Who doesn’t like free stuff?  Dumb people, that’s who.  And you’re not one of them, so you want to check these out.

The price point is right and many have become secret weapons that I’m happy to share.

Over my years producing, I’ve managed to grab a nice collection of free plugs that show up often in my tracks – the price point is right and many have become secret weapons that I’m happy to share. I guess they aren’t secret any more!

You may have heard of some of these, but there’s probably going to be some new ones for you too.  My simple criteria for these tools is as follows: 

  • They do something different than other stock devices
  • They are truly free, and not intro versions
  • They must perform well or be so inspiring as to make any buggy-ness worth it

That’s it – so welcome to Pt.1 of the Free Audio Tools Roundup – grab these babies and integrate ’em into your rig, you’ll be happy you did!

Pancake2Cableguys Pancake 2

Pancake is a wicked freebie that allows for amazingly complex hand drawn modulations and is fully customizable – if you’ve ever felt constricted by sine wave modulation or wanted to get a little crazy with your stereo placement, this is a great go to.  Try putting it on a restricted range of a multiband splitter to get a really cool frequency specific pan effect!

Download Pancake 2 HERE
QuikQwak Upstereo

Upstereo is a great stereo width plug.  Avoid it on low freq’s, but use it to great effect on some mids or highs.  It doesnt bottom out your mix as much as many other stereo width plugins, and is an awesome addition to any producers grab bag.

Download Upstereo HERE
Destroy FX Buffer Override

Buffer Override is an incredible tool.  It simulates buffer interruptions and resets to create a lo fi, glitchy sound that is really one of a kind.  Utterly essential for esoteric sound design or strange percussive effects.

Download Buffer Override HERE

Fromage

Ohmboyz Frohmage

The Ohmboyz Quad Frohmage is one of my favorite filter plugins of all time.  This “single” Frohmage is a free version that sounds just as phat and slick as the full paid version, “Quad Frohmage”, but with an obviously more appealing price point!  Grab it as a standard LPF – it’s gold.

Download Frohmage HERE
FXpansion DCAM Freecomp

FXpansions DCAM Dynamics is one of the best bang for buck purchases out there – analog modelled compressors that inject character and life into your sounds.  The Freecomp is their intro device, and is well worth a look – a fully analog modelled compressor that sounds phat as anything out there.  Grab it!

Download Freecomp HERE

Livecut is the great granddaddy of the “glitch” plugins, and to be honest, it’s still one of the best.

MDSP Livecut

Livecut is the great granddaddy of the “glitch” plugins, and to be honest, it’s still one of the best.  Unpredictable, it’s best to render out large loops from Livecut and take the best hunks.  It’s pitch up and down functions as well as built in downsampler and bitcrusher makes it an invaluable source of incredibly intricate loops using even the most boring of sound sources.

Download Livecut HERE
Variety of Sound EpicVerb

I remember looking years ago for a really good reverb with ridiculously long echo times.  Epicverb was and still is the answer as far as a VST based effect goes.  It’s lovely.  A little CPU heavy and occasionally buggy, it’s still worth a look as it allows for some really cool treatments.

Download Epicverb HERE

camelcrusher

Camel Audio Camel Crusher

Camel Audio has made an amazing name for themselves over the years tackling two different realms – sampling based synthesis (a la Alchemy) and ridiculously good effects – and Camel Crusher is their free offering, based on CamelPhat, their award winning awesome distortion plug.

Download Camel Crusher HERE

Madshifta

Madshifta

Utterly nasty, lo-fi and gross, Madshifta is a standard of mine and has been for years.  It’s an incredibly digital sounding effect and is not transparent at all.  Because of this, it’s great for rough, disgusting noises and is really good for pitching things into unrecognizable ranges.

Download Madshifta HERE
 
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