Hey guys n girls
I've been researching a lot about creative filtering in preparation for a blog post I just put up on the best 10 plugins for the job.

There's a massive range available now and it took me ages to narrow down my choice, so I wondered how different others thoughts might be on the subject? Especially now there are so many good free plugins... do they live up to the commercial ones?
Also, do you prefer simpler / one-knob plugins that you can use in combination with other effects, or do you like to have loads of routing and modulation options in the same interface?

Think for fast, creative effects I'm generally more of a one-knob guy, if you'll pardon the expression...

You can also see my post at the Get That Pro Sound blog.

Cheers
George.

I never bought a commercial filter plugin, but i could tell you my best free ones.

Filterbank3 (Analog tube flavour)
Bi-Filter (Very complete)
Atlantis Filter (LFOs and a nice amount of filters on board)
TAL - Filter 2 (An easy and low on CPU one)
Camel Crusher (Crunchy)

Right now i can't remember any other.

Have a good day

Soundtoys Filterfreak is the best I've used it's a few knobs with hidden controls so you can keep it simple and creative. Plenty of usable presets with it.

Fab Filter Volcano is prob a close second or even on par.

Fabfilter Volcano is excellent also Quad Frohmage

I didn't think the Tone2 FilterBank3 was free? Great choice though

Camel Crusher has got to be an all-time classic plugin too...
And the TAL bundle - future classic..?

Glad you guys agree with me about FilterFreak, Volcano and Frohmage - they are all on my list. What about the one-knob plugs from Waves and Sonalksis?

Well I have



Fxpansions Etch which sounds incredible, heres a small demo i made with it


First File is the sound without Etch.
http://soundcloud.com/vortex1-1/fzrerk

This is the same file as above but using Etch to filter it.
http://soundcloud.com/vortex1-1/spleepers

I should point out that I did stretch the cypher render out before filtering it.


Other filters i own are

Fabfilter Volcano 2

D16 Devastor (Would like to see Self-resonance on this at some point)




Some that I plan on buying in the near future

Cytomic The Drop (When its released) But from what i've heard this sounds amazing!!!


Personally I think the stuff that uses circuit modelled simulations are really the best, because they can do incredible sounding things when pushed hard enough.

They might not be as complex as say a Sherman Filterbank, but they can do great filter sweeps, FM and self resonate.
Last edited by V0RT3X on Sun Jul 29, 2012 1:37 pm; edited 2 times in total

I don't reach for a software filter very often, but when I do it's gonna be FilterFreak or perhaps Volcano. That said, The Drop sounds like a game changer from the demos posted so far. The filters in Diva sound great, but of course you can't run audio through them... yet.

Just been listening to those demos... think you could be right about The Drop...

Mentioning Diva reminds me I almost overlooked how you can use more and more soft synths filter sections like old skool hardware analogue synths, to process external sources.
For me the Minimonsta acts as a great Moog filter plugin. Just a bit fiddly to set up for external inputting.

When I need a filter I almost always use Zebrify. Not even because of the filters themselves (they sound awessome though) but because of the flexibility! Ever wanted to send some audio through a filter while modulating the filter freq with a ringmodulated, delayed and compressed version of the same audio? No Problem!
While you are at it you could modulate an oscillator with it and send it through a comb filter which recieves midi from a different track.....

Cheers
Dennis

Heres a small demo track using Fabfilters Volcano 2 to bring out more low end and filter the higher frequencies out with some modulations happening.

http://soundcloud.com/vortex1-1/looper-volcano-2

The loop does contain bit crushing artifacts because it was ran through Decimort, then Devastor

You can sort of. The ZebraHZ plugin does have an audio in. It doesn't seem possible to route audio through the main modules (including the main Diva ones) BUT you can route it through the FX which includes VCF 5 and 6 and their additional filter types such as the MS20s.

+1 for Quad Frohmage! I like the possibility to put a slight delay on each band, apart from usability, sound and filter types, of course.
The only thing i'm missing a bit is that it is not possible to modulate modulation source (LFOs, etc.) parameters...

A few nice free filter plugins i use regularly:

Signaldust Sweep
Admiral Quality Naive LPF
GVST Ghi/Glow/Gband

Moogofilter by WOK (donationware)

And 914 fixed filterbank by Audio Damage.

Don't really need a lot of modulation built into the plugins themselves since i use Renoise, which has all kinds of cool routing capabilities (lfo device, key tracking, velocity tracking, signal follower etc).

Tone2 Bifilter 2 is my go-to utility and common usage filter. Their Filterbank 3 is good for more complex effects (and it can even use it's LFO's as oscillators for basic synth duties). Couples with Zebrify and a couple of freebies like Atlantis' filter I'm pretty much covered. I also have Etch as I got it on discount, but it hasn't really worked into my workflow yet.

I'll probably get the Drop without even demoing.

usually Runciter (u-he Uhbik)

If I want more flexibility ... u-he Zebrify

There should be more good ones, but since I have these, I stopped looking for another filter plugin, atm, I consider them to be simply great!