Plasma from developer Dimethoxy is a free, open-source digital audio effect for VST3 hosts.
There has been no shortage of interesting distortion effects in the last few years. One of my personal favorites is Minimal Audio’s Rift, which takes a decidedly different approach to how distortion is achieved. And let’s not forget our very own BPB Dirty Filter Plus.
Plasma by Dimethoxy is also wild and comes in at the beautiful cost of nothing. You’ve got quite a few controls at hand, so it is worth exploring.
You’ve got 10 distortion effects to choose from, each with its unique attributes. Some go into unruly territory in short order, which might be what the doctor ordered.
There is an interesting girth selection for each distortion module as well, letting users add a little more treble. This works wonderfully in conjunction with the trio of filters you have on offer.
Users have the option of dialing in a low-pass, high-pass, or peak filter to help get the distortion settings just right.
I’m a sucker for visualization, and Plasma is no slouch there. You’ve got a wonderful oscilloscope at the top of the interface, allowing you to see exactly what sort of mangling you’re getting up to with the audio in real-time.
Now, Plasma seems tailored for your harder dance styles like hardstyle, gabber, hardcore, and whatever else you can dream of. However, I do find it works quite well in more sedate genres.
If you’re looking to add a little of that powdery grit to a lo-fi recording, this, combined with a little wow and flutter, could go a long way. Speaking of wow and flutter, check out the new Blowdio plugin which we tested earlier today.
Plasma is free as in freedom, as opposed to beer, so you don’t need any management software or an account. You’ll just need to grab the binary for your operating system of choice, and you’re off to the races.
It isn’t terribly hungry on your resources either, so you could realistically use this on multiple sources over an entire mix.
Plasma is available for Windows and Mac computers. Supported plugin formats at VST3, you’ll need a wrapper or something for Logic Pro X and Pro Tools. It is available for Intel and Silicon Macs, so you should be good provided you’re running 10.13 or newer.
Download: Plasma (FREE)
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15 Comments
OptimusPrime
onwhy not linux?(
MRG
onThere seems to be a Linux makefile, so either you’re supposed to compile it yourself or there’s issues with building it atm? A note in the description would help.
Bob
onI was just about to post that thanks to it being open source I was able to build a linux version.
It just needed one minor tweak to PluginEditor.cpp to fix the plugin title rendering too large (it needs to use the same values as Mac).
While I’m at it. here’s some other cool open source plugins that I stumbled upon on Github that I didn’t find while searching here.
https://github.com/jpcima/DelayArchitect A clone of Logic’s Delay Designer. It can even import .pst presets from it.
There’s also some cool plugins here taht are worth a look: https://github.com/astriiddev
Brenny C
onHuh. Unfortunately all the plugin download links for DelayArchitect lead to an ‘Error 404 – Not Found.’
Bummer, that’s the plugin I wanted most out of the GitHub links you provided. Did you manage to download that one? If so, did you get a copy of the DelayArchitect Windows version? I’d love to get a copy if you have it.
Thanks, Bob.
Bob
onHi Brenny
Sorry, I didn’t try the links. I can see from the issues page that they expired a year ago.
I built linux plugins for myself from the source. Unfortunately I have no experience building plugins on Windows. Maybe someone here can do that.
I also tried The Wayback Machine as well to see if any links were archived, but they weren’t.
MRG
onToday I Learned how to upload stuff on archive.org. Sorry, I don’t have the OSX binaries.
archive.org/details/jpcima-delay-architect-linux-windows-vst3
While you’re on JPCIMA’s repos, check ADLplug, Stone Phaser and String Machine. (the latest dev versions are on the Release page, don’t click the version number, click ‘Release’ just above)
Bob
onFound ZLAudio too. Some nice looking plugins.
https://github.com/ZL-Audio
Tomislav Zlatic
onCool! We’re posting about these soon.
Fever 27
onhow i can make plugin on linux mint?
Brenny C
onBecause the dev didn’t want to? 🤷 Y’all are funny, acting like Linux is popular in the plugin world and that it’s some kind of shocker that there’s no Linux version. Lol. The majority of plugins out there aren’t available for Linux.
MRG
onYes …and no!
When it comes to open-source, the values tend to inverse. Linux first, then OSX, Windows last. Admittedly audio has always been a special case, though. Thankfully it’s getting closer and closer.
Angie
onShaper by Kilohearts is another new free distortion plugin
kilohearts.com/products/kilohearts_essentials
rattala
onwindows installers seem to be no more present, or I can’t find them :-(
MRG
onClick on “Releases” on the right column. That’s the way to get binaries on Github.
Also, technically there’s no installers, it’s a zipfile with a .vst3 file inside.
You’ll need to drop the file in your %CommonProgramFiles%\VST3 folder.
Hans
onThanks!