The Best Filter Plugins: Creative Software Filtering Tools
These plugins will help you get creative with your audio!
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The Best Filter Plugins: Creative Software Filtering Tools · Source: FabFilter / Soundtoys / Polyverse Music
EQ is one of the most powerful processing tools available. But let’s forget about the boring, vanilla equalization methodologies we’ve all adapted to – and step into the creative unknown!
In this Article:
The Best Filter Plugins
The selections here go well beyond the capabilities of the usual equalizer, allowing you to manipulate and mutilate your sounds in innovative and interesting ways. These are some of the best filter plugins out there.
The Best Filter Plugins: Soundtoys FilterFreak
FilterFreak takes the idea of the warm analogue resonant filter from classic monosynths like the miniMoog and expands this concept into a workstation-like creative processor. The beauty of Soundtoys plugins is that, although they sometimes have a wide range of functions, they maintain an intuitive workflow that allows you to make those little mistakes that lead to unique sounds.
Naturally, the FilterFreak workflow starts with the filter section, where you can select your filter type (high-pass, low-pass, band-pass, and band-reject) and slope (2, 4, 6, and 8-pole). Next, things start getting interesting when you dive into one of the six modulation modes (LFO, Rhythm, Envelope, Random, Step, and ADSR).
To help you familiarize yourself with the capabilities, each mode has a range of presets, and you can expand the control panel further to access deeper functions like modulation step-sequencing and custom LFO shapes. What’s more, FilterFreak has seven saturation types to enhance the tonality and texture of your sounds. Get it at Thomann.*
The Best Filter Plugins: FabFilter Volcano 3
Volcano 3 is one of the best filter plugins with vintage analogue filter modelling and a range of tonal and time-based shaping tools. For starters, Volcano has a total of four multimode filters with flexible routing, individual saturation controls, and mid-side processing. In addition, the modulation capabilities are extensive, with drag-and-drop mod routing and 16-step XLFOs.
When you combine these functions with the XY modulation controllers, envelope generators, and envelope followers, Volcano 3 becomes a powerful tool for shaping and animating virtually any sound and imparting unique rhythmic characteristics. From vintage psychedelia to goa gating, there is no limit to what’s possible with Volcano 3.
Overall, with its extensive sonic range and impressive modulation capabilities, Volcano could be a little intimidating if it weren’t so easy to use. If you start to think of it in terms of a rhythmic shaping tool rather than a traditional filter, you can start channeling your ideas and using Volcano for sound creation or as a transitional effect in your music. Get it at Thomann.*
The Best Filter Plugins: Polyverse Filterverse
Filterverse is a recent development from Polyverse Music, providing you with an extremely flexible sound design platform. The core of the Filterverse processing engine consists of three filters with 26 modes, with a range of multi-peak and crazy non-filter types with unique sound characteristics.
The filters can be used in a range of different configurations, including sequential and parallel modes, as well as a combination of the two. In addition, the variable filter shapes and slope controls are an interesting feature, especially if you modulate them, and there are a huge number of ways to do this.
With eight different modulator types, you can build your own custom modulation chains consisting of LFOs, sequencers, envelopes, randomizers, audio rate oscillators, pitch detectors, and the unique Meta Knob module. Also, you can venture into stereo and mid-side modulation processing and get your sounds to bounce around your mix. Get it at Thomann.*
The Best Filter Plugins: Output Movement
While it might not be exclusively classed as a filter plugin per se, Movement is still a creative processor with many of the modulation and time-based shaping features we often find on many of the plugins we’ve discussed. The processing engine consists of two sections, each with two rhythm generators and a customizable effects chain.
In addition, there is a pair of global effects engines and the flux section that uses an XY pad to drift between the two colour-coded rhythm sections. Each of the four rhythm generators can be set to either LFO, sidechain, or step sequencer modes, which provides a selection of mode-specific controls to shape your sound.
Overall, Movement is an intuitive tool to use; it has amazing sonic potential, and there is a range of expansion packs to help you dive into different musical styles. When creating sounds, you can keep it simple or get as layered as you like with the four rhythm channels and the impressive range of effects. Get it at Thomann.*
The Best Filter Plugins: Waves Metafilter
This is a powerful multi-effect built around a multi-mode filter. It utilizes Waves’ Virtual Voltage technology to best emulate the weight of analog filters, but it is much more than just a filter.
It provides capabilities to produce a number of effects like wah, tremolo, gating, and more. Provided is the ability to modulate parameters like resonance, time, and cutoff frequency via LFO, envelope follower, and step sequencer. MIDI learn functionality allows you to control the plug-in with a MIDI input device. Get it at Thomann.*
The Best Filter Plugins: Kuassa EFEKTOR Wah Filter
This plug-in has six flavors of wah, going all the way to synth-like filtering. These include sounds from the Dunlop Crybaby, Vox, and Vertex wahs, as well as three styles of Mu-Tron (low, high, and band-pass) envelope filtering.
All settings share global controls over bandwidth, range, and level as well as attack and release. The pedal position knob simulates the treadle location on an actual wah pedal, and there is stereo linking and MIDI expression pedal functionality. Get it at Plugin Boutique.*
The Best Filter Plugins: UAD Moog Filter Collection
Moog analog filters have long been considered some of the best and most creative. Included here are the best of a number of different Moog models. Four filters work together to shape the sound, offering full range 20Hz-20kHz frequency response.
It’s much more than just an EQ, and can be used to enhance harmonic content and manipulate sounds in ways that made the original hardware units so beloved. Dual modulation gives you total control over each LFO, and also includes tap tempo control over the rate.
There is a built-in four-lane sequencer that provides limitless possibilities via control over every element. Also included are a number of presets from famous artists.
The Best Filter Plugins: Arturia M12 Filter
Taken from the Oberheim Matrix-12 polyphonic synthesizer, this plugin provides a powerful multi-mode filter. The M12 is a marriage of the concepts of the original with modern features and functions. Built upon the company’s True Analog Emulation technology, there are twin analog filters as well as all 15 modes from the original hardware.
Analog filter tone control and programmable modulation envelopes let you manipulate sounds in amazing ways. Highly advanced routing is possible via the modulation matrix. This includes series and parallel signal flow, among others. Global parallel processing is made possible via a wet/dry blend control. This is a very versatile, creative filtering plug-in that truly needs to be heard to be believed. Get it at Plugin Boutique.*
The Best Filter Plugins: Cableguys FilterShaper XL
Billed as “filtering, panning, and modulation on steroids,” this is a highly musical plug-in that operates on two main filter sections. They can be run in serial or parallel with freely editable modulation curves and a flexible modulation network that adds motion to your music. It can do subtle to extreme and everything in between with Sallen-Key filters that add weight and warmth, and 60 editable LFOs and 50 editable envelope followers.
All controls have their own modulation, two LFOS, and one envelope follower with further control from there. LFOs can be MIDI triggered and have their own visualization. And with dual-band side-chaining, you can expand your sonic options even further. The GUI has a lot going on, but it’s set up symmetrically, making it fairly easy to navigate. And the library of user-sourced presets is always growing. Get it at Plugin Boutique.*
The Best Filter Plugins: Sonalksis Creative Filter
Billed as the world’s first “adaptive resonance filter”. This type of filter automatically adapts frequency, resonance, and saturation to the signal that’s being fed into it. It comes with four modes of adaptive response, and adapts to you, instead of the other way around.
The goal of the plug-in is to provide all of the creative elements one needs in a processor like this, but without the complex interfaces that are common in some creative filtering plugins. The control scheme is simple with just four knobs over cutoff frequency, filter type, resonance, slope, and an output volume slider. Everything is processed in 64-bit floating point processing with no latency or signal delay. Get it at Thomann.*
The Best Filter Plugins: Sugar Bytes WOW 2
21 of the most popular filters of all time are crammed into this versatile plug-in, but that’s not all. It also sports four modulation sources like a 16-step step sequencer, 13 waveform LFO, envelope follower (with frequency detection), and wobble. Vowel Mode acts as a vocoder, and all filters are compatible with it. There are nine total vowels, and you can even use two at a time.
The compact interface is easy to navigate and makes dialing in sounds seamless. Five controls tune the resonance, cutoff frequency, and dry blend of your sound. You can even grind up your sounds with seven different vibes of distortion that can be routed pre or post-filtering. WOW 2 can chop and screw any signal to perfection. Get it at Thomann.*
The Best Filter Plugins: Audio Damage Filterstation2
Another take on a dual filter design made famous by the Sherman Filterbank, it can run in parallel, stereo, or stereo operating modes. It is the second generation of the plug-in that features a re-imagined DSP section and UI. The redesigned interface is much more intuitive and easier to navigate than the previous iteration.
The plug-in runs on 12 filter algorithms and an envelope follower, and is capable of much more than filtering. The envelope follower allows for dynamic control of filter frequency with a stereo side-chain so that external signals can trigger it. It offers internal and tempo sync modes, and a VCA mode that allows for gate and tremolo effects. Uniquely, it runs on Windows, Mac, iOS, and Linux systems. Get it at Plugin Boutique.*
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