Prototype Audio released Fusion Core, a free saturation plugin with multiple distortion modes. The freebie is a VST3 release for macOS and Windows.
Fusion Core is the little brother of Prototype Audio’s Fusion plugin, an analog multiband saturator now available for $35, down from a list price of $75.
We all love free stuff, so what do you get in the free version?
Fusion Core offers four analog saturation algorithms that emulate hardware units.
Prototype Audio says it delivers warm crunch and texture and can enhance the detail and character of samples.
The algorithms are designed in a way that preserves the low end and punch of your signal.
The tagline of the release is “clean design, dirty sounds” and I have to say that checks out. The minimalist user interface does indeed look hella clean.
The four saturation algorithms are Tube Heat, Tape Warmth, Wave Designer, and Console Character.
Tube Heat offers soft tube saturation with gentle high gain clipping, while Tape Warmth delivers old-school tape flavor.
Wave Designer is a dirty wavefolder combined with a clean saturator, and Console Character is a distortion and high-end fuzz inspired by analog mixing consoles.
To download Fusion Core, just plug an email address into the form on the product page.
Prototype Audio will then email you a link to a page that hosts the macOS and Windows installers, which are 91.91 MB and 24.25 MB Zip files, respectively.
There doesn’t seem to be much in the way of audio demos available online for Fusion Core.
Prototype Audio does, however, host a brief YouTube demo and four audio demos on the product page for the full Fusion release, which gives you a pretty good idea of what Fusion Core offers as well.
The main difference between Fusion Core and Fusion is that Core has a single band of saturator active at any one time.
The paid Fusion release instead offers multiband saturation, so you can have three saturators active across three bands.
This allows you to mix and match different saturation algorithms across the different bands, helping to create some very versatile sounds.
The current $35 deal for Fusion is an introductory deal, and the plugin will return to its list price of $75 at some unspecified date in the future.
Download: Fusion Core (FREE)
More:
25 Comments
AMS
onI really like this- in a sea of endless free saturator plugins, this one actually provides a cool package of simplicity with just enough options and tweakability to be easy to use and still customizable. It sounds very good without much effort and I’d say its strongest aspect is a fantastic-looking GUI. Probably one of the cooler-looking plugins I own, free or otherwise
A lot of plugins do things that sound pretty much identical to my ears, and in that situation I tend to pick the ones that are easy to use and the coolest-looking. This one ticks both boxes
Prototype Audio
onThank you very much – glad you like it! :)
AMS
onVery much so, looking forward to more of your output in the future!
AutPen38
onThis looks really nice and all and the user interface works more or less as expected, but the world doesn’t really need another “warm analog” distortion plugin that creates digital aliasing distortion even on the initial preset with drive set to zero. I’ll stick with things like Kilohearts Distortion/Filter and TBProAudio’s GSat+ with oversampling switched on for getting analog style saturation without much/any digital artifacts. The release of another distortion plugin in 2024 that doesn’t seem to include a decent anti-aliasing filter or internal oversampling is kind of depressing.
Prototype Audio
onThanks for your feedback.
Kasi
onThe GUI is great and I see great potential!
Today many users are more into subtle saturation and something that is not so prone to aliasing. The aliasing police is right around every corner and will catch you in the act, if you are not cautious!
Your parameter ranges go a bit overboard. Keep it reasonable and sonically pleasant and you will win the hearts and minds of the BPB, KVR and Gearspace crowds!
That’s why people love Tone Projects Kelvin and things like the P42 Climax.
You clearly have the coding skills, now it’s just a matter of identifying what the users want and conceptualizing and creating a product that meets those demands.
Docent Novak
onIn TBProAudio’s GSat+, when oversampling is turned on, aliasing actually disappears, but in Kilohearts there is no such option and there is a lot of aliasing.
Kasi
onKilohearts automatically oversamples (I think 2x at 44.1k). I tested various of their modules and they didn’t have a lot of aliasing. Maybe you tested it with a too hot input signal? If you run a 0 dbFS noise signal into it, aliasing becomes inevitable! Use reasonable and realistic levels, like 0 dbVU = -14 dbFS)
Try Kilohearts Distortion against Klevgrand FreeAmp with a realistic input level and you will see a stark contrast between the two, with Kilohearts being very clean!
alex
onKilohearts plugins are a bunch of simple useful tools that someone might want to use if they’re bored with their DAW stock plugins. Fusion Core sounds good to me. I like it that it can be more aggressive. Actually, I couldn’t care less about oversampling. I wonder how we mixed when there was no oversampling (◔_◔) Sometimes it’s useful, sometimes it’s not. Maybe if someone is working on something very clean that needs to remain so and don’t want any extra noise, but then they’re not gonna be cranking up distortion and saturation anyways. It has its own artifacts, too. Finally, we all use digital distortion and that’s what aliasing is. Always using oversampling is like wanting to add distortion and dirt and then remove it because we want it “cleaner”. Nothing wrong with using or not using it. If one want’s it more “analogue” then they’ll want to remove that digital grunge. Does it always sound better. Well, that’s subjective and depends on the context. If i hear there’s something wrong with the sound that OS might fix, I’ll click on that x2 ….. x16 button. Just my $.002
Docent Novak
onI’ll just add that even aliasing can be used creatively. I don’t remember the name of the song, but Autechre has pure aliasing in one of their old songs and it’s 100% not a coincidence, they used it on purpose.
Kasi
onI’ll have to disagree with your understanding of aliasing.
Aliasing is definitely NOT = digital distortion. It’s an unwanted side-effect (or artefact) of digital distortion. You want distortion, but you get distortion + aliasing. And the aliasing has to be taken out of the equation, to get what you want!
If you want to add aliasing deliberately, there are specific tools for that (sample rate reduction, oldschool sampler AD/DA converter emulations etc).
The reason why no one cared about oversampling in the earlier days of digital audio: there weren’t so many processors (as in FX plugins) around, that would be prone to aliasing. A simple EQ or a simple delay, reverb, chorus etc is not prone to aliasing. It becomes relevant once you go into distortion / saturation territorty.
Especially if you want to make something that claims to authentically replicate the saturation behaviour of analog circuits and devices like tape machines, valves and transformers, you will have to ensure that aliasing is NOT part of the equation, since aliasing is not a feature of these devices in the real analog world!
Fusion Core has some modes like “Tape Warmth” that imply, that they replicate analog characteristics, hence they shouldn’t introduce tons of aliasing!
alex
onTo each their own. There’s still a lot of famous and widely used plugins that don’t support OS (Decapitator being a prime example). BTW, I have nothing against OS and I use it when I need to. Finally, Reaper supports oversampling natively, so I can oversample any plugin, which doesn’t mean I should or have to. The thing that while being a useful feature, OS has become a kind of buzzword. It’s like it defines the quality of a plugin and is a must and that’s far from the truth. It’s more about marketing than anything else. My point is that a plugin doesn’t have to “authentically replicate the saturation behavior of analog circuits and devices like tape machines” to sound good and OS is surely not something that will make or break a mix.
Docent Novak
onI’ve just remembered the title of the song. It’s Overand from the Tri Repetae album. In some places there is a characteristic sound (e.g. 5:35) which can be easily obtained by applying a distortion/saturation plugin without oversampling to the test tone (High Definition Frequency Sweeps), which can be downloaded from audiocheck.net. This is how I test all plugins for oversampling. Sometimes I use graphs, but most often I use wav test files and my hearing. I also tested this plugin this way and it’s true: even at drive 0 you can hear aliasing. In Kilohearts Distortion at high levels it can also be heard. In TB Pro Audio, even at maximum levels there is no aliasing, at x4 oversampling. The only question is what such a plugin is for. If it is applied to the bass (this is what I do in 75% of cases of saturator-type plugins), there is no aliasing even at maximum volume levels. If I apply a distortion plug-in without oversampling to high frequencies, I can use DDMF Superplugin, enable oversampling and the aliasing problem will disappear. There are also plug-ins that have oversampling, but at high levels you can still hear aliasing, e.g. SDRR from Klanghelm. Does this disqualify them? In my opinion – no. It is enough to be aware that such a phenomenon can occur and check (using plug-ins like Superplugin) whether any aliasing interferes or not. In the Autechre track I mentioned, removing aliasing would be a mistake. It worked beautifully in this track and I doubt that musicians would treat it as a mistake. I know it’s a side effect, but the musicians certainly wanted to use it.
alex
onAgreed. Except for the Superplugin part. It’s better that we use our ears instead of eyes to decide whether or not we need to use oversampling. Don’t get me wrong, I’m one of those who want to know as much as possible, besides many other things, about audio processing but when it comes to actual work, being obsessed with something like OS can be a huge distraction.
alex
onSorry, Superplugin is OK. i mistook it for Plugindoctor (as useful as it may be it turned into a tool to decide whether a plugin sounds good or not- using eyes).
Kasi
onGSat+ is a light saturator, while Khs Distortion is basically a clipper. So, at similar input levels, both apply very different strengths of saturation / distortion, hence they produce different strengths of overtones and also different strengths of aliasing (overtones mirroring back at Nyquist). GSat+ also operates on a “gain staging” paradigm, where the strength of saturation depends on the set input level (there is a calibration dial), while Khs Kilohearts is more brute force.
You cannot simply compare plugin A and plugin B without considering the “weight” of distortion they apply at the same input levels. You must manually set them to apply similar weight of distortion and then run the sweep test, not assume that at the same input level they will apply the samy weight (or degree) of distortion.
I bet that if you would set both to apply similar levels of distortion, GSat+ and Khs Distortion will end up with similar (low) levels of aliasing. GSat+ might be slightly better, since it has 4x OS, while Khs Distortion oversamples only 2x (if my memory is correct). 4x OS is usually all you need to push aliasing out of the noticable range.
Junoe
onVOCAL MENACE for FREE: mymusicalvoice.com/p/vocal-menace-by-chris-liepe
AVILLA
onguys, have you a bug with the plugin? i started a project with them in various groups and when i reopened it, the dbs in the groups was super high like extremely distorted pretty far away to the ceilling of -0dbs. it happend to you?
i have the fusion full version and no bugs in there. i felt that use this free version was interesting tho.
and, in the topic of how it sound, is obvious that something under the hood is going on with aliassing, but for me is a pretty good sounding, also i noticed a good job with levels, i think the vst respect the input volumen very nicely. is worth it to me. (nice aesthetic GUI as well)
alex
onNope, I’ve just checked it for you and it works fine here in Reaper. I’m on Windows 10.
AVILLA
onokay! thanks for the feedback. i’m using Fl studio, so. Must be something with it.
AVILLA
oni’ll contact support of course. thnx again!
Docent Novak
onI also use FL Studio, Windows 10 and everything works fine
AVILLA
onthanks for checking out! i contacted prototype audio support and they told me that i’m the only one with this issue. So i’ll check my computer or som.
btw super nice support from them.
Anonymous
onit’s UNVAILABLE. :-(
CanalYT
onBut is AVAILABLE WITH WBM!