HoRNet’s Magnus Lite is a free brickwall limiter and clipper plugin that promises “complete control over the loudness of your audio”
Each of these elements has its own gain control. On the clipper, this adjusts the input level of the audio signal, so you can set the desired loudness level and shape the sound of your audio. On the limiter, the gain control is designed to prevent the audio level from exceeding a fixed threshold of -0.2dB, hopefully ensuring that your sound is clear and free of distortion.
Taken together, HoRNet claims that Magnus Lite gives you “complete control over the loudness of your audio”. The limiter also has a release control, so you can adjust how quickly the limiter releases the gain reduction after the signal falls below the threshold. We’re told that this helps to ensure that you can fine-tune the balance between loudness and clarity.
Magnus Lite has achieves its aims. The interface is as simple as they come (one-knob plugins notwithstanding) and can operate in both light and dark modes to suit your mood or the time of day you’re working.
In order to download Magnus Lite, you will need to share it to either Twitter or Facebook via the HoRNet website, but otherwise it’s completely free. It runs on PC and Mac in VST/AU/AAX formats.
Cut down on your heating bill with Overheat, Sampleson’s free analogue-style saturation plugin.
Saturation is the aurally satisfying, harmonically flavoursome by-product of pushing analogue signals just a little hard. Sampleson Overheat is a new, free option for you to try.
Like most plugins, you can use Overheat for both subtle and more extreme saturation, and on individual tracks or across an entire mix. You can adjust the input/output gain and drive level, and there are a couple of tone-shaping controls, too (Color and a low-pass filter).
Sampleson says that Overheat produces a “more realistic and natural-sounding saturation effect” than some of its rivals because it models the harmonic content of the signal before it undergoes non-linear processing. If that doesn’t mean much to you, the upshot is that harmonics are added in a musical and pleasing way. That’s the theory, anyway.
Overheat runs on PC and Mac in VST/AU formats and is said to deliver low CPU usage. Its parameters can be automated in your DAW, and there’s a scalable HD interface. You’ll need to hand over your email address if you want it, but otherwise it’s completely free.
Free Music Software: Audiokit developer Matthew Fetcher has introduced King Of FM, a free software synth for iOS and Mac that’s based on sounds of classic ’80s FM synths, including the Yamaha DX7, DX7II, TX81z, and SY77.
Features:
Based on Multi-sampled recordings of classic presets from original 80s FM synthesizers
Standalone iPhone/iPad app & iOS AUv3 Plugin
Use with a MIDI Keyboard or iOS DAW
Over 200+ Presets and over 10,000+ individual samples
FX: Phaser, Chorus, Reverb, Ping-pong delay, Crush, Stereo Fatten, and more
Over 2+ gigabytes of sounds compressed to under 400 mb
udio recording: record your sounds then export wav files
Use as an iOS Plug-in in hosts like GarageBand, AUM, Cubasis, Beatmaker 3, and more
Run on your silicon Mac (Standalone version)
Includes full lifetime license for both iPhone, iPad, and Silicon Mac
“We are all volunteers, we do not get paid anything to make this app,” notes Fetcher. “We would be humbled if you checked it out. 100% of any proceeds from other apps go to support the AudioKit open-source project.”
