5 AWESOME Cheap Plugins You Should Own 💰

[@VenusTheory]

What are your favorite cheap plugins? Looking for some new plugins for cheap? Check out Knobcloud! www.knobcloud.com/

[@jackgolden5006]

My favourites in term of cheap (and mostof the time on sale) are AIR Xpand2, Iris 2 (cpu hungry, but there are a lot of samples that can be reused for other samplers and wavetable synths), Break Tweaker 2, HoRNet vsts, Pixelator, Xenoverb and Re4orm by 2getheraudio.

[@anthonymetcalf660]

@This Guy Hey you beat me to it. Melda Free FX bundle license is $60 for over 30 incredible plugins. I use MOscillator all the time for making and exporting waveforms to use in wavetables. All the plugins are fantastic in their free versions but lack the modulators. That one and a few others also have a .wav export option which allows you to overwrite a pre-existing file with the settings you have in the plugin. What I do is first create a .wav file in Audacity that contains silence for 2048 samples and export it at the same sample rate the DAW is set to. Then I make the waveform in MOscillator and test it out using the envelope mod. Then I disable the mod, set the frequency to 93.75 Hz and drop it down two octaves, turn up the Wet parameter, press the .wav button in the Tools section, and select the .wav file containing 2048 samples of silence. Then, if I want to edit it more, I can go into the Advanced section and load it as a custom sample, which also bandwidth limits it Melda style. And that's just one of the plugins. Melda is insane.

[@JayTheLane]

Hornet plugins are excellent and very reasonable.

[@mrz80]

My favorite cheap plugin (and honestly, thus far the only paid plugin I have :) ) is Cherry Audio's DCO-106. I was lamenting the used-car-level prices on Junos, and someone pointed me at DCO-106. I forked over all of $25 ($39 regular price but it's on sale at the moment) and all of a sudden my Juno itch has been SCRATCHED! This thing sounds AMAZING, and the bargain price is made even better by Cherry bundling in something like 300 patches, so something for everyone! This is going to become a major tool in the arsenal. :D

[@acidbath3226]

khsmr kick plugin, tdr ferris and anything else that TDL makes like the Kotelnikov and the Nova

[@conormackinnon4622]

Obligatory shout out to Valhalla dsp. Always my go to reverbs, low latency, no sales, always $50. Buy one, you’ll be hooked and want the lot. Plus they have 3 amazing FREE plugins, supermassive being the greatest free reverb/ delay on the market

[@mrz80]

I've seen some demos of Supermassive and was really impressed. It's in the toolbox now.

[@ash2nd343]

What are the other two free ones except Supermassive???

[@ash2nd343]

@Neon Thunderbird Thanks man

[@omerta2676]

@@ash2nd343 did you found out ?

[@andy-simmons]

@@omerta2676 Freq Echo and Space Modulator

[@exitthelemming145]

As a 59 year old veteran of the tape based 'Tascam Portastudio' generation, the idea of a plugin that imparts the audio artifacts we strove so badly to get rid of in our recordings seems hideously ironic re Sketch Cassette II. All joking aside, love the channel and love the videos. Invite your wife/partner to appear more often. Her impromptu interjections to date have been a highlight. I even purchased one of your preset packs dammit so buy her something nice.

[@ЕтанДрешковка]

Just adding a little vibe 😁😁

[@mrz80]

@@ЕтанДрешковка Never heard wow and flutter referred to as "vibe" before :P

[@Bittamin]

It is funny! I am a very big fan of music my dad grew up hearing in the clubs, and a lot of those mixes by todays standards are probably considered horrid, but to me it’s something I almost had to learn how to reverse engineer to make happen 😂

[@AricoAudio]

sometimes I wonder if time-stretching artifacts from today's DAWs will be the new "lofi" sound that everyone will want to emulate.

[@GabeMillerMusic]

I use Spaced Out ALL the time. It can sound especially cool if it's used at 100% with the reverse delay on a track pitched an octave up, then layered with the original, dry track.

[@mistral-unizion-music]

Nice tip, just try that and it is great. Thanks!

[@Vegan_Kebab_In_My_Hand]

Disperser is a plugin you'd never thought you'd need. Love it.

[@interact940]

Honestly even though I know how vast the plugin world is it still suprises me how often you'll show me stuff I've never heard of before. I didn't plan on watching an hour of plugins but I still watched most of it now :D

[@mrz80]

Keep in mind that I'm a guitarist who wants to bang a few keyboard chords into the occasional song, not a heavyweight ambient music composer. :D That said, I've found exactly two plugins, both from Cherry Audio, on which I have actually dropped genuine US Dollars: DCO-106 and Eight Voice. I've wanted a Juno of some kind or other ever since encountering one in a music shop when they first debuted back in the 80s, but never could spend the money. Five minutes demo'ing DCO-106, and I was **hooked**. This $30 plugin does a SCARY good Juno emulation. And since I was already on the website I had to give Eight Voice a try, and promptly bought it too. The depth and breadth of capability in this one chunk of software is amazing. Everything else I see myself wanting to accomplish I'm able to pull off with free plugins and a couple of standalone soft synths. There are TONS of excellent free packages out there that will get you where you want to go, but if you're a nostalgia hog with a Juno fixation like me, you MUST get Cherry's DCO-106, and scarf up Eight Voice too, just because. :D

[@floatinganarchychannel3204]

Ocs-45 for 20$ last time i was went to buy him , a lofi multi fx with some really great saturation knob and a downsampler, use it on every track!!

[@AndreasR86]

Everyone always mentions Valhalla Vintage Verb as an affordable reverb. Understandably, because it's awesome. But don't sleep on their delay. It's as, if not even more awesome.

[@agreen9903]

2 excellent suggestions and nice and cheap

[@chrishillery]

If you're counting Plugin Alliance "anything for $29.99" items, you've gotta try DS Thorn. It's a great-sounding synth with some unique features. I find it much more immediately appealing and useful than Lion, which has always seemed too out there for me.

[@SyntheticFuture]

"What are your favorite cheap plugins?" Arturia Pigments. When it is on sale it's one of the best deals out there.

[@ZethKeeper]

That feel when you look at Sketch Cassette interface with cassete types and know exactly what they mean cuz you watched Technolgy Connections series about sound playback systems.

[@robertpeveler2133]

I note that now (Feb 2022) Automaton is a "legacy plugin" for audio damage, and thus is now free.

[@neilsmith5464]

oh my word. I think you ought to explore comedy writing as part of your diversification strategy - man alive, you crack me up!

[@SAagreedSA]

Spaced Out is really nice. Got it at $39, feels like a steal how it sounds.

[@joesalyers]

The Kilohearts plugin is a parametric linear phase allpass filter, a tool that could only be made in the digital domain. Sure we have allpass filters for phase alignment tools but what kilohearts did is take advantage of pre-ringing from linear phase allpass filters to make a VERY UNIQUE TOOL!!

[@mechwarreir2]

It is also not worth 60 bucks. Phase dispersion is not a new technique, and there are other plugins that do the job better (though slightly less easier)

[@arivirtanen2568]

Soundtoys Decapitator is currently 49$. Thats not bad at all.

[@lolilollolilol7773]

Klanghelm MJUC, an excellent compressor that has got rave reviews, for 24€ Spaced out sounds great and has a beautiful interface. As for reverbs, LiquidSonics Seventh Heaven is 69€ and perhaps the most realistic sounding reverb out there. An absolute must have if you are putting out professional sounding productions. Native Instruments Prism is a physical synthesis synthesizer and I believe it's 69€ and perhaps less during sales. Native Instruments has big sales during Black Friday and you can grab their massive synths like Reaktor for half price.

[@g3ng4rb0i3]

Subbed, your content is unparalleled. Thanks

[@msp420]

big fan of Caelum Audio. just picked up Beef and it's amazing. Tape Pro is on my list and your video confirmed I have to get it. I plan on pretty much grabbing all of them from them as I was very impressed with beef and after seeing the compressor in action I want it lol I don't necessarily need another compressor but both of the ones they offer look pretty nice. Thanks for the great videos as always. See if they will let you use Beef for a video cause it's dope!!! Glad you showed off Akoustic I got it when it released as my first foray into additive synths and I love it. I also picked up Triad and Lion on sale and Triad is personally one that I had my eye on forever as it's similar to multipass but has it's own flavor for sure.

[@SomethingImpromptu]

Hehe I got Bass XL for freee when I bought for the one paid plug-in I’ve ever bought, Poltergate, when I snagged it during a sale + Bass XL giveaway. But I just discovered Bark of Dog 2 & it seems to do something pretty similar (boosts a band centered at a chosen frequency, usually on the low end, with some options for saturating or dulling the sound. Also Vital, Surge XT, Pendulate, Monique, & the Reaktor 6 (TRK-01 & Lazerbass) bass plugins, which come with Komplete Kontrol, are all stupidly great synths for the price of completely free!!! And while I’m on the subject, I want to thank you, Venus Theory, for introducing me to Decent Sampler & your awesome Pianobook instruments! I especially vibe with Volitions, but they all sound phenomenal. Thanks a lot for not pinching every penny out of us you could get away with & instead giving them to us for nothing… The mutual aid for your fellow working-class musicians is cherished & appreciated. Respect! ✊✌️♥️ Also, I have to mention one of the best damn free plugins I ever did find, which I just discovered the other day & have already spent hours experimenting in: Elastik 3 (don’t forget the 1.5gb soundbank that you can download with it). It’s an amazing platform; first one so good that I’m tempted to buy soundbanks for it, or at least try to make my own if that’s possible.

[@-Deena.]

Nice selection 🧡

[@redmarker6767]

Cheap plugins, can't go wrong with Audiority Grainspace, anything from Klanghelm, Tokyo Dawn Labs, CableGuys, D16 Group or Togu Audio Line and everything from ValhallaDSP.

[@lolilollolilol7773]

Also anything by ToneBoosters

[@beegeorge1727]

Fab Vid .... exactly what I wanted to watch today ...thx !

[@JasonGillmanJr]

Sketch Cassette for the win

[@paulvakselis]

A little late to the party - but thanks so much for highlighting UA Triad/Byome/Lion. Triad/Byome just have such limitless potential for play that can just open up so many ideas/paths. PA had their Halloween special [right now] and was able to get them Bundled for 29.99!!! Deal of the year! Probably will grab Lion as well once the next promo kicks in, but am also really excited to try playing with some of this Triad automation while using your great generative Pigments seq routing video from a few weeks ago as idea generator. Your channel has been such a great late night source of inspiration lately. Cheers!

[@sekritskworl-sekrit_studios]

BTW @44:00 T1000AR sounds like the film "Hackers" whenever they would venture around the inside of the "Gibson" super computer. ...Just sayin'.

[@brenthronik6066]

Oooh, Replicant and Automaton look hella dope. I really like using stuff like that to resample and just leave on a loop and then go back and grab the random bits that I really like. Thanks for sharing!

[@davidbantle7992]

Great Job very interesting. Question: would any of these synthesizers allow me to link an oscillator pitch to an Envelope generator (adsr) ? Thank you, Dave

[@djGreenALERT]

That synth bass around 5.10 has been bugging me for ages. I finally worked it out.. Nitro Deluxe - Let's get brutal. late 80's house track.

[@evrlstMUSIC]

Awesome! Will definitely have to check these out.

[@Neuri]

I find you informative and comforting. So thanks dude.

[@umanoid1523]

Like tape pro but i use the an earlier version i picked up for free which does most of what i need. I demoed the newer pro version but didnt see a reason to upgrade. I do use caelums tape plugin on a lot of my tracks though.

[@Bthelick]

Audio Damage (who make replicant) have a free compressor called rough rider which is actually just a better schlap imo.

[@lolilollolilol7773]

And it's free

[@ohzett]

sketch cassette II + valhalla supermassive 🤯🤯🤯

[@clairpotsunen4397]

I use Camel Crusher and Tape Mello-Fi very often. I insert CC to 80% of my tracks. But recently Trash 2+Slice EQ instead.

[@khaifrench3323]

"What should I do with all these strippers" classic pop star quote

[@mrz80]

And this, ladies and gents, is why Hatsune Miku is a better pop star than Justin Bieber :P

[@stiptreezy8481]

Akoustic kind of sounds like doodling with the Volca modular 😎

[@mageprometheus]

Also the new Silo from Unfiltered Audio.

[@dlol.]

i wouldn't consider that cheap lmao

[@bengarland]

SketchCassette is currently on sale for ~$20 at Plugin Boutique.

[@narudh]

wow ... the patch at 18:00 LUSHHHHH

[@AnthonyMcBazooka]

Tone2 AkustiX does pretty much the same as Disperser in the phase enhance section and also a lot more. And it's also only $69 or 59€.

[@mistral-unizion-music]

Looks like you use Bass XL on your voice, don't you? That trailer voice... LOL :-)

[@VenusTheory]

I have one built in haha

[@AutPen38]

When you've finished using your voice, please put it up for sale on knobcloud.

[@SirNotAppearing]

is it making anyone else twitch to see Sketch Cassette II rolling the tape backwards (or is it an auto-reversing deck?

[@sleepless2621]

for bass xl, while it doesnt have as many features, analog obsession lovend is free and gets you in the same ballpark.

[@sickassbeats]

Ohhhh im hooked

[@newbiadk]

thanks for reminding me i got the lion synth on my plugin alliance sub

[@TheCubeMusic]

What is RC20 Cameron

[@Skyverb]

*Sees how long the vid is* Actually goes to make coffee before sitting back.

[@KariKauree]

It annoys me that the tape is going in the wrong direction in the Sketch Cassette GUI 😆

[@tristengrant]

Thats how sketch it is ;)

[@aquaticborealis4877]

There's a big sale on plugins from Soundtoys. You use any of their plugins?

[@VenusTheory]

Heard very good things, but don't own any myself. One of these days I may grab their collection though as a ton of people have recommended them to me.

[@projectepsilon9851]

I see triad and disperser what exactly are you trying to make here

[@carlosp.1846]

Triad is a beast, but i always forget to use it. or pass on it. when i open a plugin i know what i want to achieve with it. With Triad you mostly end up doing something else not expected.

[@MCRoadk1ll]

you have a great narrator/voice over voice. career on the side?

[@GermanFafian]

Minutes 8:24 and 8:45 a bit of Dejavu 😆

[@chosenplay6896]

UHm... great cheap plugins? Almost everything from Hornet Plugins. Also.. the synths from Cherry Audio.. all plugins from alyjames lab are the ones that come to mind.. and this is just because for me "cheap" means LESS than 50.. or I'd mention Valhalla.

[@mrz80]

DCO-106 is a **revelation**. It's everything that I'd ever want without having to spend the equivalent of a used car's worth of money on an actual Juno. :D

[@ileryon4019]

33:50 yoo tangerine dream

[@pushqrdx]

petition to hear Venus voice with Base XL on top

[@VenusTheory]

I feel like my speakers might just explode haha

[@uiliumpowell4684]

Did you say you treated your voice with bass enhancement in your videos?

[@VenusTheory]

I pitch it down a few octaves - my natural voice is too high for human hearing.

[@TheCubeMusic]

Cameron does his research

[@gabriella6309]

genuine question and I'm guessing you'll do this each video. what software do you put your vocals / narration through to tidy up your presentation ? Is there a stark difference between your natural voice and edited voice ? As for your coffee at the beginning ... I drink JEDS Strength 3/5 but it doesn't have the same class name as yours :)

[@VenusTheory]

Haha yeah I get this a lot. In short, there's not much going on. Gate > EQ (removes subby stuff, a bit of 400hz, and a high shelf) > compressor (just to catch any weird peaks or plosives) > de-esser. Really, I just sound like a car commercial all the time. Not much more to it than that. Best advice I can give is just speak from your chest and not your face, if that makes sense. Will have to check out JEDS - can't find any of my favorite coffees after we moved, so I need to find something new haha. Cheers! ☕

[@Goettel]

Can't find Automaton for sale, has it been discontinued?

[@VenusTheory]

Unfortunately it seems so - but perhaps that means we're about to get an update! 🤞

[@stiptreezy8481]

Just when I thought I had all the tape plugins I needed 🤣

[@sekritskworl-sekrit_studios]

Cam... Bruh... Your openings are #Legit_PHYRE!!!

[@Keroser1983]

AWESOME!!!!

[@graememiller3897]

What's the story on that Vital preset bud?

[@VenusTheory]

You can find it here! venustheory.com/product/638346

[@MrSolcys]

Two words: Valhalla Delay

[@johnguymer8063]

Two words: valhalla anything

[@nexusobserve]

Yuuuuuuuuuuuuuuup

[@umanoid1523]

LOVE Valhalla plugins. My go to reverbs and delays at the moment. Low cpu for plugins is key. Im tired of sloppy coded plugins that use up all your cpu. Baby Audio I’m looking at you! Love the plugins but cant use them because too cpu intensive.

[@tri11est]

when the video vocal mix is too good

[@scottfaircloff9530]

rad!!

[@010203109]

I like the idea of knobcloud, but something else I've noticed even just starting out is that, unlike shopping for games or really anything on Amazon, Newegg, etc; there seems to be no consistent plugin price tracker. A wonderful reddit that announces most of the better deals, with a growing archive of posts maybe, but no truly centralized database of plugin and plugin bundle prices. And I wish there was. Additional features that would be great is to sort by last date a plugin was updated and when it was released. And filters for what plugins have been patched to cope with Apple's decision to make everyone's lives a pain by changing to a proprietary processor for their laptops too. Things like that, to give devs who have kept busy a chance to stand out; and highlight which plugins are kind of old and neglected and should probably be only sought on a really sharp discount just in case there's no one who will bother to fix any compatibility issues that might pop up in the future. Some of Air Music Tech's products look great, for example, but they seem to be practically dead since late 2019.

[@FlyingBystander]

SketchCassette = BOC in a plugin. Noice, I loike it

[@NimbusAbi]

We've gone from *plays drums* to *plays drums sounding the same*

[@BWP-u3y]

Soooo, is this 'Bass XL' what you use on your overtly-bassy monologues? 😏 The only channel channel that tests the low end in my system... with spoken word. 😂

[@VenusTheory]

Haha just a bit of proximity effect and some batman powers.

[@DuroSamples]

Baby Audio is extremely CPU intensive.

[@crnova7]

Vote for his voice on a radio in GTA6

[@HGCProd]

$69........n i c e .

[@ЕтанДрешковка]

n i c e

[@hiding_my_name]

Nice.

[@DouglasRosser]

Disperser sounds a bit like an auto-wah.

[@KnzoVortex]

40:43

[@nexusobserve]

Spaced Out reminds me of Xenoverb

[@SpiralFlip]

You forgot the Nani Plugin

[@Netsuko]

If one of your next videos ISN'T about at least 5 tips on where to best park your Lamborghini in between your piles of Cocaine, then I'm going to be pretty miffed. Miffed I say!

[@Roderick_Legato]

Valhalla. If you can't get Valhalla, then Valhalla.

[@johnguymer8063]

OK good video but how could you not mention valhalla delay? Valhalla vintage verb Valhalla uber mod Valhalla room Literary anything Valhalla is a bargain

[@FlorianRachor1]

Bruh, you need a snow blower to make room for your Lambo. White stuff is white stuff you know…

[@Gomez3nt]

maybe a ?

[@ELLIOT8209]

Rbass is $29.99. Where did the $80 come from? 🤣😂

[@beats4you299]

Is knob cloud legit?

[@TheCubeMusic]

Lol 😂

[@tristengrant]

Whats so funny?

[@yavamaystudio8045]

NASA ha ha ha

[@hereasafanofallsorts5164]

So bass XL is just an eq - what a rip off

[@timschannel247]

LOL

[@powerkor]

$69 is not cheap

[@clairpotsunen4397]

Rather expensive…..

[@larrynachos]

CHEAP plugins? Triad is 300 bucks

[@VenusTheory]

36:00

[@TWELVE-ax7]

Glitch>Automaton sry

[@joezhang5199]

Triad@Unfiltered Audio and Multipass@Kiloheats, Cameron which one you prefer?

[@VenusTheory]

Pretty different beasts, but I'd probably skew more towards Multipass as you can also host Multipass inside of itself. The effects aren't quite as exotic as some of the stuff in Triad but it's pretty insanely powerful. That said, you can get Triad on sale quite cheap from Plugin Alliance (I believe I paid $20 or $30) so you could reasonably get both considering KHS subscription also gives you a voucher to buy stuff outright each year. As with all things, try the demos where applicable!