Best New Music Plugins This Week: Editors’ Picks

This weekly round-up highlights the best new music plugins this week, presenting both free and paid options for music production enthusiasts seeking recently released tools. It lists newly released plug-ins from the current week and includes pricing, introductory and upgrade information where those details are provided by the vendors or developers, including educational discount notices when applicable.

The compilation reports technical features, effects, workflow updates and preset or patch additions documented in the release notes for each plug-in, and it also organizes those entries so readers can review functional changes and availability across freeware and commercial offerings during the week.

Abyss 2 adds a timbral extraction engine that reconstructs any incoming sound as a ‘palette’ of tone colours, and the release also introduces a polyrhythmic sequencer, a four-slot effects chain that provides 20 effects, workflow improvements throughout the interface, and a library of more than 200 new presets for users to select.

Pricing information details an introductory price of £69 and a full price of £119, with upgrade pricing set at £35 and a full upgrade price of £60, reflecting the separate purchase paths specified for the product.

The plugin is available from Dawesome for purchase through the vendor’s store.

Memorymode 2 introduces updates in analogue modelling that enhance the accuracy of oscillators, filters, and envelopes, optimizing the audio quality for producers. The plugin adds three independent effects chains, featuring a total of 22 studio-quality effects, broadening the creative options for users. Notably, it also supports polyphonic aftertouch and MPE, offering a richer expressive capability for musicians. The redesigned preset browser enhances user experience by providing easier navigation and selection of sound presets.

The pricing for Memorymode 2 is set at $69, with upgrade pricing options available for existing owners, accommodating those who previously purchased earlier versions.

Continuum by JMG Sound

Continuum by JMG Sound features two identical but independent delay engines, each offering three delay models labelled Tape, BBD and Digital. The user interface exposes a Mojo parameter alongside Crossfeed and Diffuse all-pass filters.

The plugin provides modulation and damping options as part of its delay processing and includes an intelligent randomisation button intended for generating starting points. Pricing is listed with an introductory price of £13 and a full price of £68.

Need somewhere to start? Use the intelligent randomisation button.

Smart:chain by Sonible is an AI-assisted, intelligent channel strip. It combines EQ, compression, de-harshing, gating, input riding, saturation and leveling into a single processor. The plugin’s processors can analyse and communicate across instances to enable cohesive mixing across multiple channels. Pricing is listed with an introductory price of £85 and a full price of £149, and a 40% education discount is available.

BassXtend by Codwaves generates harmonics intended to make 808s, synths, bass guitars and kicks more perceptible on small speakers. The harmonic generation targets low-frequency elements to improve their presence on small speaker systems. The plugin exposes four controls labelled Intensity, Root, gain trim and Low Band In/Out. Pricing is listed with an introductory price of £9 and a full price of £14.

CONCLUSION

This round-up covered five new plugins: Abyss 2, Memorymode 2, Continuum, Smart:chain and BassXtend, and lists their reported feature sets and pricing. Abyss 2 adds a timbral extraction engine that reconstructs incoming sounds as a ‘palette’ of tone colours, includes a polyrhythmic sequencer, a four-slot effects chain with 20 effects, workflow improvements and more than 200 new presets, and is priced at an introductory £69 and a full price of £119 with upgrade options at £35 and a full upgrade price of £60. Memorymode 2 updates analogue modelling for more accurate oscillators, filters and envelopes, adds three independent effects chains with 22 studio-quality effects, supports polyphonic aftertouch and MPE, features a redesigned preset browser, and is priced at $69 with upgrade pricing available for existing owners. Continuum provides two identical but independent delay engines with Tape, BBD and Digital models, a Mojo parameter, Crossfeed and Diffuse all-pass filters, modulation and damping options and an intelligent randomisation button, and is priced at an introductory £13 and a full price of £68. Smart:chain is an AI-assisted channel strip combining EQ, compression, de-harshing, gating, input riding, saturation and leveling with inter-instance analysis and communication, priced at an introductory £85 and a full price of £149 with a 40% education discount; BassXtend generates harmonics for 808s, synths, bass guitars and kicks with four controls labelled Intensity, Root, gain trim and Low Band In/Out and is priced at an introductory £9 and a full price of £14. The available sources state Abyss 2 is available from Dawesome and do not provide platform availability details for the other plugins.