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Share your favorite FREE VST Plugins, Softwares, Instruments & FX here! [2021]


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Lemme start with a few that I use :)

 

 

CAKEWALK BY BANDLAB : https://www.bandlab.com/products/cakewalk
 

I've alread created a topic on this on this very board. I've used many DAWs before Cakewalk but after switching to Windows, this has been my constant and only choice. Not that there aren't great alternatives, but for a free software - it's the most robust, full fledged DAW you can get! I was particularly impressed by how good the virtual instruments are on this. If you haven't tried Cakewalk yet, you totally should. And if you're an old SONAR user who wants to share some thoughts, feel free to do so here : https://forums.songstuff.com/topic/55230-any-cakewalk-users-here-i-just-started-using-it/

 

 

Spitfire LABS : https://labs.spitfireaudio.com

 

Spitfire Audio has been a godsend for virtual instruments and sample libraries for many years now. So when LABS was first announced as an unending FREE series of instruments and sounds, I was very quick to latch on. I've used it for a couple years now including on my previous single "Fading Colours". I recorded this in my old room last year during lockdown. The piano and strings used for final part of the song was from LABS. Fading Colours https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDGy3X4tT-0

 

 

 

Wider : https://polyversemusic.com/products/wider/

 

I used to do all kinds of things to work with the spatial width on my tracks. Some worked well, some would bring about phase issues on which I'd spend a lot of time investigating. Sometimes I'd end up rolling things back to the way I started. That is until recently when I discovered Wider and it's such a hassle free, straight up piece of software. It handles phase really well unless you crank things up too much but more than anything, it's quick to turn on or off while I'm trying to bring some life into my sounds when needed. You should totally have it handy. :)

 

 

 

Now it's your turn! Looking forward to your recommendations. And remember, no trials or paid suggestions. This thread is specifically for all the free stuff out there!

 

 

 

P.S I'm pinning this topic for future members to use, contribute and make great inspiring music!

 

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  • 3 months later...

Hey guys, I thought I'll share with you an incredible find online.

 

Here's a Google Docs sheet containing hundreds of free VSTs, VSTis and instrument samples that may empower you greatly in the way you make music!

 

Obviously, you would need some sort of a sample player such as Kontakt or Sforzando to use these beautiful sounds.

 

 

Link to Google Docs Sheet

 

 

 

Note: No. It's not cracked softwares. All of them are links & sources to open-source or free versions of their products.

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  • 1 month later...

I use Izotope's free Ozone Imager 2, which does the same thing as Wider, though I can't speak to the phase issue. I only make mashups and haven't noticed anything untoward. I'll use it to spread one song and make space in the middle for the other, so there's less fighting between the two for the spectrum.

 

 https://www.izotope.com/en/products/ozone-imager.html

 

My DAW is Reaper, which they say isn't free but it basically is, with a 5-second delay on startup. It scores as well as most of the top DAWs in comparison ratings. One down side I read was it doesn't come with many plugins but I didn't find that. It comes with almost 300 VST and JS plugins.

 

https://www.reaper.fm

 

Mostly I'm content with the Reaper plugins but I sometimes use Tokyo Dawn Labs' compressor and EQ. I've seen these regularly mentioned in YouTube "My Best Plugins" videos by professional producers:

 

https://www.tokyodawn.net/tdr-vos-slickeq/

 

https://www.tokyodawn.net/tdr-kotelnikov/

 

I've tried a LOT of isolation/removal plugins and filters but I think the best free one is Spleeter, which somebody handily created a GUI for:

 

https://makenweb.com/SpleeterGUI

 

Make sure you're online when you first run a 2, 4 and 5-stem run, as it has to grab some extra files. I mostly use RX7's Music Rebalance and Steinberg's SpectraLayers but I'll always make Spleeter stems as an option. Sometimes they're better than the paid versions. I read that SpectralLayers was based on Spleeter, though they claim more for the philosophy than the code, whatever that means.

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51 minutes ago, Glammerocity said:

 

Thank you for listing your go-to plugins! Great list indeed. I've heard good stuff about Tokyo Dawn plugins, will definitely check em out! :)

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  • 2 weeks later...

Here are my two CREATIVE standby plugins (as opposed to technical tools) that allow me to achieve more in my arrangements.  Both great value and easy to learn/use.

 

EZ Drummer 2 https://www.toontrack.com/product/ezdrummer-2/ ... EUR 155.  It plays like a human drummer!  Even without cheap add-on kits/styles, it provides huge variation of kits, styles, song sections, complexity, plus for additional control you can drag one or all parts of the created drum track from within the plug-in into your DAW and edit the MIDI hits there if you wish.  I created 40 full tracks over two albums within 18 months, all on my own - a feat for me quite impossible without EZD2 as I am not a drummer.  It actually fooled an album reviewer who commented ... "I know the guitars have been fantastic throughout this, but shout out to the percussionist. Shout out to the drummer.  I have not heard any fault whatsoever throughout this entire time. Whoever has done the drums on these tracks is just a machine."  Little did he know ... it WAS :)

 

Garritan Personal Orchestra 5 https://www.garritan.com/products/personal-orchestra-5/... the ‘GPO 5 Compilation’ example track in the link sold me! $149. Not only good quality but also 5-10 times cheaper than alternatives (East-West, Hollywood, etc.). It was a further 30% cheaper (at the time I bought it) at www.Sweetwater.com, a well-known US music retailer. 
Not only does it offer the full orchestra by instrument and by section, but also by playing styles. For example, the violin string section has about 15 bowing styles!  A wonderful 'real' supplement to the free XPand2 module in Pro Tools, although several times I reverted to the latter because the synth instruments cut through the mix better.

 

For both the above, you can choose VST and/or the DAW-specific plugin during the install.  I chose the latter (AAX for Pro Tools), so I can't comment whether the VST variant is the same.

Edited by GregB
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  • 1 month later...
  • Noob

Hi, I'm new on the site. I am using Soundbridge DAW. I am just learning it, but I like the color coding for individual tracks (like Logic?) but FREE. As a singer songwriter I have felt the need to be able to record for myself. Any help along the way would be great! 

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On 12/4/2021 at 11:28 AM, Einen said:

Hi, I'm new on the site. I am using Soundbridge DAW. I am just learning it, but I like the color coding for individual tracks (like Logic?) but FREE. As a singer songwriter I have felt the need to be able to record for myself. Any help along the way would be great! 

 

Hello there @Einen, welcome to the Songstuff community! Glad to have you on board while you figure your way on the singer-songwriter journey! Is there anything specific that you're having trouble with or you're not sure where to start?

 

To begin with, I'd suggest you check out the Music Production & Recording sub-board on these forums.

 

https://forums.songstuff.com/forum/136-music-production-and-recording/

 

Feel free to submit your questions in a topic giving us context as to what you maybe wanting to do and the community would be happy to help! You may even find existing topics or discussions there that may clarify a lot of your concerns. I have never used the SoundBridge DAW but I just downloaded it and will be exploring its capabilities over the next few weeks. Though I might happy with using Cakewalk at the moment (which is also a free DAW), the prospect of using a new DAW excites me. Thank you for that!

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  • Noob
On 12/5/2021 at 6:30 AM, Mahesh said:

 

Hello there @Einen, welcome to the Songstuff community! Glad to have you on board while you figure your way on the singer-songwriter journey! Is there anything specific that you're having trouble with or you're not sure where to start?

 

To begin with, I'd suggest you check out the Music Production & Recording sub-board on these forums.

 

https://forums.songstuff.com/forum/136-music-production-and-recording/

 

Feel free to submit your questions in a topic giving us context as to what you maybe wanting to do and the community would be happy to help! You may even find existing topics or discussions there that may clarify a lot of your concerns. I have never used the SoundBridge DAW but I just downloaded it and will be exploring its capabilities over the next few weeks. Though I might happy with using Cakewalk at the moment (which is also a free DAW), the prospect of using a new DAW excites me. Thank you for that!

Who did you have do your animation on Fading Colors?

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  • 3 months later...

Just got here (from a link in the newsletter).

 

I second Cakewalk and Spitfire labs. The free suite of Reaper plugins, though ugly as sin, are also good. Reafir, in particular, is very useful.

 

I popped in to share a link to Surge XT. I have a lot of high-end synths, samplers, suites, etc., all of which I love, and Surge XT is one of the best synths available, period. It's completely open source and has a wide community of users and developers contributing. It's easily in my top five favorite synths.

 

https://surge-synthesizer.github.io//

 

 

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  • 4 weeks later...

I've never used a voice changer but a recent free bundle from Accusonus has one, which looked usuful for those novelty times you need a robot or somesuch effect it'd normally take multiple plugins to achieve. The pack has the usual dereverb, declicker etc most of us have but there was also a voice auto-EQ feature which looked interesting as a starting point - click and drag between three points for air, body and clarity. It's a bit like having three hands working your normal equaliser. There's a review at youtube.com/watch?v=tvGRX2FimVE and he's included bitly links for PC and MAC downloads in the description, because the Accusonus site is a bit unclear. There are also timestamps to each plugin.

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  • 1 month later...

I 2nd SurgeXT and suggest TAL Noisemaker synth,reverb & chorus 

+ Full Bucket 

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  • 7 months later...

Comper by Analog Obsession gives two blendable compressors in series, which is a technique to give a more compressed sound without having to push a single compressor to harsher levels. It avoids having to switch between two plugins. And it's free:

https://plugins4free.com/plugin/3886/

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  • 5 months later...
  • 3 months later...
On 10/20/2021 at 2:50 PM, GregB said:

Here are my two CREATIVE standby plugins (as opposed to technical tools) that allow me to achieve more in my arrangements.  Both great value and easy to learn/use.

 

EZ Drummer 2 https://www.toontrack.com/product/ezdrummer-2/ ... EUR 155.  It plays like a human drummer!  Even without cheap add-on kits/styles, it provides huge variation of kits, styles, song sections, complexity, plus for additional control you can drag one or all parts of the created drum track from within the plug-in into your DAW and edit the MIDI hits there if you wish.  I created 40 full tracks over two albums within 18 months, all on my own - a feat for me quite impossible without EZD2 as I am not a drummer.  It actually fooled an album reviewer who commented ... "I know the guitars have been fantastic throughout this, but shout out to the percussionist. Shout out to the drummer.  I have not heard any fault whatsoever throughout this entire time. Whoever has done the drums on these tracks is just a machine."  Little did he know ... it WAS :)

 

Garritan Personal Orchestra 5 https://www.garritan.com/products/personal-orchestra-5/... the ‘GPO 5 Compilation’ example track in the link sold me! $149. Not only good quality but also 5-10 times cheaper than alternatives (East-West, Hollywood, etc.). It was a further 30% cheaper (at the time I bought it) at www.Sweetwater.com, a well-known US music retailer. 
Not only does it offer the full orchestra by instrument and by section, but also by playing styles. For example, the violin string section has about 15 bowing styles!  A wonderful 'real' supplement to the free XPand2 module in Pro Tools, although several times I reverted to the latter because the synth instruments cut through the mix better.

 

For both the above, you can choose VST and/or the DAW-specific plugin during the install.  I chose the latter (AAX for Pro Tools), so I can't comment whether the VST variant is the same.

I'll give this a try.

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  • 1 month later...
On 8/15/2021 at 12:25 PM, Mahesh said:

Hey guys, I thought I'll share with you an incredible find online.

 

Here's a Google Docs sheet containing hundreds of free VSTs, VSTis and instrument samples that may empower you greatly in the way you make music!

 

Obviously, you would need some sort of a sample player such as Kontakt or Sforzando to use these beautiful sounds.

 

 

Link to Google Docs Sheet

 

 

 

Note: No. It's not cracked softwares. All of them are links & sources to open-source or free versions of their products.

I just purchased Keylab Essential MK3 49, its a midi controller keboard that comes with Arturia Analog Lab V. It has over 2000 presets. Best bang for buck for a keyboard midi controller. 

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