GMH Audio releases Buzz Cut clipper & Stereo Tool free VST/AU plugins

GMH Audio has released Buzz Cut, a free audio clipping effect plugin designed for ease of use and great sound.

Also available is Stereo Tool, a plugin that lets you set the balance of L/R and M/S, panning, flip left and right channels, and sum to mono.

The intuitive scrolling waveform display gives a clear visual depiction of the processing and makes the settings easy to dial in. The “HQ” mode offers a cleaner sound for when hard, digital clipping produces too many artifacts.

While mixing, Buzz Cut works great for leveling off drums and percussion while retaining the impact of the transients. In a mastering context, clipping with Buzz Cut can allow the perceived volume of the audio to be increased without raising the peak levels.

Stereo Tool is a utility plugin featuring a variety of useful processes for manipulating stereo input signals and can be used to re-balance stereo and mid-side information and place it anywhere in the stereo field.

It is useful for detailed mono summing, width control, stereo balancing, and features a custom pan control specifically designed for stereo audio.

Both plugins are available for download for 32/64-bit Windows and Mac (VST/AU). Donations are appreciated. GMH Audio is also offering some free samples and impulse responses.

Visit: gmhaudio.com

Vee Guitar Amp 2

Vee Guitar Amp 2 is a guitar tube amp simulator, designed to deliver clean-ish, crunched and distorted signals in a lo-fi, warm, vintage style. 

It includes a noise gate, a speaker cab emulation, a studio ambience emulation, a flanger and a unique "widening/doubling" effect. It is a strongly coloring low-gain amp, created to add a realistic vibe to electric guitar/piano tracks.

NOISE GATE (hidden). Everything below -55 dBFS is muted.

TUBE PREAMP with an overdrive circuit. It responds to playing dynamics, i.e. the hotter the signal, the more harmonic content and distortion will appear. If the signal is too hot and the amp breaks up too easily, use the -9dB PAD switch. If the signal is too quiet, use the +15dB BOOST switch (NOTE: you will effectively bypass the noise gate). Use both switches to achieve a +6dB boost. Use the GAIN knob to fine tune the preamp signal strength and overdrive.

BRICKWALL LIMITER (hidden). The 20:1 FET type compressor. The more you hit it, the more harmonic distortion and clipping it produces. The limiter is an integral part of the amp sound, contributing greatly to crunch and distortion.

SEMI PARAMETRIC EQ. Low Shelf and High Shelf EQ controls are independent from Low Mid and High Mid Peak controls. The signal is divided into two identical streams and recombined after the EQ section. This is known as "parallel EQ'ing", commonly used in analogue domain devices.

SPEAKER CABINET (hidden). The operating range of the driver is a classic 75Hz-5kHz range. The sound resembles a 2x12 cab, miked in an "off-axis far" manner. The cab was designed to attenuate the most troublesome frequencies, lowering risk of bad, ringing resonances, thus helping to achieve decent sound without too much EQing and notching.

SPRING REVERB. A "VeeSpringVerb" circuit, emulating a mono spring reverb. The circuit is included in the bundle as a separate VST plugin.

FLANGER. A stereo flanger. Its main purpose it to change mono signal into stereo and color it with a classic and popular flanger effect.

STUDIO ambience emulation. Designed to create a realistic vibe by injecting a "room" reverb into the dry signal, as if the cab was miked with an additional condenser mic.

WIDENER. A unique "VeeWide" circuit (also included as a separate VST). The idea behind the effect is very simple and was widely (pun intended) used in the '80s. This knob delays the right channel signal by 0-2000 samples, benefiting from a certain psychoacoustic phenomenon: human brains cannot distinguish echoes when they are 20-50 ms away from the main signal. When used on strings/pad track, it creates a "widening" effect, giving illusion that sound comes from "everywhere", tightly filling the entire stereo scene. When used on guitars/keys, it creates a doubling and slapback effects. As you turn the knob clockwise, you will notice that signal "moves right". This is an illusion - check the VCA meters of your DAW to see that L/R levels are perfectly leveled. Combine this effect with the flanger (which tends to "shift" signal to the left) to create a unique and interesting stereo effects. Experiment and have fun!

THANKS go to Antress (for generously shared tube overdrive algorithm, FET compressor "circuits", low and hi shelf eq circuits and GUI knobs, Christian W. Budde for his awesome VST Plugin Analyzer, David Gibson for showing the classic delay trick used in "VeeWide" plug.

http://www.vst4free.com/get_lpn1.php?win32=VeeGuitarAmp2.zip

Fender's Riffstation Pro is now free

Riffstation, a standalone software application designed for guitar players to practice, learn and create jam tracks easily with the music you already have in your collection, is now free.

Here's what the developers say:

"While we work with labels and publishers on a paid Riffstation service, Riffstation will no longer be available on the web or mobile devices.

We hope to bring a similar service back in the future, but in the meantime, we'd like to offer you a free copy of Riffstation Pro desktop app (normally $34.99), on us.

Riffstation Pro is an amazing tool for beginners and advanced guitar players and will help unlock your potential as a guitarist.

Thank you in advance for your patience as we work on what's next."

​NOTE: This is a desktop app for Mac and PC computers and will not run on iOS and Android devices. It works with audio files stored on your computer as opposed to YouTube videos.

Visit: riffstation.com

Polyverse Music Infected Mushroom and Polyverse release Wider free stereo effect plug-in

Electronic duo Infected Mushroom and Polyverse have announced the release, for free, of Wider, which they describe as a unique stereo effect.

World Famous electronic duo Infected Mushroom and Polyverse are proud to announce Wider, a unique stereo effect for free.

Wider takes the massively popular stereo section from its sibling, Manipulator, and gives any user the ability to expand their stereo image of any signal to an awe-inspiring amount of width. However, Wider is a unique stereo plugin in the sense that it is completely "mono-compatible", meaning that any signal that has been extended will always remain in phase with itself, even if summed to mono.

Many stereo effects currently in use have the nasty habit of knocking signals out of phase, which can quickly make mixes sound muddy and unbalanced, or make sounds seem flat and lacking dynamics if one isn't mindful of the effect. Thanks to Wider's one-of-a-kind all pass and comb filtering algorithm, no phase in any mix or affected audio will be compromised, even at its broadest setting! Instead, Wider cancels itself out when summed to mono, so the original signal is left intact: a feature you won't find in any other stereo plugin.

Wider can be used to increase the stereo image of any signal up to 200% of full stereo for an extra wide, exaggerated effect.

Wider is available in VST, AU, and AAX formats, making it compatible with a variety of host applications, including Ableton Live, Logic, Pro Tools, Cubase, and Studio One. It can be used in 32 or 64-bit instances with Windows XP and later and with Mac OS X 10.6 and later.

Visit: polyversemusic.com/products/wider

Brain Control updates Tunefish to v4.2.0 free VST/AU synth

Brain Control has updated the free Tunefish4 synth to v4.2.0.

Changes:

- Upgrade to JUCE 5.3.0.

- VST3 Plugin now included.

- Factory patches now stored inside Plugin. No separate programs folder is needed anymore.

- changes in programs are now saved in user directory.

- fixed a pitch bending issue.

- added meters.

- added keyboard.

- added patch loader and factory writer.

- several small fixes.

- new patches made by Anders Lund Olsen.

Tunefish 4 was developed as a smaller replacement of Tunefish 3 with roughly the same power, it is however not compatible and uses different synthesis algorithms. It was developed for the 64k intro "Turtles all the way down" by demoscene group Brain Control and is available as VST/AU.

The synth is free but comes without any warranties.

Visit: tunefish-synth.com