The Happy Thread Of Free

[Guy Rowland]

Added the Waves Free Plugin Pack

https://www.waves.com/bundles/free-plugin-pack

[Guy Rowland]

128 u-he Zebra2 presets from AudioPlugin deals free for "a limited time".

https://audioplugin.deals/product/padsh ... ra-2-synth

[Thomas Mavian]

Nice, thanks for the find!

[Guy Rowland]

ProjectSAM has just launched Lineage Percussion FREE. 10 instruments from the full version. https://projectsam.com/libraries/lineag ... ssion-free

Details of the re-released full version here viewtopic.php?p=87612#p87612

[Guy Rowland]

A new freebie for anyone owning Focusrite or Novation products - Sonnox Soften. Sounds like Sonnox's version of Soothe, don't think it's available any other way currently..

Download by September 16, 2025.

https://id.focusritegroup.com/en/software/sonnox-soften

https://focusrite.com/articles/get-soft ... r-account/

[Thomas Mavian]

Nice one, thanks Guy!

[Guy Rowland]

I tried Soften yesterday on some vocals and some guitar. The lack of forensic control on the occasionally strident vocals meant I wasn't to thrilled with the results on the voice I was working with. But have to say it was excellent on the guitar - unobtrusive but just nicely tamed those occasional spikes I had on some notes without needing to be pushed too far.

[Thomas Mavian]

I find the soften control in Voca works better (or more) IF there is some distorsion on the vocal (of course).

Haven't tried it on anything other than vocals, will sure try on guitars now.

EDIT: just recieved an email from Sonnox with some info that they're going to send more emails with tips on how to use it. To do this on a free plugin is really great customer service methinks (even though it isn't that complicated to use ).

[mcalis]

Surprised these ones aren't on the list yet:

TDR Nova

It is a parallel dynamic EQ with 4 bands and a HP/LP. There are paid versions which add more bands and the ability to store and recall presets. For a free EQ it's very feature rich and Dan Worall has a good video on it:



NOTE: TDR Nova defines its Q setting different than Pro-Q!

TDR Proximity

Great little plugin that can push a source sound back into space. It's on the older side and not actively maintained, but a great little tool to have and I like the simplicity of the UI.

Voxengo has a whole bunch of free plugins that are high-quality, even if the UI looks like programmer art. SPAN, Correlometer, Stereo Touch and Tube Amp are all great plugins.

[Guy Rowland]

Surprised these ones aren't on the list yet:

They are now, thank you!

Have also added Massive X Player, but removed NI's Mikro Prism and Blocks Base which are no longer available.

[Piet De Ridder]

If you value the usefulness of a classic VU-meter, and for some reason aren't working with the popular Klanghelm VUMT (14€, or 22€ for the deluxe version) or the meter from Waves, there's now a totally free and high-quality alternative from Blenheim, called reVUe.
Unique about reVUe, which is available in all standard plug-in formats, is that it supports Cockos REAPER Embedded UI integration, meaning that in REAPER, reVUe will behave as if it was part of the DAW itself.



And two free plugins from AP Mastering: (1) Versatile Compressor, a "compressor with absurdly wide parameter ranges and able to mimic many classic compression flavours" and (2) Saturation Distortion, giving you 8 different saturation modes from standard to weird.
Neither of these improve, in my opinion, on what the best plug-ins from better-known brands can do, and the UI-functionality is fairly basic as well (no autogain, no wet/dry mix, etc. ...), but they can bring a new flavour to your mixes.





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[Guy Rowland]

Thanks Piet, added these. The VU meters embedded in Reaper look very slick.

I've added a new category in the OP for Metering / Utilities. If anyone has any good tips for this, do shout. I have TransMIDIfier in there which is indispensable to me - it combines all my system-wide midi sources, changes the octave of my Korg Nanokey for keyswitches, strips out CCs I don't want etc.

[Guy Rowland]

Pleasing sounding new free library from e-instruments - Desolate Guitar fragments. It's a cut down from the full version, but still sounds useful.



https://e-instruments.com/instruments/f ... -fragment/

[Piet De Ridder]

If you don't have one already (which is doubtful as most DAW's come with one) and you always wanted one, or more than one, Sonimus has a new tape delay plug-in out, called DelaySon, and it's free.

And pretty good it is too. Every parameter you need for this type of processor emulation is here and the sound is sonimusian great.

As with all good tape delays: if you set the mix 100% wet and the delay value to 0, you can use it purely for its tape simulation qualities and the DelaySon certainly doesn't disappoint here: nice, warm, pleasantly woolly, tape-ish sound.

Bring in a bit of the dry signal, raise the delay time ever so slightly (just a few milliseconds) and a good tape delay, not just this DelaySon, will start to act as a phaser or flanger, at first static but if you modulate the delay time very slowly and subtly, you can get really nice, moving phasing- and/or flanging effects. DelaySon does all this very well.

The delay time set to very low (maybe start at 25ms), with the feedback raised just a little, and mixed in tastefully, gives you a musically useful suggestion of a room. (I say 'musically useful', because there are of course more realistic ways to simulate a room. But this technique is certainly musically useful.) You don't need a tape delay for this of course, any decent delay will give you that, but I've just tried it with then DelaySon and the result was really quite pleasing.

DelaySon also goes enthusiastically into self-oscillation when you raise the feedback high enough, but I have a few plug-ins that simulate this behaviour of a tape delay more convincingly. At least, to my ears. That is, however, the only tiny criticism I have.

So, in two words: great freebee.
Thanks, Sonimus.

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[Guy Rowland]

We are spoiled.

Look at that list of freebies in the OP. Incredible.

[Geoff Grace]

We are spoiled.

Look at that list of freebies in the OP. Incredible.

I agree. It's quite impressive, Guy.

Best,

Geoff