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FKFX Releases FREE Obvious Filter Plugin For Windows & macOS

By 23 Comments3 Mins Read
Obvious Filter by FKFX

FKFX releases Obvious Filter, a freeware morphing filter sequencer plugin for digital audio workstation software macOS and Windows.

FKFX is a new developer name on the plugin scene, but you might already be familiar with their work.

See also: BPB Dirty Filter Is A FREE Distortion VST/AU Plugin

Ohmforce is one name that pops up when you look at this team’s extensive history in the industry, and I was lucky enough to try out Ohmicide in its early days. If you don’t know Ohmicide, it’s multiband-mayhem in every way, from the blood-splattered GUI to its sheer aggression.

I’m writing this before having the chance to try Obvious Filter, but it’s off to a good start at first sight. I say that because having the long feature list that it does, can sometimes lead to an overbearing GUI; in this case, it looks great.

There are ten analog-modeling filters; LP4, LP2, BP4, BP2, HP4, HP2, N4, N2, N2X, Peak, and Envelope. With those options, you have a generous amount of filter types to play with, but the beauty of Obvious Filter lies elsewhere in its Morph Sequencer. The plugin offers three morphing modes, Immediate, Morph, and Linear.

The way you can manipulate the shape of the filter modulation reminds me of the LFO drawing system in Cableguys DriveShaper that we covered not too long ago.

FKFX says Obvious Filter turns any input sound to a rhythmical sequence, which sums it up very well. I love plugins that allow you to create precise and complex results while also being able to turn nothing into something randomly.

The Rate knob sets the tempo of the modulation, including polyrhythmical rates. To the right of the GUI, you’ll find the modulation matrix. The mod matrix includes 33 destinations and 39 modulation oscillators.

You can get pretty deep into it with the mod matrix, but you can also do some simple things that make a real difference. It has a Note knob that controls the MIDI note, so you can add pitch shifts to make your rhythm more interesting.

As well as the abundance of options, you also get four built-in randomizers, and 128 presets. The randomizers are Re-Order, Curve, Sequence, and Everything; they add to that turn nothing into something ability when you’re creatively stuck. The presets do the same, whether you are using them as ready-made settings or as a starting point.

What I’ve seen and heard so far tells me that Obvious Filter should be a lot of fun to use and sounds great.

Obvious Filter is available in AU and VST3 formats, and so far, it looks like an absolute gem of a freebie!

Download: Obvious Filter (5.87 MB download size, ZIP archive, VST3/AU plugin format for digital audio workstations on Windows & macOS)

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James is a musician and writer from Scotland. An avid synth fan, sound designer, and coffee drinker. Sometimes found wandering around Europe with an MPC in hand.

23 Comments

  1. Tomislav Zlatic

     on

    A big THANK YOU to BPB readers Christian, Numanoid, Patryk, and In A Week for the info about Obvious Filter!

    Reply

    • Rubem Auad

       on

      Hey, Tomislav! What do you think about a space where users can share plugins they have found and think could be useful for others? I find a lot of users sharing recommendations on the comment section of random plugins.

      Don’t know if that’d be hard to do tho. Don’t know much about this :/

      Reply

  2. Neytcev

     on

    Thanks!
    Let mention, that the plugin asks email activation when opened …
    I wish to share it works well on Mac OS X 10.10 too, Logic 10.1.

    Reply

    • Numanoid

       on

      Yes, that is stated on the download page of the plugin. A user don’t have to have an Patreon account though, just add any email address when prompted.

      Reply

  3. Rogue Reaper

     on

    Tried this one yesterday already, but it doesn’t seem to want to work on a Windows 10 x64 + Bitwig 3.3.10 on my end. I see audio incoming into the plugin’s interface (the top VU meters), but no output at all. A shame, really. Cannot seem to find any other way to contact the devs than to patreon up, so if someone has some other way of contacting them, I’d surely love to know!

    Reply

    • Numanoid

       on

      I unfortunately have the same problem in Windows 10, using FL Studio 20 (64 bit), either I play or run sounds through it, it just delivers silence. I didn’t have a chance to check out the plugin until after the day job ended today. I just dropped the VST3 included in the download into my Common Files VST3 folder. Maybe it makes a difference if I use the included installer instead? At least the GUI looks magnificent ;-)

      Reply

      • GaryG

         on

        I just dropped the vst3 file into the common folder and it’s running fine for me in Reaper, sorry people are having problems.

        Reply

      • In A Week

         on

        Hi Numanoid,
        This issue seems to be there for Bitwig and FL Studio users only. They might fix it in the next release. For now use an alternate daw, if u have one. I can confirm that the plugin is working fine in Cakewalk, Waveform and Reaper. Someone tell it here if they can make it work in any other daw, it will be helpful for others.

        Reply

      • Gabriel Garcia

         on

        If you are on FL Studio, go to the wrapper settings and enable both input and output audio connections in the ‘Processing’ tab. I don’t know why they are disabled by default.

        Reply

        • Numanoid

           on

          Thanks for the info. I went to the FKFX wrapper setting, and there to the submenu Processing, and then in that sub-menu under Connections I see that both Input and Output is unchecked. (Something which other FX I use like Valhalla Supermassive is not)
          So I check both Input and Output in the FKFX wrapper, this leads to that I can see input in the FKFX GUI, but Output is still dead. Not getting any sound out of it, even though Output is checked in the wrapper.
          I am using FL Studio 20.8.3 (64 bit) on Windows 10

          Reply

    • Pacmusik

       on

      I had the same problem, I inserted it into an instrument track and loaded a synth and nothing happened, until I played the daw and there it started to modify the sound. (In cakewalk, vst3)
      This effect is a beast, it seems incredible that it is free.

      Reply

  5. Niedec

     on

    Man, this sounds great. Reminds me of Wow 2 by Sugar Bytes, but mixed with FilterShaper Core 2 by Cableguys. Considering it’d cost you $144 to buy both of those when not on sale, that’s awesome.

    Reply

  6. traz

     on

    doesn’t run in Studio One …no sound…input meter shows it is receiving a signal…it does work in VST Host though.

    Reply

  11. Stephen Brown

     on

    Gobsmacked by this – I will try to support you people. Absolutely brilliant plug-in – monstrous number of possibilities. Unbelievable!!!

    Reply
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