Heads up! Great VST deals spotted

[lowdown]

Once again, another very good 'u-he' VSTi Synth, previously only available from Computer Music magazine, but now a free download direct from 'u-he'.

Although, the smaller brother of bad boy 'Bazille', it still offers plenty of tweaking along with plenty of well-crafted presets (265):

 

BazilleCM: Little modular monster | u-he

[Dood]

SPECTRUM THIEF by Ghost Audio (FREE).

 

"Spectrum Thief is an EQ-matching plugin that can export impulse responses. Great for capturing the frequency response of speaker cabinets, or creating adjustment filters to tone-match your guitar tone (or even a full mix), to a reference sound.

The plugin is FREE and requires no authentication or registration, so grab your copy!"

 

https://ghostnoteaudio.uk/products/spectrum-thief

 

I've used various methods to capture EQ curves and create custom IRs, but this simple app is free and works really well. I've also discovered it makes a great applet for comparing the tones of different basses and their pickups and, of course, mix curves for full mixes too!

 

 

[Owen]

<sigh> I am migrating to a new Mac Mini M4. I have just tried to put my paid for, Olde Worlde Waves plugins on to it. Waves is asking me to load Rosetta or spend more money on new stuff. Waves can take a running jump.

 

It is really frustrating. The guitar amp just worked for what I wanted. I whacked it on and got on with whatever else I was doing. I know I can go to NAM or any number of other things, but ...............grrrrrrrrr.........

 

Edited July 15 by Owen
due to finding other ways of expressing his frustration.

[BigRedX]

And this why I have made the decision to stick mostly with what comes bundled with Logic and only use a couple of 3rd party plug-ins neither of which are absolutely essential to my workflow.

 

Have you tried the guitars amps that come with Logic? 

 

Edit: And in the current political climate we probably shouldn't be using Waves plug-ins anyway.

Edited July 16 by BigRedX

[Owen]

Staying "in house" with Logic makes a lot of sense. And I am sure that, for my purposes, the plugins are more than ample. 

 

I have messed with the Logic guitar amps but the Waves one just seemed to make eveything soung nice without me trying. And that is my favourite thing. 

[Woodinblack]

17 hours ago, Owen said:

<sigh> I am migrating to a new Mac Mini M4. I have just tried to put my paid for, Olde Worlde Waves plugins on to it. Waves is asking me to load Rosetta or spend more money on new stuff. Waves can take a running jump

 

Is there no upgrade? If it needs rosetta it must be a pretty old plugin?

[Owen]

There is probably an upgrade but I was ANGRY. Don't be coming at me with your reasonable thoughts

 

It is not all bad, I have NAM sitting waiting for me. And that is probably better. 

[MichaelDean]

The problem I have with NAM is that anyone can make a NAM profile now. They're not all created equal and you can waste quite a lot of time trying to find the needle in the haystack on Tone3000.

[lowdown]

Freebie alert...Honeycomb Bass OD App.

I haven't tried it yet but will give it a whirl a bit later:

 

Honeycomb Bass OD | Free Bass Plugin | Canvas Audio

[Owen]

6 hours ago, MichaelDean said:

The problem I have with NAM is that anyone can make a NAM profile now. They're not all created equal and you can waste quite a lot of time trying to find the needle in the haystack on Tone3000.

I shall give it a couple of hours. There is Monique one in there which I will at least test. 

[lowdown]

'Pianobook' has had a colourful facelift, and a few new libraries uploaded:

 

 

Pianobook – a global collective of sound enthusiasts

[thodrik]

Sonnox has been doing 90% off most of their plugins this month. 
 

Some of the plugins fall into the ‘ancient but still good’ category. The drum gate, dynamics and Oxford EQ are really solid plugins and definitely worth it for £20.

[Dood]

On 31/07/2025 at 16:27, thodrik said:

Sonnox has been doing 90% off most of their plugins this month. 
 

Some of the plugins fall into the ‘ancient but still good’ category. The drum gate, dynamics and Oxford EQ are really solid plugins and definitely worth it for £20.

 

I bagged Claro and Listen Hub for silly pennies the other day after snagging IK's Arc 4 for £25. I have a reference mic already so this has been a super nice upgrade to my studio along with some ridiculous deals that have been appearing on https://audioplugin.deals such as Sonible's smart plugin series. 

Deals! Everywhere!

[thodrik]

Just now, Dood said:

 

I bagged Claro and Listen Hub for silly pennies the other day after snagging IK's Arc 4 for £25. I have a reference mic already so this has been a super nice upgrade to my studio along with some ridiculous deals that have been appearing on https://audioplugin.deals such as Sonible's smart plugin series. 

Deals! Everywhere!

After years of everyone taking issue with Waves business practice of always running sales, nearly every plugin maker is going the same route and/moving to a subscription model.

 

Claro is really good. It lacks a couple of key features for me (being able to raise/lower the overall volume post EQ, dynamic EQ) but for 20 quid it is marvellous. 
 

I use Listen Hub a lot. It really helps to bring into context how crap my rough mixes are!

[Dood]

19 minutes ago, thodrik said:

After years of everyone taking issue with Waves business practice of always running sales, nearly every plugin maker is going the same route and/moving to a subscription model.

 

Claro is really good. It lacks a couple of key features for me (being able to raise/lower the overall volume post EQ, dynamic EQ) but for 20 quid it is marvellous. 
 

I use Listen Hub a lot. It really helps to bring into context how crap my rough mixes are!

 

I use Claro in conjunction with Smart-EQ4 (Sonible) either for quick and dirty mixes or for being a second set of ears when I need a different perspective. Smart-EQ is great as it listens to other selected tracks (busses for example) and you can decide what needs to sit forward or back in the mix. Clever stuff. 

 

I've dropped Arc 4 in to Listen Hub along with corrective EQ, great for just enjoying music in general but, yes, I'm new to this app, but loving it! I had trial versions of Ground Control, Caster and Room by Ginger Audio trying to make them do what Listen Hib does, so, I'm pretty pelased with my silly cheap snag!

Edited 2 hours ago by Dood

[lowdown]

Funny enough, I grabbed the Oxford Inflator and Oxford Limiter today over at Plugin Boutique in their (ongoing) sale. With my virtual cash I had available, I paid just over £30 for both.

GainStage Pro was thrown in for free, but I'm not sure if it's any good. I will give it a spin though.

 

 

 

[Dood]

28 minutes ago, lowdown said:

Funny enough, I grabbed the Oxford Inflator and Oxford Limiter today over at Plugin Boutique in their (ongoing) sale. With my virtual cash I had available, I paid just over £30 for both.

GainStage Pro was thrown in for free, but I'm not sure if it's any good. I will give it a spin though.

 

 

 

 

GainStage Pro didn't win me over - but it was a freebie, so hey-ho. There's a great little plugin by Hornet (It might be called AutoGain Pro) that offers the option of selecting what you actually want your output to be and it does the adjustment for you. (It's not a limiter)

Edited 1 hour ago by Dood

[lowdown]

46 minutes ago, Dood said:

 

GainStage Pro didn't win me over - but it was a freebie, so hey-ho. There's a great little plugin by Hornet (It might be called AutoGain Pro) that offers the option of selecting what you actually want your output to be and it does the adjustment for you. (It's not a limiter)

 

I have a few Hornet plugins so I thought I would check out 'Autogain Pro'. Yes, it looks interesting. At today's exchange rate and the sale they have on at the moment, I got it for £3.80!