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Favorite Freeware FX Thread


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1 hour ago, Starship Krupa said:

I just discovered Analog Obsession, a developer with a deep collection of compressors, EQ's, and channel strips.

Some of them emulate specific classic hardware, some not. They have an LA-2A and an SSL bus compressor, both with expanded features beyond strict emulation.

I was also pleased to see that they are earning $1,400 a month from Patreon subscribers.

Just be aware there was  a long history of releasing pluigns with huge bugs.   I gather he is being more careful about it now, but something to be aware of if you start to use them in critical mixes.

I was testing out the SSL Bus Comp updated version yesterday (doing some A/B with WAVE's version).    For free it is pleasing and I like the look of the UI.  The controls are not as refined and the UV Meter doesn't  behave exactly as I personally think it should....but well in line with what expecations should be for free.

I think he would be well served to just devote time to perfecting a handful instead of keep building and revisiting.  Lots of potential there, and yeah I'm sure it would be harder to get "paid support" if you only release 4 solid pluigns.

But otherwise they end up being a curiosity more than something you can rely on for serious work.  

 

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Thanks for the heads-up on that. Most of the time when I post something here I vet it first (hence the "favorite" in the OP) in battle, but I haven't done that with these. I do now remember trying his SLAX (SSL bus compressor clone) a few years ago and not being inclined to keep using it for some reason.

I did at least read some of the comments and it looked like he was being diligent these days, but who knows until you actually try it.

Maybe the fact that he's getting some decent coin now allows/inspires him to do some cleanup work.

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Don't know if folks know about this place, but they have a really nice free clarinet:     https://www.fananteampro.com/clarinetica

There are some other freebies there too, including some unusual ethnic instruments/synths. some of the stuff costs 20 or 30 dollars, but most is free. Great support, too. I messed up the registration, and they responded to my emails within 5 or 10 minutes.

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1 hour ago, mdiemer said:

Don't know if folks know about this place

Oh, Fanan, yes, I love their stuff. Ethnic clarinets with trance gates? Scandi-vegas slot machine UI's?

Some companies produce things that the world needs, some companies produce things the world did not know it needed, and I think Fanan does a wonderful job of the latter.

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1 hour ago, Starship Krupa said:

Oh, Fanan, yes, I love their stuff. Ethnic clarinets with trance gates? Scandi-vegas slot machine UI's?

Some companies produce things that the world needs, some companies produce things the world did not know it needed, and I think Fanan does a wonderful job of the latter.

But I think I posted in the wrong place. I meant the Free Instruments thread. 

 

Edited by mdiemer
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The Sonic Anomaly plugins are still here:  https://vst4free.com/dev/565/

Don't know about the credibility about that site, so download at your own risk. The plugs can still be downloaded, nevertheless, seemingly both 32 and 64 bit.

The Bass Professor alone makes it worthwhile; it's ridiculously easy to get a nice, even bass sound from a DI signal, especially with some grit from the Dirt slider. The tone controls are very affective as well. Bass Professor Mark II is one of my favorite bass guitar plugins.

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2 hours ago, petemus said:

The Sonic Anomaly plugins are still here:  https://vst4free.com/dev/565/

Don't know about the credibility about that site, so download at your own risk. The plugs can still be downloaded, nevertheless, seemingly both 32 and 64 bit.

The Bass Professor alone makes it worthwhile; it's ridiculously easy to get a nice, even bass sound from a DI signal, especially with some grit from the Dirt slider. The tone controls are very affective as well. Bass Professor Mark II is one of my favorite bass guitar plugins.

vst4free.com is fine. I've tested a lot of vst plugins from there without problems outside the plugin performance.

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7 hours ago, petemus said:

The Bass Professor alone makes it worthwhile; it's ridiculously easy to get a nice, even bass sound from a DI signal, especially with some grit from the Dirt slider. The tone controls are very affective as well. Bass Professor Mark II is one of my favorite bass guitar plugins.

I find myself using these too. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Oh yeah, Bass Professor Mark II on every D.I. bass track, FTW.

In other news, Tokyo Dawn Labs have released Molotok, an updated version of Molot, a freeware "character" compressor. I was a fan of Molot for a while, but found the GUI rather ugly and clumsy to navigate. Molotok remedies this and so much more.

I only wish that more compressors had UI's and metering like Molotok's. It's hard to describe exactly how it works, but it puts some handy metering right at the controls where it's needed, so you don't need to move your gaze back and forth between the Threshold knob and a meter when you're making an adjustment. The main gain reduction meter is also a masterpiece of usability. So much so, that however it's supposed to color the sound, I'm going to find ways to use this thing just because of the UI.

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

This post is kinda outside the parameters of the thread, but also not, because I assume (hope) that many people who watch this thread have and use this free product and might want to upgrade it.

It's come to my attention that starting Monday November 23rd, Meldaproduction will be running a 50% off everything sale. Everything, including the bundles.

This will also include the MFreeFXBundle upgrade to the Pro versions for $30 (after the discount). There are currently 37 FX and utilities in that bundle, most of which are, IMO, best in their class in the industry regardless of price. MTuner (polyphonic tuner with MIDI out 😲) by itself would be a worthy $30 buy, and that goes for MEQualizer, MCompressor, MComb and others, depending on what you regularly use. Not only FX, the utilities: I use MLoudness Analyzer and MStereoscope on every project.

If this is your first purchase at Meldaproduction, you may also use my discount code (or any other Meldaproduction customer's) to get another 20% off, bringing the price down to $24: MELDA1923165. The person whose code you use gets 10% of the price of your order, but that's not why I'm posting this. Ask mibby for his if you like him better than me. 😋

The non-upgraded versions don't leave out much (upsampling, resizing the UI, and saving presets in their native format are the biggies), but it's nice to get rid of the box and give something back and encourage Vojtech to keep adding to the bundle (which, since their bundles are a lifetime license is like belonging to a plug-in club, he adds something new to the FreeFXBundle at least once every 6 months).

One caution: exposure to the Meldaverse via the FreeBundle may lead to becoming a Meldamoonie (like me).

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Regarding the aforementioned Meldaproduction MFreeFX Bundle, if you don't already have an account with them, make one and sign up for their newsletter (you can cancel at any time, bla bla), and you will receive a voucher for 10 Euros store credit. On top of the 50% off, and the 10% for using an existing user's code credit. 10 Euro comes out to $8.42, which further brings the total down to....$15.58.

Update: I set up a new account for a friend and bought this as a gift and my total came to $10.72 with tax.

Edited by Starship Krupa
Update final USD price
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I rarely visit these forums, but came looking for info on where to find some good free/cheap VST3 plug-ins with Black Friday sales and found this thread.

Based on the good reviews and low price, I  set up an account at Meldaproduction, downloaded the MFreeFXBundle, and decided to buy the upgrade before ever using any of the plug-ins. I got the 20% first purchase discount plus the 10 credits for the newsletter on top of the 50% off special.

Total cost: $11.36 (with tax). 

Edited by garry
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That's a pretty good deal.

I think that may be 1/2 what I paid in 2012 for the same bundle (but it had fewer plug-ins).

A year later I bought what is now their MTotalFXBundle (although it was considerably cheaper back then).

 

While the MFreeFXBundle is free, purchasing a license is the friendly thing to do.

And it adds a few nice features, at the time resizable GUI was a big one for me.

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  • 2 weeks later...

@Michael Willis has updated his Dragonfly Reverbs and added some interesting ones. Go check 'em out. The Plate one has a "tank" category that I am particularly interested in, as I have yet to find the right spring reverb emulation.

(note to Michael, the link https://github.com/michaelwillis/dragonfly-reverb/releases/download/3.2.1/DragonflyReverb-Windows-64bit-v3.2.3.zip comes back with "not found.")

This link gets me the file: https://github.com/michaelwillis/dragonfly-reverb/releases/download/3.2.1/DragonflyReverb-Windows-64bit-v3.2.1.zip

Edited by Starship Krupa
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4 minutes ago, Starship Krupa said:

@Michael Willis has updated his Dragonfly Reverbs and added some interesting ones. Go check 'em out. The Plate one has a "tank" category that I am particularly interested in, as I have yet to find the right spring reverb emulation.

(note to Michael, the link https://github.com/michaelwillis/dragonfly-reverb/releases/download/3.2.1/DragonflyReverb-Windows-64bit-v3.2.3.zip comes back with "not found.")

This link gets me the file: https://github.com/michaelwillis/dragonfly-reverb/releases/download/3.2.1/DragonflyReverb-Windows-64bit-v3.2.1.zip

3.2.3 is the latest anyway (and they sound pretty nice at first quick listen).

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8 hours ago, Starship Krupa said:

@Michael Willis has updated his Dragonfly Reverbs and added some interesting ones. Go check 'em out. The Plate one has a "tank" category that I am particularly interested in, as I have yet to find the right spring reverb emulation.

(note to Michael, the link https://github.com/michaelwillis/dragonfly-reverb/releases/download/3.2.1/DragonflyReverb-Windows-64bit-v3.2.3.zip comes back with "not found.")

This link gets me the file: https://github.com/michaelwillis/dragonfly-reverb/releases/download/3.2.1/DragonflyReverb-Windows-64bit-v3.2.1.zip

That should be https://github.com/michaelwillis/dragonfly-reverb/releases/download/3.2.3/DragonflyReverb-Windows-64bit-v3.2.3.zip

(Note that the version numbers in the path and the file name must match)

I keep thinking that I should try my hand at building a spring reverb, but I haven't worked up the gumption yet.

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For Sonic Anomaly, all their plugins are worth having. TriLeveler2 and VOLA work beautifully as free alternatives to Waves' Vocal Rider and MV2.

Graillon is a great pitch tuning plugin, a more modern alternative to the likes of GSnap, KeroVee, etc.

dearVR MICRO allows you to have more precise binaural panning options which could be useful to making things like fake room reverbs and things like that and other effects as well.

Probably mentioned already, but ValhallaDSP has three free plugins: FreqEcho, Space Modulator and Super Massive . These are simply gorgeous and can do some effects you won't find anywhere else. Super Massive is effectively what the name implies and can do things like this, which was accomplish using two instances of it:

 

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