Distorder ~ Audio Distortion Analyser


The Distorder is a psychoacoustic standalone or VST application to check audibility of various forms of linear and nonlinear distortions applied to a stereo audio signal, including an ABX tester.

In simpler words, it’s just a soft to be sure if you’re not completely deaf.

4Front E-Piano ~ Freeware DX-7 Piano Plugin


4Front E-Piano is a small single sound instrument without any settings that reproduces a timbre, which is similar to DX-7 type e-piano. It is available as VSTi for Windows, and as an AudioUnit, VSTi and RTAS for Mac.

This instrument is small on memory and CPU usage and was found useful by many users and software developers as a plug & play e-piano module, which does not require any configuration or adjustment.

There is also 4Front R-Piano, which replicates a different type of E-Piano.

www.yohng.com/software/epiano

TDR Kotelnikov ~ Wideband Dynamics Processor


TDR Kotelnikov is a wideband dynamics processor combining high fidelity dynamic range control with deep musical flexibility. As a descendant of the venerable TDR Feedback Compressor product family, Kotelnikov has directly inherited several unique features such as a proven control scheme, individual release control for peak and RMS content, an intuitive user interface, and powerful, state of the art, high-precision algorithms.

With a sonic signature best described as “stealthy”, Kotelnikov has the ability to manipulate the dynamic range by dramatic amounts, while carefully preserving the original tone, timbre and punch of a musical signal. As such, it is perfectly suited to stereo bus compression as well as other critical applications.

The concept is “proudly digital” in the sense that it doesn’t try to emulate any previously existing device. This is the original!

Features:

  • 64bit multi-rate processing structure for highest accuracy
  • “Delta” oversampled signal path (bit transparent at 0dB gain reduction)
  • Super fast, yet natural sounding compression
  • “Crest factor” based control scheme offering independent release controls for peak and RMS events
  • Flexible sidechain highpass filter
  • Advanced stereo linking options optimized for the stereo bus
  • Delta preview mode previews the difference between compressed and original signal
  • Latency compensated, click free bypass (i.e. processing never interrupted)
  • User interface rescaling (100%, 125%, 150%)

www.tokyodawn.net/tdr-kotelnikov

TAP-plugins ~ LADSPA Linux Plugins


Tom’s Audio Processing plugins is a selection of LADSPA plugins for audio engineering on the Linux platform. Intended for use in a professional DAW environment such as Ardour, it includes high quality reverberation, echo, eq, limiter & more.

tomscii.sig7.se/tap-plugins/index

sourceforge.net/projects/tap-plugins
github.com/tomszilagyi/tap-plugins

Proximity ~ Changing Recording Depth Plugin


The plug-in is an easy to use distance “pan-pot” based on several psycho-acoustic models. The idea is to give mixing engineer a reliable tool which allows him to manipulate the “depth” of several sound source in a straight forward and convincing manner.

Several models can be combined:

  • Distance signal delay by speed of sound
  • Distance gain loss
  • Absorption of high-frequencies in air
  • Stereo width manipulation
  • Proximity effect of virtual microphone
  • Distance based early reflections

All models can be turned on and off to taste. Distance modulation options extend the creative possibilities even further. Units can be switched from metric (meters) to imperial (inches).

Krush ~ Bit Crushing & Downsampling Plugin


With its bit crushing and downsampling algorithms, Krush combines the crispy taste of the digital realm with the warmth of its drive stage and analog modeled resonant filters. A modulation section allows you to quickly add extra life to the sound by modulating any parameter.

The sound palette produced by Krush ranges from the dirtiest digital effects to crunchy modulated colours, with all the classic and weirdest bit-crushing effects in between.

BitterSweet ~ Transient Designer


BitterSweet v3 is Flux:: acclaimed transient processor used by hundreds of thousands of users for audio transient management with the simple turn of a knob – Turning it to the Sweet side reduces the transients, and turning it to the Bitter side magnifies the transients – No dongle or license activation required – 100% Freeware!

Features:

  • Up to 8 channels Input / Output
  • Output Gain
  • Controls the Output Gain at the end of the processing (-/+ 12 dB).
  • Link to Output Gain – Compensates the Output Gain depending on the Transient Amount in order to achieve unity gain.

www.flux.audio/project/bittersweet-v3

GClip ~ Wave-shaping Signal Clipper Plugin


Free VST audio effect plug-in download for music production, broadcasting and general audio editing.

  • Clip peaks off audio with abrupt or smooth wave-shaping.
  • Graph and waveform displays assist in setting the clip level according to the source material.
  • Oversampling can be enabled to reduce aliasing.

www.gvst.co.uk/gclip

GSnap ~ Pitch Correction Auto-tune Effect


Pitch-correction auto-tune effect – free VST audio effect plug-in download for music production, broadcasting and general audio editing.

  • Use with subtle settings to nudge off-key vocals back in line.
  • Extreme settings can create sounds like the famous T-Pain or Cher effect.
  • MIDI control mode allows you to fit a recording to a new melody.

www.gvst.co.uk/gsnap

Accessible Peak Meter ~ Realtime Sonification


Accessible Peak Meter uses real-time sonification to deliver information to the user about audio levels and peaks in audio signals, and so supports core activities in audio production. Accessible Peak Meter 3 is an extended development of Accessible Peak Meter. It adds more meter modes (RMS, EBU, VU/PPM, Truepeak, Dialnorm and Dynamic Range).

Accessible Peak Meter was developed in 2014/2015 at Queen Mary University of London as part of the Design Patterns for Inclusive Collaboration research project ( depic.eecs.qmul.ac.uk ).

More information about Accessible Peak Meter can be found at depic.eecs.qmul.ac.uk/apm

USAGE
The plug-in comes with the following tweakable parameters:

  1. Sonification Type: to switch between continuous mode , clipping mode and clip tone mode. “Clip tone” sonficates as soon level is above threshold .
  2. Dry: controls the level of the input audio, namely the audio content you want to analyze;
  3. Wet: controls the level of the sonification;
  4. Tone: controls height of the sonification tone in clip tone mode;
  5. Threshold: sets the threshold for the clipping mode, it has no effect on the continous mode
  6. Decay: this only affects the continuous mode sonification. The value ranges from 1 second down to 0.05 seconds. This is the time the meter would take to decay from 0 db to -inf after an impulse. These numbers don’t give a real feeling of how the sonification will sound – it is easier to think that when set to 0.05 the sonification will stop pretty immediately when you stop the audio; whereas if the value is set to 1, it will take longer to decay. In general, though, the latter sounds cleaner and normally the audio level doesn’t go all the way down to silence, as during the decay it encounters other peaks that bring it back up. So it’s up to you to find the right trade off.
  7. DAW sync: if set to “on”, meter reset is synced with DAW start playing. Only applicable for program loudness modes like RMS/EBU/DialNorm IL and PLR
  8. Meter Mode: sets the meter modes. Please to note that all meter modes are calibrated to 0 dBFS, 0 dBTP, 0 LUFS, 0LKFS, 0 VUFS and 0 PPMFS
    1. Peak: same as AccessiblePeakMeter, dBFS
    2. TruePeak: based on ITU BS1770.4, dBTP  
    3. VU: peak meter, 300ms integration time, VUFS
    4. PPM: peak meter, target, PPMFS
    5. RMS: 600ms integration time, AES-17, dBFS 
    6. EBU: EBU R128, target level -23 LUFS, LUFS
    7. DialNorm: gated, target level -24 LKFS, LKFS
    8. DR: PLR/PSR, dB

The AccessiblePeakMeter3 provides access to the parameters by exposing them to inspectors – such as ReaAccess plug-in or the Cakewalk Sonar inspector – in a clear and well formatted way.

www.tbproaudio.de/products/accessiblemeters

GSatPlus ~ Freeware Saturation Plugin


GSat+ is derived from the saturation module on the TBProAudio CS5501V2 channel strip plug-in, but adds extra features requested and suggested by the Gearspace.com team. It has several different saturation modes, high tweakability, oversampling, old-school VU meters and cross-platform software compatibility – as well as a button to take you directly to Gearspace.com in case you need any tips, tricks or inspiration or want to swap presets with other users.

Features:

  • Saturation with three different “tube-based” character modes
  • Clip protection
  • VU meters
  • Signal monitoring
  • Over sampling
  • Plug-in bypass
  • Preset management
  • Large and easy to use freely-scalable GUI
  • 64-bit internal processing
  • Very efficient CPU usage design

www.tbproaudio.de/products/gsatplus

sTiltV2 ~ Freeware Linear Phase Equalizer


sTilt is a linear / natural phase and IIR filter which tilts the audio spectrum around a given center frequency.

Features:

  • distortion free processing engine
  • adjustable slope from -6dB/Oct to +6dB/Oct
  • adjustable center frequency
  • 5 quality modes: low, eco, medium, high, max
  • 3 filter modes: linear phase, natural phase and zero delay
  • unit auto-gain
  • switchable clip protection
  • sample exact A/B comparison
  • stereo / left / right / mid / side channel selection
  • flexible channel monitoring
  • output gain
  • signal mixing
  • free GUI scaling

Note: This plugin adds significant latency to the audio path, which is usually compensated by DAW (PDC).

www.tbproaudio.de/products/stilt