New Producer Drops: Plugins, Gear & DAW Updates

fedDSP dropped RAIJU, a zero-latency saturator for macOS and Windows, free until August 20th before it goes to its normal 30 pound price tag. Zero-latency matters more than people give it credit for - anything you can leave on a bus without fighting phase issues is worth grabbing while it's free. I'd throw this on a drum bus just to see how it reacts to 808s before the deal ends.

Zrythm's v2 alpha is out for public testing, and it's still one of the more interesting free/open-source DAWs going. Free DAWs come and go, get abandoned, get rebranded - Zrythm sticking around long enough to hit a real v2 alpha says something about the team behind it. Not something I'd move a whole session into yet, but worth poking at if you're curious how the open-source side of production tools is holding up.

PSP Audioware also launched BBDelay, an analog-inspired delay and ambience processor modeled after vintage BBD hardware. PSP's been on a run lately after last month's Levelizer, and BBDelay looks like their most ambitious effects release in a while. Vintage-modeled delays like this are usually where the character lives - worth a demo if you're chasing tape-style ambience without buying actual hardware.

What I'm actually running right now

Still leaning on a clean saturator early in the chain before anything else touches the signal - RAIJU is going straight into that slot this week while it's free.

What's worth downloading this week

Grab RAIJU before the free window closes on August 20th, and keep an eye on Zrythm if you're into open-source tools. If you need a mix or master pulled together instead of just chasing new plugins, book a mixing or mastering session at owlspec.com/services.