J-Hud-Studio Releases FREE Vocal King VST Plugin

J-Hud-Studio has released Vocal King and Vocal King 2Knob, two freeware multi-effect VST plugins for Windows, designed for processing vocal tracks.

Vocal King, the more advanced plugin of the two, was released a couple of weeks ago. Its signal chain consists of six separate FX stages, followed by an output volume control. The incoming audio passes through a compressor, a low cut filter, presence, bass and treble controls, and a final compressor for tightening up the processed audio signal before it reaches the output. The plugin is indeed useful for processing vocals quickly and it’s certainly possible to get some rather pleasing results without too much effort. I’ll stick to using my custom FX chain for processing vocals on a daily basis, but for quick and dirty mixing tasks, Vocal Kings can definitely be a handy workflow enhancement.

Vocal King 2Knob is a simplified version of the Vocal King plugin. It’s a pretty straightforward 2-parameter plugin featuring nothing more than a compressor/exciter circuit and the output gain control. This sort of simplicity reminds me of one of my favorite freeware VST plugins ever, the MJUC jr. compressor by Klanghelm. Although I’m a big fan of simple effects with a small number of control parameters, Vocal King 2Knob is not necessarily something that I’d use as a go-to tool for processing vocals. It does indeed enhance the processed signal in a pleasing way most of the time, but a big part of vocal processing depends on the mix context, so having more control over the tone shaping process is essential for me.

Both plugins were made using SynthEdit, which means that they’re compatible with Windows based hosts only. Vocal King 2Knob uses SynthEdit’s experimental 64-bit export feature, meaning that it might work in some 64-bit digital audio workstations on Windows.

Vocal King and Vocal King 2Knob are available for free download via J-Hud-Studio (4.67 MB and 6.15 MB download size, ZIP archive, 32-bit & 64-bit VST plugin format for Windows).