Spectral Plugins make their plugins free to download and use following the company’s closing.
It is always a sad day when a developer closes their doors. No matter the occasion, something is lost when someone has to hang it all up and move on to other ventures.
Unfortunately, the folks behind Spectral Plugins are going away, but there’s some good news in all of this.
For a little while, you can get all Spectral Plugins software for free. There are three main releases, with at least a few you may have heard of.
OCS-45
First up is OCS-45, a release for lovers of Tycho, Boards of Canada, and those lo-fi beats to study along. This is a fairly comprehensive cassette simulation with some creative distortion modes to play with.
In addition to tape saturation, you’ve also got wow and flutter. It might not be a complete replacement for something like Wow Control, but it’s pretty close.
You can also try using OSC-45 in combination with our free BPB Dirty VHS plugin.
Pancz
Pancz is the one Spectral Plugins product that really caught my attention.
Now, I typically don’t use many transient shapers in my own work. Drums are already processed with breakbeats and samples, so it is more a matter of controlling the other elements.
If you want to make your mark on a drum bus, Pancz might be it. It combines a transient shaper and a clipper, meaning you get all the loudness on a kick and snare that you can stomach.
Spacer
Spectral Plugins’ final release will probably be near and dear to most producers, in my opinion.
Spacer combines a delay and reverb into a handy little package that sounds good while being surprisingly versatile. You’ve got an algorithmic, convolution, and granular reverb alongside a basic and granular delay.
If you want to make a wash of ambient noise with some Berlin School plucks and pads, this might take you there in short order. I love the grain reverb, in particular. It really reminds me of Mutable Instruments’ Clouds without quite as many parameters to control.
Free Download
I don’t know how long things are going to stay up for Spectral Plugins’ newly free plugins, so grab them while you can. While at it, you might want to back them up somewhere else for safekeeping in case you need to reinstall your OS in the future.
All of the releases are available for Mac and Windows. Hopefully, someone with more know-how can chime in as to whether they’re Silicon-compatible.
Download: Spectral Plugins (FREE)
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16 Comments
javed faroqui
oni m good
javed faroqui
onimjk
Mike
onSeems odd that you have to subscribe to their newsletter in order to download these… Good thing is you can just enter any email address as the downloads are shown afterwards and do not get sent as an email.
MRG
onMmm, yeah, was asking myself the same question. Why the email? Something tells me this company disbanded, but some part of it will come back in one form or another and they’re building a list to spam^H^H^H^Hinform people of the new one.
I’M JUST ASKING QUESTIONS!!1
Febbie Ivaaden (Febbs!)
onSpacer actually good ngl
greentea
onAnyone else having a issue with the captcha not working, or did I just become a robot overnight?
greentea
onI swear I did this captcha at least 21 times and it won’t go thru 😭
Unc
onI had to open chrome to finish the captcha. They’re always a pain tho
Bud Jones
onSeems like a reasonable trade – free plugins for your very valuable email address. Sign up for an email address to use only for these opportunities. End of problem. Not much to complain about
Brenny C
onAwesome, thanks! Nice plugins; well worth a download!
THRL
onI had never heard about them, but I really like these plugins. Especially the tape.
Sad that they go.
Numanoid
onNice of them to give them away, but maybe they threw in the towel too early?
Plugins seems stable on Windows 10, they could have kept selling them at cut down price via vendors like Plugin Boutique for some time still, punters are always needing low cost plugs to get the monthly freebies
John Lehmkuhl
onOCS and Pancz are Mac Universal, Spacer is Intel only but can be used in our Unify Plug-In since we convert VST2/VST3 Intel only to work in Unify while it’s running natively on Apple Silicone. Sad to see them go.
Rich M
onI’d be a little miffed if I had previously paid for these now everyone gets them for free. But that’s not me lol. Looks like some nice plugins, though. Definitely will be checking these out.
Wing Yee
onThank you!
yzcoruhT
onNot for ‘every project’, but these plugins are really good sounding.
Thank you.
y-