Autor: Producer Gang

Carve Audio has released Mixing Cheat Sheet, a free mixing-reference plugin for macOS and Windows. So instead of giving you another PDF chart full of frequency numbers, Mixing Cheat Sheet opens inside your DAW and helps you connect common mixing terms to what those ranges actually sound like. To be honest, I haven’t seen another plugin like this one, so kudos to Carve Audio for the idea and for making it free. We’ve all been in a situation where something feels off in a mix, but it’s not clear what needs fixing. For example, the vocal might feel dull, the…

Air-G Audio has released Air-G EQ Pedal, a free six-band graphic equalizer plugin for Windows and Linux. Air-G EQ Pedal is part of Air-G Audio’s Guitar Collection, a growing series of guitar-pedal-style effects built on Chris Johnson’s open-source Airwindows DSP code. We recently covered the same developer’s Air-G Plugins Collection, which brought custom GUIs to 18 Airwindows processors. This one is based on PearEQ by Airwindows. It uses the same processing engine as Air-G Prism from the larger collection and packs it into a compact, pedal-style interface. The EQ has six fixed bands: Sub, Bass, Low Mid, Mid, High Mid,…

Plugin Boutique is offering SSL Native X-Saturator for $10, down from $49, until August 10th. The deal also qualifies for Plugin Boutique’s current free gift promotion. You can get 8-Track by Bitwig or Evolve Alloy Lite for free with this purchase, with options like Melodyne 5 Essential, Baby Audio TAIP, and Serato Hex FX if you spend more. SSL Native X-Saturator is a saturation and distortion plugin based on the behavior of analog gain circuits. It is designed to move from subtle harmonic enhancement to much more aggressive distortion, depending on how hard you push it. The plugin lets you blend…

Developer Leigh Pierce has released two free bass pedal plugins for macOS, Windows, and Linux. The new releases are NoAmp Low Rider DI and Obsidian B7000, following Leigh’s earlier Tommy and Monarch of Tone guitar pedal plugins. The new pair moves the focus to classic bass DI and overdrive sounds. NoAmp Low Rider DI is based on the Tech 21 SansAmp Bass Driver DI, with three selectable circuit revisions covering V1 Early, V1 Late, and V2. It basically attempts to cover different eras of the BDDI sound, from cleaner tone shaping to heavier clank, growl, and drive. The plugin includes…

Afro Tech is the bridge between Afro House and Melodic Techno, pushed by artists like Juno, HotLap and the Magnifik label. This from-scratch build takes one loop from a bare skeleton to a floor bomb in four levels: the skeleton, the groove, the detail, and the lead. It is the same loop the whole way through, so you can hear exactly what each level adds. Level 1: The Skeleton The five parts that have to work before anything else. Key settings: Kick: four on the floor Clap: straight for now, plus a clap loop reinforcing the kick (it should make…

Composer and software engineer Austin Rockman has released Reflector, a free open-source interactive audio workstation for sample discovery. Austin contacted me about the project, and I liked the idea even before testing it. Machine learning gets thrown into a lot of music tools now, but I find it interesting when it helps us interact with audio differently rather than simply generate more audio. Reflector is built for browsing your own sample library by harmonic relationship. In simple terms, you point it at a folder of sounds, it analyzes the material locally, and then you can search for samples that either…

Stagecraft Software’s RingMod plugin previously cost $30, but the Chicago-based developer has decided to make it available for free. To grab RingMod for free, head to the product page, and there you can download the installer directly. The plugin is available in AU, VST3, and AAX formats for macOS and Windows. As the developer notes, ring modulation is responsible for the unmistakable voice of the Daleks from Dr Who. But a few years before the Daleks hit our screens, Louis and Bebe Barron’s otherworldly score from the 1956 sci-fi classic Forbidden Planet brought ring modulation into the mainstream for audio…

OA-Labs has released OA-Phosphor-1, a free virtual analog synthesizer plugin for macOS. The developer describes it as a synth for “controllable instability,” and I think it’s a good fit. Phosphor-1 can deliver the typical subtractive type of stuff too, but the fun, for me at least, starts when you make it drift, sag, wobble, and fall apart. I have commented many times before that we are seeing a lot of vibe-coded plugins now, and I am trying to keep BPB news focused on the good free plugins rather than covering everything that lands in the inbox. Phosphor-1 was created with…

Capture the Bass Twice  “Get it right at the source.” Bass guitar looks simple to record. Plug it in. Press record. Done. And sometimes… That is exactly what you should do. But one of the most flexible bass recording techniques combines two different perspectives: DI for control. Amplifier for character. The DI gives you a clean, direct version of the instrument. The microphone captures the amp, speaker, and room. Blend them together… And you can get the precision of a modern recording with the personality of a classic bass rig.   Quick Answer 👉 The simplest way to record bass…

Jeff McClintock has released SynthEdit 1.6, a major update to the modular plugin development environment. The big headline here is that SynthEdit now finally runs natively on macOS. After decades as a Windows-first tool, it can now export 64-bit VST3 plugins for Windows and macOS, plus Audio Unit plugins for macOS. When I started making music, SynthEdit and SynthMaker plugins had a strange reputation. They made plugin building possible without writing C++ from scratch, but many musicians treated them as lesser plugins compared to hand-coded tools. To be fair, that reputation wasn’t completely random. Some SynthEdit and SynthMaker plugins were…