Filters and delays are my favorite effects to play around with, so this edition of bpb Freeware Studio was a rather easy one to write. I’ve included all sorts of different types of filters in the list below, from simple transparent ones for cleaning up the low end, to some more complex and dirty sounding filters for sound design. Check out the links, read the descriptions and pick your own favorites.
Follow the links for screenshots & download info:
- Atlantis Filter Delay by Jeremy Evers (Windows)
- BiFilter by Tone2 (Windows)
- bx_cleansweep V2 by Brainworx (Mac, Windows)
- Classic Auto-Filter by Kjaerhus (Windows)
- D-Pole by Waldorf (Windows)
- FilterGrizzly LITE by CFA Sound (Windows)
- Filterizer by Analog Industries (Mac, Windows)
- Flexfilterbank2 by WOK (Windows)
- Frohmage by Ohm Force (Mac, Windows)
- Naive LPF by Admiral Quality (Windows)
- Nebula3 Free Bundle by Acustica Audio (Windows)
- Niveau Filter by Elysia (Mac, Windows)
- NorthPole by Prosoniq (Mac, Windows)
- Oligarc Filter by schwa (Mac, Windows)
- QB Filter by Studio Quadbyte (Mac, Windows)
- Rubberfilter by Christian Budde (Windows)
- SVF2 by Betabugs Audio (Windows)
- TAL-Filter-2 by Togu Audio Line (Mac, Windows)
Classic Auto-Filter is part of the well-known Kjaerhus freeware bundle. It features a built-in LFO and envelope follower, but I like it because the actual filter sounds very juicy and works great for build-ups, filter sweeps and such.
Frohmage is a much praised multi-band resonant filter with a highly resonant LPF and up to 15 additional bands and a distortion stage.
BiFilter features an arsenal of different filter types, including formant filters, comb filters, Moog filters, as well as distortion, saturation, etc.
Atlantis Filter Delay is a very powerful filter module with some very interesting filter types (including the Commodore 64 SID filter), LFOs, delay line, etc.
TAL-Filter-2 is a nice sounding filter with a built-in waveform editor, similar to the one found in FilterShaper 2 by Cableguys.
Niveau Filter and bx_cleansweep V2 are very good transparent filters, great tools for cleaning up the sub bass area or extreme highs on individual tracks. A video demonstration of the Niveau Filter by JamesAndrewMuir is embedded below.
Rubberfilter is a butterworth filter, with an extreme slope range of up to 384 dB/Oct. Such extreme slopes often produce artifacts like zips and sweeps, but this can work great when used creatively.
Nebula3 Free includes several awesome sounding hardware filter models. It introduces latency which can be a pain, but those filters sounds so good that it’s worth the trouble.
NorthPole is a very old plugin, the latest version only works on Mac, but an old PC version is also available for download here.
Oligarc Filter sounds very good, can be downloaded for free and the commercial licence costs $20 (all money goes to the alliance for climate protection).
That’s all for to day, feel free to leave comments, suggest more VSTs, suggest a topic for the next bpb Freeware Studio article, etc.
15 Comments
nowaysj
onCheck out Naive LPF. Scamp by Admiral Quality is one of the best analog sounding filters out there.
ATLANTIS!!!! :)
is soooooo amazing … one of the best modulation-concepts i know of …
just wanted to give that one a lil push :)
333
onWWAYM NWEQ (filter bank) 64-bit internal free
Tiny Four-Way Zone (include Multimod Filter) free. Old but still good, because good sounding filters and not standart lfo-shapes.
Leslie Sanford AutoFilter free
KarmaFx Filter (One Pole and Two Pole Multi) free
argotlunar 2 (include nice sounding filters) free
dfx Rez Synth (resonant bandpass filter banks) free
GVST GLFO free
TAL Old Multi Filter (If TAL-filter cold this one Warm) free
VCS UltraPhazer (multi notch filter/read manual) free
ConcreteFx Qwah 2 (From ConcreteFX FX_Pack) free
For the commercial one it’s of course CableGuys Filtershaper2. Because may easy transfom from complex sounding filters to Fx-processor.
bedroom producers blog
onhi 333, some great suggestions there, thanks! can Ugo’s Rez process external audio?
333
onHi bedroom,
have no idea about Ugo’s Rez synth. But Destroy FX Rez Synth can. :)
bedroom producers blog
onoh! i missread your first comment. :D
ok, i’ll check out dfx’s Rez too, thanks!
QB Filter is really useful
for Ableton: drop it on a track, and you get a normal vst rack with all parameters automapped!
What also a good thing is (for dj’s): the’re is a lowpass/highpass combo like on the pioneer djm900 color effects
So: when the freq is at ’64’ the signal is dry, turn to the right for hp, to the left for lp!
Really useful for in dj racks (like eq + qb filter + reverb = simple dj rack)
Bedroom Producers Blog
oncool tip. sometimes i wish i had ableton. btw, here’s another free DJ style which was recently released:
https://bedroomproducersblog.com/2012/04/16/the-pilgrim-2-free-dj-style-filter-effect-by-arctican-audio/
danny
onCrayonfilter! My go to filter. The Pilgrim is also a good sweeping filter.
Guardian Angel
onHi BPB,
You opinion is valued and trusted. Contrary to so many other opinion, thanks to you, after almost 5 years of putting off using Nebula out of concern about high CPU usage, etc. I tried it out myself today, because of your advice on the quality of its filters. Thanks. I will never take any one’s word in the future. Nebula as you have said is really good, I have never heard such clean, transparent change to audio before, Wow, considering that these are sampled from hardware, now I know why some people freak out over hardware. It sounds GOOOD, and does the least “damage” to the audio. Thanks again.
Bedroom Producers Blog
onHey, I’m glad to hear that. Have fun with Nebula! :)
Clive H
onHi Tomislav,
some of the links in this section don’t work anymore
Great page by the way
mridlen
onAnyone have an up-to-date link for BiFilter? The old link appears to be dead.
Ripter
onNoiiz Filter is a pretty good plugin in my experience
Eric Bogan
onNo longer valid links to software! At least none of the 7 I tired!!