Best free plugins and freeware of the month: August 2023It’s always nice when you uncover some useful or creative tools online – and it’s even nicer when they turn out to be free.

READ MORE: Best sample packs of the month

We’ve rounded up a handful of this month’s free releases for you to check out, including a chord-based ROMpler, a transparent limiter, a fully-featured spatial 3D instrument, an epic, endless reverb, and a fun sample chopping sequencer.
Monster DAW – MONSTER OctaChord v1
MONSTER OctaChord v1. Image: Monster DAW

macOS and Windows
64-bit VST/VST3/AU
Download OctaChord

If you’re looking for some inspiration to get you started, then Monster DAW’s chord plugin with built in sounds could be just the ticket. There are 18 presets for different styles including lo-fi, techno, cinematic, R‘n’B, pop and more.
Each preset includes a full set of 12 scales, plus an Ornament set of fill-ins, melodic lines and sound effects that match the chords. Additional features include master volume, pan, reverb and delay controls, plus separate volume controls for the chord and ornament sections. It’s easy to build up progressions, but with so many different sounds and chord samples, note that the full plugin library size is over 6GB.
Press Play – Wave Breaker
Wave Breaker. Image: Press Play

macOS and Windows
64-bit VST/VST3/AU
Download Wave Breaker

Press Play is best known for its excellent free oscilloscope plugin, Wave Observer. Its new release uses the same waveform display engine, but this time puts it to use as instant visual feedback within a true-peak stereo limiter plugin.
Wave Breaker offers a transparent sound with precise true-peak detection, look-ahead audio analysis and 4x oversampling. You can use the Drive control to push volume into the limiter at a desired threshold and choose from manual output compensation, or target peak-level normalisation. You can also add a touch of saturation, choose from a range of colour schemes and resize the GUI.
SpatStrument SM24
SpatStrument SM24. Image: Acousmodules

macOS and Windows
64-bit VST3
Download SpatStrument SM24

SpatStrument SM24 is a beast. It’s an effect, a synth, a sampler, a 3D panner and a controller all in one. It’s designed to offer a fun and playful approach to audio-spatial sculpting, especially if you have an MPE controller.
Its whopping feature set includes up to 24 output channels with free arrangement in 2D or 3D space, Periphonic and Volumetric Spatial modes, Spatial Shaper and Animator, live input processing, an eight-voice sampler, a three-oscillator synth with FM, cross modulation and ring modulation between the sampler and synth, eight-channel delay/resonator and hall reverb, lockTrigger and VeloPad for granular effects and more.
Airwindows – Galactic 2
Galactic 2. Image: Airwindows

macOS, Windows, Linux, Pi
32/64-bit VST/AU/VCV Rack
Download Galactic 2

Airwindows has built up a massive library of excellent free plugins over the years, with an emphasis on sound rather than snazzy GUIs. Its latest release is a massive-sounding reverb that gives a different twist on Airwindows’ first Galactic reverb plugin.
You get simple controls for drive, sustain, Darken and wet, which can all be manipulated to craft epic-sounding, infinite drones and pads. With sustain on full, it will even start to feedback on itself. You can also put in mono signals and get a wider-sounding stereo reverb out.
HY-Plugins – HY-Slicer2 free
HY Slicer2. Image: HY-Plugins
This cut-down version of HY-Slicer2 can be used as a fun and creative way to re-invigorate your loop library. You get 3 slicer units where you can load three different samples that get chopped into smaller pieces. These can then be sequenced in the Sampler Track where you can rearrange up to 16 slices.
Things get a little more interesting when you start using the additional lanes that let you sequence things like chance, reverse, tune, pan, filter, effect sends and more. You also get built-in effects and master effects to refine your new loops, and a Pattern chainer to help develop longer ideas.

macOS, Windows, Linux
64-bit VST/VST3/AU
Download HY-Slicer2 free

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