SaschArt Releases MultiCrusher Free Distortion VST/AU Plugin

SaschArt has announced the release of MultiCrusher, a freeware multi-mode distortion effect in 32-bit and 64-bit VST/AU plugin formats for PC and Mac.

MultiCrusher is a relatively advanced distortion effect with five different distortion algorithms. The plugin comes with two distortion slots, the first one featuring overdrive fat, overdrive weak, and decimator algorithms, and the second one featuring clip and foldback distortion. The first three algorithms only come with the amount control parameter, whereas the foldback/clipper algorithm offers gain, threshold, and multiply adjustments. Setting the multiply parameter to zero effectively puts the foldback algorithm into clipping mode.

The lower section of the interface features anti-aliasing, round, pan, and mix control parameters. The anti-aliasing functionality seems to be based on filtering rather than oversampling, keeping the CPU hit low but resulting in a noticeably duller tone. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, though, as it can work well for warming up harshly distorted sounds. The mix control adds some of the original audio to the output signal, which can be useful for preserving the transients of percussive sounds or slightly fattening up a sound with some subtle parallel processing.

Overall, the plugin is easy to use and offers a nice range of distortion types. I was quite satisfied with the sound quality as well and could easily see myself using it in some more serious projects later on. Much like the rest of SaschArt’s product range, MultiCrusher is optimized for low resource consumption, which will be appreciated by users with less powerful computers. It is currently available as a VST and AU plugin for 32-bit and 64-bit host applications on Windows and Mac. The plugin can be downloaded directly from the product page linked below.

MultiCrusher is available for free download via SaschArt (819 KB download size, ZIP archive, 32-bit & 64-bit VST/AU plugin formats for Windows & Mac OS).