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Best free plugins

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Ramshackles

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« on: November 30, 2017, 07:50:02 PM »
With all the sales and temptation to spend spend spend at the moment, I thought I would share my 5 favourite free plugins.
These guys make it on to pretty much every production I'm involved in at the moment.

1. Voxengo SPAN. The best spectrum analyser I've owned, free or not. Great when mixing for pinpointing problem frequencies, great in mastering to compare your overall curve to reference mixes and checking your volumes.
2. Softube Saturation Knob. It's just a big knob that adds some distortion. But that distortion is so sweet! Seriously...stick it on anything and slowly turn that biiiiig knob...  ;D
3. TDR Proximity. One of the most novel plugins Ive ever seen...the idea is to change the position of the mic *after* recording  :o. It is quite subtle, but really does work wonders on boxy vocals, muddy acoustics...Plus by messing around with the modulation and width settings you can get some cool ADT effects. This thing is just incredible.
4. DigitalFishPhones SpitFish. A nice de-esser. Comes in a pack with a limiter and compress, both of which are also pretty darn good. Way better than the standard cubase compressor and gives Waves' de-esser a run for its money
5. Tunefish4. A very cool synth....can make some great atmospheric pad sounds with it. TBH, there are a great many very good free synths out there...I almost put 'Dexed'. This wins by being just a bit easier to get your head round.

Special mentions:
- TDR Nova. A Dynamic EQ. Ive not had it for very long yet, but it is already looking like it will become a staple. It has 4 bands and then it has this parallel band which contains all the frequencies *not* in the 4 regular bands. Nuts. :o
- Izotope Neutrino. A little sprinkle of magic on every track....


What gems have you guys unearthed?


adamfarr

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« Reply #2 on: December 01, 2017, 06:36:23 AM »
Limiter No6 - great mastering compressor/limiter/clipper etc.
A1 Stereo Control - very powerful use sparingly
TDK Feedback Compressor - taught me about compression
Ambience - airy reverb
Voxengo Boogex - amp sim with added convolution / reverb

Boydie

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« Reply #3 on: December 01, 2017, 08:14:00 AM »
I would also add that you should never forget your DAW's stock plugins - and you can often use the stock plugins from other software on your system (although you have technically paid for them with the DAW but may still just be sitting there)

In Cakewalk ( :'() there is a set of SONITUS plugins that are actually really good even though they look a bit "old"
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Jambrains

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« Reply #4 on: December 01, 2017, 12:27:44 PM »
I love the Acustica Red Free Eq and esp the coloring you get when increasing the input gain without even touching the eq itself. I often use it on vocals and on the master bus.

http://www.acustica-audio.com/index.php?option=com_virtuemart&page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage.tpl&product_id=103&Itemid=189

Silver Machine

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« Reply #5 on: December 01, 2017, 04:19:43 PM »
Yeah I'll vote for Ambience and Voxengo Boogex,
and add Camel Audio's Camelcrusher and TWest Production's VOCEQ-PRO-C

Paulski

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« Reply #6 on: December 01, 2017, 06:38:35 PM »
dirtbag organ - everything from steppenwolfe to ELP presets
« Last Edit: December 02, 2017, 12:36:43 AM by Paulski »

Yodasdad

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« Reply #7 on: December 02, 2017, 12:26:52 AM »
Thanks for all the freebies offered, folks.

Anyone know of any free (GOOD), or even cheap strings libraries (mac)?

Thanking you.

Yodasdad

jacksimmons

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« Reply #8 on: December 02, 2017, 02:16:34 AM »
Thanks for all the freebies offered, folks.

Anyone know of any free (GOOD), or even cheap strings libraries (mac)?

Thanking you.

Yodasdad

Ditto, but for PC (Cubase)
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Ramshackles

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« Reply #9 on: December 02, 2017, 09:19:55 AM »
Free string VST (or other orchestral/complex sampled instruments) are hard to come by since it is so costly to sample them well.

Here are a couple of sample libraries for kontakt which have decent reviews

https://impactsoundworks.com/product/the-stroh-violin/
http://www.cinematique-instruments.com/page_ensemblia15.php

Cawproductions

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« Reply #10 on: December 02, 2017, 09:20:52 AM »
Guy.

I think there is a Native instruments free kontakt player, sure that has some strings in.

Hope this helps

https://www.native-instruments.com/en/products/komplete/samplers/kontakt-5-player/free-download/
Andy

2tuoo

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« Reply #11 on: December 03, 2017, 11:59:09 AM »
This free suite is pure awesomeness
https://www.meldaproduction.com/product/keyword?keyword=free

The EQ has spectral analyser
Mtuner is amazing timesaver for guitar players
Have a great day!

Ramshackles

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« Reply #12 on: December 03, 2017, 12:51:12 PM »
This free suite is pure awesomeness
https://www.meldaproduction.com/product/keyword?keyword=free

The EQ has spectral analyser
Mtuner is amazing timesaver for guitar players

Ah yes I have the melda stuff, its pretty good and such a lot of plugins for free!
My only gripe about it is the user interfaces are pretty clunky (IMO)

Ramshackles

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« Reply #13 on: December 03, 2017, 12:51:52 PM »
Limiter No6 - great mastering compressor/limiter/clipper etc.
A1 Stereo Control - very powerful use sparingly
TDK Feedback Compressor - taught me about compression
Ambience - airy reverb
Voxengo Boogex - amp sim with added convolution / reverb

Some great suggestions...have you got a link for 'Ambience'? I can't seem to find it

adamfarr

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« Reply #14 on: December 03, 2017, 07:21:30 PM »
http://magnus.smartelectronix.com/

Old but good. Try here or pm me!