If you’re looking for free audio plugins to add warmth, saturation, distortion, and punch to your mixes, I’ve got two more worth checking out. Toaster and Overdo offer two different approaches to processing audio, giving music producers some additional tools for shaping their sound.
In this video, I’m taking a closer look at both plugins, exploring their controls and putting them to work in a mix.
Watch the video:
Toaster: Free Saturation and Distortion Plugin
First up is Toaster, a saturation plugin designed to add warmth, grit, and character to your audio.
It comes with several different processing options, including:
- Gentle
- Warm Tape
- Glue
- Vocal Grit
- Lo-Fi Crunch
- Tube
- Tape
- Fuzz
There’s also a Light to Burnt control that lets you adjust the intensity of the processing.
I particularly like having different flavors of saturation available in one plugin. Depending on the material, you can use it for subtle warmth or push things further into more aggressive distortion.
I also take a look at the Fuzz Bass setting. While it’s probably more suited to bass instruments, it can produce some interesting results on drums, too.
Toaster is worth experimenting with if you’re looking for another way to introduce saturation and harmonic character into your mixes.
Overdo: Free Multiband Compressor
The second plugin is Overdo, which takes a different approach to audio processing.
Essentially, it’s a multiband compressor designed to squash and lift different frequency ranges. This gives you additional control over how the individual bands affect your overall sound.
Some of the features include:
- Automatic gain control
- Individual frequency band controls
- Drum Smack processing
- Different processing settings
I start by exploring the controls before putting Overdo on the master bus to hear what it does to the overall mix.
Multiband processing can be useful when you want to change the dynamics and impact of specific frequency ranges rather than applying the same compression across the entire signal.
Overdo gives you another option to experiment with when working on drums, mixes, and overall master bus processing.
Two More Free Plugins for Your Collection
Toaster and Overdo serve different purposes, but both offer interesting possibilities for music production.
Toaster is focused on saturation, warmth, and distortion, while Overdo is more about multiband dynamics and controlling the energy across different frequency ranges.
If you’re building a collection of free VST plugins or simply enjoy trying new mixing tools, both are worth a look.
Check out the plugins using the links below.
As always, give them a try and see how they fit into your own workflow.
Leave a Reply