Free halftime plugins, and how the effect works
A halftime plugin (also written half-time or half time) plays your audio at half speed while staying locked to the beat, so a loop suddenly sounds twice as slow and heavier. Producers use it for drops, breakdowns and beat switches. The best-known one, Cableguys HalfTime, costs money, and Gross Beat only runs in FL Studio. Below are the free ways to do it and what each one sounds like. I make simpleStutter, one of the plugins here. The clips are a loop I ran through its engine, and I checked the other plugins' pages on 11 November 2026.
By Aiden Shihadeh, developer of simpleStutter · Published
Quick answer
| Option | Price | Works in | Keeps pitch? |
|---|---|---|---|
| simpleStutter | Free (unlock £29.99) | Any VST3 or AU host on Windows, Mac, Linux | Either: tape-style or Keep pitch |
| Glitch 2 | Free | VST2, VST3, AU on Windows, Mac, Linux | Stretched slices |
| Ableton Live warping | Built in | Live, on audio clips | Either, by warp mode |
| FL Studio time stretching | Built in | FL Studio, on samples | Either, by stretch mode |
| Cableguys HalfTime | Paid, about €12 | VST, AU, AAX on Windows, Mac | Either |
simpleStutter does half time in the free version, for any DAW on Windows, macOS and Linux. Download free
What half time sounds like
Here's a four-bar loop dry, at half speed like a slowed tape, at half speed with the pitch kept, and with only beats 2 and 4 slowed down.
Half-time feel and the half-time effect
"Half time" means two different things, and search results mix them up.
- Half-time feel is a way of playing drums. The tempo stays the same, but the snare moves from beats 2 and 4 to beat 3, so the groove feels half as fast. Trap, dubstep and a lot of drum and bass breakdowns are written like this. You get it by moving MIDI notes, and no plugin is needed.
- The half-time effect takes audio that's already playing and plays it back at half speed. Everything slows down: drums, bass, chords and vocals. That's what a half-time plugin does.
Why a half-time plugin repeats itself
A plugin can't play the song at half speed forever, because it would fall further behind the track every beat. So it works in a window, usually one bar. It plays the first half of the bar stretched over the whole bar, then jumps forward to the start of the next bar and does it again. You hear beats 1 and 2 of every bar, slowed down. That's also why the effect lines up with your track whenever you switch it off.
The other choice is pitch. Played like a slowed tape, the audio drops an octave, which is the dark, heavy sound most people want on a drop. With the pitch kept, the plugin time-stretches instead, so it stays in key with the rest of the track but drums lose some of their snap.
Free halftime plugins
simpleStutter
My own plugin. You draw a Speed block on its 16-step grid wherever you want the slowdown: across the whole bar for a full half time, or on single beats for a drag. The Speed block has 1/2, 1/4, 2/3, 3/4 and 2x, or you can type any speed from 0.05x to 3x, and a Keep pitch switch for any of them. Gate, filter and tape stop blocks can play over the half time in the same pattern.
- Free: the Speed block and every other block, pattern slots 1 and 2, and 54 of the 192 factory patterns, including the plain Half time patterns.
- One-time unlock (£29.99): all 12 slots switched by MIDI notes, all 192 patterns, up to four layers, and saving your own patterns.
- Catch: it came out on 10 November 2026, and there's no AAX version for Pro Tools and no CLAP version.
Glitch 2
illformed's sequenced glitch plugin, free since August 2026. Its Stretcher effect stretches the slices you paint it on, alongside retrigger, reverse, tape stop and gater effects in the same sequencer.
- Good for: short slowdowns mixed in with glitch edits, on Windows, Mac and Linux.
- Catch: it's built for glitches, so a clean full-bar half time takes more setup than in a plugin made for it.
Get it from illformed.
Half time without a plugin
Ableton Live
Select an audio clip with Warp on and press the ×2 button under its BPM. Live now thinks the clip was recorded at twice the tempo, so it plays it at half speed. In Re-Pitch warp mode it drops an octave like tape, and in Complex Pro it keeps its pitch. This slows the whole clip down, so it doubles in length, and you'd cut it back to the bar you want.
FL Studio
Gross Beat has half-speed presets if your edition includes it. Without it, open the sample's channel settings and turn the time stretching Mul knob to 200%, which plays the sample at twice its length. Resample mode drops the pitch like tape, and Stretch keeps it.
Logic Pro
Logic's Varispeed slows the whole project, down to 50%, so it's no good for one part. For a single track, stretch the region with Flex Time, or put a half-time plugin on it. simpleStutter's AU loads in Logic and GarageBand.
If you'd pay
Cableguys HalfTime does one job, half speed at a choice of loop lengths, and was about €12 in October 2026. Initial Audio SlowMo and M Media Audio's Half Time are other paid half-speed plugins, and ShaperBox 3's TimeShaper and Gross Beat can draw half time as part of a bigger time effect.
Common questions
Is there a free halftime plugin?
Yes. simpleStutter's Speed block does half time in its free version, as VST3 on Windows, Mac and Linux and as AU on Mac. Glitch 2's Stretcher stretches slices too.
What's the difference between half time and half speed?
Half-time feel moves the snare to beat 3 so a beat feels slower at the same tempo. Half speed plays the audio itself slower. Half-time plugins do half speed, in time with the beat.
Why does half time make my audio an octave lower?
Playing audio at half speed halves every frequency, which is one octave down. Use a keep pitch or time-stretch mode if you want it to stay in key.
Is there a free alternative to Cableguys HalfTime?
simpleStutter is the closest free match, with tape-style and pitch-kept half time on a beat grid. In Ableton or FL Studio you can also stretch the audio itself, as shown above.