Plug-ins

Transitions are the name of the game here, and as always Baby Audio and Andrew Huang encourage you to get creative!

Encourage new ideas with some controlled MIDI randomisation.

Ozone still offers traditional mastering tools — but its AI‑fuelled options open the door to so much more!

The best plug‑ins make under‑the‑hood sophistication simple in practice...

With up to four parallel chains available, you’re free to design pretty much any amp and effects chain imaginable.

Strymon’s reputation for making top‑quality digital effects pedals is second to none, but now they’ve made some of their creations available as DAW plug‑ins.

This all‑in‑one, five‑module channel strip is based on the sonic characters of the processors and plug‑ins Grammy‑winning mixer Andrew Scheps uses in his studio.

Ufx Reverb might sound like a conventional effect but, fear not: Reverb can do conventional things, but there’s a good dollop of UJAM creativity here too!

Drift is a plug‑in that embraces all those things that old‑school engineers used to hate about analogue tape!

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ 5/5 Stars. Quiet Music may not be the biggest name in software instruments, but for those producing ambient, chillout or lo‑fi music, the company’s products are a real find.

Sonible’s AI‑based EQ processing just got easier to use and more affordable.

LANDR’s automated mastering service just got better... and it no longer requires a connection to the cloud.

Toontrack and Frank Filipetti span a vast array of musical genres with the latest Superior Drummer expansion.

Scatter is a very simple‑to‑use granular delay that generates up to 64 grains with randomised positions, with stereo placement based around a fixed one‑second recording buffer.

There are now some impressive offline source separation tools — but this one works in real time!

This great‑sounding processor does more than make your music loud — but does it do enough?

Thomas McRocklin’s first foray into the world of guitar rig emulations treads a slightly different path from the competition.

Embody’s mission to make immersive mixing on headphones a practical proposition moves forward with the addition of a second virtual studio.

This software adaptation of Erica’s desktop delay unit boasts plenty of substance, flexibility and attitude.

AIR Music’s Sprite is a multi‑effects plug‑in with a few extra tricks up its sleeves, such as the ability to control certain effect parameters using an envelope follower.

Plamen is a five‑band saturator, in which each band can be processed using one of five different saturation algorithms.