GentleDrivez is a brand new freeware Mac-only VST/AU plugin developed by Synthetic Brain, based on a gentle saturation/distortion algorithm suitable for warming up synthesizers, electronic drums and other digital sound sources.
The plugin is currently available for Mac OS only, same as CrazyClipz 2.0 which was released by the same developer in April this year. This means that I’m not able to put this freeware plugin to a real test, which is quite unfortunate because I really like how it sounds in the demo video (which you can watch below). According to the developer, both of these Mac-only plugins might be ported to Windows in the future, however the ported versions are not very high on the list of priorities in Synthetic Brain headquaters.
See also: Free Saturation VST/AU plugins for Windows and Mac OS!
GentleDrivez comes with a simple and easy to use GUI, with no more than four parameters. There’s the Drive knob for controlling the amount of distortion being applied to the processed signal, the Mix knob for easy parallel processing, and the Input and Output knobs for gain staging. The plugin is optimized for subtle distortion (and this kind of effect really does sound nice in the demo video), but it can also be pushed harder to achieve some more devastating distortion types.
If you’re on Windows and looking for some nice subtle saturation tools, FerricTDS and a couple of other freebies by Variety Of Sound are an absolute must-have. They’re 32-bit only though, which is definitely a bummer if you’re running 64-bit Windows (I’m still getting used to not being able to use FerricTDS in my mixes).
But it’s not all bad if you’re on 64-bit Windows, because there are tons of other really good freeware tools out there, such as SGA1566 by Shattered Glass Audio (an absolutely amazing tube amp emulation), IVGI by Klanghelm Audio (based on the commercial SDRR plugin by the same developer) and HeadCrusher Free by Audio Assault, to name just a few. You may also want to check out our own FilterCrusher dual tube filter which has a really good tube saturation algorithm built-in.
Video Demo
Check out the GentleDrivez demo video:
Download
GentleDrivez (17.7 MB download size, ZIP archive, PKG installer, 32-bit & 64-bit VST/VST3/AU plugin format for Mac OS X, hosted by Bedroom Producers Blog with the developer’s permission)
Last Updated on May 29, 2015 by Tomislav Zlatic.
