Slate Digital Free Collection: 16 Free Plugins, No iLok Required

If iLok has ever driven you up the wall, this page deserves a look. Slate Digital has opened the Complete Access Free Collection: 16 plugins from four brands, free with no time limit. No purchase, no trial clock ticking down, and no iLok dongle. I read the page all the way through, and here is what I think you should know before you hit download.

What's inside

There are 16 plugins in total: 10 from Slate Digital, 3 from Harrison Audio, 2 from Solid State Logic, and 1 from sonible. To make it easier to scan, I've grouped them by function.

Dynamics. Monster is a compressor in the "all buttons in" style. VBC FG-Red handles tight, punchy mix bus compression. Harrison's Dyno Mite shapes attack and sustain. Then there's Submerge, which creates automatic ducking and pumping without any sidechain routing in your DAW. Of the whole set, this is the one I'm most curious about, since sidechain setup is often the most annoying part for beginners.

Color and saturation. Heatwave offers one-knob saturation that preserves transients. Harrison's Tape Saturator gives tape character from subtle to thick. puffer:fish has three characters, from warm to wildly distorted. FG-Bomber is meant to add punch and depth.

EQ and top end. Air & Earth EQ is a two-band EQ for the highs and lows. Fresh Air adds a sense of "air" in the high frequencies without turning harsh. Revival works on shimmer at the top and thickness at the bottom.

Space and effects. SSL's GateVerb is a gated reverb for drums and big atmospheres. Harrison's 3D Delay has three taps with panning, feedback and filtering. X-Orcism II is the odd one out: a "haunted" voice effect that combines pitch, delay, reverb and noise.

Utilities. Virtual Mix Rack is a modular rack for building your own channel strip, and Trimmer handles gain, either inside VMR or on its own.

What makes it different: no iLok

All you need is one free Complete Access account. Once you sign in, your licenses activate directly on your computer. You don't need an iLok account or a PACE account. Installation and updates are handled by the Complete Access Hub app, so there's no hunting for individual files. The Hub also includes "Playground" sessions: ready-made mixes that show these plugins working in a real context. For anyone still learning to mix, that's a useful bonus.

Things to know first

First, the account and the Hub can't be skipped. You're stepping into the Complete Access ecosystem, and the page doesn't hide that this is a doorway to a paid plan with 180+ plugins and a 14-day trial. That's fair, and there's no obligation to upgrade. The free collection stays yours.

Second, compatibility. The FAQ entry covering plugin formats and supported macOS/Windows versions is only a short placeholder, with no details. Check your system and DAW before installing.

Third, I couldn't find an end date for this offer. But promotions like this can change at any time, so if you're interested, grab it sooner rather than later.

Who it's for

If you're just putting a studio together, this set is fairly complete: a channel strip rack, compressors, saturators, EQ, reverb and delay, all without spending anything. If your plugin folder is already overflowing, only a few may really catch your eye, such as Submerge, Dyno Mite and GateVerb.

How to get it

1. Create a free Complete Access account. No purchase needed.
2. Open Complete Access Hub and install the whole collection in one go.
3. Load a Playground session, or drop the plugins straight into your own mix.

Link: Slatedigital - Free Collection

Once you've tried it, leave a comment with the plugin you end up using the most.