Poortec, BasiQ 2, Carnage Distortion: Free Plugins of the Week
5,0 / 5,0 | 
Poortec by Analog Obsession is more than the “poor man’s Pultec”: a free emulation of everyone’s favorite EQ with a few tricks up its sleeve! This week’s collection of freebies also features an updated Baxandall EQ and a seriously frightening distortion plugin.
Free Plugins of the Week
Analog Obsession Poortec: The Poor Man’s Pultec?
The name, color, and labeling easily give it away: Poortec by Analog Obsession is of course heavily inspired by the famous Pultec EQP-1A tube equalizer. But the developer says that it’s “not just another Pultec”. That’s because he left out the Pultec’s SRPP gain stage and inductors and instead added a Fairchild-type line amplifier to boost the signal after the passive EQ.
The controls are familiar. Like any proper Pultec emulation, Poortec has a low-frequency band with simultaneous boost and attenuation. The high-frequency band can also boost and cut at the same time, but Poortec lacks the bandwidth control of the original.
In the bottom right corner, there are two small trim pots. TP controls the gain stage circuit and lets you add extra drive to your signal. The other knob is a master output level control.
Poortec is available for macOS and Windows in VST3, AU, and AAX formats.
Kuassa BasiQ 2: The Free Baxandall EQ Gets an Update
Kuassa has updated the free BasiQ equalizer plugin. The new version is still a simple 3-band Baxandall EQ designed for effortless tone shaping. But it comes with a shiny new GUI and a couple of new features.
BasiQ 2 offers dark and light modes and can be used in portrait or landscape orientation. The GUI is also resizable. More importantly, the plugin now includes a pair of low pass and high pass filters, making it easy to get rid of unwanted frequencies in your tracks. It’s also now got a preset management system with A/B comparisons.
BasiQ 2 is available for macOS and Windows in VST, VST3, AU, and AAX formats. A Reason Rack Extension is coming soon.
Zayne Carnage Distortion: Destroy Your Sound
The name and GUI leave no doubt about it: Carnage Distortion by Zayne is all about destroying your sound. This free distortion plugin uses a variety of waveshapers and distortion modules to turn your audio into a pile of rubble and add “nasty harmonics”.
Where are the knobs, you ask? Simply move your cursor around the frightening GUI and see what you can find. With so many scary things to discover, total destruction is only a click away.
Carnage Distortion is available for macOS and Windows in VST3 and AU formats.
Looking for more free plugins like Poortec, BasiQ 2, and Carnage Distortion? Check out our archive!
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One response to “Poortec, BasiQ 2, Carnage Distortion: Free Plugins of the Week”
More “slap on a familiar gui , re-use the same harmonic algorithm used on every other plugin, and claim this emulates something” nonsense.