I'm trying to figure out how I would create a really old‑style, warm‑sounding distortion/crackle on a string motif for an intro to a song I'm writing. I'll be using East West Quantum Leap Symphonic Orchestra for the actual string loop, and I want to create a sort of 'AM radio' feel for it. That's easy enough to achieve using various EQ techniques, but I also want to give it a really subtle '60s record‑player crackle — something that's there if you know what you're listening for, but not so 'in your face' as to sound cheesy or clichéd. I was wondering if there are plug‑ins that can do this. I fear I may have to break the bank again..

/dj-khaled-vst-plugins.html. Here are three plug‑ins you could use to add simulated vinyl noise to your audio tracks without breaking the bank: Izotope's Vinyl (left), Retro Sampling's Vinyl Dreams (far left), and Steinberg Cubase's bundled Grungelizer (top).

Via SOS web site

Add a touch of vintage flair to your tracks with a plug-in that's part time machine. IZotope's Vinyl uses advanced filtering, modeling and resampling to create an authentic 'vinyl' simulation, as if the audio. This is a 100% free plugin that simply generates that old school vinyl sound, and that is it’s sole purpose. It is designed to give you that vinyl sound that you can use for various types of applications from film. However, all the added noises from this plug‑in appear to be in mono too. For stereo vinyl noise, check out the freeware plug‑ins from Retro Sampling (www.retrosampling.se). Both Audio Impurities and Vinyl Dreams can overlay vinyl noise, although you only get wet/dry knobs, so you're stuck with the preset effect.

SOS contributor Mike Senior replies: There's no need to break the bank for this, because there are actually a few different freeware plug‑ins that provide the kind of thing you're after. One of the best known is Izotope's freeware Vinyl plug‑in, which is available for both Mac and PC. The advantage of this one is that you get a lot of control over the exact character of the vinyl noise you're creating: not only can you balance various different mechanical and electrical noises, but you can also choose the decade you want your virtual vinyl to hail from and how your processed audio is affected by disc wear. The downside of this plug‑in for me, though, is that it doesn't seem to output some of its added noises in stereo, irrespective of how I set up the controls, and a lot of the character of vinyl noise, to me, lies in its stereo width. To be fair, though, the 'dust' and 'crackle' components seem to be stereo, and stereo was, of course, only really in its infancy in the '60s, so this might not matter to you. Indeed, collapsing the whole signal to mono might be a useful way to 'date' the string sound itself. If you're running Steinberg's Cubase, the built‑in Grungelizer plug‑in provides a similar paradigm to the Izotope plug‑in, albeit with a simpler control set. However, all the added noises from this plug‑in appear to be in mono too.

For stereo vinyl noise, check out the freeware plug‑ins from Retro Sampling (www.retrosampling.se). Both Audio Impurities and Vinyl Dreams can overlay vinyl noise, although you only get wet/dry knobs, so you're stuck with the preset effect. That said, if you set up the plug‑ins on a separate channel in your sequencer, you can dramatically adjust their character with EQ to make them seem less obtrusive — a combination of high‑cut and low‑cut filtering usually works well for me. If you want a smoother vinyl noise (less of the Rice Crispies!), you can also slot in a fast limiter or dedicated transient processor to steamroller spikes in the waveform.

These processing techniques also allow you to get good mileage from the vinyl noise samples that periodically crop up on sample libraries. I've been collecting vinyl noise samples for a while, so I can tell you that there are good selections on the Tekniks Ghetto Grooves and Mixtape Toolkit titles, as well as on Spectrasonics' original Retrofunk collection. I've also turned up a good few examples in general‑purpose media sound‑effects libraries, if you have anything like that to hand.

Recommended Free VST Plugins for WavePad WavePad Audio Editor has integrated VST plugin support, giving you access to thousands of additional tools and effects that are available. Below is a list of recommended free VST plugins that you can download and use in WavePad on your PC to further enhance your audio editing projects. For more information on how to use these VST effects see: How to download and use VST Effects in WavePad Sound Editor.

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Reverb and Echo Effects

Name: Ambience
Type: Reverb Effect
Download URL:http://magnus.smartelectronix.com/#Ambience OR http://www.smartelectronix.com/~magnus/files/ambience-demo-win-vst-2003-10-25.zip
Company: Smart Electronix
Description: Ambience is a reverb that rivals the quality of the best commercial reverbs. You are free to decide yourself how much you want to pay for it, and when.

Name: PSP PianoVerb
Type: Reverb Effect
Download URL:http://www.pspaudioware.com/plugins/reverbs/psp_pianoverb/index.html
Company: PSP Audio
Description: Reproduces a special kind of reverberation originally provided by piano strings. It generates reverberation using twelve string operators with adjustable damping and decay time. Each of them is tuned to a particular note starting from A(55Hz) to a G#(103.8Hz). The PSP PianoVerb string system can be transposed in the range of +-24 semitones, tuned within a range of +-100 cents and be detuned as well.

Name: OldSkoolVerb
Type: Reverb Effect
Download URL:http://www.voxengo.com/product/oldskoolverb
Company: Voxengo
Description: This is a reverb unit VST plugin suitable mainly for instruments and sounds which do not have sharp percussive elements to them, otherwise this reverb sounds too edgy. This reverb is great at creating additional ambience. Best free bass amp simulator vst.

Name: TapeDelay
Type: Echo/Delay Effect
Download URL:http://www.e-phonic.com/plugins/tapedelay.php
Company: E-Phonic
Description: A very simple tape delay effect for creating that specific tape delay sound.

Compression

Name: Rough Rider 2
Type: Compression Effect
Download URL:https://www.audiodamage.com/pages/free-downloads

Vinyl Vst Free

Company: Audio Damage.
Description: Rough Rider 2 is a modern compressor with a bit of 'vintage' style bite and a uniquely warm sound. Perfect for adding compression effects to your drum buss, it also sounds great with synth bass, clean guitar, and backing vocals. Definitely not an all-purpose compressor, Rough Rider 2 is at its best when used to add pump to rhythmic tracks.

Mastering and Gate Effects

Name: Blue Cat's Triple EQ:
Type: Equalizer Effect
Download URL:http://www.bluecataudio.com/Products/Product_TripleEQ
Company: Blue Cat
Description: Blue Cat's Triple EQ is a 3 bands semi-parametric equalizer that can be controlled as a single filter with customizable shape. It includes a low shelf filter, a high shelf filter and a boost/cut peak filter. Its wide range of gain (+/-40 dB per band) and bandwidth (.01 to 5 Octave) makes it very versatile to create any filter shape. The three filters are linked together so that when you change the center frequency or the bandwidth, the parameters of the three filters are modified accordingly: you can control the entire equalizer characteristics with a single mouse click.

Other VST Effects

Name: iZotope Vinyl

Izotope Vinyl Free Vst Download

Type: vinyl effect
Download URL:http://www.izotope.com/products/audio/vinyl
Company: iZotope
Description: The ultimate lo-fi weapon, iZotope Vinyl uses 64-bit processing and advanced filtering, modeling and resampling to create authentic 'vinyl' simulation, as if the audio were a record being played on a record player.

Name: KarmaFX Plugin Pack
Type: Reverb, Filter, Delay
Download URL:http://karmafx.net
Company: KarmaFX
Description: KarmaFX Plugin Pack is a collection of quality effect plugins that are small, simple and easy to use. Plugins that simply get the job done without too much knob tweaking.

How to download and use VST Effects in WavePad Sound Editor:

1. Download one of the free VST effects from the above list. When you install these effects, you will need to specify a location on your computer to save them. It is normally a good idea to create a folder called 'VST' and save all your VST effects there.
2. Once you have downloaded and saved your VST plugin to your chosen VST folder, open WavePad and from the top Effects menu choose 'VST Plugins.'
3. This will open the VST plugins window. The first field called 'DLLs Folder' is the location where you saved your downloaded VST effects. You can browse for this location by clicking on the button with three dots on it or just type the path in directly. This will load the VSTs into the 'VST Plugin' list.
4. Use the drop down VST plugin list to select your VST plugin and click OK.
5. Your VST plugin will open in WavePad. You can still edit your waveform, and do whatever you would normally do in WavePad, except now what you hear is being processed by the new VST effect.To save the effect, you need to click the 'Apply' button on your effect. This will close the effect and save the audio with the new effect added.

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