Autor: Producer Gang

POPlab Sounds has released Modern Live-Drums, a new acoustic drum library modeled after the sound of current pop hits. The library is built around the kind of live-but-punchy drum sound that’s been front and center in modern radio pop production. In this case, instead of offering a generic acoustic kit, POPlab Sounds focused on recreating the specific tones from contemporary pop tracks, with each kit designed to be production-ready straight out of the box and to work as a starting point for a track. Basically, the idea is to give you mix-ready drums that are pre-made to match current popular…

Mixing engineer Andrea Caccese has released Midrange Crush, a free vintage-style saturation and summing plugin focused on the midrange. Caccese is an artist in the band Dead Rituals as well as a mixing engineer, and Midrange Crush is his first plugin release. The plugin is based directly on a mixing technique he uses a lot in his own work. As he explains, the idea is to focus saturation more heavily on the midrange for certain instruments, while leaving the low end and top end mostly alone. This way, you can add density and color without the side effects you usually…

Growl Audio has released gFractor, a completely free spectrum analyzer plugin for macOS, Windows, and Linux. I’ve been using Voxengo SPAN as my go-to spectrum analyzer for almost twenty years at this point. It’s basically muscle memory, and it’s always been the best free analyzer to reach for. So I’m not switching anytime soon. But if you’re new to producing, or you just want something different, gFractor is worth a look. The interface has a more clinical feel compared to most other analyzers, and I like how the customization controls are at the front rather than being buried in menus.…

Mikey Audio has released Shu, a free reverb plugin for macOS, Windows, and Linux. Shu offers seven different reverb algorithms in a single interface. The seven modes are Silk (a smooth and clean reverb), Drift (spacious with a bit of modulation), Plate (classic studio plate), Classic (bright), Slap (tight room), Spring (spring tank), and Ether (a pitch-shifted shimmer). Mode switching is crossfaded so you can audition algorithms mid-playback without clicks. I like this kind of workflow in a reverb plugin because I usually don’t want to adjust many parameters. I’d much rather let the algorithm do most of the work…

Bogren Digital has released IRDX Studio, a free modern IR loader plugin for macOS and Windows. Honestly, I haven’t loaded an IR in a while. Somewhere along the way, I realized IR loaders were leading me into micromanaging mode. I would audition dozens of cabinets, swap between mic positions, second-guess every choice, and never quite be happy with the result. But IRDX Studio looks interesting enough that I’m going to give the whole workflow another try. IRDX Studio is a five-slot IR loader with a graphical mixer. You drag IRs into slots, and the plugin draws a line between two…

Sound Development has released AudioDice, a free plugin host that randomizes the parameters of other plugins. AudioDice loads inside your DAW as a VST3 or AU plugin (in either FX or Instrument mode), and you then load the third-party plugin you actually want to randomize inside it. From there, you can roll the proverbial dice on individual parameters or the entire plugin state at once, even on synths and effects with thousands of exposed parameters. I love randomization in plugins, especially for sound design work. When you’re working with a complex synth or a multi-stage effect chain, sometimes the fastest…

Unfiltered Audio has released BattleFX, a free multi-FX plugin built around the send effects section of its Battalion drum synth. I downloaded this immediately because the screenshots had me sold before I’d even finished reading the product page. It looks amazing, clean and crisp, just the way I like it! But the sound is probably even better, haha. So, this one goes straight into my sound design arsenal. If you’ve used Battalion, you already know how good the Shatter Delay and Headspace Reverb are. Unfiltered Audio has finally pulled them out into a standalone plugin you can drop on any…

091Audio has released 091HPDoctor, a free precision high-pass filter plugin for macOS, Windows, and Linux. 091Audio is a small plugin project by Andy Leuckert, a software developer from Chemnitz, Germany, whose day job involves post-processing of measurement data. HPDoctor is his first release, and it’s a high-pass filter unlike any other plugin I’ve seen. Most high-pass filters stop at 20 Hz, and HPDoctor goes all the way down to 1 Hz. The idea and design came from producer Ronny Pries. The 1-150 Hz range is the headline feature, and although it may not sound like a big deal, it makes…

Darkstarz Technologies has released DustBox, a lo-fi grime processor for producers working with boom-bap drums and lo-fi drum sounds. It normally goes for $19.99, but it’s free for a limited time (the developer hasn’t announced an end date). DustBox is for fast shaping. It’s more than just a basic bitcrusher, and I think what they’re trying to do here is emulate the sound of old-school samplers but with more range, so to speak. The workflow is pretty self-explanatory. You drop it on a channel, turn the big Grime knob in the middle, and push the sound toward dusty 12-bit sampler…

Touched Lite from developer Warmth is a free multi-FX plugin for macOS, Windows, and Linux. aimed at shoegaze producers, but that dreamy character fits a variety of genres. The plugin features Fuzz and Reverb effects at the heart of that dreamy, ethereal shoegaze sound. The Fuzz stage is inspired by the legendary Electro-Harmonix Big Muffin fuzz pedal. The Big Muffin pedal can be heard on albums by acts like Pink Floyd, Nirvana, and even Frank Zappa. When shoegaze emerged from the alternative rock scene, the Big Muffin fuzz sound remained, albeit with even less clarity than usual. Prioritising mood and…