Professional Mastering Vst Plugins
Top 10 FREE Mixing & Mastering Plugins 2019
The never-ending quest for the best mixing and mastering plugins is back again, only this time we’re searching through the freebies. We scouted through many polls and forums to look for what the audio engineering community has to say about freeware mixing and mastering plugins. So here is our top 10 list of the best and brightest freeware mixing and mastering plugins in no particular order.
1 Youlean Loudness Meter 2 by Youlean
One of the most important aspects of proper mixing and mastering is monitoring. Both audible and visual. This is where Loudness Meter 2 by Youlean comes in to play. This is a freeware loudness metering plugin featuring four metering modes (LUFS, LRA, DR and true peak). It is a must-have visual tool for every producer and mixing engineer on a budget as it will help determine the proper amount of loudness without sacrificing the sound quality and dynamic range of the track. Compared to V1, it has a better-looking GUI which is resizable with reduced CPU usage and is more stable than the previous one.
- Top 10 FREE Mixing & Mastering Plugins 2019. The never-ending quest for the best mixing and mastering plugins is back again, only this time we’re searching through the freebies. We scouted through many polls and forums to look for what the audio engineering community has to say about freeware mixing and mastering plugins.
- The plugin has a lot of little goodies including general EQ presets for vocals, drums, and guitar, as well as a piano roll display to match EQ frequencies with different musical notes. Pro-Q 3 is great for both mixing and mastering as you can change the display ranges from 3 and 6 dB ranges for mastering and 12 and 30 dB for mixing.
- If you are considering mastering your own tracks, the best place to start is by downloading some high quality mastering VST plugins. There are many incredibly powerful mastering VST plugins available, and all DAWs will come with one or two decent mastering tools.
- Home Studio Mastering has launched the Noiz-Lab LE Mastering Bundle, a collection of freeware mastering tools in VST, VST3, AU, and AAX plugin formats for digital audio workstations on PC and Mac. The free mastering bundle was developed as a learning tool along with the Home Studio Mastering ebook. It represents a basic mastering chainRead More.
10 BEST Free / Affordable Mastering VST Effects It has never been easier to enter the field of audio production because now we are living in a digital age. Producers no longer have to drop tens of thousands of dollars on pricey soundboards and studio spaces.
2 Bitter Sweet V3 by FLUX
FLUX is a very well-known company with amazing high-quality plugins respected by many audio professionals. Bitter Sweet is their freeware audio sweetening tool. Basically, this is a tone and transient shaper plugin which can make your individual tracks go from biting hard to silky smooth. The UI is very simple to use and it features a large knob for controlling the amount of the desired effect.
By going to the sweet side you get very smooth transients and a silky tonal character, while going over to the bitter side you’re getting much more pronounced tonal characteristics and more aggressive transients. A must have for anyone working with percussive and rhythmic materials.
3 Stereo Buss by Minimal System Group (MSI)
We already talked about this plugin in a previous post about the best free VST plugins overall but we’re going to give it some more attention here again.
This is a Windows only plugin but even so it’s very special. Yes we know that there are many other free “mastering” buss compressor plugins out there, and sure they all give you that kind of final touch and glue to you mixes, but in all honesty MSI Stereo Buss does it better than most others plain and simple. For what it does and the fact that you’re getting it for free, it really is the best one out there at the moment.
4 SPAN by Voxengo
Voxengo are very well-known among the freeware VST users out there and they’re highly praised. Everyone needs a good plain simple spectrum analyzer for metering and in all honesty you really can’t beat Voxengo here. It is our favourite spectrum analyzer overall and it beats many analyzers out there that are paid-for.
You can control the ballistics and response of its graph which makes it flexible enough for a wide variety of tasks. You can even route multiple tracks into SPAN and compare their frequency content. It is a great addition to YOULEAN Loudness Meter 2. Everyone needs to have Voxengo SPAN in their collection.
5 Freeware Plugins by Brainworx
This is not an official collection but mainly our own pick of various freeware plugins by the amazingly talented people at Brainworx.
bx_solo is a powerful tool for working with M/S because it features the legendary M/S technology from their bx_control V2.
bx_subfilter is a subharmonic content processor. Basically it shapes your sub content and adds more oomph to your signal with body and punch. Highly recommended if you’re into EDM and trailer music production.
bx_cleansweep is an extremely powerful Hi/Lo-Pass filter using advanced Brainworx technology.
6 Wider by Polyverse Music
We’re re-visiting Wider for this list also as we have nothing but high praise for it. This is a simple freeware VST plugin that widens your stereo signal with a very unique ability to broaden the stereo width of the signal without causing phasing issues when played back in mono.
Professional Mastering Vst Plugins Plugin
You can’t make it simpler than this because Wider features only one control parameter and that’s it. The slider affects the amount of stereo processing, but be careful when pushing it too far though because too much stereo widening can make your track sound as if it doesn’t exist in the same space with others in your mix. Treated carefully, this plugin is one of the best stereo wideners while keeping your mix compatible with any type of playback system. Free percussion vst plugin.
7 Neutrino by iZotope
iZotope’s Neutron plugin bundle features a very unique technology and they scaled it down in order to present us with Neutrino, which is a freeware version with limited options. Even though it is limited compared to the full-blown Neutron, you can still achieve amazing results with it. Neutrino tames undesirable resonances caused by poor room acoustics, cheap gear, and heavy-handed processing. iZotope calls this effect “spectral shaping” and it can sound similar to gentle, low-ratio multiband compression.
The GUI is very simple to understand and use because it features only two knobs for controlling the effect and 4 buttons for selecting the sound source you are working with.
8 Limiter No.6 by VLADG/Sound
This is a rather cool and useful mastering plugin packed with features. Combined with the previously mentioned YOULEAN Metering and Voxengo SPAN, you get a free mastering power tool. Limiter No.6 features 5 separate modules mostly known as gain stages. A compressor followed by a peak limiter, high frequency limiter, clipper and the protection module.
The Protection module ensures that your output of the signal doesn’t go into clipping. Each module is controlled individually and you can turn it on and off separately. The plugin has a certain character when pushed hard but it produces a warm pleasing output. It’s a no brainer if you want to own one.
9 MFreeFX Bundle by MeldaProduction
MeldaProduction are well-known for some great plugins and they have earned their keep in many pro audio engineers’ plugin collections. This bundle contains 30 completely free plugins which span from bread and butter tools like compressors and EQs to some not so common effects like ring modulator and oscilloscope. If you’re starting out your path to becoming an audio engineer, or if you’re a student with no budget this is a must-have for you.
10 NOVA EQ by TDR
This is a rare sight to see when it comes to freeware plugins. NOVA EQ is a real Swiss army knife when it comes to fixing those problematic frequencies. It is very easy on the eye with its rather sleek looking GUI.
Each EQ band features a dedicated dynamics section which allows the EQ to cover a wide range of frequencies. The sound is very transparent.
What are your favourite free mixing and mastering plugins?
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What are the best plugins for mixing and mastering that you can use and become a pro in making music? Today I am sharing some of the best plugins to have a seat!
Professional Mastering Plugins
16 Best Plugins For Mixing And Mastering Like A Pro!
There are so many music production plugins available which can make it hard to choose the best plugins for your needs and let’s not forget that they cost also money!
A good way to go about it is to go for music production plugin bundles. Many plugin bundles offer everything needed to create great music.
Whether you’re after effects plugins or looking to extend your virtual instruments arsenal following these tips can help you pick the best ones for you!
BENEFITS OF MUSIC PRODUCTION PLUGIN BUNDLES
Saves Money: The initial cost of plugin bundles is more than buying a single plugin. However, you get more for your money in the long-run. It’s more affordable to purchase a bundle compared to the combined cost of buying each plugin separately.
Intuitive Workflow: Plugins from the same developer often have similar layouts or features. This consistency makes it easier to learn and navigate each plugin in the bundle.
Variety of Tools: Plugin bundles offer a range of tools for various purposes. They come with all the essentials for either mixing, mastering, or sound design. You may also discover a new plugin that works better for a particular job.
Included Effects Rack: Many plugin bundles include a multi-effect rack. Effect racks make it easy to create simple or complex effect chains. You can also combine, rearrange, and save your effect chains as a preset.
1. SOUNDTOYS SOUNDTOYS 5
2. FABFILTER TOTAL BUNDLE
3. SLATE DIGITAL EVERYTHING BUNDLE
Professional Mastering Vst Plugins Vst
4. WAVES AUDIO WAVES GOLD
5. IZOTOPE MUSIC PRODUCTION SUITE
iZotope’s Music Production Suite combines seven next-level music production plugins. It offers the industry’s most innovative mixing, mastering, vocal production, and audio repair tools. You get Ozone 8 Advanced, Neutron 2 Advanced, RX 6 Standard, Nectar 2 Production Suite, VocalSynth, and Trash 2. Check out their student discounts.
6. NATIVE INSTRUMENTS KOMPLETE 12
7. UNIVERSAL AUDIO ANALOG CLASSICS PRO BUNDLE
8. ARTURIA V COLLECTION 6
9. IK MULTIMEDIA T-RACKS 5
10. D16 GROUP TOTAL BUNDLE
D16’s Total Bundle elevates your virtual studio with 16 top-level plugins. It offers a powerful set of synths, delays, and modulation effects. Enjoy vintage Roland hardware emulations, Sigmund and Repeater delay’s, their flagship LuSH-101 synthesizer, and more. Ask about their student discounts.
11. U-HE EVERYTHING BUNDLE
The Everything Bundle comes with all 12 u-he plugins. You get six analog modeled synths and six audio effects, including Uhbik, a suite of nine effects. It is an excellent set of music production and sound design tools. Moreover, u-he provides great sounding analog inspired synths and effects.
In this video, producer Tim Cant runs through 5 of the most popular, some might say best, Mastering Plugins / Software (VST/AU) money can buy.
12. Barricade 4 (ToneBoosters)
This compressor and peak limiter is an especially transparent model that takes care of a signal’s highest peaks with an easy set of controls.
Barricade gives you both compression and limiting stages, meaning that you can tailor it to your specific dynamics application, and with channel linking, auto gain and autorelease, dither, and comprehensive loudness metering.
13. Magic AB 2 (Sample Magic)
One crucial part of the mastering process is to compare the track you’re working on to some current releases. In order to keep things competitive, you could mess around with your OS’s file browser, but Magic AB 2 is a far better solution that works right inside your DAW.
With Magic AB, you can load up to nine reference tracks straight into the plugin and flick between these and your own track, comparing the lot in terms of level, loudness and dynamic range.
You can also use Magic AB to check your track in mono to see how your mix will perform in clubs or on smaller speakers.
14. Weiss MM-1 (Softube)
If you’re after a simple-to-use mastering limiter but tons of added character, here’s a good piece of ad-Weiss, Softube’s take on the Weiss MM-1 digital mastering hardware is fully endorsed, and uses the same algorithms in plugin form.
Weiss MM-1 gives you five flavours of limiting: Transparent, Loud, Punch, Wide and De-ess, and then gives you access to Amount, Mix and Limiter Gain controls to round things out the way you want them, safe in the knowledge that your audio signal is going through algorithms respected by mastering engineers the world over.
15. Elevate Mastering Bundle (Eventide)
Eventide units are studio fixtures throughout studios everywhere, and their recent research has seen them take mastering off into a new direction: using artificial intelligence, and modelling the hearing response of the human ear.
With all that, the four plugins in this bundle – Elevate, EQuivocate, Saturate and Punctuate – are fairly complex in terms of operation, but for anyone demanding surgical mastering tools, they’re a perfect choice.
For example, Punctuate can nail transients by changing how different frequency bands of a sound’s attack come across, and EQuivocate’s bands match how the human ear works, providing a very finely tuned way to sculpt the frequency spectrum.
16. Ozone 8 (iZotope)
Once again popping a perfect package into our Number One slot, it’s iZotope, with the infamous Ozone mastering suite. With its modular set of precise tools, Ozone has you building a chain of mastering effects to perfectly suit your audio material.
The modules are the Spectral Shaper, Maximizer, Imager, EQ and Dynamic EQ, Exciter, Dynamics, and Vintage Compressor, Tape and EQ, and they’re all available as individual plugins for Advanced version users.
As well as the basic modules, there’s also Ozone’s Master Assistant, which helps you reach a starting point for a track and identify what action might be needed, there’s the Tonal Balance Control, which lets you reference your track to professional standards there’s intelligent track segmentation, space for 10 reference tracks, and loads, loads more.
Ozone 8 is also available in Standard and Elements versions, with less functionality and not as many modules, but a lower price.
There you have it, 16 Best Plugins For Mixing And Mastering Like A Pro!
What’s Your favorite plugin fo mixing and mastering?
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