Red Sounds has released deFORM 2, a free pitch modulation plugin for macOS and Windows. It is available for free for a limited time via VST Alarm.
DeFORM 2 is a simple pitch modulator designed as a quick tool for achieving a lo-fi vibe.
You get two LFOs: one sine wave and one irregular shape, both hardwired to pitch. You can’t change their rate, only their intensity, and the idea is to blend the two to create that warbly, unstable pitch behavior we associate with old tape machines and vintage analog oscillators.
It’s a super simple plugin with just three controls: Rate (modulation intensity), Wow (speed of the fluctuation), and Micro (for adding irregularity).
No presets are needed here. You just dial in the desired amount and type of warble manually until you’re happy with the result.
I’m always into that slightly detuned, pitch-drifty sound. Plugins like Baby Audio’s free Pitch Drift do a fantastic job at that, and of course, there’s our own BPB Dirty VHS if you’re after something that gets even closer to that degraded VHS vibe.
Plenty of tape emulation plugins like the recently released TapeFI Fail or 23Tape also offer pitch instability as part of their larger feature sets.
So, the question is: do you really need another plugin for this?
Well, look, I’m not your DAW. The answer really depends on what plugins you already own and whether you want to have as few plugins as possible in your production arsenal or not.
What I like about deFORM 2 is that it focuses entirely on pitch drift without getting weighed down by other tape-style effects like saturation or noise. It’s a simple tool for one specific flavor of analog character, and sometimes that’s exactly what you need.
Combining the two LFO shapes gives you a slightly different flavor compared to the smoother, single-source modulations found in most other plugins. If you’re a fan of stacking subtle modulations or building your own signal chains, this could be a handy addition, even if it’s not reinventing the wheel.
It’s free for now, but probably not forever (and I don’t know the standard price), so if you’re into tape-style pitch wobble, grab it while it’s hot.
To get deFORM 2 for free, you’ll need to complete the checkout process at VST Alarm using a valid email address. The plugin is compatible with 64-bit Windows (VST3) and macOS (VST3 and AU), though it’s not M1-compatible at this time.
Download: deFORM 2 (FREE for a limited time)
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Last Updated on August 19, 2025 by Tomislav Zlatic.
