Ear Candy Technologies are offering a trio of free VST plugins for digital audio workstations on macOS and Windows.
The first of the three is Zafiro, a multi-effect plugin that aims to transform mundane sounds into something far less ordinary.
The Ear Candy website features some demos that showcase just how impactful the transformation can be on various sources.
Zafiro features an LFO, oscillating between 0 and 10Hz, which offers square, sawtooth, triangle, and sinusoidal waveforms, along with two original waveforms.
A distortion section offers a bit crusher, overdrive, and multiband/amplitude distortion.
Next up is Ruby, a versatile delay plugin with a 16-step sequencer.
By 16-step, I mean sixteen repetitions of the delay, and it’s a lovely feature. You can toggle repetitions (steps) on/off and even alter their pitch, as you might with a regular step sequencer.
Ruby allows you to dictate the delay time freely or sync to your project BPM.
Ruby also features a Tremolo section with six different waveforms and adjustable pan.
Regarding free delay plugins, Ruby seems like it encourages creativity more than many.
The last of the three freebies is Esmeralda, an easy-to-use reverb with a Binaural module.
At its core, Esmeralda is a straightforward reverb offering four different spaces and the choice of four materials.
The Binaural module features a 360° azimuth slider, which allows you to find the perfect spatial balance.
Synthetic Mode (Sintético) provides one additional reverb option; a combination of the Schroeder algorithm and convolution.
Also, check out the free RO-GOLD from Black Rooster Audio if you can’t get enough reverb.
Without getting deep into individual plugins, it’s fair to say the three share the same simple approach to design and functionality. The GUIs are reminiscent of something from Tron or a computer screen from any well-aged sci-fi movie.
You can download all three plugins from the Ear Candy website or Plugin Boutique.
All three plugins are available in 64-bit AU, VST, VST3, and AAX formats for macOS (10.10 upwards – Intel/M1 supported) and Windows ( 7 upwards).
Download: Ear Candy Technologies
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8 Comments
mx
oni like the gui’s, though they could be seen as slightly tacky, but i really dig them.
…and there is AAX as well, nice!
i will try them, curious what the sound and feel like, and what they maybe can inspire or can be useful for.
James N
onI agree, I dig them!
mx
oni like the gui’s, though they could be seen as slightly tacky, but i really dig them.
…and there is AAX as well, nice!
i will try them, curious what they sound and feel like, and what they maybe can inspire or can be useful for.
mx
on🤦♂️
Georg
onLooks good, thank you James!
James N
onCheers, Georg!
Animus
onRuby crashed Live first time it was used so I deleted it (on windows 10). I have so many plugins at this point I just don’t mess around with things that are unstable to any degree. Step-sequenced delay to have various repetitions act differently is a really cool idea though and I’m surprised it isn’t done more often.
I like how Esmerelda combines reverb with binaural spatialization; that is a nifty combo for visceral placement of sounds in a mix and I wouldn’t be surprised if we start seeing it happen more with spatial effect plugins like delay and reverb. I’ve occasionally used binaural processing on aux sends like that and it’s an awesome technique. For some reason DAW-mapped parameters for it don’t work while the GUI is closed, however (never encountered that particular bug before!)
Zafiro works as expected and is totally stable for me upon various tests. Interesting tremolated multimode distortion. Cool LFO shape choices. The ‘metalica’ mode at small amounts with the LFO off sounds nice.
Raven
onEPIC thanks… needed YOUR review!