Best free plugins

[bill5]

Thought I saw/made a thread on this but couldn't find so:

 

If there's one thing I learned early on when I started researching the wild wonderful world of plugins, it's to toss out the "you get what you pay for" cliche. While that holds true for many things generally (cars, clothes, etc), it is not consistently true at all with plugins. I have tried pricier ones which I couldn't stand and - to the point - free ones which were excellent. Curious what others have found worth their while if any? (Note this doesn't include things that require Kontakt as that wipes out the "free" part)

 

Some of mine off the top:

 

Any synth by u-he

Vital

Surge

Crystal

ob-xd (Oberheim synth)

Full Bucket synths (retro Korg stuff)

Ample Guitars and Bass

Norrland Trumpet

MT Power Drum Kit

Steven Slate Drums Lite

Soundpaint (sampler/VI host)

 

Valhalla Supermassive verb

Voxengo Oldskool verb 

TDR Nova (EQ)

Klanghelm IVGI (saturation)

 

   

[KuruPrionz]

Nice list!

I have the Valhalla and Voxengo reverbs and yes, they are worthy. 

I have some of your free synths and those are good as well. 

 

Regarding Kontakt, there are quite a few plugins that will run perfectly on Kontakt Player and Komplete Start, which are both free and include plugins.

https://www.native-instruments.com/en/products/komplete/samplers/kontakt-7-player/

 

IK Multimedia has free versions of quite a few of their plugins. 

https://www.ikmultimedia.com/products/index.php?R=INIT&FV=free-software-related-products&CV=Other Filter&PSEL=freesoftware

[JimboKeys]

I practically live on free plugins.  In addition to what's been mentioned already, some of my favorites for my live rig are:

 

Pendulate (synth)
TAL NoiseMaker (synth)
Numa Player (kbd instruments)
K1v
Hammersmith Free piano
Spitfire LABS Strings
TAL Bassline
Martinic Kee Bass
MODO Bass 2 Free
Blue Cat Phaser, Chorus, EQ

 

-- Jimbo

[KuruPrionz]

If you are a Mac user, Apple includes about 30 free plugins with the system software and a free copy of Garage Band. The plugins are AU and work fine for me using Waveform 12 DAW.

 

Not all of the plugins are useful to me but the High Pass, Low Pass and Graphic EQ are all nice to have. I haven't tried everything. 

[bill5]

On 11/22/2022 at 11:46 AM, KuruPrionz said:

If you are a Mac user, Apple includes about 30 free plugins with the system software and a free copy of Garage Band. 

This brings up a good point. Check the stock plugins that come with your DAW. I like some of mine very much.

[KuruPrionz]

3 hours ago, bill5 said:

This brings up a good point. Check the stock plugins that come with your DAW. I like some of mine very much.

Yes, Waveform 12 comes with an excellent set of plugins. I do use some of those as well. 

[Dave Bryce]

Waves is announcing a plug-in that's free only today (Black Friday).

 

See press release in New Product Announcement forum.

 

dB

 

 

[David Emm]

22 hours ago, bill5 said:

This brings up a good point. Check the stock plugins that come with your DAW. I like some of mine very much.

 

Logic has some go-to instruments I love, like the electric pianos. I feel totally covered, despite winners like Scarbee.

 

By contrast, the guitars felt too limiting, so I bought AAS'S Strum. The pianos felt too static; Pianoteq filled the chair well. You'll need a few third-party plugs to better serve roles like that. I like Logic's Sampler better than its synths these days. I could probably live within it 90% and never miss a thing. I've been stoking the EXS24 for years, so my library is Godzilloid. Its hard to feel limited when it contains the best of 2 Korg workstations and Roland's D-50 in it, as well as reams of random madness, such as tuned and untuned toy pianos. 💪⚡🥸  

[bill5]

I use Mixcraft and was surprised how good some of the stuff was. I've tried numerous stock VIs and effects and thought "well I'll check out other stuff but this is good enough until something better comes along" and nothing better came along. 

[Paul Vnuk Jr.]

I grabbed the free Waves plugin, but have not tried it out yet. 

[Anderton]

Voxengo MSED. Great if you're into mid-side processing and analysis, especially if your DAW doesn't have a mid-side encoder/decoder.

TBProAudio ISOL8. This is a five-band splitter, ideal for all the multiband processing fans in the crowd. I don't need it with Studio One (it has a 5-band splitter), but when I wanted multiband processing in Pro Tools, it required more $$ and ISOL8 does the job. If your DAW doesn't have a splitter, what are you waiting for?!? There's a link 

 

 

[KuruPrionz]

Somehow, I found myself on the Spitfire Audio website. 

I went ahead and clicked the Free button to see what they have. 

 

https://www.spitfireaudio.com/pages/free-instruments

 

3 hefty sound sets, BBC Symphony Orchestra, LABS, which is 40+ various instruments and a Piano library. 

I'm downloading the Vintage Drums right now, 1.11gb of analog recordings of drums. Slow going here, using an Android phone as a tethered hot spot, pathetic. 

I'll just let it run for a while, will down load other stuffs back at the condo where the internet is much faster. 

[Bill Heins]

Check out the Free Bundle from MeldaProduction...pretty full set of FX plugins. https://www.meldaproduction.com/MFreeFXBundle

 

Bill

[bill5]

On 12/4/2022 at 11:08 PM, KuruPrionz said:

Somehow, I found myself on the Spitfire Audio website. 

I went ahead and clicked the Free button to see what they have. 

 

https://www.spitfireaudio.com/pages/free-instruments

 

3 hefty sound sets, BBC Symphony Orchestra, LABS, which is 40+ various instruments and a Piano library. 

I'm downloading the Vintage Drums right now, 1.11gb of analog recordings of drums. Slow going here, using an Android phone as a tethered hot spot, pathetic. 

I'll just let it run for a while, will down load other stuffs back at the condo where the internet is much faster. 

The entry level BBC orchestra is limited (hey it's free) but I think sounds really good. Most of the LABS stuff I didn't care for tbh, but that's me and should be taken with a grain of salt (as should most opinions). The install process also sucks. That said, I do like the "soft piano."  

 

Embertone also has some nice freebies worth a look IMO. Finally, if you really want to go down a rabbit hole, this site has a lot of stuff and some of it quite good, but warning that a lot of it requires the full version of Kontakt: https://www.pianobook.co.uk/packs/

 

[KuruPrionz]

2 hours ago, bill5 said:

The entry level BBC orchestra is limited (hey it's free) but I think sounds really good. Most of the LABS stuff I didn't care for tbh, but that's me and should be taken with a grain of salt (as should most opinions). The install process also sucks. That said, I do like the "soft piano."  

 

Embertone also has some nice freebies worth a look IMO. Finally, if you really want to go down a rabbit hole, this site has a lot of stuff and some of it quite good, but warning that a lot of it requires the full version of Kontakt: https://www.pianobook.co.uk/packs/

 

So far I've only grabbed the BBC Orchestra and a Drum pack from LABS (haven't used it yet). I'm a sucker for drum plugins but many have been deleted because they aren't what I want. Soniccouture has quite a few freebies on their website, sometimes they sort of mix it up and things change but eventually you could try them. Ill be messing with Thunderdrum soon. 

 

Thanks for the link, I'll take a look. 😊

[bill5]

1 hour ago, KuruPrionz said:

Soniccouture has quite a few freebies on their website, sometimes they sort of mix it up and things change but eventually you could try them. Ill be messing with Thunderdrum soon. 

Actually I did years ago but haven't used or tinkered with in awhile - IIRC I liked Thunder Drum and the others generally. 

[KuruPrionz]

Yesterday, Baby Audio sent me an email. They are going to have another email on Monday with a link to download a free Christmas plugin. 

They have some free plugins already. Last night I downloaded 2 of them, today I tried for the second time to get Baby Comeback and it crashed again. It's probably my crappy internet - wi-fi hotspot on a cheap Android phone. I'll try again when I can move back into my condo, the internet is fast there.  

Magic Dice, Magic Switch, Baby Comeback and Nu.Wav Sample Pack are all available now. I haven't tried anything yet and it's rare that I keep a sound sample pack or any part of one but once in a while something cool pops up that I can use. I'll drop Magic Dice and Magic Switch today and see if they do good things. 

 

I hugely prefer to make my own sounds. I like good plugins though and these all sounded like they could do something useful. On the other hand, I also downloaded Native Instrument's Hypha, which is their annual Christmas gift. I haven't surfed all the presets yet but so far I'm not amazed. I do like the interface, it's simple but has a good range to it, the sounds just seem to be sort of "soft and gooey" to me. There may be some punchy ones so I have hope and it was free so I can't complain. I got Raum reverb for free a couple of years ago and that's a great reverb. Overall, I like NI's software and they've been easy to deal with, at least on the level I function. As old as it is, I still use Studio Drummer right along with MODO Drum, in some ways I think it sounds better than MODO since it is sample based and they sampled a great drum set using high quality gear and top-notch engineers. So it sounds like real drums. 

[bill5]

Wow you have the same crappy internet as I do lol. Anyway I downloaded all of Sample Science's stuff, will check back with my .02 on them FWIW - minus the 1960s Piano, which is a "lo-fi" upright piano with some useful effects, if you care to go that route. It wouldn't be my go-to upright, but I look at it as something with more of a niche sound I could get out of it. 

[KuruPrionz]

18 hours ago, bill5 said:

Wow you have the same crappy internet as I do lol. Anyway I downloaded all of Sample Science's stuff, will check back with my .02 on them FWIW - minus the 1960s Piano, which is a "lo-fi" upright piano with some useful effects, if you care to go that route. It wouldn't be my go-to upright, but I look at it as something with more of a niche sound I could get out of it. 

Just for now and yes, it sucks. I went to the condo and used the fast internet, got Baby Audio plugs I was missing. And then, I forgot and left the hard drive I'd brought over right there. I plan on dropping by on Monday, will get the hard drive and then I can have too many more plugins!!!!

On the plus side, I went into TRackS and tossed a bunch of stuff that I never use and/or has been superseded. I kept the Stealth Limiter and the CSR Hall, a couple of tape machines and maybe something else. Since they will all work as individual plugins and don't need a host, I even tossed TRackS. 

 

And I checked every preset in Hypha and found 2 that might work for a competition if tweaked a bit. Everything Is Real and Winter Voices are pretty nice. I'm using a Fishman Triple Play so I can also plug the guitar straight in and I think I'll do that, planning to track an instrumental version of a song I'm working on, condense it down and bit and toss it up there. The Metapop competitions always have great prizes if you win (so far no) and in the end I've always won anyway by learning new skills and challenging myself. 

I recommend it, even if just for fun. I've done 22 re-mixes and productions and I've learned some great stuff on each one of those mixes. 

[bill5]

Tested out all of the SampleScience freebies last night. My impressions FWIW:

 

1960s piano - as I mentioned above, has possible uses, but would never be my "go to" piano (which I don't think it was really intended to be anyway)

Crystal harp - good for what it is; if you're looking for that kind of sound, very nice IMO

Clean Electric guitar - similar to the 1960s piano I would never use this as a go-to guitar, but might work if tweaked to get a particular sound

Circuit Bent - just puts out random super retro computer style sounds, wasn't worth me keeping

Sitar Renaissance - there's better out there, even for free/cheap; at times it sounded OK, but at times not (not realistic)

Stylo Synthesis - a retro organ/synth sound, OK for what it is I guess but I don't see having any use for it

Zither Renaissance - pretty good zither IMO, esp for free, though I think there might be better, even for free/cheap

[KuruPrionz]

Just now, bill5 said:

Tested out all of the SampleScience freebies last night. My impressions FWIW:

 

1960s piano - as I mentioned above, has possible uses, but would never be my "go to" piano (which I don't think it was really intended to be anyway)

Crystal harp - good for what it is; if you're looking for that kind of sound, very nice IMO

Clean Electric guitar - similar to the 1960s piano I would never use this as a go-to guitar, but might work if tweaked to get a particular sound

Circuit Bent - just puts out random super retro computer style sounds, wasn't worth me keeping

Sitar Renaissance - there's better out there, even for free/cheap; at times it sounded OK, but at times not (not realistic)

Stylo Synthesis - a retro organ/synth sound, OK for what it is I guess but I don't see having any use for it

Zither Renaissance - pretty good zither IMO, esp for free, though I think there might be better, even for free/cheap

So more or less batting zero?

 

It happens. I play guitar and have a few different ones so guitar plugins don't get my attention (neither do bass guitar plugins). 

 

I'm not very good at keyboards, have an X-Key 25 and an Akai MPK25 that I'm letting a friend borrow, she is much better at keys. 

I may end up just trading tracks with her, she can do my key parts and I'll do guitar or bass parts in exchange. 

 

I've been working hard on improving results with drum programs and making progress but last night I went with friends to hear a band I used to play in and they had a pickup drummer that I've jammed with in the past. One of those rare players who listens and does the perfect thing at the perfect time. 

 

I sat in on the last song and the drummer wanted to exchange phone numbers so I may have a real drummer to work with soon.

I love the freedom of plugins but as with everything in life, something's lost and something is gained. We grow as we go!!!! 😇

[bill5]

5 minutes ago, KuruPrionz said:

So more or less batting zero?

Not quite. A mixed bag, but a few are worth having.

 

I truly hate trying to "play" drums on a keyboard; plan to buy an e-drum kit at some point. I'm no drummer, but it's not like I'm trying to sound like Gene Krupa. 

[KuruPrionz]

1 hour ago, bill5 said:

Not quite. A mixed bag, but a few are worth having.

 

I truly hate trying to "play" drums on a keyboard; plan to buy an e-drum kit at some point. I'm no drummer, but it's not like I'm trying to sound like Gene Krupa. 

I have a well used Roland Handsonic, the first one with the ribbon controllers. It also has MIDI so you can assign it to plugins if you prefer those sounds. 

I've also got an electronic kick pedal that plugs into it and takes over the kick sounds if somebody wants to use it. 

 

I have the Korg Wavedrum Global, which does not have MIDI at all but is so responsive and sensitive that it is far and away my favorite electronic drum. 

It feels and sounds like you are playing a real drum. If you run your fingernails over the head, you'll hear that and it sounds real. There's a big difference using sticks, brushes or rubber ended mallets as well. A winner for snare sounds, just for one. 

 

Currently I'm not using either one, when my condo is finally repaired they will return to being mainstays in my humble studio. 

I wanted to see what I can get done with a minimum of gear, more ITB. I've learned some great stuff, it's been worth the journey. 

It doesn't stop production, it just changes how I go about it. 

[KuruPrionz]

Tonight I gave the free plugins from Baby Audio a spin. As of today, there are 4 of them. 

 

The newest one is called Pitch Drift. The interface is simple and easy to use, I like it. ALL 4 of the interfaces are super simple and easy to use. 

This has modulated "de-tuning" for want of a better word. You can adjust how far out of tune it will go and how fast.

I thought it sounded better if you copy and paste a track and then just run Pitch Drift on one of the two tracks. Very clean, not glitchy. 

 

Baby Comeback is a delay, it sounds good and does things easily. 

Magic Dice has an Amount slider and an image of a dice. You click the dice and get a random combination of reverb, modulation and delay. Click it again, something different. 

It sounds good, sort of a fun game. 

Magic Switch is a simple chorus plug in, it sounds good. Another one that I prefer run in parallel, the difference between unaffected and the effect is more "effective".

 

These are good sounding, easy to use plugins and they are free. Can't go wrong at that price! Just go to the Baby Audio site and click freebies. They'll want your email address to send you the download links. I have a separate gmail account just for such things but so far they haven't barraged me, yet. 

[KuruPrionz]

The link is to a YouTube video by Venus Theory describing a mastering session using only free plugins. 

The links to the plugins are in the description. I haven't downloaded any of them yet, too far behind in checking out plugins already. 

There are probably some good ones though.

 

 

[KuruPrionz]

And, up along the top in the blue bar just below the Plugin Boutique logo, there is a Free drop down with 31 plugin categories. 

All sorts of stuff, there are several plugins in each category - probably 100 + freebies. 
I haven't downloaded any of them, yet. 

 

https://www.pluginboutique.com/?utm_source=KVR+Audio&utm_medium=eBlast&utm_campaign=Plugin+Boutique+Winter+Sale

[bill5]

I forget if mentioned earlier in this thread, but if you go to KVR Audio, you can browse a ton of plugins and select "free only" FYI. 

[Anderton]

Check out Airwindows.com. There are plug-ins for VST, AU, VST Mac, and LinuxVST. Their distinguishing characteristic is that they have no fancy artistic interface, minimal controls (some even don't have controls), use very little CPU, and cover a wide range of applications. For example, there's an excellent amp sim with Gain, Tone, Output, and Dry/Wet controls - that's it.

 

His slogan is "In Mix, No One Can Hear Your Screen." I liked his approach so much I subscribed to his Patreon page. 

 

[bill5]

Check out Heavyocity's "Emotive Choir" https://heavyocity.com/products/

[Anderton]

Grabbed it! Thanks.