Top 5 Best Audio Plugins You Should Have on Windows
Thimeo Stereo Tool
A powerful solution for all music enthusiasts who want to manipulate sound, enhance their audio recordings or simply listen to music at a higher quality.
Thimeo Stereo Tool is a powerful processor that is designed to offer real-time audio shaping in order to enhance it. The application provides a generous amount of sound filters and settings which allow you to work on all aspects of the signal.
A wide array of features packed in a user-friendly interface
Thimeo Stereo Tool is made to be a professional grade piece of software that should appeal to both novice and expert users when it comes to sound processing. It’s easy to install and doesn't require any kind configuration prior to its use.
The main window is separated into three sections which contain the menu with all the available filters, the editing section where you can apply all the changes you need and an area which houses various meters and graphic indicators for the output.
One thing that you should keep in mind is that Thimeo Stereo Tool is by all means an accessible tool if you look at it from a functional point of view. Settings are easy to get to, parameters equally simple to adjust, everything is pretty much self explanatory as long as you have some basic technical knowledge.
Enhance audio using a large number of processors
Thimeo Stereo Tool comes equipped with a declipper, a 10-band multiband compressor, limiter, clipper and filters for phasing error correction, stereo boosting, hiss removal, automatic gain control and more.
Each of these can be used to improve sound consistency, repair stereo images and intensify effects. You do however need to be aware of the fact that even though processing takes place in real-time, in some cases change are felt after a short delay or if it is a subtle adjustment, you might not feel it at all even though it’s there.
Enjoy professionally improved audio quality
With the above to consider and much more to discover, it’s more than appropriate to say that if you’re looking for a top shelf sound processor then you should definitely try Thimeo Stereo Tool.
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The Drop
A reliable and useful audio plugin that features an analog modeled resonant filter with a powerful morphing LFO and circuit simulation packages.
As a music producer, you’ll spend a lot of time just tweaking your instruments and samples to make them sound right. This is actually more difficult than composition and requires knowledge, a lot of practice, and a collection of good audio plugins.
Take filters, for example. These tools are used to boost certain frequencies of an audio signal while significantly attenuating others. While these are the filter’s basic functions, it can be used for so much more. If you’re looking for a good filter to help you enhance some of your tracks, then you should check out The Drop.
A complex filter plugin
The Drop is an analog-modeled resonant filter plugin that packs a wide variety of features. You can find all of its functions and parameters in a single interface. If you’re a beginner, no one could blame you for getting a bit lost in it. Thankfully, the application also comes with a manual that can explain things much better than I ever will in this review.
You can control both the high-pass and low-pass filters by adjusting their drive, frequency, and resonance parameters. However, you can also modulate the filter using two LFOs and two envelopes. The second LFO is a particularly versatile parameter since it can be used to implement precise step modulation.
Plenty of presets
Figuring the ins and outs of The Drop may take you a while, especially if you’re not yet familiar with all the possibilities a good filter plugin brings to the table. Fortunately, this piece of software also comes with a good selection of presets that are specifically tailored for various musical needs. On top of that, it just sounds great.
I would definitely recommend The Drop to any music producer who’s looking for a versatile filter plugin to add character to their compositions.
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Soundtoys 5
Add a series of effects plugins to your musical productions with the help of this bundle that features all the Soundtoys individual plugins as well as the versatile effect rack.
No matter how powerful your DAW is, you’re always going to add more external plugins to your mix. It’s not necessarily a good thing, nor is it bad or wrong; it’s just how many producers prefer to work. Sure, some of the more experienced ones will start noticing that they don’t really need that many VSTs in the first place, and will just keep a few favorites. But until one gets to a higher level, there’s nothing wrong with trying out all the tools you can find.
Today we’re going to take a look at a plugin bundle that literally is all the tools you can find. Well, that’s obviously an exaggeration, but nevertheless, Soundtoys 5 is a pretty versatile collection that may interest you.
A powerful bundle
At the moment, Soundtoys 5 features 21 analog-sounding effects, each of them representing emulations of classic units such as Decapitator, EchoBoy, Phase Mistress, PrimalTap, or Little AlterBoy. While each of these can be acquired separately, the Effect Rack that allows you to bring most of them together is exclusive to the Soundtoys 5 bundle.
You may be wondering why you should get the full collection since you can easily add the plugins that you need directly to your DAW. Well, one answer would be that, even though Soundtoys 5 seems pricy, it would actually cost you just as much to get only three of the 21 available plugins. Secondly, the Effect Rack is powerful enough to make the investment worth it.
The rack
While testing Soundtoys 5, I wasn’t able to add more than six plugins to the Effect Rack. Maybe my CPU or video card can’t handle more, or maybe it’s just a software limitation. But it’s not like you’re going to need more anyway. Keep in mind that these are all warm-sounding, powerful, analog effect units. They’re also quite easy-to-use and come with their own presets.
But the most presets are actually on the rack, which features many different arrangements created specifically for drums, guitars, vocals, sound design, modulation, and a few other elements. It’s safe to say that Soundtoys 5 is a collection that many producers will find useful.
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iZotope Ozone Standard
An efficient and comprehensive software utility functioning as an advanced audio mastering plugin, that you can use to enhance the quality of your music.
iZotope Ozone is a reliable audio plugin that merges several mastering processors into a single tool, enabling you to create professional sounding music.
The application provides you with various presets that you can use a starting point in your audio projects. Nonetheless, once you get the hang of iZotope Ozone, you can easily adjust all settings to suit your needs.
The tool offers a series of mastering modules, such as the 'Maximizer', that is meant to imprint professional loudness and fullness on all your audio mixes. With the help of the IRC Limiter, you can produce almost unobservable psycho-acoustical artifacts.
The 'Equalizer' and 'Post Equalizer' provide you with 8 bands of user-definable bell filters, making it very simple to capture spectrum snapshots of your recordings and generate automatic EQ curves. This enables you to make use of an audio's spectrum and apply it to various others.
With the 'Reverb' module, you have the option of adding depth and space to an audio mix. It enables you to choose from several room modes and control the delay, the frequency cutoff or the room size, then apply them to your tracks.
The 'Harmonic Exciter' boasts with the ability to add shine to the upper (but also low or mid) frequencies of a track. It supports various modes, namely 'Tape', 'Retro', 'Tube' or 'Warm' that can offer interesting saturation features.
Other modules include: the 'Dynamics' function, that provides you with automatic makeup grain, or the 'Stereo Imaging' utility which you can use to adjust the stereo width and imaging of your master. Using the 'Dithering' tool, you can convert and dither to 24, 20, 12 or 8 bits.
iZotope Ozone is a feature-rich audio plugin, offering advanced capabilities of correcting and enhancing the quality of your mixes and allowing you to obtain clean, refined sounds.
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Download Hubs
iZotope Ozone Standard is part of these download collections: Audio Plugins
WMP Tag Plus
Easy-to-use Windows Media Player plugin that extends its functionality by adding support to read and write tags for extra file types.
WMP Tag Plus is an easy-to-use software application which enables you to enhance the functionality of Windows Media Player. It comes packed with a few useful settings that can be easily fiddled with.
Hassle-free installation and simple configuration
The setup procedure is a fast and easy task which does not require special attention. Once it finishes, the app offers to immediately launch Windows Media Player to configure WMP Tag Plus settings.
Add support for extra file types and tags
New extensions can be added for opening media files, as well as removed from the list. It is possible to examine information concerning these supported formats, such as read and write support, author, version and full path.
In addition, the tool can force Windows Media Player to add MPEG-4 songs with the Apple Lossless (ALAC) format into the Music section of the media library. The software application is also capable to refresh song tags existing in the media library as well as to show or hide warnings when WMP Tag Plus is disabled at Windows Media Player's startup. There are no other noteworthy options available here.
Evaluation and conclusion
We have not come across any kind of issues in our tests, since the plugin did not hang, crash or pop up error messages. It has a good response time and works well, running on low CPU and RAM.
All in all, WMP Tag Plus comes in handy to all Windows Media Player users who want to enhance its functionality by adding support for reading and writing tags for extra file types, such as FLAC or OGG. Thanks to its intuitive structure and options, it can be easily used.
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Download Hubs
WMP Tag Plus is part of these download collections: Add Audio Metadata
