Pro Tools Intro is possibly my favourite Pro Tools development in 2022, which was in itself a great year for Pro Tools users. I say that because it is the piece of the Pro Tools ecosystem which has been missing for too long, I won’t go over old ground by revisiting the reasons we always felt Pro Tools First wasn’t the product to adequately fill the entry level tier of Pro Tools but as someone who started their Pro Tools journey back in the 90s with the 8 mono tracks only version ‘Pro Tools Free’ I was very happy to see Pro Tools Intro. And one of the best things about Pro Tools Intro is that you can run third party plugins in it, which opens up the possibility to run free plugins on this free version of Pro Tools.
What Plugins Do You Get With Pro Tools Intro?
We have a full list in our article Pro Tools Intro - A Free Version Of Pro Tools but as were talking about real time AAX plugin in this article here is the list with the AudioSuite and utility plugins stripped out, with the best will in the world no-one is going to get excited about a dither or DC-Offset plugin.
I’ve also excluded the only Virtual Instrument which ships with Pro Tools Intro. Xpand!2. If you are interested in augmenting the Virtual Instrument provision in Pro Tools Intro check out our article Pro Tools Intro Users - Get These 5 Amazing Free Synths Now! What we are featuring here is our suggestions for free audio plugins which would complement the plugins you already have supplied with Pro Tools Intro.
Pro Tools Uses AAX Plugins
If you are a new user you might not be aware that Pro Tools uses a different plugin format to other DAWs. You might have heard of VST and AU plugins before, to use a plugin in Pro Tools it needs to be available in AAX format. As a result there are fewer free plugins available for Pro Tools but there are still a lot. Check out our Free Plugins Database to find more free AAX plugins.
Plugins Included With Pro Tools Intro
Mod Delay III
Lo-Fi
Recti-Fi
Sci-Fi
Pitch II
MasterMeter
SansAmp PSA-1
Eleven Lite
Dyn III Compressor / Limiter
Dyn III De-Esser
Dyn III Expander / Gate
EQ III 1-Band
EQ III 7-Band
Channel Strip
BF-76
Maxim
D-Verb
What we see here are a good mix of utility dynamics plugins, an 1176 style compressor, a delay and a reverb, some pitch and sound design plugins and some amp modelling and saturation. It covers the majority of what you might need but if I were to choose five extra free plugins here’s what I’d choose:
Baby Audio - Baby Comeback
I love delay, and while Mod Delay is very flexible, I love something with a bit more character. Baby Comeback is a free delay plugin which offers a stripped-down version of the fully featured Comeback Kid delay plugin. Baby Comeback gives you an on-board ducker for cleaning up your delays when a dry signal is playing – as well as four flavour modes: Wide, Analog, Saucey and Cheap.
Audiomodern - Filterstep
Something I really enjoy is the sound of Sample-and-Hold synth patches and stepped filter effects in general. Try Filterstep across a guitar part or a long evolving pad and you’ll see what I mean. This motion filter plugin provides a great deal of potential for all kinds of intricate rhythmic movement.
It can give you complex and nuanced results based on various filter effect settings, and almost infinite possibilities for sonic exploration and movement randomization. Fun!
TB Pro Audio Gsat+
There are already two of my favourite saturation plugins availble with Pro Tools Intro. Lo Fi and SansAmp are fantastic if you know how to use them. But I’d add GSat+ because it provides a different flavour and some really useful additional controls which give access to left, right, mid and sides channels as well as mono/stereo monitoring and the calibration control on the VU meter. These features make this a worthwhile plugin even without the saturation!
GSat+ is derived from the saturation module on the TBProAudio CS5501V2 channel strip plug-in but adds extra features. It has several different saturation modes, high tweakability, oversampling, old-school VU meters and cross-platform software compatibility.
TDR Nova
Pro Tools Intro ships with EQ III, a very capable 7 band EQ and the Avid Channel Strip, which features a different but equally flexible equaliser. One thing which is missing is a dynamic equaliser, which blurs the distinction between EQ, compressor and de-esser. The freeware TDR plugins are amazing so check out the entire range but this one offers something not present in the stock Intro plugins
NOVA is a parallel dynamic equaliser. Appearing in the familiar layout of a parametric equaliser, each band also includes a full featured dynamics section allowing the processor to cover an impressively wide range of applications.
Klanghelm MJUC jr
When it comes to compression your options from the stock plugins are the fully featured dynamics module in the Avid Channel Strip, the rather uninspiring Dyn III Compressor plugin and BF76, an 1176 style compressor which sounds excellent but takes some getting used to, particularly if no-one has told you the attack and release work backwards…
This is where a really simple to use, character compressor can really help, especially if you are new to compression. With just a compression control, makeup gain and a choice of three settings there’s not much to get wrong but bags of vibe on tap.
MJUC jr. combines the very natural, dense compression characteristics of the early days of this type of compression with a more forward sounding approach and more harmonics creating of the variable-mu comps of the early 1960s.
No Reverb?
We’d say just buy Liquidsonics Seventh Heaven, don’t skimp on reverb. There are free ones but reverb is somewhere where you can really hear the quality. You could try TAL Reverb 4 or Acon Digital’s Verberate Basic Free if you want a convenient algorithmic reverb and if you are willing to put up with the inherent inflexibility of a convolution reverb then Convology XT from Wave Arts is probably the best free reverb out there but convolution can feel inconvenient compared to a regular algorithmic reverb.
Are there any essentials you would have included as number six on this list? Share your recommendations in the comments.