FB3, Clew, Wasser: Free Plugins of the Week
4,0 / 5,0 | 
FB3, Clew, Wasser: Free Plugins of the Week · Source: Full Bucket Music, Fruitless Research, dBdone
FB3 by Full Bucket Music brings the classic Kawai K3 hybrid synth from 1986 to your DAW for free! Check it out in this week’s round-up of the best free plugins.
Free Plugins of the Week
Full Bucket Music FB3: Free Kawai K3 Emulation for your DAW!
The latest in a string of excellent free software synths from Full Bucket Music, FB3 is an emulation of the Kawai K3/K3m from 1986. Featuring a combination of digital waves and analog filters, the K3 is an underappreciated hybrid synth, similar to contemporaries like the KORG DW-8000. It’s capable of some very beautiful timbres that range from the glassy, digital tones you might expect to surprisingly punchy basses and lush pads. Because of its hybrid architecture, some have even called it the ‘poor man’s PPG Wave’, although it lacks the Wave’s wavetable scanning capability.
Full Bucket Music has recreated the K3 in all its mid-‘80s glory, including an emulation of the original wave generator unit and the analog SSM2044 filters. The software synth offers up to 64 voices of polyphony and comes with all the original factory sounds. It can even import and export K3 SysEx and user wave data. And if you’ve got an original unit, you can use the FB3 plugin as an editor for the hardware. Sweet!
FB3 is available for macOS and Windows in VST, VST3, AU, CLAP, and AAX formats.
Fruitless Research Clew: Physically-Modelled Spring Reverb
Clew by Fruitless Research is a free spring reverb plugin based on physical modeling. According to the developer, it aims to recreate the sound of the dual-spring reverb tanks found in many guitar amps. In stereo mode, the signal passes through two slightly different tanks, preserving the stereo image of the source while making mono sources sound wider.
In addition to a Decay knob that dampens the springs, Clew offers a low-cut filter for low-end cleanup, a Drive knob for a bit of input saturation, and a Mix knob. As a nice touch, the plugin also features a spectral view of the reverb tail, although that’s something I could live without in a spring reverb plugin.
Clew is available for macOS and Windows in VST3, AU, and AAX formats.
dBdone Wasser: Liquid Multiband Delay
What is a ‘liquid multiband delay’, you ask? Wasser by dBdone is a delay plugin unlike anything I’ve ever seen before. It splits the audio into separate frequency bands, allowing you to set a different delay time for each band. This lets you do some pretty wacky stuff, like rhythmic delays that react differently to different frequencies in the source material. It takes a while to get the hang of it, but you can also just draw a curve and see how it sounds.
Speaking of drawing, I really like the straightforward interface. Each column represents a frequency band, with the height of the column representing the delay time in multiples of the selected beat subdivision. You can adjust the columns individually or draw a curve with your mouse. Simple and intuitive!
According to the developer, Wasser works best on drums and percussion, because ‘a delay needs gaps to land in’. I second that.
Wasser is available for macOS and Windows in VST3, AU, and AAX formats.
Check out our archive for many more free plugins like FB3, Clew, and Wasser!
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