Fire Filters

Name: Fire Filters
Author: Acustica Audio

by Acustica Audio · Filter · Analog modular HP/LP filters

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Fire Filters is a suite of two Acustica Audio filter plugins with 13 high-pass and 13 low-pass variants sampled from analog modular hardware.

It is meant for analog-style filtering; the price is not shown on the product page.

Best for: Keys & Synths, Drums, Mix Bus, Sound Design. Genres: all genres.

Keywords: modular, vinyl, single knob, mixing, analog-sounding, beginner-friendly, bus processing, drums, full mix, hardware emulation, minimal controls, mix bus, sound design.

What it does

Fire Filters is a pair of high-pass and low-pass filter plugins from Acustica Audio, sampled from analog modular hardware filters in collaboration with SoundDrops, the team behind the N4 library. The developer calls it "one of the best and most complete analog emulation products for filtering".

Two plugins: Fire The HP (high-pass, low-cut) and Fire The LP (low-pass, high-cut).
One-knob cutoff: a single main control sets the cutoff; Gearnews gives its range as 10 Hz to 6.3 kHz.
Four slopes: 6, 12, 24 and 36 dB per octave.
Four filter modes: Bessel, Butterworth, a +2 dB resonance peak and a +6 dB resonance peak, available on the steeper slopes (the 6 dB slope has no mode choice).
13 variants per filter: the slope and mode combinations give 13 filters each, 26 in total.
Analog colour: each variant is sampled from modular hardware, so the cuts carry analog character rather than a clean digital response.

There is a free 30-day trial. The product page does not list a version.

Source: Acustica Audio product page

When to use it

Fire Filters is the pick for quick, analog-coloured high- and low-cuts in a mix, set with one knob. Compared with FilterFreak or Volcano 3 it has no LFOs, envelopes or modulation at all, so it is a mixing filter rather than a creative sweep tool. Against Arturia's Filter MS-20 or Filter M12 it offers less resonance and character for sound design, but more sober choices for cleanup, such as Bessel and Butterworth curves. It is also cheaper than most of those filters.

Best for: rumble removal, top-end softening and analog-flavoured band-limiting on tracks and buses.
Genres: any.
Look elsewhere if: you want modulation, self-oscillation or creative sweeps; FilterFreak or Volcano 3 are better.

Where to buy

Acustica Audio: see store

Tutorials and reviews

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