Free plug-ins and included DAW plug-ins go a long way!

I want to share with you some great insight! You may overlook free plug-ins or not realize that there are free plug-ins but you shouldn’t sleep on this! I use a mixture of free and paid plug-ins every day and I definitely need both! I could even get by with just the free plug-ins if I wanted to! There are also included or some say “stock” plug-ins that come with your DAW that can be very useful!

First I want to go over a few very valuable free plug-ins! TAL Reverb is a free reverb that I use on every single mix. I don’t know what it is but I love the sound. I also love how basic it is. So many reverbs I’ve used have been so complex and it’s a struggle to get the sound I want. TAL reverb is a plug and play! Another free plug-in is TDR Nova. This is a dynamic EQ. Pro tools doesn’t come with any dynamic eq plug-ins so I tried this one out. Needless to say, it is awesome and I’m not the only person that raves about it! This plug -in gives you the ability to compress certain frequencies with a narrow or wide q setting. It’s very flexible. Even more flexible than a multiband compressor like a Waves C4.

Next I want to talk about included plug-ins for Pro Tools. AIR Enhancer is a really great plug-in that boosts harmonic content! This can be great to brighten up a vocal or even add lower harmonics to thicken up a vocal. I went years without taking advantage of this plug-in and now it’s in almost all of my mixes! The Pro tools EQ7 is also a highly talked about eq amongst audio engineers. It’s great for cutting frequencies and it’s very flexible. Even Pro Tools DVerb reverb plug in has come in handy many times! Especially when going for a cool “hall” distant vocal effect. Feel free to share any free plug-ins that you enjoy in the comments!