Does anyone have any go to free audio effects they like to use? As an ambient musician I love reverbs and delays, lately I've been favouring the Tal Reverb 2 from TAL Audio and the Kiesel Free Delay. Throw those two on a pedal steel track in Band-in-a-Box and you can get some really lush background sounds. I've even been able to generate some ambient drones using some of our fingerpicking guitar styles! What kind of plugins do you use in your tunes?
Classic pack from Kjaerhaus (spelling?) Compressor, Delay, Reverb, AutoFilter are all decent. Compressor works well on vocals for a lot of what we do.
Ambience Reverb (Magnus worked with PGMusic years ago to fix a bug Ambience had in PT, been a fan ever since. Very powerful reverb.)
ReaPlugs from Reaper
Baxspander
Helian Bass
Glaceverb
A0 Parametric EQ can be effective sometimes
Lots of them, but Classic Compressor and Ambience Reverb are free ones that are used a lot here as 'go to' .. they don't always stay, but they do often enough that I try them early.
I do not work here, but the benefits are still awesome Make your sound your own!
Please be careful choosing from where you download free plugins, to avoid malware. Even if the software itself is clean, some of the pages that dispense it are suspect.
/'End of Caution'/
BIAB 2025 Win Audiophile. Software: Studio One 7 Pro, Swam horns, Acoustica-7, Notion 6, Song Master Pro, Win 11 Home. Hardware: Intel i9, 32 Gb; Roland Integra-7, Presonus 192 & Faderport 8, Royer 121, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors.
I used to grab every sort of free plug or VST that was out there. As time went on, I found myself gravitating towards certain plugs and totally ignoring the others due to their sound or whatever.
When I built my own custom DAW many years ago now, I decided to NOT load the myriads of freebee's that had accumulated in my first serious DAW.
Now, I use just a handful of plugs and VST's. Most of those are ones that I paid to get. My go-to plugs are in my Cakewalk Sonar software. That, and Ozone is about all I use.
So, no, I don't have or use much of the free stuff.
You can find my music at: www.herbhartley.com Add nothing that adds nothing to the music. You can make excuses or you can make progress but not both.
The magic you are looking for is in the work you are avoiding.
A while back a forum member posted a notice about Waves TruVerb being offered as a free download by the company. I grabbed it and have found it to be full featured and very versatile. I have no idea if it is still available.
FWIW, my "go to" reverb is a EMT 140 Plate sim that is a module of Izotope's Nectar 2. Complete renown albums have been recorded using only the 140.
Cool thread.
Bud
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A while back a forum member posted a notice about Waves TruVerb being offered as a free download by the company. I grabbed it and have found it to be full featured and very versatile. I have no idea if it is still available.
I also got TrueVerb when it was a free download and agree, it is a nice one. I just checked, they are asking $99 for it now.
Btw, today I was really enjoying the Astralis synth that came in a Computer Music DVD. Not exactly freeware, but just about free Edit: sorry this is a synth not an effect.
Here are the free-b's that I just can not seem to lose after all these years / decades...
Kjaerhus Audio Classic Series - You can grab them from the Acoustica site, which is as legit as PG Music. These rock on everything IMHO, but shine on Electric Guitar & Vocals. They are in every production I do.
Tokyo Dawn Records - TDR Feedback Compressor II and the TDR Nova Dynamic EQ are 2 utility plugins that are all over my tracks. These 2 sound fantastic, and are easy to use. All the Free TDR stuff is well worth the time to grab & work with.
Pushtec 5+1A EQ - the Pushtec 5+1A EQ is one of those great finds.....IMHO it is one of the BEST midrange EQ's out there, free or not. It is SO important to have a good EQ to manipulate the critical mid area, and this one delivers in spades.
ALL the above are of a Quality WAY above the Free Price. Again, IMHO.
These, along with my IKMultimedia Total Studio 3, and the Native plugins in Reaper, have covered all my needs for the last 5 years or so. The only other pay-for I have is Breverb 2. With the Reverb's in Total Studio & the free Ambience Reverb, and the delays in Reaper I am pretty much covered...tho I REALLY would like to have Echo Boy... .
Anyhoo, this is just a IMHO, YMMV, yada yada type of post!
i5 3.20GHz, 32gb RAM, 1tb SSD OS, 12tb HDD, 4gb gForce vid card, 32" monitor, Audient id44, Win10 x64, BiaB/RB 2023, Reaper 6,IK Multimedia Total Studio 3.5 MAX, Waves 10
I love them so much I quickly coughed up the measly 24 euros to buy the full version of the MJUC and that is now my favourite PAID plugin. Finally I understand why the pros refer to compressors as musical instruments in their own right.
I'm also loving Izotope's neutrino referred to in a post below. It doesn't do much on already well balanced tracks (eg BIAB realtracks) but it's a sure-fire quick fix for the rest.
Not really an effect but a free alternative to Vocaloid is Alter/Ego by Plogue. I am just playing with this at the moment using the free Daisy voice bank and it seems excellent.
Useful thread to find out what other freebies are being used. Thanks Kallum.
Rec
Last edited by receder; 10/09/1611:35 PM.
BIAB 2022 UltraPAK, CbB, Studio One 5 Pro, Fender USA Tele, Harley Benton Fusion & others.
Owners of Focusrite interfaces have been getting free plugins every first of the month for several months now. It's called the Plugin Collective. Fairly good offers/plugins here.
Also over the past few months, Izotope has been giving away nice ones too. Vinyl and Delay are a couple of the recent ones I've received.
Not really an effect but a free alternative to Vocaloid is Alter/Ego by Plogue. I am just playing with this at the moment using the free Daisy voice bank and it seems excellent.
Useful thread to find out what other freebies are being used. Thanks Kallum.
I find I use Neutrino (Free from Izotope, Inc) more and more. Really punchy tool and seems to add clarity to one's mix. I have it running on all my BIAB Realtracks. I have no idea technically what it is, as I just use my ears. I put in on, come back, listen again and alter as nec.
It's done the trick for me. Next Thanksgiving I'll be buying there Advanced package for mixing and mastering in whatever format has Ozone Advanced etc.
Last edited by lambada; 04/01/1704:22 AM.
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