide at checkout. None of these prices are permanent. If you’re considering the channel strip, the window to buy it at a price that makes sense is open right now, not indefinitely.
Platform and Compatibility
VST3, AU, and AAX on macOS 13.3 Monterey and later — covering both Apple Silicon and Intel — and Windows 10 64-bit and later. No iLok. Perpetual licenses. The macOS floor is worth noting: anyone running Big Sur or Catalina is excluded. That’s not unusual for a 2026 launch, but worth confirming before you hit purchase.
Pricing and Availability
- Schmear — Free (regular price $19; requires free account and $0 checkout to register licence)
- JJG Vocals — $49 introductory price (full price $150)
- Salt — $19 introductory price (full price $49)
- Sitewide 50% off launch promotion active (first 1,000 orders)
All three plugins are available now at pizzabagelplugins.com.
