Free Plugin Packs from Around the internet
by Kari Estes
In addition to one-off plugins, some companies offer entire bundles of plugins for free.
This is part 2 in the free plugins installment.
Similar to the standalone plugins article, all of these plugins work in both Logic and ProTools,, and work with all operating systems, including Catalina.
MFreeFXBundle
Melda Productions offers a free bundle of 37 plugins. They give you the option to upgrade at any time, but allow you to perpetually use the free version of their products.
This bundle focuses on distortion, level control and visual analysis of audio. This bundle seems geared towards mixing and mastering with a few extra toys thrown in.
My favorite part of this bundle has to be the reverb. This reverb comes with a ridiculous amount of IR’s, including some very fun non-linear sounds. There’s a reverb for about every situation you can think of included in this pack.
These are slightly better than stock plugins, nothing SUPER special (aside from the reverb), but very practical things. Plus, who doesn’t love a pack of 37 free plugins! These all come with some prestes that are fairly decent (I’ll make a shoutout to the reverb once again - I’m in love with it) with some entertaining and creative names. They add a bit of a harsh sound to the audio, so if you’re looking for something transparent this isn’t the pack for you, but I do recommend downloading these to have them in case you ever want to mess around.
FREAKSHOW INDUSTRIES
Freakshow Industries is a bit of an unorthodox company, creating plugins meant to completely mess up audio. This indie company allows you to steal their plugins (no really, click on the steal button to get a free download). Their software is donation based, and I highly recommend supporting them in their future endeavours.
These plugins have some of the best interfaces I’ve ever seen - although they do use more processing power, it’s fun to see how the video images on the plugins interact with the parameters you change.
While these don’t have a practical use for mainstream audio, if you’re into sound design or are mixing a heavily distorted style of music, you could potentially add a unique and never-heard before sound to your audio.
Blue Cat's Freeware Plugins
Blue Cat’s Freeware pack offers 7 plugins.
Blue Cat does an incredible job of creating extremely transparent plugins. Each plugin has a very simple interface and very specific use, but as far as the pack as a whole goes you can stretch it pretty far.
Kilohearts
This is another bundle of 7 plugins.
Kilohearts’ bundle and Blue Cat’s bundles are extremely similar in terms of transparency and plugins included. There’s a few minor differences, but for the most part you could potentially pick one pack or the other and be happy with it.
Klanghelm Products
Klanghelm offers 3 free plugins.
The DC1A3 is a compressor. It can stereo unlike and have a negative ratio.. A few neat features include the negative compression button, ability to compress in dual mono, and a parallel option. While there is a lack of controls, this compressor can be versatile, it just takes a bit of finessing to achieve the compression you want. However, if you are just learning how to use compression this is great to start with - you won;t get overwhelmed by the amount of buttons and knobs.
The IVGI adds saturation or can become a distortion effect reminiscent of the old grunge distortion of the 90s.
The MJUC Jr. is just another basic compressor, adding some tube warmth. It’s a pretty basic compressor, but it adds a good vibe to the sound.
It’s good to note that all Klanghelm Freeware have big brother versions for purchase, for if you end up falling in love with any of these plugins.
Spitfire Audio Labs
In the world of samples, Spitfire is at the top of the game. Their string packs can run upwards of hundreds of dollars, but they do offer Spitfire Labs completely free to download. The pack of 29 soundpacks includes some of their string samples, piano sounds, as well as an assorted variety of strange instruments.
If storage is an issue on your laptop, I’d recommend installing these packs onto an external drive.
Unlike other spitfire soundpacks, this pack comes with a free player, so you don’t need the Kontak player to load these samples!
Applied Acoustics Soundlibrary
This sound player is geared more towards synth based music. With more industrial sounds, this pack is great to mess around with for more pop or electronic-oriented songs.
The soundpack download INCLUDES the player, so there’s no need to download 2 separate things!
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