Soundtoys 5

Soundtoys is a Vermont-based plugin developer whose Soundtoys 5 bundle is one of the most loved collections of character-oriented audio effects in the industry. The bundle includes EchoBoy, a deep delay with dozens of tape and rack flavours; Decapitator, a saturation plugin that can warm up a dull mic or rescue a guest who recorded into a phone speaker; Little Plate, a plate reverb modelled on an EMT 140; Little AlterBoy, a vocal pitch and formant tool useful for anonymising whistleblower or anonymous source interviews; Devil-Loc Deluxe, a brute-force compressor for radio-style effects; and a stack of other delays, modulators, and creative tools.

For podcasters, the practical use cases are narrower than for musicians but real. The bundle's main risk for new producers is overuse: saturation and tape character are fun, and a clean voice rarely benefits from being dirtied up.

Used with restraint, Soundtoys is the difference between an episode that sounds like a Zoom call and one that has a sense of place. The list price is steep, but Soundtoys runs sales several times a year that bring it down significantly.

Bookmark it and wait. Individual plugins can be bought separately if the full bundle is overkill, though the per-plugin price often makes the bundle the better deal once you want three or more.