TOP 10 Windows Apps for Audio Plugins

The Audio Plugins & Utilities category contains audio software plug-ins--accessory downloads designed to add or improve the functionality of other software programs, including iTunes, Mozilla Firefox, Winamp--and audio utilities that provide a variety of features, such as controlling volume, splitting or joining audio files, and transferring songs between computers and portable devices.

Massive

The heavyweight synthesizer for fat basses and piercing leads - everything from creamy analog sounds to dirty, brute force audio.

Massive is a sonic monster - the ultimate synth for basses and leads. The analog concept belies the contemporary, cutting-edge sound it generates. The high-end engine delivers pure quality, lending an undeniable virtue and character to even the most saturated of sounds. The interface is clearly laid out and easy to use, ensuring you will have Massive generating earth-shuddering sounds from the very first note.

Voxengo Voxformer VST (64 bit)

Voxengo Voxformer VST (64 bit) is a multi-functional vocal channel strip AU and VST plug-in for professional audio applications. Combining several professional quality processing modules, Voxengo Voxformer VST (64 bit) was designed to be a comprehensive solution for all your vocal processing needs - be it spoken or sung vocals. The coolest feature of Voxengo Voxformer VST (64 bit) is its one-knob vocal compressor. Using only a single knob, you can get a tight, open and definitive professional vocal sound with an excellent articulation in no time. You do not have to worry about common ratio and make-up gain controls since they are automatically selected by the advanced compression algorithm while attack and release parameters are stored in a mode preset.

Voxengo Redunoise

The latest VST plugin Voxengo brings you is Redunoise. Redunoise is a high-resolution audio noise reduction system plug-in. It delivers an unprecedented quality and offers the most comprehensive control. Potentially, every person dealing with audio recordings works with noisy program material on several occasions. These situations tend to get painful since existing broadband noise reduction processes can be very complicated because from the outset, results with them are not always pleasant. In a search for a better solution, we have developed our successful Redunoise.

Broadband noise is basically a very simple entity. For example, in audio editors, it is called 'white noise', which you can generate for the given duration. Cassette and vinyl recordings have plenty of it. Sometimes recording to the line input of an audio card also leaves a great deal of broadband noise, especially after normalizing. With such noisy audio sources, the natural desire is to reduce this broadband noise content while preserving all the necessary musical components, which is the most important part of the noise reduction process. Renoise uses advanced analysis and filtering approaches, offering an unprecedented audio analysis resolution and musically-sounding noise reduction filtering. Chances are you will like what Redunoise has to offer in the field of broadband noise reduction. We must say, however, that Redunoise achieves its performance using plenty of CPU resources. You should use at least a 1.3 GHz non-budget processor along with a relatively high audio card latency. The second drawback we must stress is latency. Redunoise gives nearly 33,000 samples of latency. To lessen the unfortunate side of such huge latency, we have implemented analysis display time correction so that the actual audio playback is synced with the picture you see on the display.

iZotope Spectron

iZotope Spectron is the next generation of spectral effect plug-ins allowing unmatched control over audio by frequency. Now, take your mixed drum track and add delay to the snare, or send the hi-hat panning back and forth. Give your guitar a delay, but only on the high notes. Make your bass ring down low, but stay clear and dry up high. For effects that are subtle or out of this world, iZotope Spectron is the one-stop spectral toolbox. Spectron splits audio into thousands of frequency bands, applies independent delay, morph, filter and pan effects, and then resynthesizes the processed audio into an entirely new sound. Using this unique control over individual frequencies, iZotope Spectron can sound like a phaser, chorus, vocoder and many new classes of effects. iZotope Spectron is for radio spots, loop and sample manipulation, sound effect design, and electronic and dance music production.

Kontakt Player

Kontakt Player is a free, expandable software instrument that can be used both standalone and as a plugin in any popular music sequencer. It is based on the powerful Kontakt software sampler that has become a standard with professional musicians, producers, and composers. Kontakt Player can also be expanded with a wide range of affordable download packs that accommodate various musical styles and genres - ranging form authentically emulated grand pianos, electric piano, acoustic bass, strings and drums to cinematic soundscapes and special effects for game and movie scores.

Battery

Battery is a full-featured drum instrument that can be used both standalone and as a plug-in in any popular music sequencer. It comes with a comprehensive arsenal of over 100 electronic and acoustic drum and percussion kits, 6 of which are included in the demo version. Sample formats such as Apple Loops, REX, Akai, EXS, and many more can also be loaded, allowing you to use just about every drum sample available, as well as any samples and audio files that you create yourself. Battery 3 also offers a wide range of creative sounds, shaping features and effects, including filters, EQ, distortion, compressor. Typical articulations such as flam, humanize, and roll add a natural feel to your rhythms. The time stretching feature allows samples to be sculpted and loops to be adjusted to the tempo of any song. Combined with an electronic drum pad or external MIDI controller, Battery can also turn any computer into an extremely versatile digital drum kit that can be played lived as a solo performance or in a band context.

Combining the ease of use of a traditional drum machine with the sound-sculpting prowess of a sampler, Native Instruments Battery 2.0 is one of the best software-percussion tools available. Built around a clean interface that has become the de facto standard for all products in Native Instruments' pro-audio line, Battery is approachable and simple to learn. Once you load a sound into the matrix-style interface, the fun begins. Each sample cell has an enormous amount of sound-tweaking flexibility, boasting tools such as compressors, multimode filters, LFO, customizable envelopes, and resampling effects. Also included is a mapping editor for layering up to 128 sounds together. Other controls include tune, saturation, bit control, and hertz. We liked the free-form envelope controls, which make it a snap to custom-tailor sounds to your specs. Our only complaint with Battery is that it really can't do much without a sequencer or some other MIDI device to drive it. Thankfully, the Battery interfaces with RTAS, VST, Audio Units, Core Audio, Core MIDI, Dxi, ASIO, and Direct Sound, giving you plenty of options for hooking up to other programs. With its multitude of features, we can easily recommend Battery to both newbie beatheads and old-school pros alike.

iZotope Vinyl

iZotope Vinyl is an ultimate lo-fi weapon, iZotope Vinyl uses 64-bit processing and advanced filtering, modeling and resampling to create authentic "vinyl" simulation, as if the audio was a record being played on a record player.

Heptode Virtual Heavy Tone VST Plugin

Virtual Heavy Tone is the official VST plugin emulation of the analog boutique guitar pedal manufactured by Heptode. Inspired by the Soldano SLO-100 amp overdrive channel, Virtual Heavy Tone produces very realistic tubish hi-gain distortion. The VST plugin shall be used with a VST host such as Cubase, Sonar, Audacity, Fruityloops...

Voxengo Voxformer VST (32 bit)

Voxengo Voxformer VST (32 bit) is a multi-functional vocal channel strip AU and VST plug-in for professional audio applications. Combining several professional quality processing modules, Voxengo Voxformer VST (32 bit) was designed to be a comprehensive solution for all your vocal processing needs - be it spoken or sung vocals. The coolest feature of Voxengo Voxformer VST (32 bit) is its one-knob vocal compressor. Using only a single knob, you can get a tight, open and definitive professional vocal sound with an excellent articulation in no time. You do not have to worry about common ratio and make-up gain controls since they are automatically selected by the advanced compression algorithm while attack and release parameters are stored in a mode preset.

iZotope Ozone

iZotope Ozone is a complete mastering system in a single integrated plug-in includes eight essential mastering tools like maximizer, equalizer, multiband dynamics, multiband stereo imaging, post equalizer, multiband harmonic exciter, reverb, and dithering. Fully customizable and scalable, Insight allows you to visually monitor all relevant information from your stereo or surround mix in a convenient floating window. Perform deep and flexible analysis with zoomable meters and the ability to route audio from any tracks or buses to Insight. Design your ideal metering plug-in by choosing the meters you want to view, customizing them, and resizing the Insight window to fit your current workflow.