The best new music plugins this week, free and paidEvery week, we round up the most exciting new plugin releases — from virtual instruments and creative effects to mixing tools and workflow upgrades. There are tons of plugins released every week, both free and paid-for, so be sure to check back here every Friday to find out the software worth adding to your plugin folder.
This week’s new and noteworthy virtual instruments, effects and mixing plugins
[Updated 3 September 2026]
Arturia – Pure Sub
Image: Arturia
Arturia has released Pure Sub, a virtual instrument dedicated to creating deep, punchy, and characterful bass. The plugin combines bass synthesis with onboard processing designed for immediate, driving low end.
Pure Sub features three sound layers. Sub provides the foundation, while Harmonics has three different modes — including Reese, Pressure, and waveforms like 808s — that define your patch’s character. Then, dial in extra grit with the Texture layer, which can be shaped with key-tracked tones, ring modulation, and more.
Each layer can be independently routed to a filter section with more than 40 modes, before hitting a 12-slot effect rack with 18 effects to choose from. The mix section also features compression, multiband processing, and a powerful Maximiser, while advanced modulation can be used to animate your sound in impressive detail.
Pure Sub is available from Arturia for intro pricing of €49 (full price €79).
Reason Studios – Reason Free
Image: Reason Studios
Reason, acquired by LANDR in January, has launched a new free version of the cult classic DAW and Rack plugin, giving musicians 15 legendary Reason devices at zero cost.
Instruments include the Europa wavetable synth and Kong Drum Designer, alongside characterful effects like Audiomatic, Scream 4, and RV7000 MKII.
You’ll also get Reason’s iconic modular-style patching, which lets users make new connections between the devices in their rack — modulating a distortion’s drive using a synth’s onboard envelope, for example.
Reason Free runs as the Reason Rack VST3, AU, or AAX plugin in your choice of DAW, or as the standalone Reason Free DAW limited to 16 tracks. Read more about Reason Free or download it from Reason Studios.
Lewitt – Space Replicator Free

We covered Lewitt’s new Space Replicator plugin a few weeks ago, and the company has now released a free version of the virtual monitoring plugin designed specifically for mixing on headphones.
Space Replicator Free includes three playback systems: Lewitt Studio A with high-end speaker system, a typical living room, and H-Pods Pro in-ear headphones. There are also over 800 profiles to compensate for your headphones’ frequency response.
Space Replicator Free is available to download from Lewitt.
TONE3000 – Free Neural Amp Modeling
Image: TONE3000
It seems to be the week for freebies, as TONE3000 — the open-source platform for sharing digital models of amps, pedals, and outboard gear — has released a zero-cost plugin that offers plug-and-play access to thousands of Neural Amp Modeler captures and impulse responses.
Previously, using these NAM captures and IRs required finding the tone, downloading and unzipping it, and loading it into a third-party plugin. The TONE3000 plugin bypasses all of that, letting users browse sounds and configure chains instantly.
The enormous TONE3000 library includes captures of boutique amplifiers, rare pedals, outboard gear, and even bizarre experimental captures like the passenger door speakers of a 2016 Cadillac SRX.
The plugin is available for free download from TONE3000, and there’s no cost for NAM captures or IRs either.
MixWave – Spiritbox: Courtney LaPlante

MixWave has released an all-in-one vocal processing plugin based on the approach of Courtney LaPlante. As the vocalist of Canadian metal band Spiritbox, LaPlante ranges from delicate melodies to uncompromising screams, so every module in the plugin has been designed with flexibility in mind.
The plugin includes a Pitch module, with formant processing to reshape a vocal’s character, plus Distortion and Compression modules for highly musical saturation and control.
There’s also Modulation for adding movement and width, and a three-algorithm Reverb and multi-mode Delay.
Finally, the Line Amplifier adds analogue-style colour to the signal, perfect for enhancing clean vocals or pushing sounds forward. The chain is modular too, and can be freely reordered to create your own signature style.
Spiritbox: Courtney LaPlante is available from MixWave for intro pricing of $79 (full price $139).
Where to download free plugins and VSTs
Looking for free plugins? Our freeware section is an excellent place to start; each month, we also compile round-ups of the best free plugins and samples to download.
The production community is full of passionate developers who’ve given away instruments, effects and other plugins as freeware. Some of our favourites include Valhalla’s Supermassive reverb and Matt Tytel’s Helm polysynth. Remember, most developers also offer free trials for their plugins.
How to install VST and AU plugins on Windows, macOS and iOS
If your plugin came as a zip file, you may have to manually install it. Here’s how:
VST3 plugins:

Unzip the plugin folder
Copy the VST file to your default plugin folder (Windows default: C:\Program Files\Common Files\VST3, Mac default: /Library/Audio/Plugins/VST)
Start your DAW
Rescan your plugin directory

AUv3 plugins:

Download and install the plugin from the App Store
Insert the plugin in your DAW
Select the AUv3 plugin from the Audio Unit Extensions tab

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