Free DAW plugins

[bender]

We might as well have an index of free plugins in this section. There are a bazillion out there so maybe only recommend one that you've tried and like.

Here's one I got yesterday to start the ball rolling:
http://www.fxpansion.com/index.php?page=185&tab=443

It's a pretty darn good sounding bus compressor along the lines of the ubiquitous SSL bus comp. AU, VST and RTAS for both Mac and Windoze.

I also use the frequency analyser from this bundle:
http://www.bluecataudio.com/Products/Bu ... ewarePack/

The bundle also has flanger, chorus, phaser, EQ and a gain tool but I don't really need those so I haven't tried them. AU, VST and RTAS for both Mac and Windoze.

This is a great tool for "oldifying" things:
http://izotope.com/products/audio/vinyl/

I use it all the time for grunging up drum loops and for treating dialogue to sound like they're coming from a radio or TV speaker. AU, VST and RTAS for both Mac and Windoze.

Here's a free saturation plugin for Pro Tools 10 users (if there are any other than me on here):
http://forms.avid.com/forms/AAXpluginoffer2012

It's good for adding analogue flavour but isn't quite as colourful as some of the other paid options out there. Sounds particularly good on bass and drums. AAX only.

These guys have two interesting ones:
http://hofa-plugins.de/pages/start_en/4u_en.php

The metering one also has an MS matrix and some other nifty tricks. I use it mainly for the metering but it's also really handy for MS mastering. I often decode the LR signal to MS, filter the low frequencies out of the side signal then combine back to LR to help with phase correlation issues (which can get a mix rejected if it's for TV). AU, VST, VST3, RTAS and AAX.

Those are the main ones that I use but there are plenty of others out there. I've bought a couple of commercial bundles from McDSP and Soundtoys that cover most of my needs so I don't have a lot of free ones.

[Capt. Black]

While not strictly free, there's a bunch of great plugins at http://www.stillwellaudio.com which run in perpetual demo mode. Which means they're fully functional forever, except for a nag screen when you first launch the plugin.

My fave is the bombardier buss compressor but there's heap of others on there, all of which are very useful/usable. They look nice too.

[crowbgood1]

Great tread

[willow13]

Great tread

tyre.....kick....ing

[Cdog]

Kjaerhus audio did some very good free plugins which you can still find around today. I found them hosted here, but I downloaded them from another site some time ago, so can't vouch for this host (ie scan it first etc)

http://audiosoftplanet.com/kjaerhus-aud ... lugins.htm

I havent used Cubase in a while, but they were very handy when I did... Reverb, delay, chorus, flanger, phaser, compressor, limiter and filter.

[druz15]

nice downloaded the vinyl one.

[Capt. Black]

Here's another I found very useful.

http://www.fluxhome.com/products/freewares/bittersweet2

Screen Shot 2012-07-21 at 7.29.22 PM.png

A bit weird to grasp the way it works at first but once you do, it's easy as.
Basically a transient designer that can radically boost or soften the first transient of any percussive sound. And probably some others too.

[bender]

I'd forgotten about that one! Works great on acoustic guitars and ukuleles too.

This is another one from the same company that I use all the time:
http://www.fluxhome.com/products/freewares/stereotool


Good for messing with stereo width and rebalancing stereo content.

[Capt. Black]

I struggle with reading those sort of meters. Better tee up a coaching session.

[badmotor]

Favourite free limiter at the moment:

http://vladgsound.wordpress.com/plugins/limiter6/

[Capt. Black]

Looks very cool!

[bender]

Free drum instrument:

http://www.sonomawireworks.com/drumcore ... umCoreFREE

[bender]

Some interesting delays and distortion plugins here:

http://www.soundhack.com/freeware/

I used to use the delay bundle a fair bit but haven't tried it since buying SoundToys Echoboy.

[druz15]

I'd forgotten about that one! Works great on acoustic guitars and ukuleles too.

This is another one from the same company that I use all the time:
http://www.fluxhome.com/products/freewares/stereotool


Good for messing with stereo width and rebalancing stereo content.

looks like mono to me

[Capt. Black]

I'd forgotten about that one! Works great on acoustic guitars and ukuleles too.

This is another one from the same company that I use all the time:
http://www.fluxhome.com/products/freewares/stereotool


Good for messing with stereo width and rebalancing stereo content.

looks like mono to me

LOL

It's even named appropriately!