Free Plug ins

[Billy's Little Trip]

eh....water/bridge.

.....feel good hit of the summer...

[Lunkhead]

... stuff about plug-in compatibility ...

Charles (KA)

Did you just mean what type plug-ins (VST, AudioUnit, RTAS) are supported by what apps? If so, as a general rule, RTAS plugins are mostly a ProTools thing, AudioUnit plugins are mostly a Logic thing, and VST plugins are mostly a Cubase/Nuendo/others thing, though of course it's actually much more complicated than that. If you're curious what type of plugins your audio app supports, that would probably be listed on the Web site for the app or in its help content. Unless you're using Logic or ProTools, though, it's a pretty fair bet that you want VST plugins. Sometimes with the free plugins they will have been specifically made for Windows for whatever reason, as well, so if you're on a Mac you have to watch out for that too.

[fluffy]

Most Mac-native audio apps can use AudioUnits, although Logic is definitely the most common consumer of them. There's other Mac-based audio software that can use it, though, like Intuem, Soundtrack, Audacity, Final Cut Pro, Ardour, Ableton Live, Reaper, and Digital Performer. There's also VST wrappers for AU and vice-versa.

[ken]

I'm not sure if this stuff has been posted before, but it looks killer. Has compressors, eqs, tape emulators and reverbs. All free!

Variety Of Sound

http://varietyofsound.wordpress.com/vst-effects/

[Lunkhead]

I'm not sure if this stuff has been posted before, but it looks killer. Has compressors, eqs, tape emulators and reverbs. All free!

Variety Of Sound

http://varietyofsound.wordpress.com/vst-effects/

Windows only, fyi.

[Billy's Little Trip]

Thanks Ken! The TesslaPRO – Transient aware signal saturator has me very excited. The one I use was part of a bundle and it doesn't do well when the music gets loud. I have to really work at each track to keep it from sounding like a dynamic-less wall of sound. It's really noticeable when I go from quiet parts with great separation, to loud parts. I do love the raw energy feel, but I'd like just a subtle bit of multidimensional instrument placement on the stage so they don't all get squashed together, you know? I've come to the conclusion that I either have to only have one guitar on the choruses/loud parts, or figure out better ways to mix them. I've been doing a pretty good job of it, but a lot of re-mixing over and over. So I'm crossing my fingers for the TesslaPro.

[ken]

Bluenoise Pluins offers three freebies: Thermin VSTi, Synth VSTi, and Echo VST.

http://www.bluenoiseplugins.com/plugins/free-plugins/

Also, a free drum kit!

http://www.bluenoiseplugins.com/plugins ... a-edition/

They also have a piano and more advance drum plug in for only $30 each! Seems like a steal to me. Check it out!

Ken

[Kapitano]

I've just set up a little site to house my musical projects, including samplepacks. There's some drums and misc samples there at the moment, which you might like.

Have a look, and I'll be adding more soon: http://kapitano.me.uk/resources.htm

Oh, and let me know if you like the design. It's what my soul would look like if I had one .

[fluffy]

Oh, and let me know if you like the design. It's what my soul would look like if I had one :-).

Nice abuse of text-shadow. I wonder what it looks like on pre-CSS3 browsers though. ;)

[Kapitano]

Nice abuse of text-shadow. I wonder what it looks like on pre-CSS3 browsers though.

Probably less blurry. And in Explorer, everything in Courier New. Before I discovered text-shadow, I made a javascript thing which read lines of text and sequenced pre-blurred PNGs - one for each character. It was clever, good-looking, slightly painful and completely unnecessary. A bit like me really .



Next up, an implementation of Karplus-Strong in Reason. It was either that or actually make some music.

[fluffy]

The thing is that in non-CSS3 browsers, the text color is undefined, since it's set "transparent," so it probably won't look right (chances are it'll draw as black-on-black, or just as nothing at all if CSS2 specified 'transparent' as a valid foreground color - I forget if it does or not).

[Kapitano]

I did research the issue, and read that CSS2 would just pass over a 'color: transparent' instruction.

Unfortunately, what I read was completely wrong. And the issues with IE are even worse than I thought. So, rather than create a dozen conditional stylesheets, I think a little text link to a pure vanilla HTML-only summery of the rest of the site - something like "if this page won't display on your browser, click here for the low-tech backup."

UPDATE: I'd forgotten how boring webpages were twenty years ago. If you want to be reminded what omni-compatible HTML code can do, go here: http://kapitano.me.uk/backup.htm

[ken]

Please keep your discussions out of this thread. You can PM each other if you need to talk more.

[Lunkhead]

Many of these have probably been mentioned in this thread but here's a list of 27 good free VSTs. They even include what platforms are supported by the plugins (not all support OS X).

http://www.musicradar.com/tuition/tech/ ... day-277953

[Billy's Little Trip]

But it's great to have an updated list like that, Lunk. Some things are free for a short time, or just not found online after a period.

I'm looking for a good free mastering plug/program of some sort. As of now, nothing I do is mastered and I just use methods I've learned from reading/vids online and just use Cubase to get me as close as I can. I've learned mountains of info from Ian Shepherd. But still know so little. I pretty much just go off my ears, which I've read is a great training method, but not good enough on it's own for a profession product.

[ken]

Found a couple new free plugins!

Cakewalk CA-2A Leveling Amp (tube-driven electro-optical compressor based on the UA LA2A) (Mac or PC)
http://www.cakewalk.com/products/CA-2A/Free

Izotope Neutrino, a spectral shaping plug-in (Mac or PC)
https://www.izotope.com/en/products/mix/neutrino.html

[jb]

Neutrino is cool. I bought the full-on Neutron and love it.

But do you see an actual need for that Leveling Amp plugin? I mean, it's cool and all to have something modeling an old device like that, but it doesn't do anything your stock plugins don't already do with more control... I struggle to see where I'd put CA-2A into my mixing chain...

JB

[ken]

I use the UAD LA2A all the time. I love it on vocals, bass, tamborine... anything that needs a little compression and mojo. So easy to use and sounds so good. I haven't used the Cakewalk version much, but I'm excited to have it as an option when I don't have the UAD stuff available.

[Chumpy]

I watched a bunch of Neutrino demonstration videos on YouTube and while I get it's supposed to be subtle, I absolutely can not hear what it's doing. On JB's recommendation I did check out Neutron though, and wow, I can really see how the 'masking meter' is extremely useful for sorting out where two tracks are are creating a frequency pileup and how to sort that out with EQ. Seems easy to use too. Not sure if I'm willing to spend $200 yet but I think I'm getting there.

[irwin]

Put the sound of cold war surveillance into your music.

Free Teufelsberg Reverb plugin

[ken]

Here is a free Reverb: http://www.u-he.com/cms/protoverb

Protoverb is an experimental reverb based on the idea of a "room simulator". Most algorithmic reverbs try to avoid resonances or model the reflections of sound from a rooms walls. Protoverb does the opposite. It builds up as many room resonances as possible, modeling the body of air in the room. It therefore does not need to modulate or colour the signal. The result is a very natural sounding reverbration with some interesting features: Long standing frequencies resonate louder, as if the air takes some time to get excited. Multiple instruments don't mash into a diffuse mud, they stay distinct. If you play a short melody, the room seems to repeat a ghost echo of that melody. Those properties are indeed found in churches and large halls, but they're rarely found in conventional algorithmic reverbs.

However...

To achieve this kind of stuff, Protoverb works with loads and loads of parallel, serial and networked delays. By all means, there is no mathematical formula that makes such a structure sound "just right". As with all delay based reverbs, it's down to trial and error, and maybe a lot of luck with random values. Therefore we designed Protoverb to present you with delay lines of random lengths and a random assembly of networking and feedback strategies. Which, if you're lucky and you come across a great setting, you can submit to our website, along with a few details

[ken]

This is cool, a plug in that lets you import a photo as part of your session. You can take a picture of any settings you might lose, or if you are like BSS and write your songs on a whiteboard, store it with the session.

http://www.pro-tools-expert.com/home-pa ... n-your-daw