#214: The Best FREE Plugins Every Producer Should Use

Free plugins often get overlooked in the endless pursuit of premium software, but professional producers know that some of the most powerful tools cost absolutely nothing. In this illuminating conversation, Marc Matthews and Tim Benson (Aisle9) unpack their go-to free plugins that consistently deliver exceptional results across various production scenarios.

The discussion begins with TAL Chorus LX, Tim's top recommendation for achieving that classic Juno-style chorus effect. While many producers shy away from chorus on bass elements, Tim reveals how subtle application can add dimension without compromising mix integrity. Meanwhile, Marc swears by Slate Digital's Fresh Air for bringing clarity to percussion elements, though he cautions listeners about its potentially aggressive presets and the importance of proper gain staging.

Perhaps most valuable are the practical insights into how these tools integrate into real-world workflows. Soft Tube's Saturation Knob emerges as a versatile one-knob solution for adding harmonic richness, while TDR Nova provides dynamic EQ capabilities that rival premium alternatives. For spatial effects, Valhalla Super Massive creates otherworldly reverbs and delays that transform ordinary sounds into immersive soundscapes - particularly effective during breakdowns when automated thoughtfully.

What becomes clear throughout is that these aren't merely "good enough" alternatives to paid options - in many cases, they're the preferred tools of experienced producers who could choose anything. Their simplicity often becomes their strength, allowing for quick, intuitive adjustments without getting lost in parameter overload. Whether you're just starting or looking to expand your production toolkit without the investment, these recommendations offer immediate ways to elevate your sound.

Try implementing one of these free plugins in your next project and share your experience with us! We'd love to hear which free tools you consider essential in your own production arsenal.

Links mentioned in this episode:

We'd love to hear from you! Submit a question

Listen to Night Trains

Listen to Half-Life (Instrumental)

TAL Chorus LX

Slate Digital Fresh Air

Soft Tube Saturation Knob

TDR Nova EQ

Valhalla Super Massive

Goodhertz Midside Matrix

Chapters

• 0:00 Episode Introduction
• 1:48 Tim's Top Pick: TAL Chorus LX
• 6:03 Marc's Essential: Slate Digital Fresh Air
• 10:18 Soft Tube's Saturation Knob Explained
• 15:03 TDR Nova: Free Dynamic EQ Power
• 23:27 Valhalla Super Massive & Mid-Side Matrix
• 30:57 Honourable Mentions & Final Thoughts

Transcript

Marc Matthews: 0:28

Again, it's quite aggressive, so as soon as you put it on you will hear the difference and then dial it back. But I've known individuals use it on vocals even across a mix bus. But I've heard you can use it on a full mix bus. I don't know if I'd do that personally.

Aisle9: 0:45

I don't know, it might be a bit of a rescue remedy at that point. You're listening to the Inside the Mix podcast with your host.

Marc Matthews: 0:54

Mark Matthews, welcome to Inside the Mix, your go-to podcast for music creation and production. Whether you're crafting your first track or refining your mixing skills, join me each week for expert interviews, practical tutorials and insights to help you level up your music and smash it in the music industry. Let's dive in. Hey folks, welcome to Inside the Mix. I am joined, as I mentioned in the intro there, by Tim Benson, aka R9 again, and we're not actually answering your questions in this episode. This is one that we put together because we thought it'd be good fun, so we're going to be diving deep, deep diving into our respective top three free plugins Tools. Tim and I use ourselves in our productions to help you upgrade your mixes and music production without spending a penny. But before we do that, tim, welcome back. And how are you.

Aisle9: 1:51

Thank you very much. Yeah, I'm not too bad, you know, been busy, as really one way or the other, busy mixing and mastering and occasionally, you know, creating more music as well. Just had a track out, so, yeah, been pretty busy.

Marc Matthews: 2:07

Indeed. Yes, I'll put a link to that in the episode description, as I always do. The title of the track.

Aisle9: 2:13

Night Trains actually.

Marc Matthews: 2:16

Very nice, nice. Where did you get the inspiration for the name? Out of interest.

Aisle9: 2:20

Well, I think it was. Actually I was sort of writing the track already and then I was kind of talking with Carl actually on OK Neon Highway, and he mentioned something about it being a bit, had a European feel to it and that got me thinking of trans euro express by craftwork.

Aisle9: 2:38

A classic yes, track, um, and then I suddenly thought that it had a real moving, sort of like traveling vibe to the track, which had always sort of been in my mind while I was doing it and I've been looking at images and you know, sometimes you're trying to come up with a cover and and I actually found a few images that started to sort of go, ah yeah, maybe trains maybe like moving that kind of thing. So, yeah, it just pieced together really, but like, and it's funny, it's why I find, once you've got a title, you've got an image, you can kind of finish the track, sometimes get, you know, pull it all together makes more sense so yeah, it came together but carl is to blame I'd agree with that.

Marc Matthews: 3:20

The the track I'm working on at the moment. I've set aside some time to go through like creating promotional assets, like the artwork and stuff for it, while simultaneously mixing, and I find that it does help me get in a in a headspace to then complete the track. It's psychological for me. If I know I've got the artwork and all that stuff sorted out, then I'm like, oh, for whatever reason I find out I'm able to then finish the mix sooner. Maybe it's a psychological thing?

Aisle9: 3:43

Yeah, I find the same. Yeah. Yeah, it's quite interesting, but on the time of Kraftwerk, I was trying to think I was, think I was in.

Marc Matthews: 3:54

I was in town on the weekend and a craftwood track came on the radio in a store. Can't be, it might be an m&s, I can't remember now, but it was quite pleasant it's quite nice yeah out in a shop, then you have a bit of craft work.

Aisle9: 4:00

Come on the radio, yeah yeah, they were definitely a big influence on me when I first got into electronic music. But you know, yeah, definitely I began to realize that you didn't just have to make stuff with guitars, I mean, they sort of, but I don't know why because they're not. They're sort of that band that are sort of like. You know, I don't know they've influenced so many people but they're not exactly sort of they don't shout it.

Aisle9: 4:23

They're quite sort of you know they don't come forward. They're kind of these sort of robots making music. It's kind of weird. It wasn't very glamorous, but yeah, you know, but it worked or works.

Marc Matthews: 4:34

Yeah, yeah, exactly uh folks before we dive into, uh, our top three plugins. Uh, as we always do with these, these episodes, if you do have a question about music production, music industry, mixing, whatever it may be, we would love to hear it. So click the link in the episode description and you can send a quick voice note. Alternatively, you can just click the send me a message link and just send, like, a text message with your question and, of course, give yourself a shout out as well, so who you are, if you've got something that you're releasing, you want to shout out on that. With regards to that on the episode as well, do put that in there and you can find that in the episode description. So now that's out of the way. Digging in to the top three free plugins. So three from yourself, three from me, and I usually start with this, but I'll throw it over to you this time. Tim, you can start the ball rolling, as it were. Start the ball rolling, okay, what's your first?

Aisle9: 5:30

Well, it's an impossible task, isn't it? Because there are so many, I realize, like free plugins. But my number one that I put down just because I use it all the time, it's dead simple to use and it's just like it is tau chorus lx. Because if you want a chorus juno sounding chorus similar to the one on the Juno 106 or the Juno 60 or whatever, um, it may not be exactly the same, but who cares, it's great. It's great on synths, it's great on bass.

Aisle9: 6:03

I kind of like some chorus on bass. Not everyone does, but I do. You know, I know there's a bit of dissension in the ranks between sort of stereooness on bass, but, like you know, yeah, um, maybe on your top bass, not your sub bass, it could be nice. Um, it works really well on guitars. Little bit on vocals. Sometimes, if you're sending to vocals, um, I wouldn't insert it right across a vocal, but like, um, yeah, it's, it's just simple as well. Just like, how much width do you want? And you know, there you go, kind of thing. How much chorus do you want?

Aisle9: 6:39

yeah like it, and there are a couple of different algorithms you can switch between, I think, one and two. I've never known what the difference is, but like you can have one and two together as well, but I sort of swap around until I go.

Marc Matthews: 6:52

That's the one, yeah I often do that with plugins, when there's like two versions of something or you can flip between and I'm just thinking, oh yeah, that sounds better and I have no reason.

Marc Matthews: 7:01

I have no idea why I just switch between the two and settle on one of them, but when you mentioned that in the build up to this, I realized I've got that and that particular plugin, uh, the chorus plugin, and I need to make better use of it. It's interesting you mentioned about bass, because as soon as you said that, obviously my eyebrow did raise. But then when you mentioned that stereo, it goes back, I guess, to the conversations we've had before and I've had before on the podcast. There's no reason why you can't use it on bass, you know, because I guess there's a lot of discourse surrounding sub-bass, bass frequencies and the stereo placement of those particular frequencies. But I mean, you wouldn't want to go wild, but at the end of the day, if it sounds all right, then maybe not sub-bass. I don't know.

Aisle9: 7:45

No, no, exactly, but sometimes just a little bit of width on bass can be nice. But no, I'm not suggesting we will make our bases super stereo. That wouldn't be a great plan yeah, but you know, especially, as you say, the low frequencies.

Marc Matthews: 8:00

You want to keep them yeah, yeah, yeah, it'd be quite interesting. Yeah, get a lot of feedback from people saying that their their tunes have been um denied playlist placements because this ridiculous wide bass yeah, yeah, because of me telling to put tail chorus all over it.

Marc Matthews: 8:16

Yeah, okay, yeah disclaimer folks uh, do that uh with caution. But yeah, I, I I agree with you, though, with regards to sort of like the mid-range of bass as well and having those effects on there, specifically, if you're carving out carvings wrong word if you're creating a synth bass then, obviously the the sort of the sonic soundscape is is open to your interpretation, so I often do that very good it's great on synths.

Aisle9: 8:41

It's great on, like, all those kind of pads and all those kind of sounds are probably the things that you know um chorus is really designed for. So many synths have chorus built in now don't know vsts.

Aisle9: 8:54

But again you can always swap it out and try something like that which has got a little bit more of a vintage style to it, sort of a character. Again. It might have a bit more character than the kind of chorus that's just in your door. That I guess that's what you're going for a lot of the time with these, these free things, is. You might well find them in your DAW, but perhaps some of these have just got a little bit of character that is different than the ones in your DAW.

Marc Matthews: 9:20

Indeed what you mentioned there about swapping them out. So I think that's quite a useful point to make, in that a lot of patches Serum, diva, whatever it is you use will have the effects chain already set up. It's always worth going in there and having a look and see what's in there and disabling them and doing what you said, using your valhalla super massive um, yeah, a bit foreshadowing there, um, or the tau chorus, for example, and whipping those, whipping the one out of the patch or disabling it and then using one of those with similar settings to get a different sound.

Marc Matthews: 9:58

I feel, overlooked, I find.

Aisle9: 10:00

Indeed.

Marc Matthews: 10:02

Well, thank you, tim.

Marc Matthews: 10:03

My first one is one that I've probably banged on before on the podcast about this and I'm fairly certain I got this as soon as it dropped and that is the Slate Digital Fresh Air about this and I fairly certain I got this as soon as it dropped and that is the slate digital fresh air tried to get a nice bit of reverb, as I say that maybe in a bit of post-production, a dynamic high-frequency processor.

Marc Matthews: 10:25

So you've got two knobs basically with that one, the mid air and the high air, and it's got some great presets in there. But what I find with that is if you do use the presets, I find with with fresh air you you do use the presets. I find with fresh air you've got to be very careful. I find they can be quite aggressive the presets with fresh air and also as well, there's a gain tool in it and that when you do use it, I find that gain staging is quite important, as it always is with fresh air, because it does add a lot of signal level to the sound, whatever you use it on. But things I use it on mainly claps and hi-hats.

Aisle9: 11:00

All right, okay, claps and hi-hats. Now I've known an individual who's used it. I hadn't thought of using it on claps and hi-hats, bizarrely enough, no.

Marc Matthews: 11:08

Yeah, I often do use it. I want to say almost all of them. Yeah, yeah, brilliant With claps, I dial it right, but it's very, very subtle. With hi-hats more so, but there's a particular preset in there. There's not many and I can't remember what it's called, but I used to start with that one and then tailor it slightly. Again, it's quite aggressive. So as soon as you put it on you will hear the difference and then dial it back. But I've known individuals use it on um vocals.

Marc Matthews: 11:39

I've never used on a vocal, even across a mix bus before never done that never done that but I've heard, uh, you can use it on a full, on a mix bus no, I don't know if I'd do that personally. Maybe I don't know. I mean, it might be a bit of a rescue remedy at that point.

Aisle9: 11:57

But I get it If you're missing, because it's adding harmonic content, isn't?

Marc Matthews: 12:04

it really yeah, ultimately yeah. Is it kind of a form of saturation? I'm not entirely sure it kind of is in a way, isn't it, but just a narrow band of it, isn't it?

Aisle9: 12:15

So it's sort of focused into the, into the frequency range you're using I think yeah but yeah, I find it really really good.

Marc Matthews: 12:23

On claps and and hats uh, again, really subtle. If I find that I'm having to use a lot of it on a clap, I'll probably just replace the clap sample rather than just like use excessive amounts of fresh air on it. And the same with a hi-hat as well, to be honest yeah, I do think it's good.

Aisle9: 12:40

I like it, but I I mean I've, I've even used it on acoustic guitars, like if they were really lacking like a bit of clarity when I'm mixing them but like again, yeah, it's just less is more with that plug-in, because, yeah, if you put it on everything, like have it on your vocal and then all your backing vocals, and yeah, before you know it's sizzle fest and everything is sort of like you know.

Marc Matthews: 13:01

Yeah, I love that Sizzle. What you'll do, there is sizzle fest. You'll put it on all of these channels, right.

Aisle9: 13:08

And then you'll have to get soothed on the mix bus just to control that, to reduce all of the harshness, all that resident sizzle. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly, yeah, yeah, that is the sort of thing that happens. Yeah, just be really, really yeah sort of. But in the right, I think you're, you've got it that kind of just pinpoint certain things to bring them out a little bit and maybe they haven't got enough, you know, to cut through or to sparkle in a mix, and it's really good for that yeah, agreed, agreed.

Marc Matthews: 13:39

So that that's my foot, that's, that's slate digital fresh air uh so I'll now throw the, the proverbial ball, back to you.

Aisle9: 13:49

Yeah, this is, it's getting contested here, all of these like there's lots, of, lots of options, but um, uh, I boringly put down saturation knob by um, soft tube, um, which is, um, yes, it, it.

Aisle9: 14:08

It's not the most exciting of plugins, but like um basically is one large dial that you can turn up and down which adds saturation into your mix. It doesn't add, like you know, sort of very obvious distortion or anything like that, certainly at the lower volumes, um it you can put it on virtually anything to add a bit of saturation. It's then got a sort of switch that goes from low, mid, well, low, neutral and high, and actually that doesn't work quite the way everyone thinks it does. I think when you have it on low it doesn't affect the low frequencies and affects the frequencies above it. When it's on the mid frequency, I think it affects the low and the high, and then with the high it affects the mid and the low, something like that. It doesn't quite work the way you think it does. I could be wrong, but I heard it explained that way. The thing that's nice now is the version they've got out has got automatic gain sort of compensation on it as well.

Aisle9: 15:18

So, it's really handy because you can say, even put it on your mix bus. In fact it's a really great plug-in on a mix bus because you can just add in just subtly. You might even find it's like one or two or something, just like a really really low sort of number, but low settings. It still adds just enough saturation to just add some life to your mix. It's just really nice. But yeah, but it's great on bass, it's good on, uh, vocal, it's good on sort of a little bit of cut on guitars, anything where you're just trying to get a little bit more presence out of something. Again, I suppose it's adding harmonic content in some way. But yeah, I like it. It's subtle so you can, you know, use it without sort of turning everything to it into a sort of oversaturated mush really and making things sound distorted when you don't want to.

Marc Matthews: 16:39

So yeah, it's a plug-in that I used to use quite a lot, and I think I upgraded Logic or I might have reformatted my device and I forgot about it. But now the way you've described it, I'm like, yes, I remember that. Now, I used to use it quite extensively.

Aisle9: 16:56

Yeah, Indeed, I mean obviously there's some good saturation plugins, probably in Logic already, and there are in Cubase, you know, so there are some good ones around anyway.

Marc Matthews: 17:07

What I like about plugins like that is that you can get an outcome really quickly without having to do much. You've got, like those three parameters, that one parameter you can switch between three positions and you've got a help and you can quickly get results without having to. For example, I was using Logix Chromaglow just yesterday or the day before and then you've got which is a fantastic free plugin, but you've got all these other parameters in there that you can change and you're kind of like, oh man, I just want something that I can switch quickly, and that's what I really like about that. And there are so many plugins, free plugins, like that. Another one the one you it's not one of the ones I was going to mention, but you signposted it to me last year was the what was it? The sub, the sub filter?

Aisle9: 17:56

Yes, BX sub filter. Bx sub filter.

Marc Matthews: 17:58

Yeah, Again, very simple. Obviously it is a sort of macro from its bigger brother, but it's still.

Aisle9: 18:06

It's just like it's that simplicity getting a result from yeah, just add some sub into your whatever signal you want, some sub oscillation or sub frequency. Yeah, it's brilliant. No, I I think actually all of the things I sort of use the most like sort of free ones do tend to have that simplicity of use that you just go, you know, I can dial in what I need with a few strokes and it's not complex.

Marc Matthews: 18:34

Yeah, yeah, fresh Air is very much like that. The one I mentioned just now and the Tau Chorus.

Aisle9: 18:39

It's simplicity. Yeah simplicity.

Marc Matthews: 18:43

Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's what we need, um. So that's number two. So my number two uh was again. I suppose it is quite simple. There's a bit more to it. It's the tdr nova eq, which is a four band uh parametric eq and obviously you got you got low and high cut as well, but a fantastic free EQ, one that I've used for a very long time now. But I think one great thing about it is that it's got dynamic EQ. So if you do want dynamic EQ I don't know, does the Cubase stock plug-in have? I'm trying to think if Logic does dynamic EQ, I don't think it does. I could be wrong.

Aisle9: 19:20

Cubase now has it. It has something called frequency, which is a a plug-in eq, so not the channel eq, but like a plug-in eq which, um yeah, that has dynamic. Um yeah, I'll have to check now I don't know if logic does.

Marc Matthews: 19:37

Uh, I love the logic eq, but I don't know if it does have time.

Marc Matthews: 19:40

Anybody listening or watching be able to correct me on that but I mean there's not, there's not a massive amount to say with regards to tdr nova, it is a great eq, four band parametric. Obviously, like I said, the low and high cut, but the fact it's got the the dynamic eq element of it. So if you do have, uh, you're using a door that doesn't have that and if you want a dynamic eq, then you could reach for something like tdr nova, um, and again, I've used it on many, many a project and I like the interface.

Aisle9: 20:07

Smooth sounding as well, isn't it? It does sound like kind of a high quality to it yeah, yeah, I find it's not.

Marc Matthews: 20:14

It's not too. Not destructive is not the right word, but but it doesn't impart any nasty artifacts? I find I don't get that from it and it's very easy to use. I don't use it in a surgical context. That's one thing I don't really use it for, but I suppose you can do but I don't really use it for that.

Marc Matthews: 20:35

If I'm using Nova EQ, it's usually broad strokes, I find. If I am using it versus anything really surgical strokes, I find if I am using it versus anything really surgical, yeah, I find I mean it's like why something like Pro-Q3, which is obviously very expensive, but like FabFilter or whatever that I mean?

Aisle9: 20:51

obviously it's very highly featured and can do lots of different things, but it does have a really sort of smooth kind of algorithm that means that you can use quite a lot of it. You can use settings and not sort of introduce too much sort of artifacts that you didn't want. And I would say TDR Nova, considering it's free, is very surprising. As to the quality of it, it's really good and high quality. I mean a lot of us would be probably hard-pushed to tell the difference. You know, in terms of quality of it is really good and high quality. I mean a lot of us would be probably hard push to tell the difference. You know, in terms of quality of sound, you know if you're boosting or cutting, it's sort of very smooth sounding.

Aisle9: 21:31

I tend to use actually frequency within Cubase, which is which is it built in and I just happen to like it works really well. But like um, uh, yeah, I, I didn't. I, I didn't use dynamic eq at all until a few years ago, really wasn't really an option years ago, but I, I love it now it is really good yeah, great to have yeah it's.

Marc Matthews: 21:56

It's something that I don't reach for that often, but when I do is use I, I often find it's usually around the similar sort of frequency range I find I usually go in, so particularly with vocals, I'd say around like the range the higher mids and then bass, got any like resonant bass frequencies or something coming through, um.

Marc Matthews: 22:16

But oftentimes I find that I I often dig into the bass and the kick and find out, well, what's good, what's the frequency buildup and going on here rather than go for the dynamic EQ. But no, I think it's great to have it available, particularly with mastering.

Aisle9: 22:30

Yeah, sure, yeah, it's a good plug in that.

Marc Matthews: 22:34

Indeed. So that is my second, so third Well, you stole my third. Oh shit, you said BX sub four, second, so third. Well, you stole my third.

Aisle9: 22:43

oh shit, but it's all right, because I have so many of them lined up. Yeah, I'll let you off that one um, but I'll explain. Bx sub filter we sort of explained so that it's just like it's very simple, but like it enables you to add sort of sub to say you've got a kick, or whatever, and like you can dial in some sort of sub frequencies, frequencies that you might think you don't need, but like it's surprising how just a little bit of weight in 20, 30, 40k. You know, I mean you have to be really cautious with it, but that's a very simple plugin. I think from plugin alliance. I think that's where it comes from, but anyway, I think it comes as part of. They've got a free pack or a load of free plugins, some of which are good and some of which I don't know why you want them, but like um, but that that that's a pretty great free plugin.

Aisle9: 23:33

But I will lob that off the list as we've covered it and I will put in my pla in in into number three super massive but yeah you equally mentioned earlier, but we didn't discuss. But like super massive is has got to be in there really Valhalla, super massive. I mean I was saying to Mark earlier like uh, I don't really know how this works, but like you know, I mean it's just.

Marc Matthews: 24:01

Yeah, I don't really know how this works.

Aisle9: 24:02

But like you know, I mean it just sounds good. Yeah, it just sounds good, doesn't it, mate? It's just like you know, all these sort of I get the general thing is, like it's got, it creates dense sort of you know, delays, stroke, reverbs. I think that's the thing. It's sort of it sits on that weird sort of point between what is an echo and a delay and a reverb, because obviously reverbs are sort of essentially just dense in echoes really.

Aisle9: 24:32

But like it's just great when you want something that is massive and over-the-top and crazy and you know you're putting some, maybe you've got some effects in your track and you just want them to go on forever or whatever. You want those kind of things. Or you want to throw on a vocal to go through it or um, you know, I mean it can be good on leads, on guitar and that sort of stuff. Like um, again, I think automation is quite useful with this one so that it doesn't take over the entire mix. But I also like the fact that it's got a preset that's something I think it's called from benson or something like usa or something so that being my surname, I often choose this reverb.

Aisle9: 25:18

That's like got my my on it and I have no idea why, but it sounds massive and cool and I like the Benson reverb setting on it.

Marc Matthews: 25:29

You can make it an appropriation claim and just say it's one of yours that you developed for the plugin.

Aisle9: 25:33

Yeah, I developed it, but I like it. I think you said you use it a bit, yeah.

Marc Matthews: 25:38

I've got it. I haven't used it for a while, but it's one of those ones where, like you said, if I want I would say probably more so in breakdowns, I find Ah right, You're great for breakdowns, yeah yeah, I like making these kind of intricate. Intricate might be the wrong word, but these sort of rich soundscapes.

Aisle9: 26:06

And I find it's really good for that.

Marc Matthews: 26:07

But again, automation, like you don't, you don't want it all the way through, because then you just have this weird depending on what I mean patch you use or how you set it up. Yeah, yeah, most notably in in like a breakdown or maybe also at the end of a track.

Aisle9: 26:12

If I want to continue on um, because the feedback and warp can make it go quite insane, and yeah you do have to watch out. I've sometimes stopped my track what's that sound in the background, only to find out it's, like you know, super massive just going background still you know. So like you do have to watch out, that it's not just taken over your entire track. I've done that we've got.

Marc Matthews: 26:38

I've got. I've had it with Logic, where it does when you have a track and then you set a bus, an output on a track, it automatically creates an auxiliary send if one doesn't already exist. So I've had instances in the past where I've just got these wild sends and these various other things happening with regards to that. So happens a lot, happens a lot. One thing I hate about Logic that, to be fair, it's a right pain in the ass. You're sat there because you can't see all your sends in one, in one view on your monitor, and then there's something that's just like poking out so much, and then I'm trying to work out why. And it's because Logic decided to create an additional auxiliary send which is just like duplicating and sending out extra signal level.

Aisle9: 27:20

Uh, but that's my grind on logic anyway yeah, but I get a similar thing where, like, I create a send and somehow it automatically sends the sends out to another send. I don't know how it roots it. It's like roots your delay into your reverb and you'll be at some point. You go like that's a very weird sound.

Aisle9: 27:44

I didn't mean this and you get this decay, that's sort of going on forever as your delay sends into your reverb or your reverb into your delay or something like that, and then you, you unpick it and figure out what's going on. But I mean, I, I I do think it's human error, but, like um, it's easy to do because I keep doing it.

Marc Matthews: 28:01

So you know, yeah yeah, and no matter how many times it happens, you just it happens again. It happens again yeah yeah, yeah, do that all the time.

Marc Matthews: 28:11

So, super massive, yes, a very good one. So my final, third and final one is the Goodhertz Mid-Side Matrix. So this is a again, it is a tool plug-in that is incredibly simple. It is in terms of its GUI, in terms of its setup. So you've got mid side encoding, decoding, and basically you could increase, decrease the mid, or you could increase, decrease the sides, and I find it's a fantastic tool.

Marc Matthews: 28:43

I don't really use it in mixing that much. I can't remember the last time I used it in a mix, to be honest, unless somebody sends me a stem of a group, for example if it's drums or it's a synth group or something like that, but mainly in mastering. But I find with this plugin, again, it's kind of like fresh air. Very rarely do I go by more than like a 1 dB boost on the sides. It's very, very limited, because also with this as well, if I remember rightly, because I've not actually seen it in there, but I don't think there is a gain knob on there or a mix, a dry, dry, wet knob on there. But one thing I've done in mastering in the in the past if, in particular, if I've got a chorus or something and I just want to open out rear or a breakdown just slightly. I might automate the mid-side matrix and just have it like boost by 0.5 on the sides during, uh, during a breakdown or something like that.

Aisle9: 29:34

But that's the times add a bit of width to the break. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Marc Matthews: 29:37

So you've got this focused verse and then just a really like 0.5 boost um of the sides, especially if you go the other way and do a 0.5 cut or decrease on the mids. But usually I go with a boost on the sides in the chorus just to open it out or during the breakdown and then then drop it back again, and that's really the only times I use it, but I do use it quite a lot for that reason. So it's a mid-side matrix, again, very simple. Tool two I'm fairly confident in my convictions here. That is just two parameters of a mid and side boost or decrease with that one there, um. But word of warning, just be careful, you don't for my experience you don't want to do like wild boosts of the size of like three or four db, because then shit gets weird.

Marc Matthews: 30:21

Always check it with a uh, what is it? I can't remember the name of it. Now I use isotope uh, insight uh, to check the phase correlation. Can't remember what they're called. No, it's gone. Phase correlation meter. There we go. That's what I was looking for. Yeah, the scope sort of.

Aisle9: 30:37

Thing.

Marc Matthews: 30:38

Yeah, yeah, if you're going to use this particular tool and you do make any boosts on the sides, always check your phase correlation because again shit can get weird.

Aisle9: 30:45

So use it with caution, but it works really well use it with caution, but it works really well, are we allowed a few honorable mentions?

Marc Matthews: 30:53

Yeah, yeah, we'll move on to honorable mentions now. So one of mine was super massive, so we've been through that. The other one and I did an episode on this is Vital. Now, technically, you can download and you have a free subscription. So maybe it's not technically a free plug-in. There is a free subscription for vital because you can have paid subscriptions for vital right but that would be an honorable mention in terms of that's awesome, so it's amazing synth yeah oh, yeah.

Marc Matthews: 31:24

Yeah, I haven't only scratched the surface, but what I've seen so far, um, I think it's brilliant. And again, simplicity simplicity.

Aisle9: 31:31

Yeah, yeah, um, I I think that's it. Yeah, I mean, if we go into vsts, like you know, there are quite a few of those around um, and I mean it's tricky, isn't it, because there are a billion and one sort of sort of you know analog synths, sort of you know uh out there, sort of free ones, uh like vitals, like sort of isn't vital, a um, a wavetable synth, really isn't that?

Aisle9: 32:01

yes, yeah, yeah so like serum sort of thing yeah um, but I think, yeah, it stands alone in sort of really, you know, outside of a paid option like serum. I think it's it's one of the best. Yeah, that's really good. Um, yeah, and I was going to mention there's a couple of sort of things like um, well, deals actually, where you can get free, sort of a whole series of things like the weight waves I know waves are so it can be a little bit um divisive at moments, but like, um, what waves, if you can cope with them. Being attached to the company.

Aisle9: 32:38

Um have give you nine essential plugins for free, which includes vcomp and veq3, which are really good, compressor and eq, and like there's quite a lot of other stuff. You get an fn synth in there called flow or something you know I mean for free. You know I guess you have to sort of download the waves app and sign up into something like that, but like it's, you know that's really good. An isotope do a similar sort of thing. You have to have the isotope app, I think. And like they've got an eq, the isotope, sort of ozone 11 eq, I think something like that, yeah which is just free um, which is a pretty high, functioning, high quality eq um.

Aisle9: 33:24

They've got isotope vinyl, which is a really cool little vinyl sort of um plug-in, sort of mimics vinyl record sort of sound. That's really good. And they've got like the imager which I use a lot, actually just a really simple imager just to widen things out a little bit. Um, and the doubler as part of that, and the doubler is really good on vocals sometimes or any sort of mono sort of source, because you, uh, you know and and the image is good like that because it's got a stereoizer so it can make things a bit broader if it's a mono source. So, yeah, you know, they're kind of just useful tools, aren't they? So I I would say they're really great, like those kind of little things for for nothing. And um, the chow tape was my last one, which is uh, I've not heard of that one before the chow is that c-h-o-w am I?

Aisle9: 34:17

yes, c-h-o-w yeah take chow tape model yeah, looking at it up now yeah, and it's quite a boring looking plug-in in some ways and look sort of you know amazing on the gui. But like it, yeah, it does some really kind of cool things, from saturation to weird wobbliness, you know, all that kind of to sort of glitchiness, to all sorts of different tape style effects and yeah, I thought it was pretty good for nothing yeah yeah, I'm looking at it here.

Marc Matthews: 34:48

I'm going to dive into that. It looks quite interesting. It's one that I've not yeah, it's a reminder about isotope vinyl as well? I need to.

Aisle9: 34:55

Um, yeah, they're kind of different colors, aren't they that you, I mean, I haven't got a vinyl thing, I haven't got tape thing that does the similar type. Um, you know, tape emulation, um, within cubase I mean, I've got like stuff in my door that goes like, you know, we'll do a bit of tape saturation or something like that, but it doesn't really like copy, the kind of like sort of different uh properties of tape where it gets a bit sort of chewed and garbled and all those sorts of things, which is the more lo-fi kind of side of it, which is quite nice. I like that kind of exploring you can do that with vinyl, can't you?

Marc Matthews: 35:32

you can? There's a lo-fi kind of side of it which is quite nice. I like that kind of exploring. You can? There's a lo-fi setting with what, if I?

Aisle9: 35:36

yeah, very long times since I've used it yeah, it does some really good things like that again great for degrading stuff and messing it up like you have to be a bit cautious on these things. If you, especially if you're producing something that's meant to sound very high-fi, you might not want to use it. But you know, um don't want the 1930s setting on the vinyl. Whatever it is, I've forgotten it goes quite, it goes quite old.

Marc Matthews: 36:01

It does, yeah, and it can get quite destructive of so again, again, it depends what the sound you're going for. But no, all very good honorable mentions. I was going to mention one, but then I looked it up and it turns out it's not free anymore. So damn, yeah, there are many plugins I've got for free and I guess they're lost. Leaders from the organization which are no longer free, and it was the baby audio comeback kid uh, yeah it's a delay plugin but a really nice delay, isn't it?

Aisle9: 36:31

it it is, it is. I forgot it actually, but yeah.

Marc Matthews: 36:33

But I managed to pick it up for free during a and I was just double-checking because I was going to mention that, but unfortunately, audience, it's not free. It's like $69 now.

Aisle9: 36:42

Again, there are these ones that do come up just sometimes, don't they you?

Marc Matthews: 36:46

add yeah.

Aisle9: 36:47

Yeah, you had, like you know, the LA2A came up, didn't it, and things like that.

Marc Matthews: 36:54

Yeah, I jumped on that. It's worth. I mean, I don't like I say this and I've got a mailing list myself, but I often don't like joining mailing lists, which is quite ironic. But being on the UAD mailing list is quite good for that reason.

Marc Matthews: 37:10

but being on the UAD mailing list is quite good for that reason because you do get these random campaigns where you'll get a really high quality free plugin from UAD, which, in turn, I then went on and bought more, so it did work from a marketing perspective for them but most definitely I think it's worth to know if you've got a particular company that you like their plugins, it's probably worth being at least following them on social media just to keep an eye out, and in watering holes online, because people will post when shit's being given away for free and jumping on that.

Aisle9: 37:47

Yeah, I've got about four Softube plugins, which were all just given away by soft tube for free and I really like the saturation knob, which is soft tube. But, like then, I got a whole host of other ones which are all quite good, but I have to admit I just haven't really had the time to use.

Marc Matthews: 38:03

I find that, yeah, I get all these plugins and then I'm in a mix session and then I just still go back to the ones I always use.

Aisle9: 38:11

I have that problem all the time. Yeah, yeah, yeah 100% Cool.

Marc Matthews: 38:15

Some honourable mentions there, folks, and I will put links to all of the plugins mentioned in this episode in the episode description. And just to say I should have said this right at the beginning this episode is in no way, shape or form, sponsored by any of the organisations plugin vendors that we've mentioned.

Aisle9: 38:32

It is not no way, shape or form, sponsored by any of the organizations. What a show.

Marc Matthews: 38:32

Plugin vendors that we've mentioned. It is not at all. This is just our opinion. It is an advice buffet, as it were. But if you have a favorite free plugin that you use all the time, send us a message. Click that. Send me a message link in the episode description and let us know what plugin it is. It's one that uh should be in the honorable mention list or in the top three, and it's a challenge to you as well. Folks listening, choose one of the three free plugins that we've mentioned and use it in a project and let us know how you get on. Again, you can click that link in the episode description. It'd be uh interesting to know your thoughts and opinions and what we've mentioned, because you might not agree with what we've mentioned. You know, you might not. Um tim, thank you very much.

Aisle9: 39:17

Always a pleasure any news anything on the horizon uh, that is a good question. I mean, I need to. As soon as I've got a track out, I'm beginning to think, oh gosh, I've got to create another one now so I need to. Yeah, but I, I, as of yet, I'm sort of busy working on working with drew night actually at the moment, on a release of his, a track of his which is, I think, it's going to be a great track, so I'm really looking forward to finishing that for him and working on a couple of other projects for clients.

Aisle9: 39:51

At the moment, like, but yeah, no, at some point there will be some more aisle nine probably by the time this comes out, there'll be another, another single, but like yeah, night trains is the last one at the moment, but like yeah. I'm trying to hit them every, every month really, and not not drop any any months. I've made it so far, I think through the year I'm trying to do the yeah, sort of, and I dropped an album, so I'm feeling like I've been doing all right yeah, you do well, mate.

Marc Matthews: 40:21

Yeah, I, uh, I hit the skids a touch so I haven't released anything since july, but um, I'm hoping to pick it up again myself. Um, probably won't be september, I'm looking for early october and then getting back on the uh you've got quite a bit coming online that doesn't involve audio, does it?

Aisle9: 40:39

yes, yeah indeed yeah, yeah.

Marc Matthews: 40:41

So I'm gonna be getting married in in october, so uh that is my excuse yeah, I say excuse it's uh it hasn't really been stressed with Touchwood so far.

Marc Matthews: 40:54

So, yeah, we'll see what happens with music releases, but no, folks, if you're listening to this I don't know why I said no then do click the link in the episode. If we do have any releases when this drops, I will put links to them in the episode description. So always check there, because this is recording on the 16th of September, so between now and the release date we might actually get something else.

Aisle9: 41:18

There'll be something going, tim, it's been a pleasure.

Marc Matthews: 41:20

Thank you very much, and folks.

Aisle9: 41:22

Oh, thank you.

Marc Matthews: 41:23

Until next time, stay inspired, keep creating and don't be afraid to experiment inside the mix.