Free music software round-up: Week 12

It's been a fairly light seven days for new releases, but we can still draw your attention to three noteworthy products.

Quirky freeware developer Knobster returns to the fold this week, but this time, it's not just playing it for laughs. Also on the menu are a 10-band EQ and a signal saturator.

If you've developed a piece of free music software (and we're not just talking plug-ins), make sure you let us know about it by sending details to musicradar.pressreleases@futurenet.com.

Knobster Slitch

Platform/format: PC/VST Download

What's this - Knobster going 'serious'? It would seem so; the company that brought us the virtual typewriter and 'meow' synths has released this tool that splits up audio files and maps slices to notes on your MIDI keyboard. As such, it's said to be useful for percussion, glitch and scratch sounds.

Matthew Lindsay NCL EQ

Platform/format: PC/VST Download

Matt L describes this one as a "flexible high-quality 10-band parametric EQ for Windows", and there's nut much we can add to that (you can decide for yourself how 'flexible' and 'high-quality' it is). The sound is said to be clean and precise, and we're assured that digital artifacts are kept to a minimum.

Variety Of Sound TesslaPRO

Platform/format: PC/VST Download

Described as a "transient-aware signal saturator", the creator of TesslaPRO believes that it has the potential to make mixes sound more focused but natural and relaxed, while giving them additional stereo width (in fact, he's written an article that explains what it's all about). It sports Bass, Drive, Boost and Transients controls.