There's a lot of free plugins around, it can be a little overwhelming, our free Pro Tools plugins list has over 130. So are they any good and if so what are the standout ones to use in a mix?

Over the coming weeks members of the team will be nominating their most used free plugin, this does not include the stuff that comes with Pro Tools but those created by 3rd party plugin developers, there are some real gems for both music and post production mixing.

Russ is first with his plugin... the Softube Saturation Knob.

Softube Saturation Knob

The free Softube Saturation Knob is almost as simple as it gets with one dial and a 3 way switch, we could reinvent the wheel but we'll let the rock n roll scientists at Softube explain;

The free plug-in Saturation Knob is a modeled output distortion that can be used anywhere you need some grit. Use it to fatten up bass lines, add some harmonics and shimmer to vocals, or simply destroy your drum loop.

The three modes, Keep High, Neutral and Keep Low give you three kinds of characters of distortion. If you want to squash a drum loop but keep the bass drum fairly intact, you can for example use the Keep Low mode.

I use it so often to give some character to everything from vocals, bass, guitars, keyboards and drums - for such a simple little plugin it offers a lot, that's why it's my most used free plugin.

Check out my video where I do a comparison using Softube Saturation Knob on the mix