- HOFA 4U – Free VST, VST3, AU, RTAS, AAX Plugins The 4U plugins are a collection of free tools directly from the HOFA-Studios, available to everyone. We constantly develop new tools – so check this website every now and then.
- ReaEQ equalizer VST plugin is one of the best free plugins for music producers. Its a graphic equalizer plugin with lots of features that you generally get with a paid VST plugin. Here are some features of ReaEQ This IR based equalizer has Unlimited bands.
Luftikus by lkjb is a very nice free VST EQ that works very much like the Maag EQ 4. It has six fixed bands: 10 Hz, 40 Hz, 160 Hz, 640 Hz, 2.5 kHz, and a high boost band / high shelf where you can choose between five different beginning points in the freqency spectrum (2.5, 5, 10, 20, and 40 kHz).
BEST FREE VST EQUALIZERS
FREE EQUALIZER VST PLUGINS
MEqualizer by Melda Production (Windows and Mac)
If you are new to mixing it can sometimes be of help to have an equalizer that gives you a visual representation to the changes you make in sound. MEqualizer by Melda Production comes in handy here. First of all it is a very well sounding free VST equalizer. It has six bands to tweak and for each band you can choose between 7 filter types.
MEqualizer can be used in a more clean mode but it also allows you to dial in tube saturation and harmonics to your taste through which it will function more as a vintage or analog sounding equalizer.
It comes with a spectrum analyzer and a sonogram and even has an auto-listening option which enables you to zoom in on a certain band. To top it all off you can use it in several modes including mid or side mode and of course in left + right mode for normal use on stereo or mono tracks.
MEqualizer even has it own limiter build in. A very versatile equalizer indeed.
MEqualizer comes as a part of the MfreeEffectsBundle that includes several other nice free VST plugins.
SlickEQ by VOS TDR (Windows and Mac)
SlickEQ is one of the best free VST equalizers out there. It has three bands plus a high pass filter.
While the mid band is a bell curve you get the choice between shelf and bell filter for the low and high band.
You also have the choise of four different filter curve slopes: British, American, German, and Soviet – inspired by hardware consoles from the respective countries (at least the first three).
SlickEQ is very smooth. You can push it pretty far in the high frequency area without any harshness.
Should you desire a subtle saturation you can dial that in by pressing the EQSat button and choose your calibration type in the outstage section where you also get to choose whether you want automatic gain ajustment or not.
SlickEQ can function either as a stereo or mono equalizer or you can use it in either mid or side mode. You can chain two instances of the SlickEQ and thereby double the amount of bands to tweak or set one in mid and the other in side mode and thereby having a very nice m/s eq.
This free VST EQ plugin is highly recommended and should you desire extra options the commercial Gentlemen’s Edition is very affordable.
SonEQ by Sonimus (Windows and Mac)
![Free vst eq cubase plugins Free vst eq cubase plugins](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/8lw3SgeLxAE/maxresdefault.jpg)
SonEQ is again one of those very nice free VST tools for digital audio work. You can control the input and output which gives you control over to what extend the eq should work with a clean or vintage sound. The harder you push it the more saturation you get – just like with an old analog mixing desk.
SonEQ has a both a high and a low pass filter. It enables you to do the ”Pultec Buttom End Trick” by boosting and cutting the same freqency in the low band area at the same time.
The mid band can be adjusted to a target frequency between 150 – 4000 Hz and gives you a choice between two q-settings.
The high band can control the frequency spectrum from a center point of either 6, 8, 12, or 15 Khz. For extra saturation use the drive section. A very nice free VST colouring eq!
RED EQ by Acustica Audio (Windows and Mac)
Red EQ by Acustica Audio is a simple yet very well sounding free VST equalizer. Acustica Audio use a form of convolution technique to “sample” the sound of hardware devices. Through this they are attempting to create plugins that are as close as possible to hardware in sound and function. Whether they are more successful in this attempt than developers that base their plugins on algorithms is a question of debate on many internet forums. What can be said here is that their RED EQ is a very good equalizer and definitely worth having in your tool box. It has three bands: low, mid, and high. While the mid band is a bell curve the low and the high bands are shelf EQs.
OCHRE EQ by Acustica Audio (Windows and Mac)
Ochre is another fine free VST EQ from Acustica Audio. It gives you three bands to play with: a low bandwhere you can choose between a centre frequency from 35 – 315 Hz, a mid band with a choice of centre freqency from 315 – 2.500 Hz, and finally a high band where you can chose a centre freqency between 2.500 and 22.000 Hz. Each band can be boosted or cut by up to 16 dB, and you can choose a Q between 0.5 and 4.0. Ochre also has a pre-amp stage that can be switched on for more “analog colour” or off for a cleaner sound. There is also an input gain control as well as an output gain control. Since the plugin acts much like a hardware device you can use these controls to feed the right amount of level to the plugin – and you can “drive” the input to get more colour. Like RED EQ from the same developer Ochre EQ maintains a sweet sound when you boost the high band.
Luftikus by lkjb (Windows and Mac)
Luftikus by lkjb is a very nice free VST EQ that works very much like the Maag EQ 4. It has six fixed bands: 10 Hz, 40 Hz, 160 Hz, 640 Hz, 2.5 kHz, and a high boost band / high shelf where you can choose between five different beginning points in the freqency spectrum (2.5, 5, 10, 20, and 40 kHz). Luftikus has an analog switch that will give you a little extra analog grit and colour. You can use Luftikus in normal mode ot you can switch on the mastering mode that will give you a stepped functionality for the first five frequency bands which comes in handy for mastering tasks. There is a trim for the output volume, or you can turn on the “keep gain” function so you won’t be fooled by differences in loudness when you tweak the equalizer. This is a high quality free VST EQ plugin and it is a valuable tool both for mixing and for mastering purposes.
ColourEQ by DDMF (Windows and Mac)
ColourEQ by DDMF is a very clean free VST eq. The name simply refers to the fact that you can choose between different colours for the GUI. It comes with five bands of ”super parametric” peaking filters, which means that there is one more parameter in addition to the traditional gain/width/frequency set that can influence the curve shape. In other words you can adjust the eq curves in ways that is not possible with a regular graphic equalizer. Further features include: a low cut filter, adjustable GUI colours, freely resizable window size, internal 64 bit processing and low CPU usage.
IIEQ by DDMF (Windows and Mac)
The IIEQ is a fully parametric 10-band free VST equalizer. The 1st and the 10th band are low and high shelf filters, respectively; all other bands are peak filters. Individual bands can be switched on and off. IIEQ comes with different GUIs of which some are available only in 32-bit. If you need an EQ with many bands IIEQ will meet your demands and on top of that it has a very nice sound.
Marvel GEQ by Voxengo (Windows and Mac)
Should you need a linear phase eq for mastering purposes Voxengo Marvel GEQ (graphic equalizer) is an exellent free VST. It is simple to use with its 16 fixed bands, and it gives you the choice of tweaking the mid channel and the channel individually. Marvel GEQ offers extensive internal channel routing capabilities. A very nice free VST from Voxengo – a company that has quite a few free VST plugins on their website. Check them out.
Free Vst For Cubase
16 different EQ plugins
Today the market for VSTeq plugins is saturated and prices have dropped a lot since a company could sell their SSL bundle for over $3000. The marked for new 5 band equalizers is practically gone.
The number of DAW users is higher than ever but that also goes for the number of developers bursting out products.
The value of music has fallen and so has the music production gear used to make it.
The value of music has fallen and so has the music production gear used to make it.
Emulating old analog hardware has been popular and is probably still selling.
This article is about software equalizers and we take a look at 16 of them grouped by following styles
- Solid State Logic
- SSL Native tools based on the famous large console from the late '80s and forward
- Neve
- The fat analog op amp sound from the '70s will always be modern
- Pultec
- An all-valve design with cut and boost on the same bands for different curves
- Modern
- Clean digital software rewriting the take on a user-friendly plugin with a good sound
SSL style
SSL like equalizers are equalizers emulating analog equalizers from the 80's console.
- SSL Native Channelstrip V6
- Metric Halo Channelstrip 3
- Waves 4000
- Native Instruments Solid Series
Neve style
A series of equalizers emulating some of the classic designs by Rupert Neve
- Scheps 73
- VEQ4
- Stillwell Audio 1973
Modern digital style
Modern digital equalizers developed with optimized GUI and multiple bands.
- Izotope Inc EQs
- SSL X-EQ
- Fabfilter eqs
Pultec style
An old analog Valve based design giving unique features and sound
- IK Multimedia EQP 1A
- Nomadfactory AS Pulse
the plugins
Modern eqs with no emulation
Moderne digital plugins that do not try to sound like any old gear has the highest versatility and best GUI options compared to the more or less faithful emulations. Companies like Izotope Inc and SSL have good modern equalizers with a user-friendly GUI.
Fabfilter Pro Q 2 and 3
This has become very popular for its interface and features. Clearly an inspiration for other developers.
- Multiband up to 24 bands
- Mouse scroll Wheel features
- Single-band listen mode
- New and clever GUI
Izoptope inc Neutron (version 2 and 3)
Izotopes extensive channel strips with multiple bands
The plugin is known for its new technology masking feature that connects instances in a network where you can see analysis from other instances as information.
SSL X-EQ
SSL X-EQ and SSL X-EQ2 is a modern multiband plugin like the Fabfilters. High-quality processing with an SSL sound.
The new Version 2 has a unique band parameter pop-up controller where you easily control most band parameters.
SSL X-EQ 2 has a small but well laid out gui and icons pop-up
Free Eq Plugin Vst
Cubase Frequency
Frequency is a good versatile equalizer plugin build into Cubase DAW from version 10 Professional.
This is actually all you need in Cubase
- 8 bands
- Stereo and MS
- Linear option
- Auto listen mode for isolating a band but not quite as elegant as others
- Frequency to note on the keyboard
Like a lot of other Steinberg interfaces it is a bit clumsy but the audio processing results are still good
Neve style eqs
This is a classic brand series defined by the selected fixed frequencies and the band widths
Waves VEQ4
Waves VEQ4 is a cpu lightweight plugin with 4 bands emulating old analog gear.
This plugin is suitable for a full mixer setup emulation an all channels analog rack.
Waves Scheps 73
Scheps 73 is a plugin designed with Andrew Scheps. A high quality tool with distinct analog features emulating the original hardware.
A good emulation but a pretty cpu heavy plugin that might need track freeze if used on multi channels. Use it on the important channels.
Waves API 550B
The 550B plugin is a faithfull emulation of the old 500 format discrete 4 band hardware version by API. With overlapping frequencies the 4 bands is very versatile.
An old plugin but it still has a 550B sound and a low cpu usage/latency for a full 48- or 64 channel mixer setup.
Pultec style eqs
A series of emulated valve equalizers with a unique analog design with cut and boost on the same bands.
IK Multimedia EQP 1A
An emulation of a classic valve unit in a different design. It has boost and cut on the same bands the can form musical curves.
It works well for deep bass work. A good plugin for bass drum deep bumps.
It works well for deep bass work. A good plugin for bass drum deep bumps.
Nomad Factory AS Pulse EQ
It sounds fine but the GUI is a little less readable compared to the IK EQP 1A.
SSL style eqs
The SSL is a series of great tools with a certain sound that can do it all
SSL Native Channelstrip V6
SSL Channelstrip V6 is a great plugin that contains an emulation of the channelstrip from 4000 E and G series mixer sections. Sound close to the real console.
Metric Halo Channelstrip 3
An old but still good channelstrip with a SSL like sound with good performance. One of the most CPU efficient of the plugins mentioned here.
Waves SSL 4000
SSL 4000 e was probably the first SSL 4000 emulation done in software. A very cpu lightweight plugin but it has a little latency. The never CLA MixHub has even more of the SSL sound including preamp modeling.
Nomad Analog Studio Rack State EQ
A Nomad Factory version of an analog SSL E strip from the 80´s. The GUI is a bit small but it sounds good.
No VST3 support.
SSL 4000 Channelstrip E
An old plugin emulation of the SSL 4000 E and G. Very lightweight but also very old and overrun by others but if you already own this one, use it.
This tool has a bit of latency but very low cpu usage.
Native Instruments Solid EQ
This another bread and butter SSL design from Native Instruments. the GUI is a bit small on a large screen but it has the standard features and easy switch between e and g versions of the design. Zero-latency and a low CPU usage makes this a useful plugin for large projects.
CPU Usage
CPU usage and latency can sometimes be a factor in the process before final mixing. When composing a latency-free setup is much more playable than a setup with latency.
The following image is a screen dump with relative CPU usage comparing 16 equalizers and lower is better.
CPU usage and latency metering from Reaper Daw. Equalizers.
# FX is the number of insert VST plugins in the channel. PDC is Plugin Delay Compensation.
It is good to have a few very CPU lightweight options for composing and other pre-final mixing tasks. According to the CPU usage meter in the image above the Fabfilter equalizer is amazingly low and makes this a no brainer.
When to use what
In a practical reality, most software eqs can solve most tasks but some are better and easier than others. Fixed frequency bands might help the rookies or give a certain character.
There are in fact very few situations where you need to buy a certain plugin.
Plugin selection strategies
Different plugin strategies to go for:
- Stay with the build-in DAWs equalizers
- All professional audio workstations are made with what you need for professional mixing
- Go for what you have
- Have at least one plugin in every category in the toolbox
- Ignore the analog emulation jungle and use one modern 'can do it all' plugin
- Whenever you are bored or stuck, buy a new plugin
- This is a popular but expensive and emotional strategy. Not exactly advisable but too much is never enough
Conclusion
There is not a plugin mentioned in this article that you should not use. All of them have their use. The newer products are of cause the best in audio quality but also tend to be more most CPU requiring some of the older emulation plugins are still useable.
Other similar articles
For similar articles on different tools check out these: