Another roundup of recent freeware releases and discoveries, four new ones today  :

bx-cleansweep (AU/VST/RTAS) is a new Hi-Pass filter and Lo-Pass filter plug-in from Brainworx, introducing the new “Anti Crush Technology”.  Analog style filter curves without the typical Nyquist problems, in a new great sounding filter design. Ffirst order filters (6dB) guarantee an extremely musically sounding filter set, and unique joystick control gives you fast and intuitive control. Clever shortcuts (alt/shift/ctrl) allow for detailed control over the X-axis and Y-axis of the joystick, and the EQ knobs can be set to precision mode by shift-click as well.

bx-Solo (AU/VST/RTAS) is an M/S tool with stereo width enhancement.

* This was already in the freeware list as VST and RTAS, but at some stage they’ve also added an audio unit version.

“The “heart” of our M/S tools are our unique SOLO BUTTONS that allow you to actually LISTEN to all components of a stereo mix / stereo signal individually. L(left channel), R(ight channel), M(ono sum) & S(tereo difference signal) – and all this PHASE CORRECTED (when needed) and mono-ed out on BOTH SPEAKERS of your system. bx_solo also contains a STEPPED M/S STEREO WIDTH CONTROL.  ”

* NOTE : Those are their CAPITALS, not MINE, ok  ?

TT Dynamic Range meter (AU / VST / RTAS)  is a meter showing RMS, peak levels etc. This comes from Brainworx, who also make the above two plug-ins. No mention of this one on their website, not even a screenshot, but it’s there on their freeware download page … so grab it from the link if it’s useful to you.

TAL-Filter (AU / VST) is a multi-mode filter device, including a High Pass, Band Pass and Low Pass filter. The filter has a clean analogue sound and is able to go into self-oscillation.

* High Pass, Band Pass, Low Pass filter modes.
* 4 Pole, 2 x oversampled non linear filter.
* Lfo sync mode (full sync to host).
* Lfo waveforms: Sinus, Triangle, Saw, Square, S&H, Noise
* Envelope follower.
* Input drive.
* 10 Presets.

That’s all for today. Remember, don’t spend too much money on plug-ins, you’ll hate yourself in the morning.

No exciting GUIs – I had to snapshot these! – but some good stuff nonetheless, including the return of some classics …

Added to AU FX :

Bitsmacker
bitsize & sample rate reducer

Features

* Sample rate reduction from 50 to 44100 hz
* Bit depth range from 0.01 to 32 bit
* Parametric EQ on Input
* Parametric EQ on Output
* Drive adjustment for boost
* Zero-latency
* All values continuously variable, no large steps between values
* A swift kick in the trousers

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Added to AU/VST FX :

ValhallaFreqEcho
Bode-style frequency shifter + analog echo emulation

Bode-style frequency shifter + analog echo emulation = skull melting chaos.

Sonic results range from subtle chorusing and double tracking, to barberpole phasing and flanging, to runaway echos spinning through your skull, to endless glissandos. Perfect for those Dr. Who sounds, dub, and all of your psychedelic needs.

GUI sometime in the future, with more controls, finer tuning abilities.

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Added to VST FX :

mda-fx  – various
30 different FX! click the link …

I’m not quite sure when this happened, but recently someone ported all 30 of the classic mda fx to VST universal binary.

Previously, 15 of them had been ported to AU – these were already on the freeware list, and there are still just 15 – but now all 30 are available for VST. They’re all open source now, so if anyone wants to move the other 15 to AU, go ahead!

Here’s the VST  list :

Bandisto  – Multi-band distortion
BeatBox – Drum replacer
Combo – Amp & speaker simulator
De-ess – High frequency dynamics processor
Degrade – Sample quality reduction
Delay – Simple stereo delay with feedback tone control
Detune – Simple up/down pitch shifting thickener
Dither – Range of dither types including noise shaping
DubDelay – Delay with feedback saturation and time/pitch modulation
Dynamics – Compressor / Limiter / Gate
Envelope – Envelope follower / VCA
Image – Stereo image adjustment and M-S matrix
Leslie – Rotary speaker simulator
Limiter – Opto-electronic style limiter
Loudness – Equal loudness contours for bass EQ and mix correction
Multiband – Multi-band compressor with M-S processing modes
Overdrive – Soft distortion
Re-Psycho! – Drum loop pitch changer
RezFilter – Resonant filter with LFO and envelope follower
Round Panner – 3D panner
Shepard – Continuously rising/falling tone generator
Splitter – Frequency / level crossover for setting up dynamic processing
Stereo Simulator – Haas delay and comb filtering
Sub-Bass Synthesizer – Several low frequency enhancement methods
Talkbox – High resolution vocoder
TestTone – Signal generator with pink and white noise, impulses and sweeps
Thru-Zero Flanger – Classic tape-flanging simulation
Tracker – Pitch tracking oscillator, or pitch tracking EQ
Vocoder – Switchable 8 or 16 band vocoder
VocInput – Pitch tracking oscillator for generating vocoder carrier input

… and here’s the Audio Unit list, just for reference …

Combo  – Amp & speaker simulator
Degrade – Sample quality reduction
Detune – Simple up/down pitch shifting thickener
DubDelay – Delay with feedback saturation and time/pitch modulation
Dynamics – Compressor / Limiter / Gate
Leslie – Rotary speaker simulator
Re-Psycho! – Drum loop pitch changer
RingMod – Simple ring modulator
RoundPan – 3D panner
Shepard – Continuously rising/falling tone generator
Stereo – Haas delay and comb filtering
SubSynth – Several low frequency enhancement methods
Talkbox – High resolution vocoder
TestTone – Signal generator with pink and white noise, 1/3 octaves and sweeps
Tracker – Pitch tracking oscillator, or pitch tracking EQ

Hi everyone,

I’ve maintained the freeware FX and instruments lists in the forums for a few years – I started them as a reference list for my students. but it seems they’ve been useful to 90,000 other people as well : )

Glenn has now asked me to post new additions here as well. I’m a blogger boy by nature, so hoping I get my head around Wordpress!

Generally I’ll just be re-posting PR, but might add comments occasionally. Here we go :

TAL-Reverb (AU, VST) is a free open source stereo plate reverb based on juce. It’s very diffuse and has its own sound because of its special signal routing. Slight modulated delay times avoid artefacts in the reverb tail and give this reverb its smooth sound.

* 12 dB High- and Low-Pass filter.
* Pre delay, up to one second.
* Midi Learn (vst only)
* 10 presets.
* open source.