Best Gross Beat Alternatives

Gross Beat is a popular plugin for creative real-time or rendered glitch, scratching, gating, repeat, or stutter performances. You get incredible control over your sounds, and you can link time and volume preset to your pad controller, your keyboard, or another automation source for quick and easy changes. 

It has a two-bar audio buffer, powerful Midi-controlled envelopes, many creative presets that are ready to be used, and 36 gating envelopes that allow user-controlled smoothing. It works inside FL Studio for Windows and Mac users.

However, even with all its positives, at some point, you might want to try something different. Alternatives to Gross Beats might offer different effects or allow for your creativity to branch out. There are some great competitors out there to explore.

1. ShaperBox by Cableguys

ShaperBox is made by Cableguys, and it is popular across genres. You can add complex customized modulation to just about any sound source in your DAW, and it has a simple interface that is easy to use. You can modulate volume, position, filtering, and stereo width through its five included processors. 

They have a range of drawing tools that you can use to design and adjust modulation shapes, which allows you to shift your automation points around, shift curves left and right on the grid, double, and randomize. It is surprisingly easy to use, and it has some effect-specific features, such as a filter shaper, pan shaper, and width shaper. You can create dynamic modulation reaching your incoming audio. It gives you depth and power without being overly complicated or difficult to use. 

Cost: 

$99

Features:

• Five effects, including volume, filter, pan, width, and time
• You can build custom curves with drawing tools
• Resizable GUI
• Large preset library with updates regularly
• Great envelope followers
• Visual compressor and volume shaper

Pros:

• Compressor and envelope followers are great for dynamic fx
• Complex modulation is simple
• Interface is clear and easy to use
• Stereo tools are flexible

Cons:

• Only one of each effect
• You can’t search by the material

2. Mrhythmizer

Mrhythmizer is made by Melda, and it is very similar to Gross Beats, but it adds in a filtering option. It has a busy interface, but it is very straightforward and easy to use. There are three modulatable parameters, including Time, Volume, and Filter, and it has access to 36 sequences. The buttons that trigger them are on the left side of the Sequences panel, and they allow you to host automation data and punch in and out of sequences in your DAW (digital audio workstation).

It also has preset in all of the 108 sequence slots, and you can modify them to suit your needs. You also get Depth, Attack, and Release in the Volume envelope and Attack, Release, HP, and LP frequency for the filter, as well as a number of stock features. They include unsampling, randomisation functions, scene morphing, and more. 

Cost: 

$52

Features:

• Advanced GUI 
• Automatic gain compensation
• Safety limiter
• Midi controllers with Midi learn
• Four fully featured modulators
• Global preset management
• Multiparameter
• Supports major hosts on Windows and MacOS platforms

Pros:

• Easy to use
• Flexible sequence graph
• Filter feature is great
• Reasonably priced

Cons:

• It isn’t very innovative

3. Effectrix

Effectrix is a professional multi-effect sequencer made by Sugar Bytes. It has a lot of unique sounds that combine many unusual possibilities. You can extend, loop, scratch, shift, stutter, and more with all of its filters. It has a pretty simple sequencer, and the steps can be divided in a number of ways. It is great when you use it live with real-time processing. You can create and assign patterns to your MIDI keyboard keys.

It also has Modulator Tracks, and each effect gets four of them. This allows you to be very creative. It is ideal for anyone who is making music that is unique and unusual, and it brings out your creativity. You can take any music and bring it to life by creating a new sound. People find this tool highly addictive because it has endless options for experimenting with new sounds. It allows you to shape and mold your music into something incredibly original and unique.

Cost: 

$119

Features:

• Ideal for sequenced sound manipulation
• 14 innovative effects
• 12 subpatterns that are triggered by MIDI notes and host automation
• Two modulation sequencer for each effect 
• 32-step sequencer used to activate the effects

Pros:

• Great combined effects
• Modulator tracks
• Allows for creation of unique sounds
• Reasonable price

Cons:

• Needs more note divisions

4. Glitch 2

Glitch 2 has one of the best user interfaces out there. It is known for its nine effects modules, which you can use to mutate or glitch your music. It has one lane for each module, and it can trigger any combination of effects at the same time. It is easy to manipulate, and each program stores 128 scenes. Each scene has its own sequence pattern, timing, and effects. It also has a randomize function, and each module comes with a multimode filter, pan, mix, and volume controls. It is a great tool for glitching and as an interesting multi-effects processor.

Cost: 

$59.95

Features:

• Sequencer allows many effects to be played at the same time
• Intuitive pattern editor
• Nine effect modules
• Filter, mix, pan, and volume controls on each module
• Randomize and mutate functions at every level

Pros:

• Amazing distortion
• High-quality effect modules

Cons:

• No presets
• You can’t bypass modules

Conclusion

If you are looking to try an alternative to Gross Beat to add new sounds to your music, you have some good options out there. You can focus on beat mashing with Glitch 2 or Effectrix, or you can try Mrhythmizer for a slight change of pace but a similar tool. ShaperBox is popular across the board, and it lets you customize your sound. All of these options are great alternatives if you want to try something different.