i haven't tried it (yet) but there's a free line 6 pod plugin available this month for peeps with an ilok
http://www.line6.com/news/offers/864
― mince lice (electricsound), Wednesday, 2 September 2009 02:57 (fourteen years ago) link
Audio Damage have a freebies page. The compressor is pretty good and can go from subtle right up to "nuclear blast". The tremolo helps spice up organs and pads. The fuzz isn't that great on guitar, more useful as a "totally mess up your sound" effect.http://www.audiodamage.com/downloads/
― the visible spectrum is rainbows (snoball), Wednesday, 2 September 2009 08:58 (fourteen years ago) link
ah yes i've been meaning to try those. i have a couple of AD plugs, they're really really good.
― mince lice (electricsound), Wednesday, 2 September 2009 09:13 (fourteen years ago) link
are there any cheap AUs out there that emulate 90s romplers such as the roland SC-88? i know of the edirol hyper canvas but it's pretty expensive
― damo tsu tsuki (r1o natsume), Tuesday, 22 September 2009 20:20 (fourteen years ago) link
anyone know of a sampling synthesizer plugin? i'd like to be able take a sample and spread it across the keyboard. i'm pretty you can do it in Ableton, but programming MIDI in Ableton drives me crazy and i'd love to find a vst that can do it in Cubase.
― precious bonsai children of new york (Jordan), Tuesday, 21 May 2013 20:04 (ten years ago) link
I was looking for a free VST harmonizer that sounds good and there it is: Pitchproof. It can even do chords.
― DDD, Friday, 28 March 2014 22:10 (ten years ago) link
is there any such thing as a vst that would allow me to vary the tempo of audio as it plays?
― Merdeyeux, Friday, 18 April 2014 18:13 (nine years ago) link
with or without pitch shifting? maybe put it into a free dj program like Mixxx, record, and import back into your DAW?
― festival culture (Jordan), Friday, 18 April 2014 18:21 (nine years ago) link
preferably without pitch shifting i think, though yeah that technique sounds useful too, thanks.
― Merdeyeux, Friday, 18 April 2014 18:30 (nine years ago) link
Btw free dj program would work for this as well:
― precious bonsai children of new york (Jordan), Tuesday, May 21, 2013 1:04 PM (10 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
― puff puff post (uh oh I'm having a fantasy), Friday, 18 April 2014 18:33 (nine years ago) link
oh, you mean just using it to pitch the sample and bouncing it out as audio? or something else? because that's what i normally do in my DAW, but it would be nice to trigger the samples via midi as well as sequencing audio files.
― festival culture (Jordan), Friday, 18 April 2014 18:40 (nine years ago) link
You can take a sample and map out cue points to a midi device, tho we may be talking about two diff things
― puff puff post (uh oh I'm having a fantasy), Friday, 18 April 2014 18:48 (nine years ago) link
I'm an idiot abt this stuff
ohh ok, hmm. i actually haven't messed with dj programs much because i'm an idiot about dj'ing.
― festival culture (Jordan), Friday, 18 April 2014 18:51 (nine years ago) link
also i downloaded a bunch of these free vsts yesterday, haven't checked them out yet: http://varietyofsound.wordpress.com/downloads/
― festival culture (Jordan), Friday, 18 April 2014 18:53 (nine years ago) link
The VoS VSTs are awesome - you can make some fucked-up self-oscillations and time-pitch-shifts with their NastyDLA effect
― DDD, Friday, 18 April 2014 22:18 (nine years ago) link
It's also a pretty good delay effect.
Anything good going in the various Black Friday sales - soft synths, Ableton packs, etc?
― Bubba H.O.T.A.P.E (ShariVari), Friday, 25 November 2016 10:13 (seven years ago) link
soundtoys 5.1 for half price!!
― Executive Ball Clicker (euphemism) (haitch), Monday, 28 November 2016 02:08 (seven years ago) link
bump for any Black Friday sales that are worth looking at?
― change display name (Jordan), Friday, 29 November 2019 18:57 (four years ago) link
Not sure if I've already stanned for it in this thread but Trackspacer (a sidechained EQ) is incredibly useful for getting some space in mixdowns and a steal at £25.https://www.wavesfactory.com/trackspacer/amp/
― help yourself to another slice of apple ... crumble (Willl), Friday, 29 November 2019 19:03 (four years ago) link
Ooh that looks really interesting, ty
― change display name (Jordan), Friday, 29 November 2019 19:30 (four years ago) link
Debating about copping their Spectre plugin too, which also looks cool (and is on sale)
― change display name (Jordan), Friday, 29 November 2019 20:49 (four years ago) link
This thing is free, and I use it ALL THE TIME:http://www.alexhilton.net/A1AUDIO/index.php/a1triggergate
― DJI, Wednesday, 15 January 2020 21:35 (four years ago) link
Thanks! I can recommend the free vst synths from u-he (some standalone, some stripped-down versions of paid products), they sound great.
Any more?
― change display name (Jordan), Wednesday, 15 January 2020 21:43 (four years ago) link
Gotta get into those. The other amazing free plugin that I use all the time is this:
https://vladgsound.wordpress.com/plugins/limiter6/
I think it sounds better than a lot of paid master bus plugins.
― DJI, Wednesday, 15 January 2020 21:48 (four years ago) link
https://tytel.org/helm/https://tal-software.com/products/tal-noisemaker
― Greta Van Show Feets BB (milo z), Thursday, 16 January 2020 05:44 (four years ago) link
Channel robot are giving away The modernist glockenspiel and the odernist kalimba. I do love me some mallet sounds. These seem nice. Bit of a cpu hit though?https://audioplugin.deals/free-download-the-modernist-collection-kalimba-glockenspiel-by-channel-robot/
― Tib, Friday, 17 January 2020 02:15 (four years ago) link
Glitch1- an oldie but a classic. 32bit only :(http://illformed.org/
― Tib, Friday, 17 January 2020 02:24 (four years ago) link
xp - ooh, I've been getting into sound libraries for screwing with in samplers, downloading those now
UVI's (free) Workstation comes with a handful of pretty good instruments, though I haven't really found any free compatible sample libraries (vs all the free Kontakt libraries out there).
also in that realm Spitfire's free Labs https://www.spitfireaudio.com/labs/
― Greta Van Show Feets BB (milo z), Friday, 17 January 2020 03:09 (four years ago) link
O yeah those spitfire things look interesting! thanksalso: https://www.cinematique-instruments.com/pages_instr/page_klang.php
needs full kontakt though
― Tib, Friday, 17 January 2020 06:48 (four years ago) link
I copped those glockenspiel and kalimba instruments, even though I have made many of my own sample packs using many of my own kalimbas & glockenspiels
― change display name (Jordan), Friday, 17 January 2020 20:33 (four years ago) link
https://projectsam.com/library-category/the-free-orchestra/
― Greta Van Show Feets BB (milo z), Saturday, 18 January 2020 05:14 (four years ago) link
Dexed - DX7 emulation that loads DX7 patch files.https://asb2m10.github.io/dexed/
― Greta Van Show Feets BB (milo z), Monday, 3 February 2020 23:37 (four years ago) link
I was looking for a good flanger, wishing Valhalla had one, and then found out they have one that's free if you fill out a survey! I've never been happier to respond to a company survey.
― change display name (Jordan), Wednesday, 5 February 2020 19:35 (four years ago) link
I've never really used a flanger. What's it good for?
― Tib, Saturday, 8 February 2020 10:09 (four years ago) link
Highly recommended skins for U-he's free synths making them more readable - Triple Cheese - https://github.com/dozius/triple-cheese-themesTyrell N6 - https://plugmon.jp/product/interstellar-for-tyrell-n6/
― Greta Van Show Feets BB (milo z), Tuesday, 11 February 2020 00:37 (four years ago) link
It's a filter effect, the wiki defines it as "produced by mixing two identical signals together, one signal delayed by a small and gradually changing period, usually smaller than 20 milliseconds."
But I stayed away from it for years, maybe because I associate it with the snare breakdown in Lenny Kravitz "Are You Gonna Go My Way"? Then I heard this record, where a lot of programmed drums are run through some sort of shifting filter that I thought might be a flanger, and wanted to give it another go:https://towheadrecordings.bandcamp.com/album/pure-energy
― change display name (Jordan), Tuesday, 11 February 2020 01:59 (four years ago) link
Thanks for the u-he skins!
― change display name (Jordan), Tuesday, 11 February 2020 02:00 (four years ago) link
has anyone played around with magenta/nsynth yet? i'm downloading now. it's free Max/MSP instrument from google, which uses machine learning to blend timbres from tonal samples, so you can combine the qualities of any two instruments, etc etc.
https://magenta.tensorflow.org/nsynth-instrument
― davey, Tuesday, 11 February 2020 03:00 (four years ago) link
see also: https://nsynthsuper.withgoogle.com/
― davey, Tuesday, 11 February 2020 03:02 (four years ago) link
https://www.discodsp.com/obxd/
Emulation of an OB-Xa - there's a buy link but it's really just a donation
― Greta Van Show Feets BB (milo z), Wednesday, 12 February 2020 00:51 (four years ago) link
It's pretty sweet, but has the same issue with discrete pitch jumping when you turn the Osc pitch knob, which makes playing with osc sync sound weaker than the real instrument. I'm using it for a pad sound in one of my tracks right now, though!
― DJI, Wednesday, 12 February 2020 00:54 (four years ago) link
the same issue that a lot of soft synths have, I mean.
― DJI, Wednesday, 12 February 2020 00:55 (four years ago) link
I can confirm that the Valhalla Space Modulator is sick, highly recommended.
― change display name (Jordan), Thursday, 13 February 2020 17:58 (four years ago) link
"ValhallaSpaceModulator is FREE for anyone who has purchased a plugin directly from Valhalla DSP! "
Had you already bought something from Valhalla Jordan, or was the survey enough?
― Tib, Friday, 14 February 2020 02:05 (four years ago) link
Ah, I've bought a couple things from them, yeah. $50 a pop and some of the best reverbs and delays I've ever used though.
― change display name (Jordan), Friday, 14 February 2020 03:01 (four years ago) link
^^ I use their shimmer and delay plugins on everything.
― DJI, Friday, 14 February 2020 04:53 (four years ago) link
It's essential to the category of youtube videos that I would categorize as "ambient music made with cheap synthesizer and Valhalla Shimmer".
(related to but distinct from "ambient music made with cheap synthesizer and BigSky pedal")
― change display name (Jordan), Friday, 14 February 2020 14:26 (four years ago) link
don't forget "ambient music made with mutable instruments clouds either in module or vcvrack form."
― adam, Friday, 14 February 2020 20:58 (four years ago) link
Would you recommend particular compressors as being vastly superior for specific tasks? I use Cakewalk and I tend to just slap the stock Pro Channel compressor on everything. It mostly sounds good enough to me but maybe I'm missing out. I do have various other compressors, such as TDR Kotelnikov GE, but I don't seem to get around to using them.
Same with EQ. I tend to just use the stock EQ. I'm probably missing a trick though. When mastering I do use TDR Nova, which I like.
I now have Melda MSaturator permanently on the mix bus and I really like what that does. I do like all the Melda plug-ins I've used.
I downloaded Inner Pitch free edition as well, but I can't remember if I've used it yet. I also have Graillon and Couture by them.
― dubmill, Sunday, 26 November 2023 15:25 (four months ago) link
For EQ, I really like using the BLENDEDEQ and Harqules from Analog Obsession for tone shaping on channels and busses. I use stock eq or Fabfilter for surgical stuff, but with those it's nice to just use my ears and lightly boost or cut whereever makes it sound better, and the EQs themselves do have a pleasant quality.
For compressors, I'll take as much trial and error as I can get. Some of them do more than just compression (like the Vulf one, which emulates the original SP404 vinyl sim I think?), and others I think of as more harsh or smooth or transparent. Analog Obsession has one called dbComp that's easy to use and particularly good for drums. So it depends whet the instrument is and what sound I'm going for. I still don't fully know what I'm doing so I like having options in case I'm not getting the results I want with one tool.
― Jordan s/t (Jordan), Sunday, 26 November 2023 16:15 (four months ago) link
I'll have to try the Melda saturator, I think I'm put off because of their ui, lol. I use the BPB saturator on basically every channel.
― Jordan s/t (Jordan), Sunday, 26 November 2023 16:16 (four months ago) link
The other plug-in effect I use on everything is Valhalla Super Massive. I love that one.
New v3 of that was just released and is really really fun - also free!https://valhalladsp.com/shop/reverb/valhalla-supermassive/
― Elvis Telecom, Sunday, 26 November 2023 16:26 (four months ago) link
Thanks for those tips. I'll have to look into these.
I actually like the Melda UI. I find it pleasantly straightforward, at least on the small number of their plug-ins I've used.
I half know what I'm doing, because I did it for years (before giving up for many years), and half still don't know what I'm doing, because I never received any training in engineering and just picked it up as I went along. I'm too lazy to learn more, and basically still an ignoramus when it comes to the proper technical side of engineering. I just can't engage with it, the maths and scientific side, though I do semi-understand how to DO a lot of things, but without a full grasp of many of the technical principles underpinning them. I read forum posts on the technical aspects of engineering and mastering, and equipment specs and performance, but it's often way over my head. Same with Dan Worrall videos, which I enjoy watching, but don't understand half of what he says.
― dubmill, Sunday, 26 November 2023 17:02 (four months ago) link
New v3 of that was just released
Yes, I saw that. I'm always (and possibly needlessly) scared of installing plug-in updates, in case the update changes something so the plug-in doesn't perform exactly the same as it did on a project using the older version. I imagine that wouldn't be the case with most plug-ins but I'm reluctant to take the risk.
― dubmill, Sunday, 26 November 2023 17:07 (four months ago) link
Yeah same. I literally didn't use compression on my first few records because I didn't understand it and my mixing decisions were hilariously naive. Now I have a lot more experience and have consumed countless tutorials, so I do in fact know how a compressor works. But I still prefer to work sort of quickly and intuitively, and if a few minutes of knob-turning isn't working then I'll try something else, or often just change the part.
I've never mixed someone else's record where changing the arrangement or instrumentation isn't an option, that would be an interesting challenge but way harder I'm sure.
― Jordan s/t (Jordan), Sunday, 26 November 2023 17:37 (four months ago) link
But I still prefer to work sort of quickly and intuitively, and if a few minutes of knob-turning isn't working then I'll try something else, or often just change the part.
Yes, same here. And in the past I would beat myself up over my inadequacy, but now I don't care. I just move on. Same way that in the past I would pride myself on being some kind of 'power user' of a program or piece of equipment (this is back in the 1990s on an Atari ST and Akai samplers and so on). Now, I've got a DAW that has hundreds of commands and options, and all sorts of ways of doing things that I don't know about or understand, but I don't care. I just want to get the job done and come out with something I'm pleased with, even though I know it could always be better. That's not to say that I don't still want to improve, but I'd rather improve in the course of doing something, finishing something, not just spend hours learning techniques for the sake of it.
― dubmill, Sunday, 26 November 2023 18:25 (four months ago) link
For drums I would recommend the Waves SSL G Bus Compressor, it has a nice way of gluing things together and also works well with other instruments.
I have an Arturia 1176 plugin which I like for more dramatic drum mixing, the 'all buttons in' setting blows things up nicely and pulls a lot of the room sound in, which can work nicely running in parallel with a cleaner drum mix.
I don't know what the best 1176 style plug might be, UA maybe, there is a Waves CLA one, I'm very happy with this Arturia version.
― MaresNest, Sunday, 26 November 2023 23:17 (four months ago) link
https://klanghelm.com/contents/products/TENSjr
Free version of their new spring reverb plugin based off the giant studio spring units, sounds really nice
― papal hotwife (milo z), Wednesday, 29 November 2023 05:39 (three months ago) link
I posted it in the other thread but I'm also enjoying this emulation of the Kawai K1
https://www.nilsschneider.de/wp/nils-k1v/
― papal hotwife (milo z), Wednesday, 29 November 2023 05:41 (three months ago) link
Cool K1 plugin, love that. CD-Rom game and Cinemax channel vibes...
UA is running a $49.99 "guitar" bundle: https://www.uaudio.com/uad-plugins/plug-in-bundles/uad-guitar-fx-bundle.html
This is a hell of a good deal considering it includes the Lexicon 224. Also comes with Space Echo, Dimension D, LA3A, CE-1, a leslie.... I've only played a little bit with it so far. But that reverb, holy shit. Supposedly the code is ported from the hardware. These are native plugs, you don't need UAD hardware.
― Reeves Gabrels' Funko Pop (majorairbro), Monday, 4 December 2023 06:42 (three months ago) link
!Thanks for the tip... UA stuff always sounds great, but usually super pricey....
― m0stly clean (Slowsquatch), Monday, 4 December 2023 07:27 (three months ago) link
This is intriguing -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5d70Vk3_o70
I'm not sure about the "physical modeling" thing. Is it using your recorded sound to trigger a sampled instrument and blending the two? It's cheap enough where I think I'll just give it a shot.
― Jordan s/t (Jordan), Thursday, 7 December 2023 18:44 (three months ago) link
If it uses 'physical modelling', then I would say it's not using samples at all. I'm pretty interested in this too but I'd like to hear what people have to say about it before shelling out $29. I downloaded a couple of Sampleson physically modelled electric piano VSTs a while ago, though I see from my notes that I haven't used them yet. I must say I am attracted to the idea of this kind of thing. I absolutely refuse to use sample packs or multisampled 'virtual instruments'. I don't want the bloat on my computer in terms of the file sizes. Aside from a number of varieties of 909 (e.g. Samples from Mars packs, which are very good), I more or less stick to synths and whatever I choose to sample myself, as I always have.
― dubmill, Friday, 8 December 2023 10:20 (three months ago) link
Saw this covered on the BPB site today and downloaded it immediately. Looking forward to using this.
https://wildergardenaudio.com/maim/
It degrades and alters the input sound using MP3 compression and other adjustments. The sound examples using drums don't seem that remarkable but there's a video on YouTube where it's processing a piano pattern and that sounds a lot more intriguing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALmvEnr0XPo
Some comments say the effects are reminiscent of Digitalis. I might have that already installed, not sure. It's true, I think, that a lot of these things kind of cross over with each other in terms of the results that can be achieved. I'm still using the 32-bit sampler Shortcircuit to load samples and even that has some nice sound processing options built into it.
― dubmill, Saturday, 9 December 2023 12:24 (three months ago) link
And contrary to what I wrote yesterday, I also downloaded the free Boz Digital Labs Steinway 1926 piano Lite version, which has also just been written up on BPB. True, it's somewhat multisampled, but apparently only 50 MB in total, which is what I like to see. I like the sound of the demo audio files. I rarely use piano, but I can see that this will be useful.
― dubmill, Saturday, 9 December 2023 12:35 (three months ago) link
I started messing around with Haptic Perc, it's an odd duck. There's no wet/dry control, so it's mostly adding tonal info to the attack of your source recording, which will always be audible. So it sounds kinda lame if you use a drumkit loop and try to make it sound like a hand drum, but works pretty well if you're tapping your fingers on the desk (also had some interesting results using brushes on a snare or sticks on a practice pad). The tuning slider also has zero labels, so you're purely going by ear (and it's a little hard to even get back to a previous setting).
Still pretty unique & cool though. I had a track with some hand drum samples that were too short/overly truncated and I was able to use it to generate a more natural sounding decay, it sounds nice blended with the original track.
― Jordan s/t (Jordan), Wednesday, 27 December 2023 16:23 (three months ago) link
Hmm. There seems to have been not much interest in it so far. On YouTube I'm still seeing only Sampleson's own promotional videos, which aren't that revealing of what it can do. I'd certainly try out a trial version, but they haven't provided one. I don't think I'm going to spend $29 on it without trying it.
But I'm now quite interested in Sampleson's Metapiano ($89). Sounds really nice, and as I mentioned before, I just refuse to use huge multisampled instruments. This is only 60 MB (and also claimed to be light on CPU). Only thing is, I don't really use piano much, if at all, but it's tempting all the same.
― dubmill, Wednesday, 27 December 2023 17:38 (three months ago) link