Chris Johnson (the developer behind Airwindows) has announced that Console 4 is now available for free download and that it has also been ported to Windows (32-bit & 64-bit VST plugin format).
It’s hard to decide what’s the bigger news here – the fact that Console 4 is now free to download and use, or the announcement that all Airwindows plugins will be ported to Windows in near future (and also be offered as free downloads). But let’s start from the top.
See also: Best FREE Saturation VST Plugins!Console 4 is a virtual summing console that consists of two different plugins – Console Channel and Console Buss. The Channel plugin is meant for use on individual tracks in a mix, whereas the Buss plugin should be placed on the master channel. After applying Console 4 to a project, the result is a more compact and thicker sounding mix, which is something that you’d expect to get when passing each individual track in your project through an analog mixing console and recording the summed stereo signal on the output.
Better yet, the plugin is extremely easy to use. Both the Channel and Buss versions feature just a single control – a Trim knob which is intended for setting the proper gain staging. In addition, Console 4 is very easy on the CPU, using just 1% of available resources with four instances running at the same time (on an i7 processor in MuLab 6 Free 64-bit).
Both plugins come without a GUI (as you can see in our MuLab 6 screenshot above) and Airwindows has an excellent explanation for this: “In mix, nobody can hear your screen”. In other words, the developer is focusing on the sound and stability of his plugins, instead of spending time designing nice looking skins and fixing GUI related bugs. And that totally makes sense, even for someone as obsessed with nice looking GUIs as myself.
Up until recently, Console 4 was a Mac OS exclusive (same as the rest of the Airwindows product lineup). That has now changed completely, as Console 4 is also available as a 32-bit and 64-bit VST plugin for Windows, in addition to the 32-bit & 64-bit AU plugin versions for Mac OS.
Which takes us to the next part of the article and that is the announcement that Chris Johnson will be porting all previously released Airwindows plugins to Windows VST plugin format (32-bit and 64-bit), as well as that they will all go donationware. More precisely, the plugins will be free to download and use, with optional donations via Patreon ($800 monthly goal). That is huge news. Airwindows plugins have been around since 2007 and they’ve quickly become known as some of the best effects you can use on Mac OS. Now Windows users are finally getting the chance to run Airwindows software in their DAWs.
Here’s hoping that Variety Of Sound will port their old VST plugins to 64-bit as well. Either way, this is an amazing time for us music producers and sound designers. The sound quality we can achieve in our bedrooms using nothing but a computer and an audio interface (and a lot of practice) is amazing. Thanks to all the generous developers out there!
Console 4 is available for free download via Airwindows (632 KB download size, ZIP archive, 32-bit & 64-bit VST/AU plugin format for Windows & Mac OS).
