7 of the coolest free plugins we discovered this month
Who doesn't love a free plugin? From humble bedroom beatmakers to big-time pop producers, an appreciation of quality free music software is the great leveller that unites us all.
That's why here at MusicRadar HQ, we maintain a watchful eye over the online music production world, regularly seeking out the most exciting freebies with which to line your channel strips and stuff your hard drives.
Here, we present our discoveries in a conveniently formatted monthly round-up. Without further ado, lets explore some free plugins...
1. ChowDSP Chow Kick
Platforms: Mac/Windows/Linux/iOS | Formats: VST/VST3/AU/LV2/AUv3 | Download
We love plugins that do one simple thing and do it well. That's exactly what Chow Kick from ChowDSP does: it'll make you a mean kick drum.
A drum synth based on physical modelling of vintage drum machine circuits, Chow Kick is equipped with a pulse shaper for controlling the shape of your kick drum sound and a resonant filter with three nonlinear modes, giving you a few different ways to transform the tone of your kick drum sound.
2. UnplugRed Plastic Funeral
Platforms: Mac/Windows/Linux | Formats: VST3/AU/CLAP | Download
Another one-thing wonder, UnplugRed's Plastic Funeral produces a specific type of distortion that's a bit like Marmite: you either love it or hate it, but either way, you probably don't want it on everything.
Described by the maker as "distortion that sounds like a laser beam", Plastic Funeral's gritty, digital sound is the polar opposite of soft, analogue warmth and saturation that so many other plugins deliver. Harsh, abrasive and metallic, it's perfect for destroying drum loops for your next breakcore track.
Plastic Funeral is free, but if you can afford it, consider supporting the developer through their Patreon page.
3. SampleScience Toy Keyboard
Platforms: Mac/Windows | Formats: VST/VST3/AU | Download
For fans of the plinky-plonk, retro sound of cheap and basic keyboards, SampleScience's Toy Keyboard is a free plugin that samples the sounds of the humble Yamaha PSR-78, a home keyboard released in 1996.
Containing 72 of the PSR-78's sounds and one drum kit, Toy Keyboard packs in four effects (distortion, delay, chorus and reverb) alongside a filter and an LFO for designing evolving timbres.
4. Linda Audio InstaVibe
Platforms: Windows | Formats: VST/VST3 | Download
InstaVibe is an instant vibe generator: lay it down over keys, piano, drums or pretty much anything you like and it'll imbue any audio source with a wavy, saturated and lo-fi type of modulation and distortion that's perfect for lo-fi hip-hop beats.
The plugin's equipped with four effect sections: a saturation module that contains tube distortion and a subtle harmonic enhancer, an EQ with 3 different sonic profiles, a noise generator that recreates the vibey sound of cassette and vinyl, and a modulation section that features a quad chorus and controls for width, wow and scratch fluctuation.
5. Daniel Gergely Diffuse
Platforms: Windows/Mac | Formats: AU/VST3 | Download
Diffuse is a highly creative effects plugin that combines delay, reverb, filter, modulation and pitch-shifting with granular processing to give you the ability to create dense, evolving and complex soundscapes. Trust us - it sounds pretty damn cool.
Controls for Animation, Intensity and Warp adjust the movement and character of the sound, while an XY pad enables you to modulate two parameters simultaneously. Adjusting the Seed control scrolls through various preset configurations of the built-in effects.
Though you're able to download Diffuse for free, the plugin's offered on a pay-what-you-can basis, so we recommend supporting the developer, if you can.
6. Nembrini Audio Big Stuff
Platforms: Mac/Windows/iOS | Formats: VST/AU/AAX/AUv3 | Download
Big Stuff is a plugin emulation of Electro-Harmonix's Big Muff classic fuzz/distortion/sustain pedal. Released back in the ‘70s, it was favoured by everyone from Jimi Hendrix to Carlos Santana and David Gilmour, and its sound is still in demand today.
Big Stuff promises to do an accurate job of nailing the Big Muff’s tone and workflow. As on the pedal, there are volume, sustain and tone controls. When used in combination, the volume and sustain can do everything from cleaning up a signal to adding more obvious sustain and distortion, while the tone control operates like a low-pass filter.
7. Full Bucket Music Bucket One
Platforms: Mac/Windows | Formats: VST/AU/CLAP | Download
Released back in the mid-’80s, the Crumar Bit One was an Italian 6-voice analogue synth that was viewed at the time as a cut-price rival to the Roland Juno-106. Full Bucket Music is now attempting to bring the Bit One back into the public consciousness with the Bucket One, a free plugin synth.
This is designed to closely resemble the original hardware, which means you get two oscillators with a choice of three waveforms (triangle, sawtooth, pulse) and an additional white noise generator. There’s also a self-resonating, four-pole low-pass filter and a VCA, both of which have ADSR envelopes. You’ll find a pair of LFOs, too.
Polyphony has been upped to 64 voices and there are now Split and Double modes. Micro-tuning is supported, there’s MIDI Learn, and the interface is resizable.
