Tension, Harmonic Echo, AnalogChannel: Free Plugins of the Week
5,0 / 5,0 | 
Tension, Harmonic Echo, AnalogChannel: Free Plugins of the Week · Source: Carbon Fiber Plugins, Soft Loop Audio, Kurama Place
This week’s round-up of free plugins features a unique clipper, a musical MIDI effect, and an all-in-one channel strip: check out Tension, Harmonic Echo, and AnalogChannel.
Free Plugins of the Week
Carbon Fiber Plugins Tension: Not Your Standard Clipper
Tension by Carbon Fiber Plugins is a unique clipping plugin that combines three types of processing: precision ADAA saturation, transient snapping, and harmonic wavefolding. According to the developer, this lets the plugin ‘reach inside the waveform’ to sculpt the character of the clipped sound.
The Tension control is a drive knob that does more than gain: the high-performance clipping engine uses smart anti-aliasing to keep the top end smooth while increasing the loudness. The Pulse knob controls the transient snapping feature for creating punchy transients while maintaining the body of the sound. Fold applies a wavefolder for even more harmonic grit.
Tension also includes a Weave knob for tilting the tonal balance of the distortion effect from bright and modern to dark and vintage. You can even adjust the Age and Character of the effect for a wide tonal palette from vintage to modern.
Tension is available as a VST3 plugin for Windows.
Soft Loop Audio Harmonic Echo: MIDI Echoes that Move with your Sound
Harmonic Echo by Soft Loop Audio is a MIDI-based delay effect that lets you create evolving, musical sequences and echoes in the blink of an eye. Instead of just repeating the notes, it intelligently harmonizes the echoes through the scale of your choice. The developer describes it as a “creative co-pilot” – perfect for chords, ambient textures, and rhythmic hooks.
After choosing the scale, you can adjust the Steps, Hold, and Echoes parameters and dial in the Time and Decay to define how the effect behaves in relation to your MIDI notes. Hold groups echoes into rhythmic clusters for creating complex, weaving patterns. Intriguing and useful!
Harmonic Echo is available for macOS, Windows, and Linux in VST3 and AU formats.
Kurama Place AnalogChannel: Channel Strip with Airwindows and JSFX Algorithms
AnalogChannel by Kurama Place is a channel strip plugin designed for a fast workflow with characterful results. Some of its eight modules use the great-sounding and very popular open-source algorithms by Airwindows, while others are based on classic JSFX processors. The developer has added a GUI, a flexible routing system, and comprehensive metering.
After an input stage with four modes of saturation and a pair of HP/LP filters, the signal reaches a Clean Compressor for transparent peak control. Next up is a Low Dynamic section that works either as a downward expander/gate or an upward compressor.
The Style Compressor offers two character compression modes and can be inserted pre or post the 4-band EQ section. AnalogChannel also includes a console emulation module and an output stage with saturation and clipping, both based on Airwindows algorithms.
AnalogChannel is a VST3 plugin for Windows.
Looking for more free plugins like Tension, Harmonic Echo, and AnalogChannel? Check out our huge archive!
This might also interest you
