Plugin Alliance has today released a new free plug-in. The Brainworx bx_subfilter is designed to be the easiest way to tighten and pronounce a sound's low-end. This is a free plugin that borrows from the "Filter" section of its larger counterpart, the bx_subsynth and becomes the 6th free plug-in from the Plugin Alliance stable.

What Does It Do?

From the bx_synth manual the Tight Punch control is a  sixth-order resonant Butterworth highpass filter at the input to attenuate lower frequencies and emphasise punch at the cutoff
frequency and is particularly great when shaping drums or other percussive elements. Switches off at most counter-clockwise position.

The Low End controls the total bass output.  Setting it to a positive value has the same behaviour as the original LF Boost knob on the hardware. It boosts the signal at around ~55 Hz. Setting it to a negative value is a plugin-specific feature and adds a cut filter feature.

How Can It Help? 

Polishing a mix’s low end can be tricky. Bass guitar DI tracks can sound ‘mushy’ and kick drum tracks can lose their ‘pop’, and you can find yourself with a mix where everything below 100Hz can become such an undifferentiated ‘soup’ of noise making it is difficult to know just where to start.

Cleaning up troublesome low frequencies need not break the bank, nor need it be an overly-complicated EQ’ing exercise, thanks to the free bx_subfilter.

It is actually a resonant high-pass filter that changes dramatically with frequency, designed by Dirk Ulrich, the owner of Brainworx, to solve the specific problem of tightening a sound’s core while removing unwanted muddiness from the low end. It has been designed to be easy to use featuring four knobs only.

Of those, Tight Punch controls a resonant high-pass filter that is specifically formulated for cutting problem frequencies in bass-heavy tracks while the Low-End control applies a post-Tight Punch shelving EQ to achieve a perfect frequency-balanced sound. Gain In and Gain Out controls are available for level matching and preventing clipping.

When you sign up at Plugin Alliance you will get instant access to the bx_subfilter, along with five other free plugins from Plugin Alliance. No dongles, no hassles, and no payment required.