Ewan Bristow has released LOCD, a free plugin that offers a fresh and gritty take on distortion and sound shaping for macOS, Windows, and Linux.
LOCD (short for Locked Oscillator Correlation Device) is built around a relatively simple idea, but the result is really cool and unlike any other plugin I have tested so far.
It phase-locks your audio to a saw or square wave at the source sound’s fundamental frequency, producing results that range from gritty and aggressive to warbly and washed-out.
It’s a digital distortion plugin at heart, but it can do much more than that basic premise. And yeah, it’s definitely a new favorite in my cinematic sound design toolbox.
If you’re like me and gravitate toward plugins that break out of the reverb-saturation-compression mold, LOCD is a must download. It definitely doesn’t sound like any basic distortion or bitcrusher plugin.
The controls are a bit unusual, but simple and easy to figure out.
You get the central knob to control the intensity of the effect, plus some unconventional parameters: waveform selection (saw or square), block size (from 1024 to 16384 samples), side tracking, and pitch offset.
It’s the kind of effect that invites experimentation. You don’t need to understand the technical underpinnings to get cool-sounding results. Just load it onto a channel and turn the knobs until you like what you hear.
I found it works especially well on deeper sounds, turning clean subs into monstrously heavy bass. But it’s surprisingly versatile; the included demos show it can also add a subtle smearing effect to mellow instruments like pianos.
Here’s a little tip on how to use LOCD from the developer himself.
LOCD is also incredibly lightweight. It barely touches the CPU, meaning you can stack multiple instances without worry of crashing the DAW. That’s a big bonus if you want to get wild with parallel chains or multi-layered textures.
The UI is clean and minimal, with three color themes and full resizability. I didn’t find a built-in preset system, but most DAWs allow you to save your own settings, so that’s no big deal.
Best of all, LOCD is 100% free with no strings attached. There’s no registration, no email, no activation. Just download and install.
LOCD is available in VST3, CLAP, and AU formats for Windows, macOS, and Linux. Windows users can also grab a standalone EXE version.
If you’ve used Ewan Bristow’s previous plugins like EB-CatNip and EB-Diøne, you’ll know to expect something unusual, and LOCD definitely delivers. I can’t wait to see what he comes up with next.
Download: LOCD
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Last Updated on September 1, 2025 by Tomislav Zlatic.
