October 22nd, 2020

D16 - Frontier

Polish software group D16 have established a first-rate reputation in the world of audio plugins since their launch in 2006. Their Frontier limiter is available for free and is well worth checking out.

As with all D16 plugins, the first thing you notice on opening it up is the beautiful retro UI. Of course, a nice graphical interface means nothing if it isn't backed up with something substantial, but there are no concerns there with Frontier – it's a worthy addition to your toolkit.

Frontier is equally suited to sitting on a single channel, on a bus or even on your master output. When used gently it has a transparent sound, but if you push it to its extremes it can be used as a creative 'sound shaping' tool too. The sound quality is excellent and the sound-shaping capabilities of the plugin are actually quite varied too; there are three 'control input' settings and a switchable soft-clipping option – each change in settings notably shapes the resulting audio. 

Frontier is also 'self-adaptive', meaning that it normalises the signal's volume after it passes the limiting section. You can hear it in action below:

The plugin comes in both 32 bit and 64 bit, with AAX, VST and AU versions available. Both Mac and PC are supported, and you can download the Frontier for free from the D16 website.