United Plugins is running an intro sale on the new FrontDAW 3 plugin, which is currently available for €15 (69% off the usual price of €49). Additionally, a feature-limited but 100% free mode is available for engineers on a budget.
Before we check out the new FrontDAW 3 saturation tool, let’s quickly examine the so-called “Second-Hand Edition,” which is free to use.
A full-featured 15-day free trial of FrontDAW 3 on Mac and Windows allows you to try the plugin without spending money. Once the trial ends, you can keep using the plugin for free, but limited functionality kicks in at this point.
On the restricted free version, you can only edit the input gain, although you can load the presets and load other users’ settings and presets in projects.
The free mode is illustrated in the screenshot at the top of this page. You can see that some of the knobs from the full version are missing.
Soundevice Digital’s tagline for Front DAW is that it can “turn your DAW mixer into an analog desk.”
English producer Greg Brimson started the project, which was developed by Soundevice Digital and distributed by United Plugins.
United Plugins stated that Brimson “approached us with his idea for a dream plugin.” His idea was to “Create a front door for every recording so that every track would have a true analog input.”
If you’re wondering what exactly that means, well, United Plugins has helpfully provided seven demos on the product page, where you can toggle between wet and dry signals to hear what the plugin can do.
At the core of Front DAW is the Variable Analogue Random Modeling (VARM) technology.
The VARM II tech is “based on knowledge of chaotic behavior and randomness of the analog world.”
Due to VARM II, each plugin instance acts slightly differently. The developer asserts that it “models randomness of the subtle differences in the values of the electrical parts – exactly as in the real electrical units and the real console channels.”
Front DAW offers five types of saturation, which are accessed via the BR, MG, US, CL, and GE buttons at the top of the interface.
BR gives you access to a classic fat British console sound, US a punchy American-style input, and GE a velvet-sounding vintage German tube console. Lastly, the MG and CL buttons represent magnetic tape and clip saturation.
Once you’ve chosen your saturation, then you can dial it in with the Mojo knob, which is designed to have a subtle curve to make it easy to use on many tracks simultaneously.
Check out the product page to see the full raft of features.
Front DAW is a 64-bit-only release for VST, VST3, AU and AAX.
Check out the deal: Front DAW (69% off – $15 / 15-day FREE trial)
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3 Comments
DEN VENN
onI think “Clip-Mode” is a good comparison to the Smash-Clipper from Acustica-Audio.Third- and with more drive some Fith-Harmonics at a hard-knee curve at the threshold.
Good for punchy drumcomputers.
Cork Sniffer
onWhat the heck? I’m not going to use SECOND-HAND equipment in a DAW! IT’S MISSING KNOBS GODDAMMIT!
L
onEasy pass