Clark Audio offers the Textures plugin as a FREE to download for digital audio workstations macOS and Windows. The software works in all major DAWs, excluding Pro Tools.
Textures previously sold for $39, but it’s now free and a no-brainer for composers and sound designers.
Clark Audio Textures is a tool that adds character to your sound by allowing you to overlay it with various textures. Those textures can be vinyl crackle or tape noise if you want the classic lo-fi sound or ambient noise, like rain, from natural environments, and so on.
There are 75 textures in total, providing a wide range of exclusive presets.
Texture types include:
- Foley
- Mechanical
- Nature
- Soundscape
- Tape
- Vinyl
We all know that sometimes the smallest thing can take a sound from uninspiring to perfect. Annoyingly, it’s easy to waste time changing the core qualities of the sound when all it needed was a little added texture.
I’m not gearing up to tell you that Clark Audio has paid me to say Textures is the best thing I’ve ever seen, don’t worry. But, I can see how it could be very useful to people who compose/produce on a very regular basis. I’m thinking of beatmakers and media composers most.
For beatmakers, you have the lo-fo style that never seems to go out of fashion. You also have a lot of suggested imagery in Hip Hop (more than man other genres), like rain or impact FX.
Then, for media composers, that goes even further because you are directly pairing audio with visuals in one way or another.
Typically, I’d say you don’t want to be too obvious in media composing, but sometimes you do, and Textures could be a potential shortcut to the finish line.
Beyond the 75 presets, Textures features an EQ Panel and Effect Panel.
The High-Pass and Low-Pass EQ Panel allow you to directly manipulate the chosen texture.
The Effect Panel features a WOW flutter effect and a reverb effect. The WOW flutter effect helps emulate the character of vintage turntables or an old tape machine.
Textures is a nice little freebie that could significantly impact your sound with little effort.
Download: Clark Audio Textures (64-bit VST3/AU plugin format for Windows & macOS)
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15 Comments
frozenjaZz
onWell, this is really nice that it is free now. Had not heard about it yet.
I bought Noize2 by Denise some time ago, that allows to do exactly the same, without wow control, but with more control on the raise and fall of the texture, making it way more powerful.
Before that I was using Beatskillz That thing that does also something similar https://www.beatskillz.com/shop/that-thing/
Nice tools, easier that having to add the texture on a separate track and control it with a sidechain to make it play only when the main instrument is playing. Funny to see in the comments of the video that some people would like the sound…. not to stop. They just want .. the textures :) It was the nice thing about “that thing” => the textures are available in wav format, so I reuse it now in Noize 2 :)
Tomislav Zlatic
onYeah, Noize2 is a bit more advanced. But Textures is free now, so it’s definitely worth a look. :)
Brenny C
onVery cool! I was just reading about Clark Audio yesterday; I’d never heard of them. It’s crazy that the day after, they release one of their plugins for free!
I have Beatskillz’s That Thing but this one looks simple, clean and well worth the download.
Thanks Clark Audio and BPB!
Brenny C
onI saw the comment section of that video as well. Lol too funny. If people want actual texture samples there are plenty out there! Really silly complaint tbh.
I don’t have the Denise Audio plugin that you’re talking about but I’m not a fan of the dev, the GUIs are clean but unappealing to me and their plugs are overpriced for what you get IMO. I do have That Thing from Beatskillz and, while it’s okay, I’m not crazy about it and rarely use it in any of my tracks.
So Textures just might be what I’m looking for. It’s simple to use, has a clean and modern GUI and sounds good from the sound examples I’ve heard. And it’s free!
To each his own of course, but personally I’m looking forward to having this one in my arsenal!
mx
onthere is one more thing to know about this plugin:
it comes with a little additional encryptor program, that changes wav-files to the plugin-own format *.texture.
so you can use your own textures if you put this new file into the data-folder of the plugin in the same way like the included textures.
just follow the folder structure of the included files, and they will pop up in the plugin menu later.
Uriah Findley
onThank you SO much for clarifying that! I figured that was what it was for but I was a bit stumped on how to use it specifically.
bird
onIs anyone else getting a dropbox error when trying to download for Mac?
Alex
onYep, same. Not sure if it’s Mac specific. Maybe you’re right.
Alex Yac
onWebsite DL hosting seems to be down.
Satyabrata
onDropbox link not working
GSF0813
onOh,but today it’s working!
Gotno
onyep none of the free download links are working at the moment. Not Mac or Win. They’ll get it sorted out ;)
Michal Ochedowski
onWaves Platinum bundle is for 99.99 USD once again. It’s a 24 hour flash sale, if anyone regrets not getting it for the same price last year.
joshmelo
onPlugin not showing up in my DAW’s, bummer.
CoopMusic247
onIt didn’t work at first through dropbox, but now they send you a link and it works on mega.