If you're wondering what the best free audio distortion effect plugins are,
this video is going to show you examples of 5 different VSTs and all of them are available as AU plugins too.
This is just one of the plugins I'll be showing you.
[example of Regressif distortion plugin]
[Free distortion effect plugins for Windows & Mac]
Hey everyone, Jake from Transverse Audio here.
To show you what each distortion plugin is capable of,
I'm gonna use roughly the same synth sound
and sometimes the same arrangement to try and level the playing field.
In addition to that, I'll also test one of the effect plugins on some percussion.
The first one I want to show you is Krush by Tritik.
This is a bit-crusher effect and is one of my favorite and go-to options for distortion plugins.
This effect has 3 main parameters; drive, bit depth reduction, and sample rate reduction.
These all contribute to how distorted the sound will be.
Then it can be further refined with the filter, allowing you to only distort parts of the frequency spectrum,
giving you a high and low pass filter.
Now, this is really useful if you only want to affect the high end,
and make things a bit more crispy without completely destroying the bass
or other sounds in the lower end of the spectrum.
But, that's not even all of it,
you get modulation so it can be changed over time with the help of an LFO (or Low-Frequency Oscillator).
Now, enough of the settings, let's move on to how it actually sounds.
[example of Krush distortion VST plugin]
Up next is a pretty interesting one that is kind of modular, letting you route different parameters
to separate LFO's or a mix of the two.
Regressif by Inear Display has a couple routing features I don't see in other distortion plugins,
and these really make a difference in the sound.
You can set the distortion to be pre or post filter
and you can make the LoFi routing be a mix, ring, or chain.
To sum it up, this thing is a pretty cool sound design tool.
[example of Regressif distortion effect]
Let's pause for a second.
If you don't know what all of these knobs and parameters do,
I made a video all about the typical options found in distortion plugins
and you might be more comfortable with using them after watching that tutorial.
Check it out in the card to the top right, or in the description below.
Alright, on to the next plugin.
FuzzPlus 3 is a nice minimal option on the list.
While it does have a nice distortion sound when you turn up the distort knob,
I think the coolest sound you can get out of it is when you turn it to 0 and the resonance around 8 or higher,
basically when you start to hear the waveform.
Then you can just move around the frequency to change the pitch
and even move the resonance around a bit too.
What you get is this electric drone or laser.
[example of FuzzPlus audio distortion VST plugin]
This is another one by Inear Display called Gorgon.
The presets in this one are actually ridiculous
and it made something right away that could be used in some kind of experimental Dubstep
or a genre like that.
This thing gives you a lot of control over how you want it to affect the sound
and even comes with a bit crusher knob.
Probably the most control out of the distortion plugins I've ever seen.
Get ready, cause you may or may not like the example I'm about to show you.
Personally, I think it's kind of cool though.
[example of Gorgon distortion effect plugin]
Finally last, but certainly not least, we have Temper by Creative Intent.
Now, just because it looks cool, doesn't mean it's the best on the list.
It does, however, give you a really crispy and clear sound even at its default preset.
[example of temper default preset]
From there you can destroy the sound while still keeping its tonality by dropping the cutoff point to around 300Hz.
If you want a bit of extra tone in the sound, you can jack up the resonance to its max.
[example of high resonance distortion]
There you have it, those are the best free audio distortion plugins I could find.
I really hope this video helped and if it did, consider subscribing and turning on notifications for my channel,
and trust me, I really do appreciate it.
Leave me a comment below if you made it to the end, and as always, thanks for watching.