Dear Friends,
 
As we are moving to other platforms, wanted to put in another good word for the incredible vst plugins offered free from the Reaper guys. Don’t matter what DAW you use as long as it supports vst protocol. You may hate Reaper with a passion, but don’t think there is a lot of argument about the utility and integrity of the vst version of their native vst suite. They just threw this out there in cyberspace as a gift for the sake of rock n’ roll..
 
Can’t say enough good about these, though some I use less than others.
 
ReaEQ, one of the coolest and functional eq programs available. My go to eq. Makes some sort of primal sense to a guitar player.
 
ReaTune, really good guitar tuner, sensitive enough to show the jitters in a string trying to reach equilibrium. If you ain’t got Melodyne, ReaTune does the same thing in the correction tab. Upgraded within the last day.
 
ReaFir. Many applications, but use the noise extraction function. Same or better than the Adobe noise analysis algorithm. Record a couple seconds of the noise floor and take it out.
 
ReaComp. Dynamite. Speaks for itself. Compare objective to the hi end commercial products.
 
ReaGate. Excellent programmable noise gate.
 
ReaControlMidi. Also just updated. If you have anything to do with a keyboard and midi, this is available in the suite, mind blowing. Nobody else so far has published anything close to this. I use this mostly for tuning midi instruments. Allows fixed pitch wheel mod to get the instrument in tune without resampling. Don’t know why nobody thought of this before. Also does all the external hardware banks if you got a custom file for a DX7 or the like.
 
Couple others in there as well. Updated Jan 2.
 
Whatever you think of Reaper or no matter where you end up with a DAW of choice, would highly recommend you check this out. Cannot argue with the price or the intent of the offering.
 
https://www.reaper.fm/reaplugs/
 
Love you all,
 
John

JK:
Good stuff.  Thanks, as always.

They aren't the prettiest ducklings in the flock, but they are indeed superb, highly functional bread and butter plugins, and once your track is mixed, nobody can tell what they looked like when you were using them!
 
 

I have used REAPER as my sole DAW software, going on ten years now, and I originally avoided the included base of VST plugins based only on their looks. It was after reading glowing comment after glowing comment about them from guys who had many other expensive plugins they could be using that I decided to finally give them a fair shake.
 
ReaEQ and ReaComp end up on more of my tracks than not these days, and I am a huge fan of the multiband ReaXcomp too. I like using manual mode with ReaTune where I can just re-draw the pitch for single muffed notes.
 
ReaGate after a reverb on a bus, being side-chain triggered by dry toms can re-create the Phil Collins "Tonight" huge gated verb toms sound pretty easily. ReaVerb is a nice convolution verb suitable for the master. I recently got a bunch of EMT plate impulses that I'm really liking for use with ReaVerb.
 
Bottom line, don't judge a book by it's cover and don't judge Reaper's free plugins by their lack of pretty picturesque interfaces.

It is interesting about the effect of a good GUI to add eye candy to the function of a plugin, and how we tend to react.
 
The JS plugins native to Reaper are case and point. Like vst, dx, RTAS. JS instead.
 
A bit irreverent to some over time, but the JS or Jesusonic plugins were developed by the devs with an inspiration. If Jesus Christ were alive today and was a guitar banger rock star, what plugins would he want and what level of integrity would he demand.
 
Thus the evolution of the JS series.
 
There is a myriad of JS plugs, the majority of which I have no idea what they do or where their utility is. Some however are quite elegant. If they weren't so butt ugly. Sorta like how compact and efficient the Reaper installer is, the JS plugs are small text files. Had mentioned that you can double click on any of them and the text editor opens for you to write your own variation of the plug. The austerity of the things comes out in the way they appear, only a step beyond a win 3 DOS look.
 
Over time, the forumites have written slick, beautiful GUI's for some of the JS plugs. Does nothing to the function, but cloaks the plug in an elegant, stylish GUI.
 
For whatever psychology is involved, some of these cosmetic remakes can render the plugin a go to effect, now that they look respectable and like you had to pay a lot of money for them.
 
The forums have a specific group dealing with JS creation and a resource section for many new JS plugs written by users but not included in the program by default.
 
John
 
 

JohnKenn
It is interesting about the effect of a good GUI to add eye candy to the function of a plugin, and how we tend to react.
 
There is a myriad of JS plugs, the majority of which I have no idea what they do or where their utility is. Some however are quite elegant. If they weren't so butt ugly. Sorta like how compact and efficient the Reaper installer is, the JS plugs are small text files. Had mentioned that you can double click on any of them and the text editor opens for you to write your own variation of the plug. The austerity of the things comes out in the way they appear, only a step beyond a win 3 DOS look.
 
Over time, the forumites have written slick, beautiful GUI's for some of the JS plugs. Does nothing to the function, but cloaks the plug in an elegant, stylish GUI.
 
For whatever psychology is involved, some of these cosmetic remakes can render the plugin a go to effect, now that they look respectable and like you had to pay a lot of money for them.

Soooooooo  true.  I say the looks don't matter to me (but I know they do).

Jude,
Have full faith that you can separate the real from the not real. Does somehow make a difference for whatever reason in how the gift is wrapped. Best to you.
John

Someone correct me if wrong, but i believe reatune is not available in this package.

Dub,
 
Thank you for correcting my ignorance in this. Mistake on my part.
Looks like ReaTune isn't in the freeware package. Overshot my boundary.
ReaTune a workhorse gem native to Reaper, but outside the freeware offering it seems. For some defective reason, thought it was in there with the rest of the vst's..
Have to also plead ignorance as to the extent of Melodyne capability. Have the Melodyne "essentials" only. ReaTune gets in there solid and to the task as well as Melodyne. Pitch correction if you want to do an entire track or just a few notes as Glen said. Has the attack filter to go from robotics to more mild adjustment. Under the radar gift, bare bones, uncomplicated. Lay and uniformed analysis on my part, why need Melodyne when there is ReaTune.
Thanks for your correction.
 
John

John. I wasn't sure. I just wanted to check. I remember downkoading these a few years ago and noticing one was missing. Still a great freebie.