United Plugins is doing some wicked stuff, I tell you. (Check out our in-depth interview here).

This time around, it’s the FrontDAW, a lightweight plugin that emulates the warmth and saturation of a real channel strip right there in your DAW.

“As the name suggests, Front DAW is intended to be used as the very first plugin on every track (if desired – FD is really CPU friendly). The plugin adds gain and subtle saturation to them. Thanks to VARM (Variable Analogue Random Modeling – used also previously on Royal Compressor) each track would sound slightly different even with identical settings.”

The plugin offers three types of saturation circuits: BR represents classic fat British consoles, US stands for legendary punchy American style input. Switching to GE will give you velvet-sounding colourful vintage German tube console. Just twist the ‘Mojo’ knob and enjoy.

I’ve always wanted a plugin just like this – no frills analog goodness with low CPU – so I’ve been using it on everything for the last week.

Verdict? It’s wicked and you should get it. All three models sounds musical and subtle – but not so subtle the whole thing’s not worth the trouble. Nice job, United Plugins.

The FrontDAW goes for €49 – and it’s worth every penny – but if you’re reading this before the 15th of September you can download it FREE from this link. I would do that if I were you. Boom.