This week’s roundup of the best free plugins starts with the awesome Karp Synthesizer, a Karplus-Strong based synth for unique plucked string timbres. Car Test is a tool that shows you how your mix would sound in a car, and Strings Q3 brings some vintage string machine vibes to your DAW.
You will find many more free plugins in our archive!
Nathan Blair Karp Synthesizer
According to developer Nathan Blair, this unique software synthesizer uses: Karplus-Strong Synthesis to simulate the sound of plucked strings. The plugin has only two buttons (decay and mute), along with a checkbox to activate MPE. That’s right: Karp supports MPE pitch bend, allowing you to bend individual notes with a compatible controller. Pretty neat! Judging by the demo video, it sounds as magical as it looks. While Karp is free, the developer is asking for a $20 donation if you can afford it.
Karp is available for Windows and macOS in VST3 and AU formats.
Rocket propelled sound car test
Have you ever loaded your raw mix onto your phone so you could run outside to listen to it on your car stereo? I used to burn a few songs on CDs for that purpose. Autotest from Rocket Powered Sound is a new free plugin that simulates the frequency response of modern car speakers. This makes it easy to get an idea of how well your mix translates, and saves you the hassle of running out every time. Lazy? Could be. But also very useful!
Autotest is available for: macOS and Windows in VST3 and AU formats. A VST2 version is available on request.
AGL VST Customs Strings Q3
Strings Q3 from AGL VST Customs brings vintage string machine vibes to your Windows-based DAW. The software synthesizer offers three classic sounds to choose from: pad, strings, and orchestra. You can adjust the envelope (attack and decay), add effects (rotary, spatial, chorus and reverb), and use the 3-band EQ to make sure the sound fits well into the mix. It is also velocity sensitive, making it more expressive than the analog originals of the past.
Strings Q3 is a VST3 plugin in front of Windows.
Videos about free plugins
By loading the video, you agree to YouTube’s privacy policy.
Learn more
window.fbAsyncInit = function () {
FB.init( {
xfbml: true,
version: ‘v2.3’
} );
};
(function ( d, s, id ) {
var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName( s )[ 0 ];
if ( d.getElementById( id ) ) {
return;
}
js = d.createElement( s );
js.id = id;
js.src = “https://connect.facebook.net/en_US/sdk.js”;
fjs.parentNode.insertBefore( js, fjs );
}( document, ‘script’, ‘facebook-jssdk’ ));
