Maxim Digital Audio’s Testone is a free and simple signal generator that is available in VST plug-in format. You can download this and a variety of other MDA plug-ins for free. They don’t take up much space at all, so if you’re able to run VST plug-ins, you might as well check them all out. While many signal generators out there just provide you with a signal and no real control, MDA’s Testone is actually pretty in depth. It’s got a simple interface that is easy to understand and use, with sliders for choosing your mode (waveform), level, channel (L/R), frequency one, frequency two, sweep, thru, and db level. A manual isn’t necessary at all for this plug-in, nor do I believe that they made one.


SUITABILITY/PERFORMANCE

I’m not running this plug-in any longer, but when I was it was with Cubase SX 2.0 and 3. The computer that I was running it on was a Hewlett Packard Pavilion dv8000 lap top with 2 GB of RAM and a 3.0 Ghx processor. I’m not running it any more now that I’m running Pro Tools and don’t really have a use for it. These free MDA plug-ins are designed to take up a very low amount of processing power, so no one should be encountering performance issues if you’re able to run your DAW in the first place.

OVERALL OPINION

The Maxim Digital Audio Testone plug-in is really a necessity more than anything else. While it might be necessary for some, most DAW users probably won’t need something like this. Having said that, being that it’s free you might as well have it around. You never know when you might want to test something out and need a signal generator. Being that it doesn’t take up much space at all, I’d definitely recommend downloading it. It’s definitely more than an added bonus that the plug-in is actually quite in depth in terms of the tones it can make…