Your Recommended Free PC Software

[4ryo]

currently loving totape from airwindows:
https://www.airwindows.com/totape5/

[Martin Walker]

Quick comment on the previous two posts - I have both of these tape freebies and like them a lot.

Chow Tape is actually incredibly versatile, and you can use it to create quite a range of really funky 'ancient machine' sounds with crackly and mangled artefacts.

Likewise, Airwindows ToTape is great not only for tape warmth, but also for more radical tape wobble and tangle special FX.

Recommended!

Martin

[manwilde]

CHOW Tape Model written by Jatin Chowdhury models several analogue tape machines and is available for Mac, PC and Linux.

https://github.com/jatinchowdhury18/Ana ... tag/v2.7.0

It adds a certain something. The GUI doesn't look like a tape machine, and I like that because the GUI doesn't actually affect the sound. There is an option for oversampling up to 16x. 16x oversampling is heavy on CPU so it's possible to monitor at say 4x oversampling then use 16x for the final render.

Thanks, I've been using it sparingly in my mixes for the past two months and I'm really liking it.

[Chet Leeway]

Waveform Free - Strong contender for best free DAW

https://www.tracktion.com/products/waveform-free

[Simon Thompson]

I put together a little freeware/donateware/magware system build around Soundbridge. Love Soundbridge.

https://www.simonthompsonmusic.co.uk/20 ... -free.html

[Simon Thompson]

Soundbridge also have a great freeware drum machine instrument called Ritmix. I don't really know of a better free drum machine.

https://www.simonthompsonmusic.co.uk/20 ... itmix.html

soundbridge.io

[sarahedmonds]

Free PC Software:

Hotstepper
Musink Lite
LMMS
Hydrogen
MIDI FISH

VSTs:

Osiris-XT
SIKA Oriental Scale
Stringer
Synth1

[dushmin]

I would recommend HWMonitor if you are using intensive tasks then you should definitely keep an eye on how's your internal component are performing.

[shufflebeat]

Free PC Software:

Musink Lite

I've neglected this thread of late. This looks interesting.

[The Elf]

I should add this (one of the best software steers I've ever been given, courtesy of @noisefleur!):
https://www.avid.com/products/avid-control
https://www.soundonsound.com/forum/view ... id#p810837

[Luke W]

I should add this (one of the best software steers I've ever been given, courtesy of @noisefleur!):
https://www.avid.com/products/avid-control
https://www.soundonsound.com/forum/view ... id#p810837

Seconded (or thirded?)...

I wouldn't want to be without it.

[Martin Walker]

Ooh, Avid Control is a new one on me - thanks for the link you two!

Now to see if it will work with Reaper on my PC, and my iPad Air.

[The Elf]

It looks like Reaper falls back to MCU, so it may not be as sophisticated as the Cubase implementation I've described, but do let us know!

[shufflebeat]

I'm just having a nosey at that too.

[Luke W]

Yes, if you want all of the bells and whistles it unfortunately relies on a DAW that offers EUCON support.

I'm also interested to hear how it does when used as an MCU/HUI controller though.

[James Perrett]

It looks like Reaper falls back to MCU, so it may not be as sophisticated as the Cubase implementation I've described, but do let us know!

While Reaper doesn't have Eucon built in, there is an add-on under development from Geoff Waddington which supports it.

https://forum.cockos.com/showthread.php?t=255955
.

[Martin Walker]

I was just about to post that link James, but you beat me to it

Looks promising though, and Geoff Waddington seems to have been working on this for a year or so, although this is still a work in progress.

[Forell77]

Some useful free plugins i use:

TAL-Reverb-4
A high-quality plate reverb with a simple interface and great sound.
https://tal-software.com/products/tal-reverb-4

TDR Nova
A dynamic equalizer in the form of a parametric EQ, perfect for fine-tuning your mix.
https://www.tokyodawn.net/tdr-nova/

Voxengo SPAN
A real-time audio spectrum analyzer with a wide range of features.
https://www.voxengo.com/product/span/

OTT
A multiband compressor based on a popular preset in Ableton Live's multiband dynamics.
https://splice.com/plugins/3788-ott-vst ... er-records

Some free synths:

Vital
A highly versatile wavetable synthesizer with a clean and intuitive interface.
https://vital.audio/

Synth1
A legendary virtual analog synth inspired by the Nord Lead 2.
https://www.kvraudio.com/product/synth1 ... chiro-toda

[t-sun]

Osirus/Vavra/OsTirus

The DSP56300 project exists to create an emulation of the Motorola 56300 series DSP chips (and associated hardware) that was used in many late 90s/early 00s synthesizers. Several projects have been released so far and the team is working on more. These aren't so much VSTs as emulations, closer to something like a video game console or computer emulator than an approximation.

Osirus is an emulation of the Access Virus A/B/C.

Vavra is an emulation of the Waldorf Micro Q.

OsTirus is an emulation of the Access Virus Ti series.

The plugins do not work out of the box - they require a copy of the original OS ROM file in order to work. However, they are completely accurate (other than the D/A converters on the hardware).

[N i g e l]

Some free synths:

Vital
A highly versatile wavetable synthesizer with a clean and intuitive interface.
https://vital.audio/

thanks the utubes of that look awesome

[PedroTheThird]

One of the frew spectrum analyzers which also feature a bandpass mode (which I prefer over FFT). The free version is already great to work with.

https://www.siraudiotools.com/Spectrum-Analyzer.php