The Plugin Boutique Awards 2024: Winners and Highly Commended
For the third year running, your votes have crowned the champions and runners-up across 14 categories in music software
With 2024 receding into the past, and a fresh calendar year unfurling ahead of us like a new rug, it's time to turn our attention towards a carpet of a different kind; a red one, to be precise. That’s right, it’s awards season, that time where we take a beat and honour the plugins that proved themselves to be a hit with producers and best in class according to your votes.
To qualify in the third installment of our glitzy awards ceremony, the requirements were simple: the plugin must have featured on our site and had a release date in 2024. Each year sees a cacophony of new thrills in the Plugin Boutique fairground, but last year felt more competitive than ever, with brand new titles and familiar favourites jostling it out to be snagged by the next producer who stepped up to the plugin claw machine.
Sit back and relax though, because we’ve done the hard work and sorted through the votes to pick both a winner and a highly commended plugin in fifteen categories. All that’s left for you to do is to pull out that satin gown from the back of the wardrobe and make sure the tuxedo is dry cleaned, because we’re off to the 2025 Plugin Boutique Awards.
Best Plugins As Voted By You In 2024:
Best Bundle
Best Synth
Best Dynamics
Best Reverb
Best Distortion
Best Mixing
Best Vocal Processing
Best Delay/Modulation
Best Multi Effect
Best Utility
Best Drum Machine
Best Music Theory
Best Virtual Instrument
Best Innovation
Best Bundle - Winner - Native Instruments Komplete 15
No strangers to an action-packed plugin bundle, Native Instruments take top spot in the bundle category with a do-it-all production toolkit. Komplete 15 boasts a truly comprehensive suite of over 95 premium instruments and effects, more than 50 Expansions, and north of 50,000 sounds to play with. The latest iterations of flagship software like Kontakt 8, Guitar Rig 7 Pro, Massive X, and iZotope Ozone 11 are included, as well as a bit of stuff from Brainworx, giving you the resources to handle just about any job in a mix.
Best Bundle - Highly Commended - IK Multimedia T-RackS 6
In second place, T-RackS 6 is a versatile mixing and mastering suite with over 61 state-of-the-art modules for just about every job imaginable. Our plaudits go to IK Multimedia’s bundle for its seamless workflow, impeccable sound quality, and the addition of AI-driven mastering tools that make achieving a polished mix effortless.
Best Synth - Winner - Arturia Pigments 5
Ever since 2018, Arturia have been striving for softsynth perfection with their impressively vast sound design tool Pigments, and with its fifth iteration they’re getting pretty damn close. Pigment 5’s three-engined oscillator stage is still where the magic happens, with Analogue, Sample, Wavetable and an extra Utility option being fed into countless filters, effects and modulators. UI improvements, 150 new presets and fun updates like external audio routing in 5 push it into even rarer air, as well as a sleek new Play view that improves workflow by simplifying the layout and focusing your attention where it needs to be. Pigments was already one of the world’s favourite synths, but with version 5 we see it add even more features, and prove that Arturia are in this for the long haul.
Best Synth - Highly Commended - Vengeance Sound VPS Avenger 2
Avengers, assemble! The runner-up gong in the synth category goes to a powerhouse synthesizer with an expansive library of sounds and advanced synthesis capabilities, including granular and wavetable options. VPS Avenger 2’s versatility, deep customization, and pristine sound quality combine to create an essential synth option for producers across all genres.
Best Dynamics - Winner - Universal Audio LA-6176
Classic American analogue came to the fore this year with Universal Audio’s souped-up plugin version of their flagship tube channel strip, the 6176. The new LA6176 Signature Channel Strip plugin gives you three iconic Universal Audio products in one: the 610 mic preamp, the 1176 Limiting Amplifier, and the LA-2A Leveling Amplifier. Each of these pieces of hardware belongs to a storied recording history, and the 6176 brings them all together in channel strip glory, giving you rich tube preamp circuitry, legendary limiting punch, and silky tube compression.
Best Dynamics - Highly Commended - Softube Tube-Tech Blue Tone
For a healthy dollop of the warmth and saturation of classic tube compressors, we turn to Tube-Tech Blue Tone. Rock and roll scientists Softube have succeeded in combining a vintage-inspired sound and modern interface, a safe bet for adding character and colour to your mix.
Best Reverb - Winner - iZotope Aurora
In what is always a hotly contested category, one reverb took the crown for its AI-powered innovation. One of three smart tools released by the company this year, iZotope’s Aurora was every producer’s best friend this year for its ability to react to your audio and intelligently unmask instruments and vocals, helping you to achieve lush, three-dimensional space and cleaner mixes. The theme of this plugin is efficiency, and it negates the need for plugin chains and effects routing with its instant and dynamic response to incoming audio. Six reverb types, over 60 presets, convenient on-board filters, and an adjustable unmasking section let you find the space that suits you.
Best Reverb - Highly Commended - Excite Audio Motion: Dimension
With effects like 3D modulation and stereo widening that sound like they belong in a construction site, this innovative spatial effects plugin adds tangible depth and movement to any mix. Motion: Dimension’s capacity to create immersive and evolving soundscapes cements it as an invaluable creative tool.
Best Distortion - Winner - iZotope Trash
2024 saw the relaunch of iZotope’s popular creative distortion Trash 2, which initially came out in 2012 and was shelved ten years later. A distortion and a convolution module make up the plugin’s slick new interface, both of which are controllable via an X/Y grid that allows you to assign four flavours of distortion/convolution for each module and blend to taste. In addition, you’ll find vintage, analogue and stompbox inspired distortion tones, as well as 600 IRs, including traditional reverbs as well as an eclectic collection of found sounds, reversed effects and vocal formants.
Best Distortion - Highly Commended - Kilohearts Shaper & Shaper Table
Two new closely linked additions to the Kilohearts ecosystem stole your hearts in 2024. The first is Shaper, a waveshaper plugin that takes each sample in your audio and remaps it to a new value based on a custom curve. Next is Shaper Table, which takes the concept to exciting new dimensions by allowing you to use a wavetable as the source for your shaper and scan through various shapes to create unique, evolving sonic variations.
Best Mixing - Winner - sonible smart:EQ 4
Intelligent EQ dominated this year, continuing the trend of AI-powered production tools coming to the fore in music software. smart:EQ 4 is the latest version of sonible’s flagship AI-assistive spectral EQ plugin, and it guides us gently into the future with its ability to analyse your audio and match it with a complementary ‘smart filter’ to counteract resonances based on what a channel of that type ‘should’ sound like. Of course, you don’t need to apply smart:EQ’s effects strongly – you should use your ears and apply to taste.
smart:EQ‘s Group mode redefines the traditional approach to EQing a mix, letting you put an instance on every track to create unmasking chains between different channels. Mix Profiles and track references can help the engine learn what character you’re aiming for.
Best Mixing - Highly Commended - Cableguys Snapback
Honing in on the intricacies of drum layering, Snapback can be placed on any drum track and detect each hit, layering new samples on top in perfect time. It's a recipe for the secret sauce in drum production, and it went down a treat with you voters in 2024.
Best Vocal Processing - Winner - Universal Audio Topline Vocal Suite
As the name suggests, Universal Audio Topline Vocal Suite is an all-in-one tool for vocal processing that places UA’s most popular analogue-inspired tools alongside flawless pitch correction. Understandably popular this year, Topline houses a UA channel strip, compressor, and EQ inspired by vintage analog gear, as well as classic reverb, tape delay, and modulation. Add to that the plugin’s laser precise Key Finder and tuning abilities, and there’s no longer any need for infinite chains on your vocal channels.
Best Vocal Processing - Highly Commended - Baby Audio Humanoid
Transforming vocals into robotic or ethereal textures, Baby Audio Humanoid uses advanced pitch and formant manipulation to shapeshift your sound. We love it for its unmatched ability to turn ordinary recordings into otherworldly soundscapes.
Best Delay/Modulation - Winner - Eventide H3000 Band Delays MK II
Eventide took the top spot in the Delay/Modulation category this year with a creative powerhouse dedicated to filtered delays, which faithfully replicates the circuitry of the legendary H3000 Harmonizer studio processor. H3000 Band Delays MkII is equipped with eight bands for a wide variety of filtering, stereo widening, delay and rhythmic effects. Each band features level, panning, frequency, filter type and Q parameters, with a large display section offering detailed visual feedback over the effect’s settings and behaviour.
Best Delay/Modulation - Highly Commended - Newfangled Audio Recirculate
Taking second spot in the Best Delay/Modulation category, Recirculate is a revolutionary delay and feedback plugin that reinvents the way echoes interact with a mix. Think lush, evolving soundscapes and a unique level of control over endlessly captivating feedback effects.
Best Multi Effect - Winner - Baby Audio Transit 2
Known for his creative approach to audio processing, YouTuber Andrew Huang’s team-up with Baby Audio made perfect sense, and the result of their work together was a multi-effects plugin billed as ‘The Ultimate Transition Designer’. Transit 2 was a huge hit with voters in this year’s awards, with Baby Audio’s signature clean GUI making a mockery of the idea that multi-effects plugins are overly complex creatures. An eight-slot modular grid can be populated from a choice of 18 different effects, from addictive rhythmic FX motion to all kinds of energizing transitions.
Best Multi Effect - Highly Commended - Lunacy BEAM
A full wattage shout-out to our second-place multi effect plugin, BEAM, an interactive effects playground featuring a cutting edge granular engine, convolution reverb, and filters with an innovative dynamic audio graph system. This forward-facing plugin is sure to be a hit with ambient and cinematic producers.
Best Utility - Winner - Solid State Logic SSL Sourcerer
In the Utility category, SSL Sourcerer proved its worth as a tool for helping both live and studio engineers overcome some of the challenges they face with feedback and mic bleed. The plugin won plaudits as a highly optimised expander that does away with the need for a gate in these kinds of scenarios, giving users a more natural sounding mix overall. Its suite of intuitive controls has been designed with efficient workflow in mind, and includes adjustable Threshold, Time, and Depth settings, as well as High-Pass and Low-Pass Filters.
Best Utility - Highly Commended - Devious Machines Bass Focus
Devious Machines’ precision mixing tool enhances and tightens low-end frequencies, delivering punchy and controlled bass. The benefits of Bass Focus are clear, as is its effectiveness in refining the foundation of a mix.
Best Drum Machine - Winner - Klevgrand OneShot
Who doesn’t love a good drum machine? Plugin Boutique customers certainly do anyway, and you all proved it with your votes for Klevgrand’s fun percussive workstation specifically designed for one-shots. OneShot is a refreshingly old-school sampler-based drum machine, which excels for its straightforward approach and quality of sounds. There are 200 presets included with over 8,000 individual sounds, representing a broad range of acoustic drums, interesting percussion kits, electronic sounds and hybrid instruments.
Best Drum Machine - Highly Commended - Bogren Digital Trivium Drums
If you’re looking for album-ready metal drums right out of the box, with all the power and precision needed for dense rock and metal mixes, look no further. Trivium Drums is an excellent virtual drum instrument for Kontakt expertly engineered by metal maestro Jens Bogren, giving you quick access to album-ready drum sounds.
Best Music Theory - Winner - WA Production Loop Engine 2
In 2024, music theory plugins evolved significantly, integrating advanced technologies to enhance music composition and production. Loop Engine 2 stands on the shoulders of WA Production’s well-respected Chords plugins, and proclaims a new era of sophisticated MIDI mapping. The plugin focuses on the creation of unique MIDI loops in an immersive composition environment, offering advanced tonal and rhythmic controls that allow for the crafting of intricate patterns. The perfect tool if you’re looking to move away from static, repetitive musical segments.
Best Music Theory - Highly Commended - SongWish reMIDI
Breaking free from musical ruts can be difficult at times, but not with reMIDI, SongWish’s tool for sampling, editing, and transforming MIDI files. We’re big fans of the plugin due to the creative possibilities that come with its fresh way of arranging MIDI melodies and drum patterns.
Best Virtual Instrument - Winner - Heavyocity Oblivion
The slightly terrifying Heavyocity Oblivion took the gong in this category, blasting onto the scene with ferocious power and acute sonic pain. Heralded as an “aggression designer”, Oblivion is the result of Heavyocity’s partnership with acclaimed composer David Levy, known for his work on DOOM Eternal, gen:LOCK, and Justice League. Boasting a 336-sound arsenal of eccentric rhythmic pedals, animalistic basses, eviscerating leads, and modular ambiences, this virtual instrument bristles to the touch and gives you everything you need to go beast mode on your next track.
Best Virtual Instrument - Highly Commended - UJAM SILK 2
On a calmer note, SILK 2 beautifully captures the essence of nylon-string guitars with its completely new guitar model. A large collection of phrases, and a wide variety of chords, octaves, and riffs makes SILK 2 perfect for crafting elegant pop and rock songs, or adding an intimate touch to just about any genre.
Best Innovation - Winner - Native Instruments Kontakt 8
In what is probably the most subjective category of our awards, you plumped for Native Instruments’ flagship sampling platform as the plugin that showed the most innovation out of all the releases in 2024. A renewed, modernised interface brings the sampler up to date, but it is in the creative areas of the plugin that it shines the brightest. You can create melodies and sequences quickly and intelligently using any Kontakt instrument, play and manipulate loops and samples in experimental ways, and there’s an extended wavetable synthesis engine for that allows innovative and real-time sound manipulation.
Best Innovation - Highly Commended - XLN Audio Life
Huge kudos to XLN Audio for their unique sampler Life, which couples with an app that allows you to record the world around you using your phone, then generate beats with the audio in your DAW. Creative inspiration ensues when you shorten the path from experiencing the moment to hearing it in your music, and we can’t get enough of it.
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