BEST FREE SAMPLE LIBRARIES & SOFT SYNTHS - CURATED LIST OF REVIEWED & RECOMMENDED INSTRUMENTS

[abacab]

4 minutes ago, fret_man said:

These Amplesound freebies all use their own player:

Ample Percussion Cloudrum: https://www.amplesound.net/en/pro-pd.asp?id=27

Ample Guitar M Lite: https://www.amplesound.net/en/pro-pd.asp?id=7

Ample Bass P Lite: https://www.amplesound.net/en/pro-pd.asp?id=19

The Ample Guitar M Lite and the Bass P lite were a couple of the first free plugins that I acquired! They sound great!

In fact, I own a Fender P bass, and the Ample bass nails the fingered bass, IMO! Add an amp and cab sim and you are good to go!

[PavlovsCat]

Wow, this thread is really rolling! Thanks to everyone who's adding their own lists. Could you imagine stumbling across this thread when you were just getting started using a DAW, especially if you had little or no budget? We're making it super easy for people to find the best freebies. 

Eventually,  I'm going to better organize the original post to group like instruments in the various sub categories. So far everyone has added libraries I know and completely agree with being excellent recommendations, so I'll be making additions to the original post. 

Great job, everyone! 

[Starship Krupa]

How could I forget Orchestools? ROMplers and Sampletank instruments based on the VSCO2 libraries. Strings, Brass, Woodwinds and more.

Made with love by @ilir bajri.

[Dorondon]

Pianobook has a Christmas Calender sample library thing,

Day 3 is The Experience -New York S&S Model B by Dore Mark (Kontakt & SFZ) and it's really gorgeous,

really smooth and fun to play : https://www.pianobook.co.uk/packs/the-experience-new-york-ss-model-b/

 

[PavlovsCat]

20 hours ago, JoeGBradford said:

@PavlovsCat Well said

I have always found people here to be incredibly helpful (even when I have asked stupid questions) There is a real sense of community and support. 

I've asked stupid questions many times in the past and I'm sure I'll have more stupid questions in the future and people here have been really helpful. I think coming here, because it's a very small group that posts very regularly, some lurkers might get the impression that it's click-ish -- and maybe it is and I'm unaware. But I've found the overwhelming majority of people here -- at a very high level for an online community -- are super friendly and welcoming. 

If anyone reading that is getting the impression that because it's such a small group, folks may be click-ish, I want to encourage you to post or even send me a PM. If you're friendly, whether you are seeking knowledge or have knowledge to share, and you post, You'll find me and others will be friendly and welcoming. So to those who lurk, please post! Someone at VI Control that has been coming here for years sent me a PM following a particular ugly experience I had with a developer on their site, and he told me that he'd been coming here for years and he really enjoyed my posts and how he's been following Larry's deals for years. He even mentioned about the time Larry left. He made some funny observations. And then, it blew my mind, he wrote how much he appreciated what he saw as a real friendship between Larry and me that he found reflected in our posts! I found it really touching and, of course, I had to PM Larry to tell him, because he's half of that feel good story. So, I my VI Control friend, if you're reading this -- or for anyone else reading this who hasn't commented in a post -- we'd love to have you as part of the mix.  

Edited December 3, 2022 by PavlovsCat

[PavlovsCat]

I refined the categorization of the original post to group things more by instrument, regardless of sample platform and it struck me, why not add some plugins that are always free and worthy of recommendation, so I did and I'll add more in the future and I encourage others to consider making their own lists and updating them with free plugins are instrument based that they could recommend and I'll keep structuring everything more organized by instrument type, doing the same with my Pianobook section when I get to it. Right now, I'm either going to have a lot more time or a lot less, as COVID-19 is now in our house. So, if you don't hear from me for a while, I'm probably out sick. But hopefully, not for long. 

[JoeGBradford]

Ah hope the bug doesn't treat you too unkindly. I've had three colds in about 9 weeks as a result of emerging back into the world. Latest one is the worst! Think I'll hibernate until Christmas now! Take care and take it easy

[abacab]

2 hours ago, PavlovsCat said:

Right now, I'm either going to have a lot more time or a lot less, as COVID-19 is now in our house. So, if you don't hear from me for a while, I'm probably out sick. But hopefully, not for long. 

Stay healthy!!!

[Starship Krupa]

On 12/2/2022 at 1:49 PM, PavlovsCat said:

Starship Krupa offered to mix one of the first songs I ever shared.  I thought about taking him up on his offer, but didn't think it was worth his time. But I'll never forget his kind offer and encouragement and every time I see his posts, I always feel  like this man is a true mensch.

I'm very moved by this. I'm facing some pretty difficult challenges in my life right now and it's really great to hear.

However, I have to say, I saw it more as my asking a favor of Peter than offering to do one for him. The track is a well put-together take on "Strawberry Fields," and he actually has a cool-sounding raw rock 'n' roll singing voice that I envy. Some EQ carving and creative compression to give it space and make it pop in the mix  (and maybe some trippy reverse reverb and automatic doubling to give it an update to that late 60's Beatle/Martin feel) and I suspected he wouldn't be so down on his singing ability. Lennon's vocal performance on the original isn't exactly virtuoso, he's sort of "talking in tune."

I haven't mixed someone else's material in years. I enjoy mixing as much (sometimes more) as I do composing, playing and recording, and I haven't done a rock song of my own in years. I offered because I liked the material.

So there. ❤

[Dorondon]

11 hours ago, PavlovsCat said:

I refined the categorization of the original post to group things more by instrument, regardless of sample platform and it struck me, why not add some plugins that are always free and worthy of recommendation, so I did and I'll add more in the future and I encourage others to consider making their own lists and updating them with free plugins are instrument based that they could recommend and I'll keep structuring everything more organized by instrument type, doing the same with my Pianobook section when I get to it. Right now, I'm either going to have a lot more time or a lot less, as COVID-19 is now in our house. So, if you don't hear from me for a while, I'm probably out sick. But hopefully, not for long. 

Hope you get well quickly

[Fleer]

Take care, PC!

[Niky Serrano]

Here my 2 cents

Put all and prepare this Excel file has been a little bit hard,... I was thinking to put this in a repo of GitHub,... but at the moment, I have put in an Excel file

You can request permissions to add/modify this Excel.
With 3, 4 people with permission to edit, delete, this Excel is enough I think

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1vtBj3De_Kc9_yXTTNceyBaXUcFRGcCj5gfk58iJSJrQ/edit?usp=sharing

[PavlovsCat]

2 hours ago, Niky Serrano said:

Here my 2 cents

Put all and prepare this Excel file has been a little bit hard,... I was thinking to put this in a repo of GitHub,... but at the moment, I have put in an Excel file

You can request permissions to add/modify this Excel.
With 3, 4 people with permission to edit, delete, this Excel is enough I think

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1vtBj3De_Kc9_yXTTNceyBaXUcFRGcCj5gfk58iJSJrQ/edit?usp=sharing

If you're maintaining this and you and others find it useful,  I'm totally with you. Although,  I'm just going to keep updating the original post when I think of additional libraries and VSTs I believe are good enough to recommend.  Over time,  I'm trying to think of what's missing. The reality is, there are freebies I really don't spend much time with. For example,  I play rock music, including folk rock (more along the lines of Damien Rice and modern Irish folk rock, not 60s/70s American folk rock) and very R&B influenced music, consequently,  I realize my list leans heavily towards those genres and will miss a lot for musicians/producers of other genres.  

But I just realized,  while I'm a huge Mellotron fan, I've completely missed that area in my list,  and the reason is very much the same as why my guitar and bass recommendations are so limited,  I have commercial Tron libraries and plugins that I find vastly superior to all of the freebies I've ever used. But I'm going to spend some time finding some free Tron libraries and VSTs I can recommend. If anyone puts them on their list, I'll be sure to try them, and if I like them, add them to my original post. There was Taji Guy's Mellotron freebies from years ago that are really good, but I have to find a version in a free format (I have them in KONTAKT format). 

Edited December 4, 2022 by PavlovsCat

[abacab]

1 hour ago, PavlovsCat said:

If you're maintaining this and you and others find it useful,  I'm totally with you. Although,  I'm just going to keep updating the original post when I think of additional libraries and VSTs I believe are good enough to recommend. 

I think this would be a good companion thread to the one about freeware instruments in the "Instruments and Effects" forum started by @Starship Krupa, if the focus is on sample libraries.

The main issue, if you can call it that, is unless a useful thread is "stickied" by a mod, it will eventually get buried and hard to find.

I think it would be great if both threads were easily accessible.

[PavlovsCat]

I found that Taij Guy's superb Mellotron samples are available and formatted for Sforzando. I actually had installed this on my computer years ago, but forgot about them. So I played this again before posting and absolutely LOVE it. 

If anyone thinks of instrument categories I'm missing, post them on your list or let me know and I'll try them if I already haven't and if I find they're good enough to recommend, I'll add them to the original post. If anyone here spends time in genres beyond rock -- say you primarily focus on EDM or hip hop -- if you create your own list of recommended free libraries, I think that would be very helpful to others, as you'll be exploring an area I just don't cover well and my intention with this thread is to create a resource that those on a tight budget or no budget at all can find provides them with a treasure trove of excellent quality, recommended free libraries that covers a lot of territory. It doesn't matter if I recommend a library or you do, it's really that someone spent the time to download and listen to that library and found them to be recommendation worthy. Of course, everything is subjective, but I think it's a great way for people to navigate the world of freebies and find libraries they might have otherwise missed and not spend so much time dealing with libraries that aren't very good.  

This is the page where you can find the Sforzatron (Mellotron) library and lots of other libraries for Sforzando. You'll need to download the free Sforzando sampler to use it, of course. I've put this in my original post, but it's so darn good, even if you own a bunch of Tron plugins and libraries, if you don't already have Taiji Guy's Mellotron libraries, just try this. I think you'll be very glad you did. 

https://www.plogue.com/products/sforzando-banks.html

Edited December 9, 2022 by PavlovsCat

[PavlovsCat]

17 minutes ago, abacab said:

I think this would be a good companion thread to the one about freeware instruments in the "Instruments and Effects" forum started by @Starship Krupa, if the focus is on sample libraries.

The main issue, if you can call it that, is unless a useful thread is "stickied" by a mod, it will eventually get buried and hard to find.

I think it would be great if both threads were easily accessible.

I agree completely with what you wrote, @abacab. Great idea. 

And kudos to Erik / @Starship Krupa for creating the free instruments thread. I mostly only spend time in the deals and song sharing subforums, but I do recall a while back that I used Erik's thead.  Erik is the kind of community member that makes a forum great.

Is there a good way to go about getting this thread to be a sticky? I can create a poll and if enough people want it to be a sticky, I can shoot a PM to the mods and ask if they would be game to do so? @Erik, you've already gotten a sticky. How do you recommend I go about asking? Should I try the poll first to see if enough people want it before asking? I don't want to waste the mod's time if I don't have a good case. I really would LOVE this thread to end up with a lot of posts where people give their own recommendations, especially people who create music in different genres than me who are likely going to find libraries that I don't find or haven't tried because they don't really fit the music I do (although, I am such a sample hoarder, that I might have already tried them too!). 

 

Edited December 4, 2022 by PavlovsCat

[fret_man]

Bolder Sounds has a collection of free sounds. Some of them are surprisingly good!

[PavlovsCat]

39 minutes ago, fret_man said:

Bolder Sounds has a collection of free sounds. Some of them are surprisingly good!

Agreed. I would have included them if they were formated for a free player (they're primarily for the full version of KONTAKT with some EXS formated  libraries). 

If people want this to be a sticky, I can modify/expand the scope of the thread to iinclude free libraries formated for the full version of KONTAKT.  I use KONTAKT in every project I do. So my list for free KONTAKT libraries would be pretty extensive. 

Edited December 5, 2022 by PavlovsCat

[Niky Serrano]

8 hours ago, PavlovsCat said:

If you're maintaining this and you and others find it useful,  I'm totally with you. Although,  I'm just going to keep updating the original post when I think of additional libraries and VSTs I believe are good enough to recommend.  Over time,  I'm trying to think of what's missing. The reality is, there are freebies I really don't spend much time with. For example,  I play rock music, including folk rock (more along the lines of Damien Rice and modern Irish folk rock, not 60s/70s American folk rock) and very R&B influenced music, consequently,  I realize my list leans heavily towards those genres and will miss a lot for musicians/producers of other genres.  

But I just realized,  while I'm a huge Mellotron fan, I've completely missed that area in my list,  and the reason is very much the same as why my guitar and bass recommendations are so limited,  I have commercial Tron libraries and plugins that I find vastly superior to all of the freebies I've ever used. But I'm going to spend some time finding some free Tron libraries and VSTs I can recommend. If anyone puts them on their list, I'll be sure to try them, and if I like them, add them to my original post. There was Taji Guy's Mellotron freebies from years ago that are really good, but I have to find a version in a free format (I have them in KONTAKT format). 

You are right. Maintain the list has a lot of work behind... so, I will leave it as is, but I think now that is better to put the messages here in this thread editing the post.

[PavlovsCat]

@Wookiee  It has been suggested that this thread be made a sticky. What's the best way to determine if that's appropriate? I was thinking a poll might be useful. But as moderators determine this stuff,  I thought I'd ask you. Thanks in advance.