21 Of The Best Multi-Effects Audio Plugins 2021

1. DS Audio Tantra

Tantra is a powerful rhythmic multi-effects processor, based around a set of 8 multi-stage envelope generators (MSEGs) and 6 main effects modules – Filter, Distortion, Delay, Lofi, Flanger, Glitch (plus additional EQ and Reverb sections at the bottom, and a Tremolo at the top for rhythmic volume modulation).

One aspect that makes Tantra stand out is the sheer sonic quality of the processing — it sounds modern and crisp but retains depth too, it’s not “plastic” or toy-like, and has a level of complexity and detail in the presets that is inspiring and easy to adapt to suit your own material once you get your head around how everything is set up and interacts.

The other cool parts of Tantra are the excellent routing and randomisation features. The order of the effects modules can be changed quickly with simple drag and drop for fast experimentation, and the effects are organised into two independent layers for even more organic complexity when desired.

Tantra’s randomisation dice icons, one for each of the effects and for each envelope generator, are ideal for generating a literally limitless supply of happy accidents and textural and rhythmic variations.

Everything is geared towards fast and easy experimentation — the name of the game with multi-effects — but the fine control options are definitely there when you want to really finesse a complex patch. Not many plugins pull off this balance as well as Tantra does. Recommended!

DS Audio developer Dmitry Sches is also responsible for a couple of great synth plugins, Diversion and Thorn, which are also both excellent-sounding and innovative, and worth checking out too if you like the look of Tantra.

Available for: Mac, PC | VST, AU, AAX

2. XLN Audio RC-20 Retro Color

RC-20 is such a versatile tool. Whether you’re working on the slightly warped and frayed sounds of modern pop, hip hop and trap; rock of either modern or vintage flavours; or especially anything electronic from VHS-wobbly synthwave to scuffed up techno, RC-20 is like a Swiss army knife for adding just the right types and amounts of grime.

In use, it’s fast and streamlined — it used to take whole chains of separate effects to produce the  array of nuanced, grungy, processed colours that RC-20 churns out easily. I might consider it a secret weapon for adding character if it wasn’t already pretty popular!

Available for: Mac, PC | VST, AU, AAX

3. Soundtoys Effect Rack

The Soundtoys bundle has been an unusual constant in music production tool kits for years, and for good reason. Effect Rack is a plugin that allows you to load all of the other Soundtoys plugins into it, thereby creating processing chains all within a single shared interface, and with some additional controls like the Input and Output knobs at the top, which are very handy for managing your gain staging.

One major benefit of this is the ability to save and recall presets that feature several different Soundtoys plugins, which would otherwise require you to save the chain as an effects chain preset in your DAW. So if you find yourself always using some combination of Echoboy, Decapitator and Filterfreak, for example, save some presets in Effect Rack and you can quickly and easily organise and modify your effects like you would with a single multi-effects processor.

Another great and perhaps little-known feature of Effect Rack is that you can feed the output back into the input with the Recycle knob, creating the kind of feedback loops that were often a source of great dubby sound design effects in the days of mostly analogue studios, but which are not always possible using the default routing options in most fully-digital DAW environments. So if you want to get Echoboy or Primal Tap generating infinitely evolving delay lines while also sending them round and round through Crystallizer, PhaseMistress and the rest, check out Effect Rack.

Effect Rack is available as its own bundle package, featuring 14 of the 19 total plugins that are included in the full Soundtoys 5 bundle, which is a very good deal.

Available for: Mac, PC | VST, AU, AAX

4. Cableguys ShaperBox 2

ShaperBox brings together seven separate effects into a single interface, all with the same visual LFO-envelope style of defining how each effect is applied to the signal over time. With rhythmic control over Time (slowing or accelerating the sound), Filter, Pan, Volume, Width, Crush and Drive (various flavours of distortion), you have a huge range of creative options all available within a deceptively simple mode of operation.

The visual aspect is so much fun to play with, and as with any of the best multi-effects plugins on our list, the way that the effects can be easily combined and stacked is where some real magic can happen when designing and processing your sounds.

Available for: Mac, PC | VST, AU

5. Baby Audio Spaced Out

While maybe at first glance “just” a reverb plugin (albeit a cool looking one), Spaced Out also features a treasure-trove of modulation effects algorithms under the hood, a 16-step delay sequencer in an enticing cube configuration that invites experimentation, and vast sonic flexibility that easily qualify it as a multi-effect for discussion here.

Much like the other excellent plugins in the small-but-rapidly-expanding Baby Audio range, Spaced Out has a clean and intuitive user interface with a very well-considered selection of a few tweakable manual controls. In use, the range and quality of sounds you can get out of Spaced Out is far greater than the relatively streamlined controls might suggest, and goes far beyond basic reverb applications and into inspiring textural sound design craziness. Highly recommended!

Available for: Mac, PC | VST, VST3, AU, AAX, RTAS

6. Output Movement

LA-based Output are well-known for their expressive and cinematically-geared plugin instruments, and Movement was their first outright effects processor plugin. The core concept is simple: you can blend the source signal with any combination of Movement’s 4 rhythm engines that each feature sidechains, LFOs and step sequencers as modulation methods.

The ideal balance can be found by sweeping around the XY pad, which shifts the blend between the two pairs of rhythm engines on each side of the GUI. You can also assign the 8 available effects to the XY pad, opening up some very cool possibilities for morphing through complex shifts in the sound with a single stroke of the mouse (also great for quick automation).

Movement is designed to apply rhythmic effects to any kind of input source while always remaining musical, whether you’re after subtle, er, movement, or much more full-on, warping craziness. There are 300+ presets to get you started and show you just how interesting the effects can get.

Available for: Mac, PC | VST, VST3, AU, AAX

7. Sugar Bytes Turnado

Both Turnado and Effectrix are two of our go-to, all-time favourite multi-effect plugins.

Turnado centres around 8 large knobs that can each be assigned one of the library of effects on the left and then dialled in to get unique combinations. This one was designed with live performance in mind, but it’s equally effective — and ridiculously fun — in the studio too, for experimenting and coming up with every-crazier iterations of mangled drum loops, synth sounds, vocals and anything else you can think of. No wonder it’s a favourite of master electronic experimenter Flume, amongst many others.

By contrast, Effectrix uses a looping step sequencer, and you can just paint in the blocks/steps that you want to be processed by the corresponding effect in each coloured lane. It’s a great way to quickly build up layers of interacting effects to build deceptively complex or nuanced rhythmic processing: perfect for obvious glitchy drum fills or more subtle grace notes and ear candy to enliven a dull loop, melody or bassline.

At the bottom, you can tweak each of the 14 effects in Effectrix to your liking; there’s also a Modulator Track where you can assign a couple of parameters on each effect to random or smoothly developing shifts. I overlooked this feature for a long while when first using Effectrix, but it can be the secret ingredient to really original effects and I always use this aspect now. (You can of course also use regular automation in your DAW to sequence certain parameter movements if you want to do it that way as well).

Again, a simple concept with a surprising amount of power and flexibility once you dig into all the available features and controls.

Available for: Mac, PC | VST, AU, AAX

8. Unfiltered Audio TRIAD

The original BYOME (“Build Your Own Modular Effect”) basically bolts Unfiltered Audio’s famously flexible modulation system onto a library of over 40 individual effect modules, many of which are pulled directly from their other fantastic individual effects plugins.

BYOME already presented a real sound designers playground of limitless options to dive into, but Unfiltered Audio had no plans to stop developing the concept there. The bigger brother of BYOME is TRIAD, which adds multi-band operation: so now you can also split the incoming signal into multiple bands, and process each frequency range with its own independent effects chain and modulation. This is great for adding different amounts or flavours of distortion to different frequency ranges, for example, or adding reverb and delay to only specific ranges while keeping the rest clean to avoid blurring and muddying up the sound.

You can currently buy these two in a massively discounted bundle at Plugin Alliance for a short time, so definitely take advantage while it lasts!

Available for: Mac, PC | VST, VST3, AU, AAX

9. Eventide H3000 Factory

Eventide are responsible for many firsts in digital signal processing and some truly iconic effects units, such as the H910 and H949 Harmonizers, the Omnipressor, the Instant Phaser and Flanger, and the SP2016 reverb. And we couldn’t do a rundown of multi-effects plugins without mentioning the O.G., the Eventide H3000 Ultra-Harmonizer hardware unit: the very first commercially available digital multi-effects box.

The H3000 Factory plugin is the closest Eventide have come to porting the legendary power of the hardware into a single plugin form. With over 450 presets, the H3000 Factory literally has a setting for any aspect of a mix or sound design project, perhaps most notably the MicroPitchShift preset that quickly became a favourite of pro producers and has since been spun off into multiple other Eventide machines and plugins (including the recent dedicated MicroPitch plugin, of course!), and has provided the basis or inspiration for many plugins from other developers too.

The H3000 Factory is included in the fantastic Anthology XI bundle (one of our 20 best plugin bundles), and is still arguably the best way to mess with the full scope of that idiosyncratic Eventide magic inside the box. However, if you want to gain access to the other algorithms pioneered by Eventide with the H3000 (the Factory plugin centres around 4 of the hardware’s 21 algorithms), check out the H9 Plugin Series effects like CrushStation, Crystals and MangledVerb, that each represent another famous algorithm or preset and can be bought separately or together in the H9 Plugin Series Bundle.

We have to also mention UltraReverb here, since it’s one of my personal go-to sound design/mix plugins for it’s unusual reverb + delay + compressor feature set (in fact, borrowed from the more recent Eventide H9000 hardware). Having these three processors together in the same clean interface makes it fast and effective for dialling in workhorse sounds with some very cool twists when desired. It’s surprising how large a range of effects can be produced with this smart combo, and I’d definitely recommend checking it out.

Available for: Mac, PC | VST, VST3, AU, AAX

10. Native Instruments Molekular

Created in a collaboration between Native Instruments and fellow Germans Zynaptiq (whose Wormhole plugin you can find later in this list), Molekular is their take on a slick modular effects system featuring 35 individual effects from spectral shifters and comb filters to filterbanks and flangers, that you can select, chain and modulate in any combination you choose.

A bit like Outputs Movement plugin listed above, Molekular has a section for setting up LFO, envelope, logic and step-style modulation of effects parameters, and a cool central Morpher panel where you can introduce tons of motion by blending between 4 different effects snapshots.

Molekular runs inside Reaktor or the free Reaktor Player, and of course it’s also fully integrated to work with NI’s Maschine, so you can be effortlessly tweaking those Morpher settings with real hardware knobs in no time if you’re a Maschine user.

Available for: Mac, PC | VST, AU, AAX

11. iZotope / Exponential Audio Excalibur

Excalibur is a complete effects toolbox from the mind behind Exponential Audio’s highly regarded reverbs, which are now part of the iZotope stable but slightly confusingly retain the Exponential branding (since iZotope acquired Exponential Audio in 2019).

It is based around 4 independent Voice modules, which can be combined or sent to modulate each other in a number of very flexible ways. While not the most intuitive processor to get going with straight away, there are a lot of great presets to get you going quickly, and once you do get your head around how the Voices can be stacked, separated, or fed into each other, its power and potential become very apparent.

And obviously, if you know anything about Exponential Audio and their reverbs, you know that its going to sound fantastic. See, I didn’t include any dodgy King Arthur puns once!

Available for: Mac, PC | VST, VST3, AU, AAX

12. Glitchmachines Fracture XT

Fracture XT is an enhanced version of their free plugin Fracture, featuring better buffer, delay and multi-mode filter algorithms, and a whole new granular processor.

The combination of these three modules together is surprisingly versatile, and you’re able to coax everything from the expected noisy glitched stuttering to more moody drone ambiences and fine-to-course textures that would suit a lot of different styles.

The patchbay section at the bottom really invites modular-style sonic experimentation, and the many randomise buttons sprinkled throughout the interface further encourage the creation of happy accidents and intriguing sound design that you never would have thought to aim for.

Pro tip: Insert Fracture XT on an audio track loaded with a quick set of random drum, pad and melody loops; Set up another audio track to record the output of the first one, hit play, and then jam away on Fracture XT for a few minutes as the playhead moves through your assorted loops and sounds…

Available for: Mac, PC | VST, AU

13. illformed Glitch2

One of the original and still one of the greatest glitch plugins, Glitch2 packs a huge amount of sonic potential into a ridiculously fun package.

A little like Sugar Bytes Effectrix mentioned above, Glitch2 works with a series of sequencer lanes that each correspond to one of an array of different effects over on the left. The effects can be combined, layered and reordered, and each one can be tweaked and modulated in the lower pane.

It’s great value, from an independent developer, is good for both live and studio use, and would actually be useful for a lot of styles beyond the obvious glitched-out electronica, like modern trap, pop and future bass production with it’s Tape Stop and Retrigger effects, for example. Check out this extended demo/walkthrough below for examples of what it can do:

14. Melda Productions MXXX / MXXXCore

Melda Productions have been steadily redefining how high-end plugins are supposed to look and behave for a few years now, with their characteristically clear and businesslike (in a good way!) interfaces paired with pristine sound and very innovative feature implementations.

MXXX is their crown jewel of effects, and quite possibly the most powerful entry on our list, featuring all of their other individual effects housed in a single plugin interface with 500+ presets. The 70+ individual effects can be combined in any combination using MXXX’s modular-style routing matrix, and then further modulated from there. You’re pretty much guaranteed never to run out of inspiration with this one.

It’s a sound designers paradise, but for those who understandably don’t have the budget to buy this plugin behemoth outright, Melda have also produced MXXXCore: a streamlined version that still features a huge number of extremely good effects and all of the other modulation functionality of the full version, but at a fraction of the price. You can even purchase any of the other effects you end up missing from the full version separately, if you want, and they’ll be made available within MXXXCore. An excellent way to tailor your multi-effects palette as you develop your skills and budget allows.

Available for: Mac, PC | VST, VST3, AU, AAX

15. Kilohearts Multipass

Kilohearts pioneered their own system of individual effects plugins that can be used as modular effect pieces within any of their larger host plugins, which include the Phase Plant synth, the free Snap Heap and this one, Multipass.

Multipass is particularly cool because of its multiband capabilities, meaning you can split the signal into up to 5 separate frequency bands and then process each band with any number of Snapin effects. The creative potential of this is obvious, as you can achieve extremely complex and nuanced, frequency-specific processing of a broadband source sound that would be quite difficult to do with other individual plugin effects and DAW routing.

If you become a fan of the Kilohearts Snapin system, you’ll no doubt eventually be looking at the Toolbox Ultimate bundle which includes all of their Snapin effects. While it’s an investment, you can use them in Phase Plant and of course standalone like regular effects plugins, so for many users it will be a very cost-effective solution in the long run to gain access to, potentially, all the effects and processor types you could need.

Available for: Mac, PC | VST, AU, AAX

16. Native Instruments Guitar Rig 6 Pro

Guitar amp simulators like Guitar Rig, as well as obviously being fun and useful tools for actual guitarists, have long been creatively misused by electronic producers of every stripe looking to bring some of that rock ‘n’ roll unpredictability, drive, grit and noise to liven up relatively clean and sterile in-the-box synths and drum machine sounds.

Guitar Rig Pro has always been a popular choice for this, partly because many people will have stumbled across it when browsing the tools included in their Komplete bundle, but also because it has a particularly well-stocked and easy to use menu of virtual rack effects. In there, you can find a broad-ranging set of effects processors, that can be inserted into the virtual rack and controlled like any custom-designed multi-effects plugin.

Guitar Rig Pro has always had modules like pitch shifters, Grain Delay and PsycheDelay, autofilters, the modulation options like Stoned Phaser and Electric Lady flanger, and some basic but effective Envelope, LFO and Step Sequencer modules. But significantly for us with version 6, you also get a whole range of new effects, many of which have been previously released as standalone plugins: the Crush pack made up of Freak, Dirt and Bite covering multiple flavours of distortion; the Raum, RC 24 and RC 48 reverbs; and streamlined versions of one of my all-time favourite reverb-delay-mod effects, Replika XT. Plus you get 12 of the DJ-style effects from Traktor, particularly useful for electronic production.

Other guitar amp sim plugins definitely worth checking out for their broader multi-effects potential include Blue Cat’s Axiom, Positive Grid BIAS FX 2 Pro, and the recently updated IK Multimedia Amplitube 5.

Available for: Mac, PC | VST, AU, AAX

17. Inear Display Amalgame

Amalgame is designed to make it easy to create morphing, complex-sounding effects with a relatively simple and intuitive approach. Simply drag and drop one of the colour-coded effects blocks from the top menu grid down onto one of the 6 effects slots.

From there, each effect is already assigned to two XY modulation controls, so just by dragging the coloured dot around the XY pad you can immediately come up with some cool movement and variation.

On top of that, each X and Y parameter can then be modulated using a mini step sequencer, with adjustable rate and length, allowing you to dial in changes with clear vertical bars for each step.

By stacking up several of the available 6 effects in this way, you can accomplish anything from subtle mix enhancing modulation to full-on sound design destruction.

Available for: Mac, PC | VST, VST3, AU, AAX, RTAS

18. Zynaptiq Wormhole

Zynaptiq are known for their sound design tools tailored to creating particularly cinematic effects, and  Wormhole certainly fulfils that role well. Ostensibly it’s for designing sci-fi sounds, gliding spacecraft, creature noises and manipulated voice FX in a tight and fast-to-use interface, but it’s capable of much beyond that too, including for musical ear candy in a mix.

It is based around three modules: spectral warping, frequency/pitch shifting, and reverb, and when combined with Wormhole’s distinctively streamlined and intuitive interface, you can warp even the most mundane source material into heavily textured and atmospheric sound design gold. There’s a lot of very high-quality signal processing going on under the hood, but Wormhole provides just the right balance of user control and simplicity to make it a very fun an compelling way to generate multitudes of dynamic, shifting and unique effects.

Check out the demo below which quickly conveys what Wormhole is capable of:

Available for: Mac, PC | VST, VST3, AU, AAX, RTAS

19. Waves CLA Epic, Kaleidoscopes

Waves have a few plugins in their extensive range that provide interesting variations on the multi-effect paradigm, and two very much worth a mention here are CLA Epic and Kaleidoscopes.

CLA Epic, a product of Waves long-standing partnership with Chris Lord-Alge, comprises a collection of the famed mix engineer’s 4 go-to delays and 4 go-to reverbs. Each one is based on a piece of his favourite studio hardware and has its own channel strip-style controls, but together they form a streamlined toolbox for bringing a huge range of depth and dimension to your mixes. Mix and match the available delays and reverbs to blend your own space-enhancing hybrid, always tailored to the requirements of your specific project.

Meanwhile, Kaleidoscopes is a super-suite of modulation effects, offering up Phaser, Flanger, Chorus and Tremolo modules across two FX engines that can be combined either serially one into the one another or side-by-side in parallel using the plugins Dual Cascade architecture.

Each of the two engines can use one of a selection of waveshapes, an external sidechain source or even your real-time performance as its modulation input, providing the opportunity to imbue your sounds with extremely lively and organic movement effects.

Both of these are a lot of fun to use, sound great and are extremely useful in a mix, and can now often be had for $peanuts with Waves continuing sales and discounts. Recommended!

Available for: Mac, PC | VST, VST3, AU, AAX

20. iZotope Stutter Edit 2

Levelling up the fire-power considerably from the original Stutter Edit plugin, BT and iZotope are back with Stutter Edit 2.

Stutter Edit 1’s standout party trick was the buffering effects which made it possible to generate glitchy, twitching drums, vocals and synths with relatively ease. With version 2, you still have the Buffer module, but this can be toggled on or completely off if desired in favour of using the other cool new features.

Foremost of these are the “Time Variant Modulators” (TVMs) that can applied independently to every single parameter if desired. A TVM is basically a flexible LFO/envelope hybrid that can be clicked and dragged to edit its shape, in a way that will be instantly familiar to users of ShaperBox, LFOTool and synths with MSEGs like Zebra2. These can be used to modulate anything, but specifically the bank of 11 effects modules down the left side of the plugin interface, from distortions and various filter types to flanging, chorus, delay and reverb.

The combination of the easy and fun rhythmic/sweeping modulation shapes together with the mix of clean and glitching effects make this a very powerful and surprisingly flexible tool. Recommended!

Watch this walkthrough demo with the man himself, Brian Transeau aka BT, for some infectious enthusiasm, illumination of the key features and how it sounds in practice:

Available for: Mac, PC | VST, VST3, AU, AAX

21. Devious Machines Infiltrator, Texture

Let’s wrap up this list with a brand new plugin: Infiltrator brings together several of the features and different workflow styles we’ve seen throughout this list, and artfully puts them side-by-side in an incredibly intuitive, fluid and modern GUI.

Infiltrator’s 10 effects slots can be loaded with any of 16 different effects such as frequency and pitch shifters, delays, comb and formant filters, ring mod and a great looper… not to mention the array of 12 different filter types, from Clean and Ladder (presumably Moog-inspired), to the filter colours of two other vintage analog synths, the SH-101 and MS-20.

Each effect has its own Curve Editor for introducing sequenced modulation via fully customisable envelopes (that can be as angular, as in the image above, or as smoothly curved as you like). When stacked, multiple effects each with their own modulation curves lead very quickly to beautifully fluid and complex overall effects. But the mod fun doesn’t end there: flip to the Sequencer view and you can then paint in any of the 32 steps that you want each effect to be triggered. This is great for controlling how dense or sparse you want your processing to be: everything from the occasional rhythmic glitch or fill dotted throughout a loop, to full-on Autechrean mind-melting rhythmic disruption, is easily achieved.

Add in great touches like the Master sections Drive, Compressor and Clean Bass (very handy!) controls, and the 4 assignable Macro slots across the top — plus the 750 superb presets — and we have a real next-gen glimpse of the future of effects plugins. Go check it out, you won’t be disappointed!

Originally filling this final spot, Texture is something a little different to the others on our list; it’s unusual in that it incorporates elements of sampling, granular synthesis, and conventional effects like dynamics, modulation and EQ to work its considerable multi-pronged, multi-effect magic.

Texture is essentially useful for adding enhancing layers to your existing sounds. The new layers are generated in such a way that they can track as closely and subtly to the source material as you want, either adding relatively “invisible” and organic frequency enhancement to drums and hi-hats in a mix context, or providing more radical tonal and textural transformations with the included filtering and modulation effects to create newly punchy and powerful samples.

With the upgraded version 1.5 you have the ability to import any sample as a texture source, so the sound design possibilities really are boundless and you can experiment with texturising everything from the wimpiest to the weirdest source material. Recommended, particularly for electronic producers with an “unusual drums” addiction!

Available for: Mac, PC | VST, VST3, AU, AAX