Free F1 Filter Box VST Plugin Released By RAZ Audio

F1 Filter Box is a freeware multi-mode resonant filter effect released by RAZ Audio, available as a 32-bit VST plugin for Windows based host applications (made with SynthMaker).

I’m a big fan of filters. I love having them in synths, in samplers, as standalone effects, you name it! Because of this, it’s pretty hard for a new filter effect to impress me nowadays, simply because I already have quite an arsenal of filter plugins (and synths with great sounding filters) already installed in my DAW. Still, it never hurts to try something new and this fun little freebie by RAZ Audio definitely has a few things going for it.

See also: Free HY-Filter VST Plugin By HY-Plugins!

Most importantly, F1 Filter Box provides a nice balance of available features and ease of use. You get three different filter types (vanilla stuff, though: LPF, HPF and BPF), each with two different slope settings (12 dB/octave and 24 dB/octave), along with a handy set of modulation sources. The cutoff frequency can be modulated using a free-running LFO, a tempo-synced LFO, and an envelope follower (it is not possible to modulate the resonance). All of this is packed in a very nicely designed GUI with a clean and easy to understand control scheme.

Some other things I like about F1 Filter Box are the fact that it’s a rather lightweight plugin (the CPU hit is around 1-2% per instance, which is a great result) and that the installation procedure couldn’t be any easier. You get a simple DLL file that’s not even zipped. Place it in your VST plugin folder, boot up your digital audio workstation and you’re good to go! I also liked the XY-style control which makes it possible to adjust the cutoff frequency and resonance amount at the same time. It’s a minor touch, but still a pretty cool way to speed up your mixing and/or sound design workflow.

On the flip side, the included filter models are nothing to write home about, really. They don’t sound bad at all, don’t get me wrong, but they probably won’t be an improvement over the filters that you already have installed in your digital audio workstation, either. And of course, the plugin will only work in 32-bit hosts on Windows, which is becoming more of a problem nowadays as users tend to switch to 64-bit systems.

So, the key here is usability. If you’re looking for an easy to use filter that you’d want to add to your DAW in order to speed up your workflow a bit, give this one a try. If you’re looking for some crazy analog style filtering with added tube saturation and other goodies, you might as well look elsewhere.

Download

F1 Filter Box is available for free download via RAZ Audio (2.3 MB download size, ZIP archive, 32-bit VST plugin format for Windows, made with SynthMaker).