Polyverse releases Filtron, a freeware modulated filter effect in VST, VST3, AU, and AAX plugin formats for Windows and macOS.
Filtron is a self-oscillating filter capable of smoothly transitioning between several filter modes. It can morph between high-pass, band-pass, and low-pass filter modes while saturating the signal for additional impact.
I’m a big fan of filter plugins. They’re not the most popular type of effect, especially compared to saturation plugins and reverbs.
However, I can spend an unhealthy amount of time adjusting the filter cutoff parameter and listening to how it affects the frequencies. Filters are incredibly musical, and they’re definitely my favorite sound design tool.
So, when a freeware filter like Polyverse Filtron shows up, you can bet that I’ll stop whatever I’m doing and download the plugin instantly.
Coming from Polyverse, a company that released several interesting sound design plugins like Wider 2.0 (freeware) and Comet, I was already pretty sure that Filtron would be a good plugin.
Filtron doesn’t try to reinvent the wheel. Instead, it provides an excellent combination of smooth filter mode transitioning and creamy saturation. This combo is perfect for sculpting the frequency range of a sound and can prove equally useful for mixing and sound design purposes.
I tested Filtron on the guitar channel of a relatively busy rock mix, and it helped me bring the guitars to the front while reducing some of the harsh frequencies in the mids. The ability to customize the filter mode makes it a fantastic tool to carve out unwanted frequencies in one easy move.
I also tried Filtron on some of my sound design projects, especially some new Braam sounds that I’m working on, and I loved how the saturation adds grit without destroying the sound. I could gently boost the lows and tame the high frequencies while adding harmonics with some gentle overdrive.
The interface is another strong point. The graphic design is quite stylish but doesn’t get in the way of usability. On the contrary, I loved the sleek knob design and how it responds to the knob value. The interface is also resizable from 50% to 200% of its default value. At 200% it looked perfectly crisp on my Macbook Air’s screen.
Filtron is available for free download from Polyverse. It is compatible with digital audio workstations capable of hosting VST, VST3, AU, and AAX plugins.
Polyverse Music is currently running a sale with a wide range of discounts on its most popular products. And by the way, if you like distorted filters, check out our free BPB Dirty Filter Plus plugin.
Download: Filtron
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12 Comments
MRG
onSweet sweep filter, Batman! That’s a big chunk of GUI!! Reminiscent of the ‘alien type’ GUIs from the late 90s, but with a much better taste in colours. Oh the aggressive greens and purples we had to endure back then.
Giddy to try it, the morphing filter in particular.
alex
onNice! Thx! TBH, I rarely use anything but WOW2 that I won here exactly ten years ago (just checked and the giveaway was on 8/2/2013 :))
THRL
onnice, happy anniversary!
ER
onDownload link not available here in this post.
Numanoid
onThanks, I will check it out. It was an easy download, didn’t even have to sign up to their newsletter.
CGrrr
onPowerful functionality. But the CPU usage is high.
Hell'ektrix
onIf it’s as good as the other freeware from Polyverse, Wider, that would be great !
Can’t wait to try it ;)
CGrrr
onThe CPU usage is 50 times that of DJMfilter.Hope for improvement.
jimbob
onHuuuge cpu hog. I was hopeful I could use it in a live situation.
Numanoid
onYes, I also have to report the same in Windows 10
Is it also a CPU hog on Mac platform ?
jimbob
onyep – I’m on a new powerful Mac and this plugin eats 10-15% cpu the second its turned on.
MRG
onAt first glance, it appeared to eat a nice 2.9% of -my- CPU but after a while (a few seconds) it goes down to ~1.3%. Weird behavior, denormals perhaps? (i4790 from 2014)
That said, nice sound, the Drive parameter has two settings, snowflake and flame and both go from subtle to way-too-much. There are two “CV” input that are audio rate (or close, I can’t check) you can assign individually to the input, output, cutoff, res, and filter mode.