free plug-ins

[mac]

Came across this decent plug recently and been enjoying it immensely. Modest, GUI simplistic yet insane and powerful frq shift/echo plug-in. Give it a ride.

http://www.valhalladsp.com/freqecho.html

So what are your favorite free plug-ins? Share your findings and post your weapons of choice if you don't mind revealing your sound mangling tools.

[Guy Birkin]

That Valhalla plugin is quite nice.

My most-used and most-loved free plugins are from Bootsy's Variety of Sound:
http://varietyofsound.wordpress.com/vst-effects/

They're really good quality and nicely subtle. BootEQ mkII is the one I use the most, for almost all my recent mixing. EpicVerb and Density are also good reverb and compression, Ferric TDS tape dynamic compressor is pretty interesting too.

[StephenVitiello]

Came across this decent plug recently and been enjoying it immensely. Modest, GUI simplistic yet insane and powerful frq shift/echo plug-in. Give it a ride.

http://www.valhalladsp.com/freqecho.html

So what are your favorite free plug-ins? Share your findings and post your weapons of choice if you don't mind revealing your sound mangling tools.

Thanks for posting about the Valhalla and Variety of Sound plugins. I just demo'd the Vallhalla frequency shifter for a sophomore level sound class I'm teaching and set them off with a list of freeware to investigate. I use the Ableton Frequency Shifter all the time but this one has a really nice and different feel....Stephen

[billygomberg]

Tom Erbe has some nice freebies:

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

[sublamp]

I use this one on almost every track:
http://mdsp.smartelectronix.com/product/fire/

[rené]

Apart from the delay pack by soundhack and really nice valhalladsp freqecho already mentioned I like these:
http://www.michaelnorris.info/soundmagicspectral/index.html although some guys complained about crashes on the old board (never had one so far using them)...
and these "max for live" plugins (so only free if you own m4l)
http://www.christiankleine.com/Site/maxforlive.html

[The Green Kingdom]

Thanks for the recommendations guys, a couple that I'll need to check out later. I've been partial to the KT Granulator on my last couple projects. Any other nice VSTs you guys like for Granular effects?

[mac]

Any other nice VSTs you guys like for Granular effects?

For granulation and other audio mincing purposes I recommend Fragmental, which I found on one of the forum members website, namely s_hamann's. great plug-in. excellent interface not to mention the versatile and original concept. check it out.

http://blog.sighup.ca/2007/06/fragmental-a-history-of-an-audio-processor/

[rené]

not a "plugin" but a free max patch (works with the free max runtime, too):
http://ppooll.klingt.org/index.php/main_Page
Although I am pretty weary of doing music on the computer, I have been playing with it quite a bit recently and think it is quite amazing. It took me a bit too figure it out all, therefore I can recommend taking a look at this pdf that helps although it is referring to the "old" version lloopp http://ppooll.klingt.org/index.php/File:Quick_and_Dirty_Guide_to_Lloopp.pdf

[billygomberg]

not a "plugin" but a free max patch (works with the free max runtime, too):
http://ppooll.klingt.org/index.php/main_Page
Although I am pretty weary of doing music on the computer, I have been playing with it quite a bit recently and think it is quite amazing. It took me a bit too figure it out all, therefore I can recommend taking a look at this pdf that helps although it is referring to the "old" version lloopp http://ppooll.klingt.org/index.php/File:Quick_and_Dirty_Guide_to_Lloopp.pdf

definitely a LOT of folks have used lloopp/ppooll over the years...Fennesz, Christof Kurzmann are two names that come to mind.  for some reason i've never really dug into it (despite how darn useful it seems!).  I do really just dig making my own UI, but maybe I should have looked at this guide!

[s_hamann]

Any other nice VSTs you guys like for Granular effects?

For granulation and other audio mincing purposes I recommend Fragmental, which I found on one of the forum members website, namely s_hamann's. great plug-in. excellent interface not to mention the versatile and original concept. check it out.

http://blog.sighup.ca/2007/06/fragmental-a-history-of-an-audio-processor/

I still love working with Fragmental. When we were coming up with the idea, it only recently occurred to me that I should have requested feedback loops in the router. Too bad I hadn't thought of it at the time, would have in nicely I think. I wish Niall was still making audio software, he's chock full of cool ideas.

Another set of free plugins worth investigating are the ReaPlugs: http://www.reaper.fm/reaplugs/index.php

Fairly deep, versatile things, including a DSP scripting processor (ReaJS).

[rené]

hm. not sure if it is that many, i guess fennesz and tim hecker are more obvious ones, still i think the architecture of this modular patch and the possibility of integrating vsts and (porting) maxpatches make it pretty cool. it is fun to experiment with and sample the outcome in a more traditional way. i felt pretty dumb trying to figure out the basic steps (connecting "acts" and saving my own layout) at first but once you get past that it is pretty "playful".

not a "plugin" but a free max patch (works with the free max runtime, too):
http://ppooll.klingt.org/index.php/main_Page
Although I am pretty weary of doing music on the computer, I have been playing with it quite a bit recently and think it is quite amazing. It took me a bit too figure it out all, therefore I can recommend taking a look at this pdf that helps although it is referring to the "old" version lloopp http://ppooll.klingt.org/index.php/File:Quick_and_Dirty_Guide_to_Lloopp.pdf

definitely a LOT of folks have used lloopp/ppooll over the years...Fennesz, Christof Kurzmann are two names that come to mind.  for some reason i've never really dug into it (despite how darn useful it seems!).  I do really just dig making my own UI, but maybe I should have looked at this guide!

[NQ]

[geoffroy]

can't make that ppool work with the last Max 5.1 runtime installer on my PC

[mac]

here another pool of plugs i found recently. all types here p dynamic, eq, fx...

haven't tried most of them but can already tell you that the JS Mini-sample plug is lots of fun.

http://membres.multimania.fr/jeje1999/plug.htm