A comprehensive list of audio processing plugins available for free download. Initially made by and for /r/mixingmastering, hoping it to be made by and for everyone.
This list was conceived so that people starting up in all forms of professional audio or trying to do it with limited resources, can have access to as wide a set of tools as possible.
No virtual instruments, that’s a whole different category. We just cover processing plugins (including meters and whatnot), for mixing or mastering and sound design.
Contributions are welcome. You can submit a pull request, provided that you only add either a single plugin maker (and their plugins) or item at a time. Otherwise you can just submit a plugin suggestion.
A1Audio
- A1TriggerGate - “There were some other sequenced- / rhythmic-gates out there, but honestly none of them really satisfied me as a music producer. So I decided to write my own…”
- A1StereoControl - “With my A1StereoControl plugin you will be able to expand or limit the STEREO WIDTH of your tracks using only one singleknob.”
Aegean Music
- Pitchproof - “Pitchproof is a free audio plug-in that can shift the pitch of the input.”
- Doppler Dome - “Doppler Dome is a free audio plug-in based on the Doppler effect. Explained simply, the Doppler effect is something that happens to sound when the listener and the sound source are getting closer together or farther appart.”
Airwindows
[VST, AU] “handsewn bespoke digital audio”
One dude, making a ton of free plugins.
Analog Obsession
[VST and AU for Windows and Mac]
“I’m Rıdvan Küçük (Tunca). Musician, hardware designer and plugin developer.
My plugins are now available exclusively on Patreon, and they’re free!
Bringing the classic sound of analog hardware into your DAW is what I love to do.”
Audio Damage
- Rough Rider - “one of the most popular free compressors in the world”
Black Rooster Audio
- The Canary - “This plug-in let’s you expand and recover some fundamental aspects of the drum signal that may have been lost during the recording process or which haven‘t been there in the first place.”
- Cypress TT-15 - “Black Rooster Audio‘s guitar amp head emulation meticulously modeled after a very versatile, yet uniquely sounding low wattage amplifier”
Blue Cat Audio
Boz Digital Labs
- Bark of Dog - “Bark of Dog 2 is a unique, stereo/M-S low-frequency enhancer that combines a resonant filter and Pultec-style boost-attenuation EQ in a simple, easy to use plug-in.”
- Panipulator - “With simple streamlined controls, you can you check mono compatibility, speaker polarity, identify phase issues in multi-miked instruments, isolate speakers in mono, and more.”
- Width Knob - “Width makes true stereo panning and stereo flip a breeze via a single control knob.”
Chowdhury DSP
“Chowdhury DSP is a project created by Jatin Chowdhury with the intention of developing innovative and high-quality audio software, as well as making that software available to the widest audience possible.”
- All plugins
- Chow Tape Model - “a digital emulation of a reel-to-reel analog tape machine.”
- Chow Matrix - “an infinitely growable delay effect, with complex internal modulation and feedback.”
- Chow Centaur - “a digital emulation of the Klon Centaur guitar pedal.”
- Chow Phaser - “a digital phaser effect originally inspired by the Schulte Compact Phasing ‘A’.”
Denis Tihanov
[VST]
- OrilRiver - “OrilRiver is a free algorithmic stereo reverb that can rival the quality of commercial reverbs.”
digitalfishphones
Goodhertz
Requires registration + an installer with all their plugins
Ignite Amps
“At Ignite Amps, we decided to keep pace with technology, developing in-house highly detailed digital simulations of tube and solid-state electronic circuits.”
- Ignite Amps plugins (all free except for Libra)
iZotope
Requires registration
- Vinyl - “Vinyl simulates the dust, scratches, warp, and mechanical noise reminiscent of yesteryear”
- Ozone Imager - “Control the width of any track, perfect for making super-wide sounds or creating narrow, mono-like sources.”
- Vocal Doubler - “Vocal Doubler is a free plug-in designed to enhance your vocal with a natural doubling effect, adding richness and depth.”
Klanghelm
- DC1A - “effortless character comp”
- IVGI - “saturation & distortion”
- MJUC jr. - “variable-tube compressor”
Klevgrand
- FreeAMP - “…the sound of tape and tube saturation at the same time.”
lkjb
- Luftikus - “Luftikus is a digital adaptation of an analog EQ with fixed half-octave bands and additional high frequency boost.”
- PitchedDelay - “PitchedDelay is a delay that allows the pitching the delayed signal. This can be done within or outside the feedback loop.”
- QRange - “QRange is a IIR linear phase EQ”
- ReFine - “ReFine is a plugin that allows to add a final polishing to your tracks, busses and masters.”
- SuperSpread - “SuperSpread uses multiple pitch shifters to spread a signal thus allowing supersawing any input it is given.”
- TinyQ - “TinyQ is - as the name suggests - a rather tiny EQ”
MeldaProduction
Requires downloading an installer with all of their plugins, but you can select to install only the free bundle (or individual plugins).
Native Instruments (Effects only)
Requires registration + Komplete Start
- Supercharger - “Dripping with the high-octane attitude of a one-of-a-kind tube compressor – with an intelligent interface designed for supreme ease of use.”
Plugin Alliance
Requires registration
- bx_cleansweep (Brainworx) - “bx_cleansweep is the plugin that should go into every mix channel as the first plugin. This way you can filter out any unwanted hi-end and lo-end, and the result is a clean and tight mix.”
- bx_solo (Brainworx) - “Brainworx created bx_solo to introduce users to the M/S technique”
- bx_subfilter (Brainworx) - “It’s the perfect plugin for anyone who loves the bx_subsynth’s unique approach to low-end filtering, but doesn’t need the subharmonic synthesis.”
- Double MS (Schoeps) - “Decode Double-MS Microphone Setups in Post Production”
- Free Ranger (SPL) - “The Free Ranger is based upon the Full Ranger-EQ from SPL’s EQ Rangers series.”
- niveau filter (elysia) - “This filter provides a super simple way to change the overall sonic character of a signal.”
Polyverse Music/Infected Mushroom
Email required
- Wider - “Pseudo stereo widener without phase issues”
Slate Digital
Requires iLok account
- Revival - “The result of years of research into what makes things sound ‘better’, Slate Digital’s Revival is a new type of Sonic Enhancer.”
- The Monster Extreme Dynamic Processor - “The Monster emulates the classic “all-buttons-in” extreme compression sound of the famous vintage FET limiter hardware.”
Softube
Requires registration + ilok account
- Saturation Knob - “Three modes, three kinds of distortion character. Great for fattening up drums and bass, adding harmonics to vocals, and more”
Solid State Logic
[32-bit only, legacy plugins]
These are some old plugins that SSL had released for free on their website in the mid 2000s. They are no longer available on their main official site, but they are still hosted on their servers (to which we are linking to).
These installers WILL NOT work on modern operative systems (Windows 10, MacOS)
- LMC-1 (Windows or Mac) - “The SSL Listen Mic Compressor was the secret weapon in many producers sonic arsenal of recording techniques. Originally designed to prevent overloading the return feed from a studio communications mic, its fixed attack and release curves were eminently suitable for use on ambient drums mics.”
- SSL X-Orcism (Windows or Mac) - “In response to ghost stories of economic doom and gloom we invite you to celebrate the festival of witches and ghouls with a bit of fun.”
Sonic Anomaly
[VST for Windows only and jSFX for Reaper (Win and Mac)]
Stillwell Audio
- Bitter - “Bitter shows how many of the available bits are being used by the audio signal, reports clipping samples, and estimates when digital-to-analog conversion would cause inter-sample clips.”
TAL Software
- TAL-Chorus-LX - “TAL-Chorus-LX is a 1:1 standalone version of the chorus implemented in TAL-U-NO-LX.”
- TAL-Dub’s - “TAL-Dub is a vintage style delay effect. It can be used for a wide range of delay effects from clean to extreme distorted, resonating never ending delays :-)”
- TAL-Effects - TAL-Bitcrusher, TAL-Flanger, TAL-USE, TAL-Tube.
- TAL-Filter - “a host synced filter module with different filter types, panorama and volume modulation possibilities.”
- TAL-Reverb 2 & 3 - “TAL Reverb-II is a super diffuse and lush reverb effect with a fast build up time. Ideal for ambient reverb sounds. TAL-Reverb-III is an easy to use stereo reverb plugin. It’s popular because it’s very very diffuse sound ;) It has an additional signal feedback path.”
- TAL-Reverb-4 - “TAL-Reverb-4 is a high quality plate reverb with a vintage 80’s character.”
- TAL-Vocoder - “TAL-Vocoder is a vintage vocoder emulation with 11 bands that emulates the sound of vocoders from the early 80’s.”
TBProAudio
- ISOL8 - “ISOL8 divides the frequency range into 5 bands. These 5 bands can be soloed or muted individually.”
- mvMeter2 - “mvMeter is a multivariable meter including RMS, EBUR128, VU and PPM measurement.”
- sTilt - “sTilt is a linear phase filter which tilts the audio spectrum around a given center frequency.”
- dpMeter 4 - “DSEQ is a dynamic processor working in the frequency domain.DSEQ removes digital harshness on the fly thanks to self-adjusting frequency bands.”
Thomas Mundt
- LoudMax - “A look-Ahead brickwall loudness maximizer with a clean transparent sound.”
Tokyo Dawn Labs
- TDR Nova - “NOVA is a parallel dynamic equalizer. Appearing in the familiar layout of a parametric equalizer, each band also includes a full featured dynamics section allowing the processor to cover an impressively wide range of applications.”
- TDR Kotelnikov - “TDR Kotelnikov is a wideband dynamics processor combining high fidelity dynamic range control with deep musical flexibility.”
- TDR Prism - “…a modern frequency analyzer with a focus on human audio perception.”
- TDR VOS SlickEQ - “Three (and a half) filter-bands arranged in a classic Low/Mid/High semi-parametric layout offer fast and intuitive access to four distinct EQ modes, each representing a set of distinct EQ curves and behaviors.”
- Proximity - “…an easy to use distance “pan-pot” based on several psycho-acoustic models.”
u-he
- Protoverb - “A natural sounding reverb based on the concept of a room simulator. Protoverb is an experimental researchware plug-in, developed to aid our research.”
ValhallaDSP
- Freq Echo - “Bode-Style Frequency Shifter + Analog Echo Emulation create surprising sonic effects. Subtle chorusing and double tracking to barberpole phasing and flanging to endless glissandos and runaway echos.”
- Space Modulator - “Eleven algorithms allow you to get through-zero flanging, barberpole flanging, detuning, doubling, strange echoes, reverbs, and all sorts of effects that defy description.”
- Supermassive - “Get ready for luscious clouds of reverb, otherworldly delays, swelling waves of feedback unlike any you’ve heard before.”
Variety of Sound
[32-bit VST only]
“In each of my effects there is a special technical design, workflow or concept combination I haven’t found in existing tools. Many developers these days just stick to old concepts, but you will never see a straight copy of existing gear from me. I always add some innovation, or find a way to evolve and take it to a new level.”
vladg/sound
[VST, AU]
Free plugins made in Russia with love.
- Molot - “the compressor with character”
- Limiter №6 - “5 modules: RMS compressor, peak limiter, high-frequency limiter, clipper, true peak limiter”
-
Nova-67P - “Nova-67P is a parallel parametric equalizer plugin combined with a compressor.”
- https://varietyofsound.wordpress.com
Voxengo
- MSED - “Mid-Side Stereo Plugin”
- Sound Delay - “Simple Sound Delay Plugin”
- SPAN - “FFT Spectrum Analyzer”
- Latency Delay - “Latency Delay is an auxiliary AAX, AudioUnit, and VST audio plugin which allows you to compensate latency produced by any audio plugins, instruments and processes which produce latency but do not try to report it to the audio host application.”
- Overtone GEQ - “Overtone GEQ is a free 7-band harmonic (overtone) graphic equalizer”
- AnSpec - “1/3-Oct Spectrum Analyzer”
- Correlometer - “Correlometer is a free analog-style stereo multi-band correlation meter”
- Stereo Touch - “Stereo-Widener Plugin”
- Boogex - “Guitar Amp Simulator”
- OldSkoolVerb - “This plugin implements a kind of “classic” stereo reverb algorithm which is technically simple yet optimal. It also produces a very clear spatial image that blends well with the mix.”
- Marvel GEQ - “linear-phase 16-band graphic equalizer”
- Tempo Delay - “Tempo Delay is based on tempo, incorporating filter and tremolo sections with separate controls for each stereo channel.”
- Tube Amp - “The sound this plugin produces varies from a mild “warm” overdrive to a fuzzy distortion.”
Xfer
Youlean
- Youlean Loudness Meter - “Helps you comply with strict loudness requirements for the Film and TV industry.”