Okay, so first up, we have State Machines Bit Flip. This plugin is made by this company called Cradle. This year, I discovered a bunch of their plugins, and they are absolutely insane, like some of my favorite plugins ever. The interface looks super cool.
Next up, we have Key Base. This is a recreation of a vintage 60s monophonic bass synth called the Re Key Base. I genuinely didn’t know this synth existed until I tried this free one, but it sounds incredible. It’s really simple. We have an on/off switch, we have a DKA slow and fast mode, fuzz tone, mellow and bright, and then we have this bass booster slider thing that is just the best part.
Next up, we have Game Boy by NN Audio. The true LOFI experience inspired by the iconic Game Boy and Nintendo 64. This is all it is—it’s basically a synth that’s shaped like an old Game Boy, and it makes a bunch of cool Game Boy-inspired sounds. It’s very simple. You have presets, you have an EQ, you have Sampler 1 and 2, which are actually the sounds that are playing, and then here on the D-pad, you have a few effects like Bit Crush, Dimension, Reverb, and Delay.
Thump One by Toy Box. Now, this is technically a kick plugin—that’s how they talk about it—but really, it’s so much more. I mean, even if you go into the presets, you can see they have bass, they have effects, they have kicks, but they also have leads, even percussions. The cool thing about it is that every parameter is controlled by one of these envelopes, so you can draw them, you can change them up—it’s very intuitive and super versatile.
Vinal Guitar 2 by Echo Soundworks. This is just a dope guitar plugin. I mean, you have so many sounds to pick from. It’s all guitars. You can adjust the transient, the string buzz, the guitar noises, a few other parameters like width, exciter, and tone, and then you also have layers and effects, so you have some deep control over these sounds. But honestly, the way I use it is just the presets because the presets are great. It’s still free, it’s awesome.
Memory by Cymatics. So, the way they describe the plugin is uncover the hidden nostalgia behind any audio signal. Basically, it’s a chorus plugin. You have your depth, you have your rate, you have a filter, and then you can add a little bit of noise. That’s kind of it. It’s very basic, but as always with Cymatics, it sounds really good, and the interface is super clean. It looks cool, it’s easy to use, and I think what makes it really unique is the presets. They clearly put some love into them, and if you want something quick to just switch up your melody, make it sound just more interesting, this helps a lot.
Inner Pitch by Auburn Audio. This is another incredible utility plugin. Very, very simple, but it sounds really good. A lot of these pitch plugins, especially the free ones, tend to just destroy your sound, and it just sounds terrible. This one doesn’t. This one sounds cool. So, let’s say you have a melody. You can go down in pitch pretty much as much as you want, and it’s going to keep it pretty clean. It has a formant knob, which is very useful, and a few other controls, but really the pitching algorithm is where it shines. Inner Pitch is really cool on the master sometimes. Like, you get some unexpected effects if you just drop that on the master and pitch everything down—sometimes it sounds really cool.
Next up, we have Vaults by The Crow Hill Company. So, this is one of those plugins like Spitfire Labs where they’re going to keep adding sounds. According to the website, right now they have three sounds. They have a piano, they have strings, and they have a celesta. It has some basic sounds right now, but install it, and then eventually you’re going to get more and more sounds for free.