Music Production Tools on a Budget

If you are a music hobbyist, semi-pro producer or even full-fledged producer, there’s always incentive to get quality products at a good price. With so many products out there, it sometimes gets overwhelming to look through them and decide what is good and what isn’t. In this post, I’ll be showing you my favorite tools that I use that you can easily get it for free or cheaply.

This blog post mentions Splice Studio, which is no longer active. Learn more about the shutdown here.

Equalizers

1. Spline EQ by Photosounder

What its great for:

Bang-for-your-buck linear phase EQ. Linear phase EQ’s offer better quality and precision especially at higher frequencies.
Up to 60 bands of equalization for almost any music application.
Low latency and not CPU intensive, despite being a linear phase EQ.

Cost: $29.00

2. T-Bone by Boz Digital Labs

What its great for:

T-Bone is a tilt-EQ with some extra features and can be extremely tool useful to own.
Tilt EQ’s simultaneously boosts one end of a frequency spectrum while cutting the other. They are great for adding high end and reducing low end at the same time and work very well for instruments like synths and guitars.
T-Bone has some features that most tilt EQ’s do not have such as quality high pass and low pass filters.

Cost: $34.00

3. Overtone GEQ by Voxengo

What its great for:

Overtone GEQ is great for adding subtle harmonics to your tracks without making it sound obvious.
It has 7-bands that is flexible enough to enhance a variety of instruments.

Cost: Free (Get it here on Splice)

Compressors

1. The Rocket by Stillwell Audio

What its great for:

A fantastic sounding compressor that emulates the classic Universal Audio 1176 at fraction of the cost.
It has the ability to do parallel compression without the need to setup an external aux track.
Built in high pass filter to manipulate how the detection circuit works.
Great sounding, distinct character. Suitable for drum buss, vocals and guitars.

Cost: $25.00

2. Deft Compressor by Voxengo

What its great for:

Clean sounding, 64-bit compressor with “vintage” compression mode.
Versatile for various applications such as vocal compressor, drum buss compression and mix buss compression.
Advanced features such as the ability to have a side chain signal feed the detection circuit.

Cost: $48.00 (Get it here on Splice)

Reverbs

1. Valhalla Plate by Valhalla DSP

What its great for:

12 Different Reverb Algorithms
Easy to use GUI.
Low CPU Usage.
It sounds great!

Price: $50.00

2. Old Skool Verb by Voxengo

What its great for:

Comprehensive features and parameters for a free plugin.
5 Different Reverb Modes
Features Plate, Room and Hall Reverb algorithms.
Low CPU Usage.

Price: Free! (Get it here on Splice)

Delays

1. H-Delay by Waves

What its good for:

Great sounding delay that is versatile for different audio applications.
Tape / LoFi emulation to add grit and texture to your delayed signal.
4 Different Analog Modes to color your sound.

Price: $49.00

2. Freq Echo by Valhalla

What its great for:

Simple delay with easy to use GUI.
Ability to run free or sync with BPM.
Decent parameters such as Shift, High Cut and Low Cut filters.

Price: Free!

Utilities/Misc

1. Splice Sounds

What its great for:

Nearly 1 million samples and presets to browse from.
Preview & Download individual sounds.
Drag & Drop samples directly to your DAW.
Artist Exclusive Packs by artist such as Deadmau, KSHMR, Medasin and more.
Includes Splice Studio (Free unlimited version control backup service for your projects and sessions).

Price: $7.99 / month (Sign up for a 14-day Splice Sounds Trial here)

2. PanCake by Cableguys