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Quality freeware for Mac is now plentiful

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SSL LMC-1
Format: VST, AU
You'd be hard pressed to think of many manufacturers making costlier gear than SSL. But SSL's vintage compressor, the LMC-1, is freeware. It's an emulation of the compressor used to create the legendary gated drum sound found on Peter Gabriel's intruder and Phil Collins' In The Air Tonight. When (if) you need that sound, the SSL LMC-1 can't be bettered.

Togu Audio Line TAL-Dub
Format: VST, AU
While delay may seem a fairly straightforward effect, many dub producers (and those of other genres) have embraced delay as an intrinsic compositional and creative element. TAL-Dub is a simple but comprehensive delay ideal for dub and more besides. It features two independent channels, retro sounding filters and even MIDI learn.

Betabugs Audio Crayon Filter
Format: VST, AU
Crayon Filter is a powerful, super-squelchy multiband filter. It offers low-pass, high-pass, peaking and notch filtering, all with a screaming, squelching resonance, should you want it, and an additional kick in the backside courtesy of the Drive function. You can even enable more than one filter mode at a time.

Shuriken Berrtill
Format: VST
Berrtill is an attempt to recreate a specific circuit-bent signal path consisting of a car speaker, a 'remade' tape recorder with a jack input in place of the tape head, a toy microphone and a toy amplifier. A kazoo (we kid you not) is thrown in for good measure. The result is gloriously noisy and not for the fainthearted.

Above: Check out the control names! A touch more Moonshine, we reckon...

AraldFX StormGate1
Format: VST, AU
Where would dance music be without the 'trance gate'? Originally, this pulsing effect was created using a technique called Sidechaining, where increased volume (usually the kick drum) of one part would 'duck' the volume of another. Nowadays, this thumping sound is often created by a standalone plug-in, and StormGate1 is an excellent example.

slim slow slider C3 Multiband Compressor
Format: VST, AU
We won't get into the debate surrounding the so-called loudness war here, except to say that compression is always going to play a vital role at both the tracking and mastering stages. For mastering, a multiband compressor is what you need – that is, a compressor that applies different amount of compression to different frequency bands. C3 offers three bands and a built-in limiter, and it's relatively easy-to-use, too.