ASP Radar: October 2026

illformed - Glitch 2

Glitch 2 is an audio multi-effects plugin featuring a step sequencer to slice, reverse, gate, and pitch-shift audio in real time across Windows, macOS, and Linux platforms. The software has been released as permanent freeware following the passing of creator Kieran Foster.

Verdict: A step-sequencer multi-effect that still does things paid plugins struggle with, now permanently free.

Steinberg - Steinberg Classics Collection

The Steinberg Classics Collection includes updated versions of Neon, CS-40, VB1, LM7, and Karlette. Released to mark 30 years of the VST standard, the collection provides modern OS compatibility for 64-bit VST3 host environments.

Verdict: Five legacy Steinberg instruments, updated and free — worth it if you already know them.

u-he - Zebralette 3

Zebralette 3 is a freeware synthesizer built around the spline-based wavetable oscillator engine of Zebra 3. The plugin features MSEG envelopes, dual LFOs, a modulation matrix, delay, and reverb effects.

Verdict: u-he's spectral oscillator engine, released as permanent freeware with no strings.

Moth Production - Whirl DT

Whirl DT is a standalone guitar effect plugin created to provide Whammy DT-style pitch transposition without requiring full amp modeling suites. The software is available free of charge for Windows and macOS.

Verdict: A narrow, competent pitch-transposition tool for guitarists; skip it if you do not play one.

Azazel Audio - VisualComp 2

VisualComp 2 is a freeware dynamic compressor plugin for VST3 and AU hosts on Windows and macOS. It features real-time signal and gain reduction visualization alongside four selectable analog circuit models (VCA, FET, Optical, and Tube).

Verdict: A solid freeware compressor that earns its place only if you do not already have one.

Slate Digital - Complete Access Free Collection

The Complete Access Free Collection includes 16 audio plugins covering dynamics, equalization, saturation, gated reverb, delay, and spectral processing from Slate Digital, Solid State Logic, Harrison Audio, and sonible. The collection is permanently free and operates without an iLok hardware dongle or subscription.

Verdict: Sixteen processors from four respected brands for nothing. The price is an account and a hub app, not a dongle.

UJAM - Detunicorn

Detunicorn is a hypersaw synth built for colossal wall-of-sound leads, chords and stabs, with dual hypersaw oscillators, a sub oscillator, unison layering and a custom Infinity reverb. It is free for 666 hours, and the page says plainly that it is yours forever once claimed. A UJAM account and the UJAM App are required to install and authorise it; it ships as VST2, VST3, AU and AAX for Windows and macOS.

Verdict: 666 hours of a genuinely loud hypersaw synth, and the licence stays yours. The cost is a UJAM account and their installer app.

Ends 18 November 2026

AIR Music Technology - AIR Vocal Distortion

AIR Vocal Distortion ranges from vintage mic pre warmth to hard, overdriven distortion. The free copy covers Desktop and MPC Standalone, and it is only for people who pre-sign up: the offer opens on 27 November 2026 and closes on 6 December 2026, and the licence is delivered by email to the address you sign up with.

Verdict: Worth a pre-signup if you already reach for vocal distortion — but it opens on 27 November, and the collection demo shows what is not free.

Opens 27 November 2026

GForce Software - Axxess

Axxess is the sibling of GForce's Oddity3: the same analogue architecture, rebuilt around bass with polyphony, a sequencer and X-Modifiers, plus more than 350 patches. The page prices it at $0.00 as a one-time purchase with no subscription, and states no deadline at all.

Verdict: A proper Axxe emulation with over 350 patches, but this freebie keeps coming back. Worth having, not worth dropping everything.

GForce Software - M-Tron Select 2

M-Tron Select 2 gathers a curated set of Mellotron M400 sounds out of M-Tron Pro — choirs, strings, flutes and brass — behind a simplified interface. GForce has been making the software Mellotron since 2001; this one is priced at $0.00 as a one-time purchase with no subscription, and the page states no deadline.

Verdict: Lovely Mellotron sounds, but Audiolatry's Mel-Lofi does the whole job for the same nothing. This is a curated slice of a paid instrument.

D16 Group - Echolite

Echolite is a delay that resists the urge to be complicated: a multi-mode post filter with op-amp emulation, adjustable stereo spread, pre-delay, and tempo sync with rhythmic divisions. D16 lists the installers under a plain Free heading, and they download straight from their CDN without an account. It is VST2, VST3, AU and AAX for Windows and macOS, and it is not a standalone program.

Verdict: A delay that refuses to be complicated, free with no account at all. Nothing to sign up for, nothing to time: it just works.

The Crow Hill Company - 100 Year Old Piano

This is a John Brinsmead & Sons piano, captured on a quiet morning at the Rugshop in Scotland straight off the back of a van, with two AKG microphones and a room mic. Crow Hill recorded it before the restoration, so what you get is the weathered voice rather than a tuned concert instrument: a little road-weary, as they put it. The module sells for nothing — the product page and the shop both list it at £FREE — and carries the same free access as the other Crow Hill modules.

Verdict: A century-old piano recorded before anyone restored it, so what you get is the weathered voice. Free, no account, no deadline, and nothing else on the radar sounds like it.

Native Instruments - Empire Breaks

Empire Breaks is a drum and loop instrument built the way golden-era hip hop records were: breaks captured from original recordings and resampled, rather than programmed from a clean sample pack. It is a Native Instruments Play Series title, distributed here by Vochlea, who ask only for an email address and send back a full licence — theirs to give, yours to keep. The page does not date the giveaway.

Verdict: Breaks pulled from original records and resampled, not programmed from a clean pack. A Native Instruments Play Series title, given away for an email address.

Scaler Music - Scaler Detector

Point Scaler Detector at a track, a loop or a live performance and it names the key, the scale and the chords — from audio or MIDI, in real time or by dragging a file in. It runs standalone and as VST3, AU and AAX. Scaler Music has made it free outright, and it also comes included with every Scaler 3 purchase.

Verdict: Name the key, scale and chords of anything you drop on it. The utility you reach for before touching a sample, and it costs nothing.

HoRNet Plugins - FilterSolo

FilterSolo is a multi-mode resonant filter with analogue emulation and an LFO that can run free or lock to the host tempo, which is a lot of filter for something normally priced at €17.90. HoRNet is giving it away for Halloween with the code FILTERBOO at checkout. The offer runs only before 1 November.

Verdict: Multi-mode resonant filter with analogue emulation, normally €17.90. The code FILTERBOO takes it to zero, and the code dies on 31 October.

Ended 31 October 2026

UJAM - UFX Distort

UFX Distort is twenty flavours of distortion in one effect, normally $49. UJAM has opened a campaign page for Bedroom Producers Blog readers: sign up for the newsletter, they mail you a coupon, and the plugin costs nothing. The offer is dated, and it ends when November arrives.

Verdict: Twenty flavours of distortion, normally $49, free for a newsletter signup. The coupon arrives by email and the page stops taking signups when November does.

Ended 31 October 2026

Pulsar Modular - Q BIT

Q BIT does two things: the crusher gives the grit, and HOLD takes slices of your track and sustains them, either locked to the song tempo or running at its own rate — digital reduction you can play like an instrument. Pulsar Modular gives it away outright and sends a licence key by email, good for two computers. It runs as VST3, AU, AAX and LV2, on macOS, Windows and Linux, which is a wider net than most free plugins cast.

Verdict: A bit crusher with a time hold, free from a developer who normally charges serious money — and the rare case that ships LV2 and Linux builds.

Pulsar Audio - DigiTape

DigiTape brings together two complementary early digital tape algorithms, the kind that shaped records in the 2000s when processing power was scarce — the lows and mids saturated, the highs rounded off — in a low-CPU plugin with saturation, contour and body controls. It is free, but the licence comes by email after a four-question survey, and Pulsar Audio protects its software with PACE, so an iLok account is required.

Verdict: Two early-2000s digital tape algorithms in one light plugin, free for good. The iLok account is the reason it is a Stash and not a Fire.