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The best new music plugins this week, free and paid
Every week, we round up the most exciting new plugin releases — from virtual instruments and creative effects to mixing tools and workflow upgrades. There are tons of plugins released every week, both free and paid, so be sure to check back here every week to find out the software worth adding to your plugin folder.
This week’s new and noteworthy virtual instruments, effects and mixing plugins
[Updated 1 October 2026]
Sinee – Kikzilla 2
Sinee has launched a sequel to the Kikzilla low-end rumble sculptor, bringing together a flexible set of tools for generating and shaping your track’s foundation alongside your existing kick.
Users can choose from four sound sources — reverb or noise generators, or sample or external input — as the starting point, before carving the signal with morphable envelopes and a three-mode filter. Finally, the kick and rumble layers hit versatile effects and mix sections for some final polish.
Kikzilla 2 is available from Sinee for intro pricing of €79 (full price €99).
Antares Audio – AutoTune Advanced
While Antares is far from the only name with an autotune plugin, it was the first, originally releasing what became both a characterful effect and indispensable utility in 1997. It recently expanded the existing lineup with AutoTune Advanced, which brings with it an updated Auto-Mode pitch algorithm that Antares says is the ‘largest engineering investment in the AutoTune algorithm since its introduction’.
The update also features the new DVA engine designed to preserve natural movement, automatically detecting a singer’s vibrato and leaving it intact. Other key features include an updated Formant Designer, MIDI performance mode, and a Live mode with ultra-fast real-time monitoring.
AutoTune Advanced is available from Antares for £398 or £15.50 per month.
Zplane – Timbre
Zplane — known for its ultra-transparent pitch-shifting algorithms — has released Timbre, a real-time formant-shaping plugin that can reshape the character of vocals, instruments, and even full mixes without affecting pitch.
As well as timbral changes like adding weight to drum sounds or taming sibilance in a vocal performance, Timbre can be used for advanced sound design thanks to independent high and low processing bands, a carrier section for vocoder-style effects, and extreme transformation with up to 36 semitones of formant shifting.
XILS-lab – MemoryTone
Memorymoog fans have been spoilt for choice this year, with several developers releasing software incarnations of the legendary polysynth. XILS-lab is the latest to give it a go with MemoryTone, which accurately recreates the original’s 16-voice architecture based on the developer’s analysis of how its multiple oscillators behave individually and together.
XILS-lab’s take includes the original factory patches, an advanced arpeggiator and programmable sequencer, and six integrated effects including EQ, resonator, chorus, delay, phaser, and reverb.
Tim Exile – Finalist 2
Experimental wizard Tim Exile has released Finalist 2, a new version of his Finalist mixing tool that was previously only available as a Reaktor patch. This version runs in the browser or as a standalone app for Mac and Windows and can handle up to 64 stems.
Claiming to remove the ‘dark’ from the art of mixing, Finalist combines intelligent audio processing with intuitive controls, delivering polished mixes in just a few clicks. Users drop stems into the app, choose a starting point from categories like Hype, Balance, or Soft, and then make final tweaks by hand before exporting.
Instead of worrying about the technical side, musicians can instead focus on the mix’s overall character — perfect for rapidly prototyping different directions for clients, trying out different ideas, or simply getting things finished for a tight deadline.
Finalist 2 is free for mixing, with users paying when they export. Pricing is available as credits (from £2.50 per mix), unlimited mixes from £8 per month, or infinite exports forever for £149.
Funputs – Comet, Orbit & Cluster
Funputs has released a collection of three MIDI instruments that provide fresh and exciting ways to write music in the DAW. Each one can be used inside the DAW with your mouse, or you can pair a phone or tablet for wireless multi-touch control.
The first is Comet, an expressive XY pad that you can touch to play notes, with horizontal movement changing pitch and vertical movement controlling expression like pressure or timbre. The second, Orbit, handles harmony through preset scales and tunings from around the world. Finally, Cluster is an interactive map of chords where users can easily explore fresh harmonic ideas by ear through an intuitive visual language.
You can get all three MIDI plugins in the Funputs Launch Bundle for $39, or individually ($19 for Comet, $29 for Orbit, $29 for Cluster).
Lunacy Audio – NOVA
Lunacy has launched NOVA, a browser-based platform where users can build and share instruments and plugins. The platform itself is free to use, with ten free and paid instruments available at launch.
Give the freebie Good Vibes a try — a vibraphone with macro layers that add reverse delay, rotor tremolo, and pitched granular textures. Or, explore the single-oscillator Chiptuner chip synth for NES-style synth tones with arpeggiating and bitcrushing.
On the paid side, highlights include the Gleam modal resonator synth with six tunable partials per voice ($19 intro price), the Drift Cassette lofi multisampler ($35 intro price), and the Swarm unison synth with 16 voices per oscillator and built-in chord generation ($35 intro price).
This selection is just a taster of what’s to come, since NOVA will soon include tools where users can build their own virtual instruments and effects without having to code. To celebrate the launch, users can currently get all five paid NOVA plugins for $99 (full price $149).
Last week’s hottest new plugins
Mixland – Grey Matter
We’re opening this week’s round-up with something more unusual from Jesse Ray Ernster‘s Mixland. Grey Matter is an emulation of the renowned DAC circuitry within Sony’s PlayStation One. The plugin uses real-time modelling of molecular physics, component strain, and thermal load to deliver non-linear saturation and dynamics that deform when pushed hard.
Put Grey Matter on the mix bus, and it can add subtle warmth, but crank the controls and you’ll discover wild and chaotic timbres perfect for sound design. It also has a choice of interfaces, letting users expose the circuit board or opt for a neater, distraction-free interface.
Grey Matter is available from Mixland for $29 (full price $49).
SoundGhost – Orbit
SoundGhost has released Orbit, a three-band autopanner with a beautifully simple interface. The plugin can create drifting stereo effects across low, mid, and high frequency bands, with each band behaving independently — so you could pan your bass one way and your highs another, or simply adjust each band’s width for a more subtle effect.
Each band’s position, width, and volume can be modulated freely or in sync with your project’s tempo using waveforms like sine, triangle, and random, or a live envelope follower for volume-based modulation. Need instant movement in your sound but not sure where to start? Click the dice, and the parameters are randomised on your chosen frequency band.
Orbit is available from SoundGhost for intro pricing of £29 (full price £39).
Rupert Neve Designs – Master Buss Processor, 551 Inductor EQ & 542 Tape Emulator
This week marks the first time Rupert Neve Designs has released plugins under its own banner, bringing its legendary processing into the software realm. There are three to get your hands on, each one modelled on a piece of popular Rupert Neve hardware. First is the Portico II Master Buss Processor, known for its precise dynamic range and stereo field control. Second is the three-band 551 Inductor EQ — notably the only 500 Series equaliser designed by Rupert Neve himself.
Completing the set is the 542 Tape Emulator, which brings together a unique tape saturation circuit, a soft clipper, and the company’s Silk Red & Blue harmonic saturation into a single workflow.
Dirtywave – M8 Music Tracker for iOS
Dirtywave, maker of the lauded M8 hardware tracker, has ported the unit’s software to iOS, giving musicians and producers an accessible entry to its workflow. Like its hardware sibling, the app version can be used to create and arrange music using a tracker workflow, with sequences built from phrases and chains across eight independent monophonic tracks.
The M8 app includes four synth engines — Wavsynth, Macrosynth, FMSynth, and Hypersynth — as well as a sampler instrument. There are also scales, grooves, probability, and comprehensive effects commands. What’s more, both the M8 app and hardware are fully compatible, so users can transfer songs and projects between devices or share them with other users.
M8 Music Tracker is available via the App Store for $29, and it runs on iPhones and iPads in portrait or landscape.
Universal Audio – LUNA 3.0
Seven years since LUNA was released, Universal Audio has released a major 3.0 update to its award-winning DAW. Two of the most significant additions are four-track stem separation and LUNA Play — a simplified version of the DAW designed for writing and recording that’s akin to a voice memo app.
New utilities include clip gain automation, strip silence, and the Record FX workflow previously exclusive to Apollo interfaces. The update includes many quality-of-life improvements too, like folder tracks, an improved piano roll, and an adaptive grid.
LUNA 3.0 is available as a free or paid version ($199), or as part of a UAD Spark Studio subscription ($19/month) that bundles the DAW with UA’s native plugin library.
Where to download free plugins and VSTs
Looking for free plugins? Our freeware section is an excellent place to start; each month, we also compile round-ups of the best free plugins and samples to download.
The production community is full of passionate developers who’ve given away instruments, effects and other plugins as freeware. Some of our favourites include Valhalla’s Supermassive reverb and Matt Tytel’s Helm polysynth. Remember, most developers also offer free trials for their plugins.
How to install VST and AU plugins on Windows, macOS and iOS
If your plugin came as a zip file, you may have to manually install it. Here’s how:
VST3 plugins:
- Unzip the plugin folder
- Copy the VST file to your default plugin folder (Windows default: C:Program FilesCommon FilesVST3, Mac default: /Library/Audio/Plugins/VST)
- Start your DAW
- Rescan your plugin directory
AUv3 plugins:
- Download and install the plugin from the App Store
- Insert the plugin in your DAW
- Select the AUv3 plugin from the Audio Unit Extensions tab
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