Magma

I spotted this easy to miss product in the current sale, price US$29. At first glance it was just another bundle of effects, but the claim of sixty-four of them caught my eye: unless the quality was very low, that alone would be worth the asking price. Then I spotted the LFOs: modify any effects parameter using up to eight LFOs. OK, you have a sale. Then I saw the bit about VSTs: load any of your own VSTs into it too. Sold.

I bought it, I installed it. The effects seem pretty good - I mostly use it for guitar with some distortion so I haven't worked out if the sound is 'quality', but first impression is it's very good. Not as many presets as I'd have liked, but they seem varied and good quality. In the LFO section there are also eight 'MSEGs', not something I've heard of before but they look like LFOs with a more user definable shape rather than just sine, triangle etc. Want a filter with its resonance controlled by an irregular square wave? Easy.

Magma is VST2 only, so it won't scan VST3 plugins. Effects are assigned in up to four banks of four; a routing section defines which order these banks take effect: series, parallel etc, there are six options. Any effect slot can be a 'VST chainer' which can contain up to eight external plugins, from whence they can be edited, muted or solo'd. That's also where plugin folders are defined.

Even at full price this is a steal. At the sale price, it's a no brainer. The only other product I have that is comparable is Blue Cat's Axiom, which takes the external VST concept to an extreme - it's more powerful, more complex and more expensive and, as the name implies, aimed at the guitarist. I like Axiom. I also like Magma.