BeatSkillz has announced the release of MAX1, a freeware auto-compressor and maximizer effect in VST/AU/AAX plugin formats for PC and Mac. It can even be called a maximizer, if you intend to push the average level of your music up. The Sonic Sweet v4 is a FREE. LoudMax is a look-ahead brickwall limiter plugin designed to be a clean and transparent loudness maximizer that retains as much of the original sound of the music as possible. It’s a low latency, low CPU usage plugin with an easy to understand interface. LoudMax is available to download in VST and AU formats in 32 and 64 bit. BeatSkillz has announced the release of MAX1, a freeware auto-compressor and maximizer effect in VST/AU/AAX plugin formats for PC and Mac. It can even be called a maximizer, if you intend to push the average level of your music up. The Sonic Sweet v4 is a FREE update for all registered Sonic Sweet v3 owners. Nov 11, 2016 Goodhertz plugins are only available in AU and AAX formats for 64-bit Macs with OS X 10.7 and up. Faraday Limiter. L2007 Mastering Limiter. According to the description, the L2007 is a mastering-grade look-ahead brickwall limiter. It’s made by Massey Plugins and is offered free with Massey’s other plugins but the free versions have limited.

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As I cover in my new course Mastering in the Box, there are some incredible plugins available for anyone interested in computer-based mastering. Although nothing can replace an experienced engineer, working in an expertly designed room, on high-end equipment, there are some fantastic free tools available online that will aid engineers working on projects with limited budgets.

Here are some completely free plugins that you can work into your in the box mastering workflow …

1. Voxengo SPAN

As I cover in the course, Metering is absolutely essential to mastering, and SPAN is a versatile and free utility plugin.

It provides spectral analysis, correlation metering and clipping detection, as well as displaying RMS and max crest factor. The interface is simple, clear, and even somewhat customizable. It’s a truly deep, accurate and useful metering plugin, which is refreshing considering that it’s free. It’s also compatible with virtually every DAW.

2. LoudMax by Thomas Mundt

Described as “a look-ahead brickwall loudness maximizer plugin with a clean transparent sound, designed to retain the original character of the music as much as possible even at high compression levels,” LoudMax is a wonderfully simply tool. It has two sliders: threshold and output — and that’s all it needs.

If you’re interested in learning how a limiter works and affects your material, LoudMax boils the concept down to its most basic elements, all while providing a mostly transparent sound.

3. Limiter №6 by Vladg Sound

This is a more complex and versatile take on limiting. It offers more control than LoudMax, which can be helpful if your program material requires detailed tweaking.

Its five modules include: RMS compressor, peak limiter, high-frequency limiter, clipper, and true peak limiter.

Each of these modules have extremely flexible controls. There are some expensive and well-known limiter plugins that don’t come with features like mid-side processing, oversampling and true peak detection. The fact that these features come included with Limiter №6 makes it even more special.

4. mvMeter from TBProAudio

I’m still pretty shocked that this plugin is free. It looks great, it’s easy to use, and it’s deeper than some metering tools that cost hundreds of dollars more. It allows you to measure PEAK, RMS, EBU R128, VU and PPM. Additionally, it has multi-channel metering so you can see what’s happening on the stereo, left, right, mid, or side channels.

The five different themes allow the user to change the look to various classic VU and PPM Meters, which is a nice touch. (It doesn’t improve the sound quality — I prefer the sleek look of the retro skin.)

5. Stereo Tool v3 by Flux

Some mixes require a bit of balancing the information spread between the channels, and Stereo Tool v3 is prefect for this application. It includes panning controls for the left and right channels, a vector scope display, global stereo width and pan controls, PPM Input and Output meters, a phase correlation meter, and a variety of other useful features.

If the content you’ve been delivered has balance and phase issues, this is an excellent free plugin.

6. Voxengo Marvel GEQ

Being able to sculpt your signal using an equalizer is essential for a mastering engineer. This linear-phase 16-band graphic equalizer is impressive in both functionality and sound.

I’m not sure why every plugin doesn’t have an “undo/redo” function, because after using this equalizer, I find it to be quite helpful. Being able to work in mid-side mode allows the user to treat information in the center separately from the sides, which, when used properly, can result in a much clearer stereo spread, and a more defined space amongst individual elements.

As with each of the great tools on this list, it’s surprising that such a useful tool is free.

I generally believe that in audio, you get what you pay for, but each of the aforementioned plugins are exceptions to this rule.

Mastering in the Box Course

If you’re interested in expanding your knowledge and learning effective techniques for getting great sounding masters 100% in the box, check out my debut course: Mastering in the Box

Mastering in the Box with Ian Vargo

As I cover in my new course Mastering in the Box, there are some incredible plugins available for anyone interested in computer-based mastering. Although nothing can replace an experienced engineer, working in an expertly designed room, on high-end equipment, there are some fantastic free tools avai

Last Updated on September 7, 2021.

Good mastering plugins can be hard to come by, and they candefinitely be expensive!

This is why I created this list of the best free mastering plugins which should help you get your mixes to a new level while not spending anything!

let’s start things off with a bundle of free plugins that will already cover all your needs;

Noiz-Lab LE Mastering Bundle

Noiz-Lab LE is a collection of five free mastering plugins developed by homestudiomastering.com.

Basically, you can get them for free as well as a detailed e-book guide on how to master a song, and the included plugins are;

• Monomizer (adjusts the processed audio’s stereo width)
• Equalizer
• Compressor
• Convolver
• Limiter

Note: These plugins are designed to be used as a learning tool for beginners, and while they may be very good, they do have their shortcomings.

All of these plugins are very intuitive and easy to use and straight to the point, with no extra fluff, which is absolutely ideal for beginners.

I’d recommend you download all of them as well as the guide.

In addition to this, I’d also recommend you to check out my article about mastering plugins in general, not just free ones, since you might find a couple extremely affordable ones that are much more powerful than any of the ones available here, such as Ozone by iZotope.

You can Download it here.

Youlean Loudness Meter 2

Youlean Loudness Meter 2 is a free loudness metering pluginthat features four metering modes; LUFS, LRA, DR and true peak.

It’s one of the most accurate loudness metering plugins out there, even when compared to other premium ones, and a vast number of producers use it during the mastering phase.

Even though you can get it for free, it does have a Proversion which comes with additional features.

This is an essential tool for any producer, especially if budget is an issue, since it will help you determine the proper amount of loudness without sacrificing quality or dynamics.

Because of it’s exceptionally visual interface, you can not only hear- but see what is going on, which can help beginners to better understand what is going on in the mix.

Not only this, but it includes loads of presets so you canmake sure to sound great on all the streaming platforms like Spotify, YouTube,etc.

You can download it here.

Related: Are you looking for free reverb plugins? Here’s a list of 14 of them!

mvMeter 2 by TBProAudio

mvMeter 2 is a multivariable meter including RMS, EBUR128, VU and PPM measurement.

Free Maximizer Plugin Mac Os

Additionally, it has multi-channel metering, which means that you can see what’s happening on the stereo, left, right, mid, or side channels.

You can even choose between five different themes, if you don’t like the look of a particular one.

Here are some of the features;

• single and dual meter display
• adjustable reference level for all meter modes
• adjustable meter delay
• preset management

You can download it here.

Related: If you’re looking for a free DAW, then here’s anarticle for you on that exact topic.

Aradaz Maximizer Download

SPAN by Voxengo

SPAN is a free spectrum analyzer plugin that is absolutely essential to have for mastering if you want your mixes to end up sounding loud but not crushed.

It has a fairly simple Interface, which makes it easy to use, and it’s very accurate and useful, plus it’s compatible with almost any DAW available right now.

Not only is Span a spectrum analyzer plugin, but it can also do K-system metering.

It comes loaded with features such as being able to route multiple tracks into SPAN and then comparing their frequency content.

Now, there’s also a premium version of SPAN available that comes with a couple more built-in features. So, if SPAN isn’t cutting it for you but you like the plugin, consider upgrading to the pro version.

You can download it here.

LoudMax by Thomas Mundt

LoudMax is a Loudness Maximizer Plugin that is designed to retain the original character of the music as much as possible, even at high compression levels.

It’s a very simple yet powerful tool that has two sliders, which are: Threshold and output.

LoudMax is a plugin that I’d recommend to beginners since its simplicity will better help you understand how to properly use a limiter.

But, even though it’s extremely simple, it’s still a great plugin!

An alternative to this would be Maximal 2 by Venomode, which is an incredibly easy-to-use limiter that’s also way more powerful than LoudMax.

You can download it here.

Interested in free Synth vst plugins? Here’s an entire post on that topic.

Limiter №6 by Vladg Sound

Remember I said that LoudMax is a very simple plugin with just two controls? Well, Limiter №6 is far more complicated to use, with the advantage of being a lot more versatile as well.

It offers more control than LoudMax, meaning that it allows you to do more detailed tweaking, and it has five modules which include: RMS compressor, peak limiter, high-frequency limiter, clipper, true peak limiter.

And just as a note, even some premium plugins don’t come with such features included.

So, definitely give it a try!

You can download it here.

Looking for free guitar VST plugins? Here are the 15 best ones.

TDR Nova EQ (Windows, Mac)

Nova is a parallel dynamic EQ that offers four bands which also include a fully-featured dynamic section each, and this means that the EQ can cover a huge variety of applications.

It may look intimidating and hard to use at first, but in reality, its interface and layout are quite intuitive and easy to navigate, which is why it’s easy to recommend even for beginners.

The interface provides an easy drag and drop display paired with a classic “knob” interface which allows for quick and smooth access to the various parameters that Nova EQ offers.

Additionally, it also comes with an additional high-pass and low-pass filter sections.

All in all, Nova EQ is very easy to recommend since it could easily be a premium plugin.

Of course, if you want something more powerful then you might want to consider upgrading to the Fabfilter Pro-Q EQ plugin. While it may be a paid plugin, it’s a night and day difference.

Free Maximizer Plugin Mac Download

You can download it here.

Voxengo Marvel GEQ

Having a good EQ is essential for any mixing and mastering engineer, especially one like the Marvel GEQ since it comes with a “undo/redo” function, which is something that not many plugins offer, especially free ones.

Marvel GEQ offers extensive internal channel routingcapabilities, and supports mid/side channel processing.

Supporting mid/side channels is a fantastic feature since it allows you to treat the information in the center channel in a different way than the information on the sides, and this can end up yielding a much cleaner stereo spread.

The Marvel GEQ deserves a spot on this list not just for it’s great sound quality, but mainly because it can treat the mid and side channels differently, and because of the redo/undo function, which will prevent a lot of headaches!

You can download it here.

Related: Looking for free compression plugins? Then here’s a list I wrote just about that topic.

TDR Kotelnikov (Windows, Mac)

Contrary to most compressor plugins in existence, this one doesn’t try to emulate any existing hardware compressors, quite the opposite in fact.

Named in honor of Vladimir Kotelnikov, who was a pioneer of digital sampling techniques, this plugin is purely digital and uses complex algorithms to provide the best control possible over the dynamics with minimum added color.

You have access to two different versions of the plugin; the free one and the “Gentlemen’s Edition”, which costs $44.

What sets Kotelnikov apart from most other compressors is its “Frequency Dependent Ratio”, which allows you to set a different compression ratio depending on the frequency (not available in the free version).

A similar feature is the “Low Freq Relax” that allows you to configure a high-pass filter for the side chain, which makes the compressor react less to those lower frequencies such as kick and bass, and this one can be found both on the free and premium versions of the plugin.

In other words, when using the “Low Freq Relax” feature, you are effectively lowering the threshold on the lower frequencies.

Another feature are the Ying and Yang controls, which add harmonics to the lower and higher frequencies respectively.

Lastly, when processing stereo channels, you also have the option to only process the Sum or Difference channels, otherwise known as the Middle or Side, and you can even use two instances of this plugin to compress the Mid and Side independently.

This plugin clearly does a hell of a lot of things, but it does them right, and for only $44, or even free, I honestly don’t find a reason not to recommend it.

Find out more here: TDR Kotelnikov.

Stereo Buss by Minimal System Group

This is a free compression plugin designed specifically for Master Bus compression.

Compression helps glue all the tracks together to create that sense of congruency in the mix, and this plugin does a great job at that!

Basically, if you’re looking to add some finishing touches toyour mixes, then Stereo Buss might be the compression plugin you need!

Tip: Try introducing the Stereo Buss Compressor early in the mixing process, some people find this to be a better way of doing things.

You can download it here.

Stereo Tool v3 by Flux

StereoTool is a free plugin that offers precise control over the input gain and individual pan for left and right channels.

It also comes with an accurate visual feedback, reflectingthe content with;

A vector scope, PPM meters for inputs/outputs, phasecorrelation meter permanently monitoring the signal and individual left andright polarity reversal.

Stereo Tool v3 is a fantastic plugin if you need to solve some problems with the balance of your stereo image, or if you’re having phase issues.

You can download it here.

Interested in free Auto-Tune VST plugins? Here’s a post about the best ones.

A1Stereo Control by Alex Hilton

Often times you’d want to give your mixes a wider and expansive sound, and this is where A1Stereo Control comes in.

Not only is this plugin great at enhancing the stereo field, but it also features the “Safe Bass” algorithm which centers everything below a user-configurable value.

This gives your tracks the solidity and definition you want whilepreserving maximum transparency and sharpness.

Simply turn on “Safe Bass” and adjust the frequency if needed and that’s it.

You can download it here.

Wider by Polyverse Music

This is a simple free plugin that widens your stereo signal without causing any phasing issues because the widened signal will always remain in phase.

It’s extremely easy to use because you can only control oneparameter; the width.

And that’s it!

It creates a much wider stereo feel and it doesn’t mess withthe phase at all!

This is an excellent plugin that I absolutely recommend!

You can download it here.

IVGI by Klanghelm

I love Klanghelm plugins; I use a couple of their compressors and they all work amazingly well!

So, it’s no surprise that this saturation and distortion plugin is also worth mentioning!

Adding a bit of saturation to your final mix can completely change the way it sounds, and this is where IVGI comes in;

Not only can IVGI add warmth, but it can also be used to completely distort tracks, as well as letting you alter the frequency dependency of the saturation with the RESPONSE control.

If your mix is lacking warmth, use IVGI to subtlety add some!

You can download it here.

Conclusion

I hope I was able to provide the information you neededhere.

I believe that all of the plugins on this list areabsolutely amazing considering that they are free!

Wider is fantastic, and I also love Youlean Loudness Meterand mvMeter 2.

Give them a try and see how you like them!

Have a great day!