Plugins with low CPU load

[donkey tugger]

A lot of very efficient and good sounding free stuff here too, particularly nice delays and gate plug-in;

https://vst.saschart.com

[DizzlerMusic]

Fabfilters stuff is always light on my cpu but if youre running on 99% cpu usage that might still be too much

[OSWProduction]

Yeah, the Fabfilter stuff is truly my go-to for almost everything, but indeed on some projects I just need to have a small simple highshelf, and Pro-Q feels like overkill in that scenario, as much as I love it. The problem with plugins (in my opinion ofcourse), is that they either focus too much on analog emulation, or are going overboard with the GUI, both take up a lot of system resources from my experience. I really love those plugins that serve a single purpose, and do those well and efficiently.

[dan_flash]

You said you do D&B - you ever given Renoise (or another tracker) a bash? Cross platform, great stock plugs save the reverb which is a bit crap, very CPU efficient, etc. The workflow and style is magic for genres like D&B.

Aside from that, you could try the MDA plugs or the JS ones when you're in Reaper but to be honest, Airwindows should do you perfectly so I don't understand your issue with "weird stuff (clicks, noise, desync, etc)" - there are some mental Airwindows plugs like but for just bread-and-butter stuff like you mentioned, you should be able to easily and cleanly go miles and miles with something like;

- EQ -> EQ / Air
- compression -> Pressure5 / VariMu
- distortion -> GrindAmp / Spiral2 / Drive
- reverb -> Verbity / MatrixVerb
- channel strip -> CStrip

The distortion one options are not wonderful to be fair, at least I've not yet found a good general distortion from Airwindows but GrindAmp and Drive are great in their own way. Otherwise I don't understand why you had issues with them.

[OSWProduction]

- EQ -> EQ / Air
- compression -> Pressure5 / VariMu
- distortion -> GrindAmp / Spiral2 / Drive
- reverb -> Verbity / MatrixVerb
- channel strip -> CStrip

Thanks alot for these suggestions, I have the full collection of Airwindows stuff, and the list (and the sometimes unlogical names) can be overwhelming and confusing. I'll definetly be giving those a shot. And yes I have indeed taken a look at Renoise, looks like very cool software, but I also do a lot of audio chopping in my process, so I'm not sure it's suited for me personally.

[jens]

McDsp plugins run with fairy dust. Zero% cpu load...

The same goes for Boz' stuff...

[k2006]

free Reaplugs(EQ,comp,delay),orilriver reverb

[nusound mind]

Oxford / Sonnox. Some of the best plugins (still) imo, and the ones I have, at least, use very little cpu.

[dan_flash]

- EQ -> EQ / Air
- compression -> Pressure5 / VariMu
- distortion -> GrindAmp / Spiral2 / Drive
- reverb -> Verbity / MatrixVerb
- channel strip -> CStrip

Thanks alot for these suggestions, I have the full collection of Airwindows stuff, and the list (and the sometimes unlogical names) can be overwhelming and confusing. I'll definetly be giving those a shot. And yes I have indeed taken a look at Renoise, looks like very cool software, but I also do a lot of audio chopping in my process, so I'm not sure it's suited for me personally.

No worries at all, it can be overwhelming just jumping in at the deepend but stuff like this helps;

https://www.airwindows.com/wp-content/u ... opedia.txt

And the shiny new;

https://www.airwindows.com/wp-content/u ... opedia.txt

As for Renoise, it is pure brilliant in the loops and audio-chopping department. Practically made for it. For D&B oriented stuff, have a look at 'midi error' on YouTube- I'm generally not into D&B (or EDM etc) but his videos are cool and show a bit of what Renoise can do.

[La Mato]

Some other suggestions:

Waves Ren-series
Apulsoft EQ and Shaper
ToneBoosters
P42 climax

I used these to great effect on my old 4th generation i5 computer. Another vote for McDSP here

[OSWProduction]

Updated the OP with links to all suggestions, thanks guys!

I'll be giving Renoise a shot once I have some time to do a deep dive, never used tracker-like software before, so it will be a journey!

[Nicko_Sparks]

Hey everyone! I found this thread very helpful, here are my latest findings:
- Pulsar Audio plugins
- SSL Native plugins
- Denise plugins
- Eventide Newfangled Elevate Mastering Bundle
- PSP InfiniStrip
- Heavyocity Fury
- Iceberg Audio Sub Cut

[Funky40]

i patch realtime-play patches, so no freeze possible, and CPU load IS there an issue:
i find those -high quality plugins- very light on the CPU:
Valhalla !
Fabfilter

also check Chowdhury DSP ( iirc, Freeware)
The one i used -the Delay- was very light ! stunningly light

https://chowdsp.com/index.html

[Lbdunequest]

Kilohearts effects are low cpu

[whassup]

Omni Channel. 15 instances are using 1% on my machine.