Somebody once said, ‘a good producer can make good music with mediocre plugins and a mediocre producer makes mediocre music with the best plugins.’ Spot on.

My favourites have changed (evolved?) as computers have become more powerful and plug in developers have been able to harness that power to create ever more capable plug ins. These days, plug in developers are more mindful of CPU efficiency. My old Performa 6400 was a pocket calculator next to my (current) 2015 trash can Mac Pro.īack in the day, one had to be very careful with plug in selection (and how many instances used), as the power just wasn’t there, and things could (and would) slowly grind to a halt. I’ve been making music on computers professionally (I like to think) since computers could act as full production suites, and have been through many ‘favourite’ plug ins over the years. I’m sorry that I’ve left so many favourites out, but who wants to read a Top 100? There is no definitive top 10, so this is merely my top ten go to plug ins. The options available can be downright bewildering. There are thousands of products out there, from freeware through donationware to paid for (modestly priced to eyewatering!), not to mention the generous bundles of plug ins that come with your DAW of choice. Is there a definitive top ten audio fx plugins?

Best free audio plugins for mac