Smartelectronix Fire [Freeware]

Smart Electronix’s Fire plug-in is a multitap delay plug-in that is available for free. It comes solely in VST plug-in format, but it is available for both Mac and PC operating systems. The process of downloading and installing the plug-in should be quick enough, as I didn’t encounter any issues with this at all. As far as the interface is concerned, it’s got sections for delays, amps, pans, and a global section. The global section has parameters for your base delay amount in milliseconds, as well as for the number of taps you’d like, for morphing, and for dry/wet signal. The other sections are pretty simple as well, as it just takes some messing around with to get the hang of it. A manual isn’t necessary, nor am I sure if they even made one for this plug-in.


SUITABILITY/PERFORMANCE

I’m currently running the plug-in in Pro Tools, although I’m using the Fxpansion VST to RTAS converter to do so. You can only run this as a VST plug-in, so if you don’t have this converter, you can’t run it in Pro Tools. I run the plug-in on a Mac Book Pro that has a 2.2 Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo processor and 4 GB of RAM. I run Pro Tools LE 8 with a Digi 002R rack audio interface. This plug-in takes up a very low amount of processing power, so as long you’re currently comfortable running your DAW with some plug-ins, Fire should run okay for you. Being that it’s free, you might as well try it for yourself if you’re interested.


OVERALL OPINION

While not the cleanest sounding delay plug-in out there, being that this is a free plug-in I can’t do too much complaining about it. It’s worth the free download for sure if your system can support it, as it’s got a good amount of control and the overall sound quality really isn’t half bad. Smart Electronix has a number of cool free VST plug-ins, so I’d definitely encourage those money saving plug-in searchers out there to check out Fire and the other free plug-ins that Smart Electronix has to offer.