The 10 Best Free Analyzing Plugins For Music Production

Sometimes a pair of ears is not enough to know what is going on in your track. In that case, analyzing plugins are a real lifesaver! But why pay for them if you can get some free good ones as well?

StereoTool v3 by Flux

(Windows/Mac)

Not all of us have the trained ears and the equipment to listen to the stereo image of your track and make mixing decisions based on your perception. Luckily, there is the StereoTool v3 goniometer to help you with that. StereoTool v3 has quite a fast release time, so it also gives you a great insight in the movements in the stereo field within a beat or a bar.

http://www.fluxhome.com/products/freewares/stereotool-v3

SignalAnalyzer by RS-MET

(Windows)

When it comes to no-nonsense analyzer plugins, SignalAnalyzer is here for you! It can show you the signal and the spectrum of your track and it has independent x and y zooming options. The straight-forward design has no additional lines or fancy backgrounds, and the plugin has an incredibly low CPU usage.

http://rs-met.com/freebies.html

SPAN by Voxengo

(Windows/Mac)

Span is an advanced spectrum analyzer. It has more options than SignalAnalyzer (like Mid/Side analysis), but uses more CPU (although not a gigantic amount) and is slightly less straight-forward. SPAN is the Swiss Army Knife of spectral analysis. A must-have!

Also available as an even-more advanced paid version: SPAN Plus

Free: http://www.voxengo.com/product/span/

Paid: http://www.voxengo.com/product/spanplus/

s(M)exoscope by Bram and Sean @Smartelectronix

(Windows/Mac)

S(M)exoscope is a high-quality oscilloscope (waveform visualizer) for Windows and Mac. You can choose if you want to visualise the right or left channel. The freeze-function helps you to analyze the waveform without continuously repeating the audio signal. Suitable for both macro zoom and close zoom.

http://bram.smartelectronix.com/plugins.php?id=4

SPEK

(Windows/Mac/Unix/Linux)

Technically not a plugin, but still a good piece of software. SPEK (Dutch for bacon, hence the pig icon) is a simple yet powerful standalone application that gives you a lot of information about the frequency content in your track. This spectrometer also enables you to visually compare your mix to a reference track.

http://spek.cc/

TrackMeter by RS-MET

(Windows)

Often, the level meter in most DAWs only gives you information about the left and right channel. TrackMeter gives you a little more than that: left, right, mid and side level metering with customised ballistics (rise and fall time) and a correlation meter.

http://rs-met.com/freebies.html

MIDI monitor by RS-MET

(Windows)

Already the third plugin by RS-MET on this list! MIDI Monitor however, is a little different. Unlike the other analyzing plugins discussed in this list, MIDI monitor (the name says it all) displays the MIDI input the plugin receives. This can be a real timesaver when troubleshooting! Available as an instrument and effect plugin.

http://rs-met.com/freebies.html

MLoudnessAnalyzer by MeldaProduction

(Windows/Mac)

MeldaProduction, a company which is known to create the most advanced and simple plugins at the same time, developed a free loudness analyzer. It supports M/S, single channel and even surround processing.

https://www.meldaproduction.com/plugins/product.php?id=MLoudnessAnalyzer

MStereoScope by MeldaProduction

(Windows/Mac)

MStereoScope is just like StereoToolv3 by Flux. The main difference is that StereoToolv3 has more options to change the sound, and MStereoScope has some additional meters. MStereoScope also has the option to solo the left, right, mid or side channel.

https://www.meldaproduction.com/plugins/product.php?id=MStereoScope

Sonogram SG-1 by ag-works

(Windows)

This plugin does all it should do: analyzing the frequency content. Unlike spectrum analyzers like SPAN, Sonogram SG-1 shows the frequency content on the Y-axis and time on the X-axis (the brightness represents the intensity). Features independent zooming options, audio marking and a freeze function.

http://ag-works.net/plugins.sg1.htm

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