Hi , I really like this Thread here :

https://audiosex.pro/threads/looking-for-plugins-with-unique-and-distinct-sound-qualities.83869/

And I want to make a similar thread but for plugins that help you reshape, mangle, bend, or reimagine samples in unexpected ways — whether it’s through modulation, spectral processing, granular stuff, weird time/pitch behavior, or just happy accidents.
What are your go to's to make a simple loop more interesting or something like that?

Greetings to all

Not your standard EQ / compressor / saturation kind of plugins, but more like creative processors that turn a simple sample into something entirely different and spark new creative workflows

 

Zynaptiq morph 3 pro,Sugarbytes Turnado and DS Tantra 2 are a few i use to manipulate samples

 

Why not try a synthesizer (VSTi), for example, the Rob Papen Predator FX version, and experiment? It also includes PredatorFX, allowing you to use the filters, modulations, effects, and vocoder as an FX plug-in within your music host. www.kvraudio.com/product/predator-3-by-rob-papen

 

You would be surprised by what one can achieve just by loading a sample into a sampler and messing with loop points and envelopes. Anyways, these are the ones available rn in my main machine:

 

INNA GRM Tools

 

Tape fiasco is fun for torturing samples and Audio. It's Free.

https://www.erikssonjonas.com/tapefiasco

 

Many from Sugarbytes, but especially their latest Transfigure:
https://sugar-bytes.de/transfigure

Many from lese, most notably their latest, Smear. Even their free Codec is great.
https://lese.io/plugin/smear/

Neutone Morpho, you can get some insane stuff with it.
https://neutone.ai/morpho

All three from Anemond. Factor synth is just wild, Factoid is also impressive, Sloom is essentially Paulstretch but simpler in a good way.
https://anemond.net/

I could go on for hours lol, im a sucker for this sort of stuff, but heres a good start. Ill add more later if I see nobody else has chimed in with some gems.

 

SoundMagic Bundle (MacOS only)
Serato Sample for replaying and decent stem splitting
TAL-Sampler
Airwindows stuff (check BezEQ but the list could be outrageously long)

 

VCV Rack has plenty of ways to mangle samples, there are granular samplers and plenty of unusual effects to patch into like the PLL (phase locked loop) which is based on the hardware version, if you use a Marbles module to modulate the Clouds effect it becomes a noisy mess of anomalies…

Other plugins I can recommend, Transit 2, Beam from Lunacy, Digitalis/Cataclysm from Aberrant DSP, any effects from Glitchmachines, anything from Freakshow Industries, Osmium from Reason (requires Reason to use but you can now buy the standalone rack plugin), I will have to come back after I look through my distortions category, it’s got plenty of sample mangling mutagen that’ll turn simple things into something out of analog horror…

 

I know Aphex Twin and techno producer Perc have been known to use these now older spectral plugins called Soundmagic

https://www.michaelnorris.info/software/soundmagic-spectral

Available on Mac only, I'm looking for some spectral fuckery plugins on Windows after watching a vid of Perc using them to really transform a synth sound into something else entirely. It did live up to the Magic part of the name I have to say.