Gear Recommendation: 8 Free Plugins
- Details
- Published on Tuesday, 07 February 2012 13:18
Sound wants to be free!
Every time I hang out with a fellow music maker, at some point we have to exchange gear secrets. Most often, it's the free stuff we end up talking about.
There are tons of free synths and effects out there. These are the ones I've stumbled upon that frequently find their way to my tracks. Either because they sound good, because they're simple or maybe just of habit.
Please feel free to post your own recommendations in the comments!
TAL Dub
TAL, or Togu Audio Line have a made number of digital effects.
Pato introduced me to the TAL Dub. It's a quite nice sounding delay with a bit of analog feel and controls that let you make some real gritty dubs.
There's also a TAL Dub II and III, but I haven't tried those yet.
TAL Dubs: Catch 'em all like pokemon!
Autogun
This is a fun little tool when you need a bit of inspiration.
Autogun only has presets. But there are 4.294.967.296 (Four Billion Two Hundred Ninety Four Million Nine Hundred Sixty Seven Thousand Two Hundred Ninety Six) of them. I have no idea how they managed to make that many. I'm guessing there's some randimization in there.
So what you do is basically go through sounds or type in a random number. Find a sound you like and make a track.
The sounds are generally quite cool. A lot of metalic textures with loads of effects.
Again, great if you're just sitting around and your usual synths aren't inspiring you, this is a good starting point.
I used Autogun for the two main synths and some of the atmospheres in my track This is not the end:
This is not the end by liquido
Synthedit PD-303
This is a really ugly little synth I've used quite a lot.
Just as the Roland TB-303 does a terrible job emulating a bass player, the PD-303 does a terrible job sounding like a real 303. But it's pretty cool as a starting point for standard bass sounds.
For a guy like me, who's more a song writer than a sound designer, I like the simplicity of this stupid thing. Just throw it into a track and get ideas down.
Also, it doesn't do too bad a job with that high pitched 303 sound we know from Frankie Knuckles: Your Love and Newcleus: Jam On It.
I used bass and high sounds on my track Return to Love:
Return to Love (320 mp3) by liquido
With a bit of effects processing, it can get pretty big:
Liquido vs. Keith: Lørdag ude på Landet by liquido
Get that ugly synth here!
Poor plate
Like most effects, the goal for a reverb is either realism or character.
While realism usually costs money, the Poor Plate can't even afford an interface!
But it has character. If you want that kitch/vintage 80s/90s plastic keyboard sound, the Poor Plate will do you good.
Also, a trick I like is putting my sounds through just a little bit of some different reverbs. Poor Plate is good for that as well.
Dub Delay
Formerly known as retro delay, a tape style echo produced by danish reggae group Slo Down.
The time factor control goes from short to long and other controls include feedback, tone and LFO depth.
Sounds great and playing with the time factor is a lot of fun.
Rough Rider
This was lying around in my plugin folder unused for a while, but I gave it a try after Patrick Bateman told me a lot of big producers use it.
It's quite a rowdy compressor, but it will give your sounds some really nice punch. As they say: “Rough Rider is at its best when used to add pump to rhythmic tracks. Of course, you can use it however you'd like. The Compressor Police aren't gonna come to your house and give you a citation”.
I also like what they say about the attack and release times: ”We left off the actual time values, so you're gonna have to use your ears, like the he-men did it in times of myth”.
A good compressor is hard to find. You definitely want this one.
Ganymed
A nice and soft sounding FM synth with a horrible interface. As the programmer says: “It really shows that all the programming energy and inventiveness went into the synth's engine and the GUI was more of a quick hack. ("Well, I guess I need an UI for these 400 parameters, so...")”
If you stick with finding a nice preset and only messing with what you know, you'll be OK though.
Nice soft sounds and you can make some nice textures.
Synth1
I just got this one today, but after just a few moment of playing around, I'm pretty sure I'm gonna make some cool stuff with it.
An emulation of the Nord Lead 2. Download it here.
As mentioned, there are a million free instruments and effects out there. These are the ones I have positive experiences working with. What are your favorite free plugins? I'd love to know, so please leave your tips in the comments!
Like this post? Check more about music production here
