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

[Starship Krupa]

14 hours ago, PavlovsCat said:

@Erik, you've already gotten a sticky. How do you recommend I go about asking?

Unfortunately not true; neither the Freeware FX nor the Freeware Instruments threads have ever been stickied. It's not that tough for me to keep them bumped, but it does sometimes lead to silly "where can I get freeware instruments and FX to go with Cakewalk" or "why don't we have one of these for instruments/fx (depending on which one has scrolled too far)" questions.

I've asked the forum powers that be twice to sticky them, the first time I was told that they didn't want to start the forum off with too many stickies, then the second time got no reply, so I just dropped it.

If you do contact TPTB, maybe put in a good word for those threads; they deserve it, IMO. I've found some key plug-ins there, like Soundpaint. And any products listed there are at least supposed to be vetted to work with Cakewalk. The fantasy when I started them was that someone could be able to put together a decent DAW system with top quality software all for free, a fantasy that has come true in the years since the forum went on line.

[PavlovsCat]

1 hour ago, Starship Krupa said:

Unfortunately not true; neither the Freeware FX nor the Freeware Instruments threads have ever been stickied. It's not that tough for me to keep them bumped, but it does sometimes lead to silly "where can I get freeware instruments and FX to go with Cakewalk" or "why don't we have one of these for instruments/fx (depending on which one has scrolled too far)" questions.

I've asked the forum powers that be twice to sticky them, the first time I was told that they didn't want to start the forum off with too many stickies, then the second time got no reply, so I just dropped it.

If you do contact TPTB, maybe put in a good word for those threads; they deserve it, IMO. I've found some key plug-ins there, like Soundpaint. And any products listed there are at least supposed to be vetted to work with Cakewalk. The fantasy when I started them was that someone could be able to put together a decent DAW system with top quality software all for free, a fantasy that has come true in the years since the forum went on line.

I did hear back from Wookiee, who really is awesome, BTW. But I take it this won't be a sticky. However,  forum members can keep it alive by continuing to add to it, by posting their own recommendations or feedback if they think it's worthwhile. So anyone that finds this thread useful,  please post in it to keep it going. 

Edited December 5, 2022 by PavlovsCat

[abacab]

BTW, to easily search for this thread by @PavlovsCat, enter the phrase "SAMPLE LIBRARY LIST" in the forum search bar.

Or to search for the freeware threads started by @Starship Krupaseach for "FREEWARE".

Edited December 5, 2022 by abacab

[Starship Krupa]

They may not want to be seen as endorsing the products mentioned in the topics. All good, as Peter said, if you find it useful and know of a permanent freebies that deserve attention, bumpit.

 I think at this point you can Google Cakewalk freeware and those topics will show up On the first page, which is great.

[PavlovsCat]

I was just going through my Pianobook piano sample libraries and there are some samplists there like Dan Keen and Dore Mark that put out great quality that is right up there with paid sample libraries. I'll add the Dore Mark piano libraries that I have tried. All of my  internal hard drives are filled and I still haven't ordered another one, so I am not able to check all of these out, but I just had to give credit  where credit is due to this extremely talented and generous man. I'll add his pianos I actually have installed to the list. 

https://www.pianobook.co.uk/profile/dore_m/

[jbl4311]

@PavlovsCat  Thanks for starting this thread! There were many great libraries and publishers I wasn't aware of.  Highly recommend the VSL Celestial Strings.

Sonokinetic Vivace Legacy is free during the 12 days of Christmas sale.  Runs in the free Kontakt 7 player.  Try the sustained chords patch for your next biblical epic film score.

https://www.sonokinetic.net/products/instruments/vivace-legacy

Edited December 9, 2022 by jbl4311
Added URL

[PavlovsCat]

I made a number of additions to the original post, including adding some pianos I had a chance to check out and I just added Sonokinetic's free Rhodes Mark II library which became available today (I'm guessing that's a limited time freebie, so I'll remove it if/when it becomes a paid library).  

[abacab]

2 hours ago, PavlovsCat said:

I just added Sonokinetic's free Rhodes Mark II library which became available today (I'm guessing that's a limited time freebie, so I'll remove it if/when it becomes a paid library).  

This is definitely worth checking out! More configurable than you would expect for a freebie!

*** Kontakt 7 or Kontakt 7 Player required!

 

Edited December 9, 2022 by abacab

[PavlovsCat]

22 hours ago, abacab said:

This is definitely worth checking out! More configurable than you would expect for a freebie!

*** Kontakt 7 or Kontakt 7 Player required!

 

? percent! I love electric pianos and am very happy to add this library to my collection along with my other Rhodes libraries. In fact, I was so enthused about this freebie that I immediately created several custom presets with it. My favorite electric piano is the Wurli but I actually love the category overall and can't get enough of them, to be really candid. I'm a sucker for a sweet sounding electric piano and this Embertone [EDIT: I meant  Sonokinetic],  IMO, is a total no-brainer as a freebie. 

Edited December 10, 2022 by PavlovsCat

[abacab]

15 hours ago, PavlovsCat said:

and this Embertone,  IMO, is a total no-brainer as a freebie

Embertone? I missed that part...

[PavlovsCat]

3 hours ago, abacab said:

Embertone? I missed that part...

Oops, I meant  Sonokinetic.  I'm not sure why I confused the two. Maybe because they both have orange logos? 

[JoeGBradford]

Or the EMP name ?

[PavlovsCat]

I made some updates (additional recommended sample libraries) to the original post. If anyone else has new recommendations for free sample libraries, please share them! There are lots that are on my hard drive that I still have yet to add. I've mostly been going through my sample libraries trying to delete the ones that I don't find worthy of keeping and the ones on this list are the keepers. 

[PavlovsCat]

I feel asleep early last night, woke up early and the result is more updates to the list. I spent a bit more time on a category I absolutely love, tuned percussion as well as vocals/chorus libraries. Many of these are libraries that are absolutely worth paying for (or contributing to the samplist). I also want to express my gratitude to the very talented and generous individuals who have shared their work at zero profit. My hope is that compiling this list can bring joy to a musician who is short on cash but long on the desire to create music; it's such an incredible gift that shouldn't be relegated to for profit use,  After an injury, I, once a perfectionist musician, couldn't play without pain after even a minute of playing. It was frustrating and disappointing to know the joy of playing with other musicians, to see people feel emotions when you play, to have your peers praise you or to get encores was forever gone. But it was years later, advising (pro bono) an organization that helps and advocates for people with disabilities that I started participating in their forum, a place where I found a small community of musicians with disabilities -- some with very serious disabilities, including severe bone deformities -- where I started spending time there encouraging people that the joy of playing music wasn't something elite. I would find stories of musicians with disabilities and summarize the stories and witnessed people being inspired -- it was incredibly fulfilling to do that, TBH.  I found great joy in seeing how much those stories inspired people. And I made lots of posts like this thread, bringing together freebies, as most of the community was fairly poor. It's been several years since I've posted there. My good friend that inspired me to post there -- a woman much younger than me with a severe disability who died far too early a few years ago leaving behind a wonderful husband, who is also a talented pianist -- used to be active in the forum and when she passed, I stopped posting there. I need to go back and duplicate this thread there.  But the truth is, while I was encouraging others to play music despite their disabilities, my pain and disappointment that I would never again be able to make music at a level I found acceptable stopped me from trying again (until the pandemic came and my sense of mortality motivated me to want to record some songs I wrote for my kids when they were young about how much they mean to me; so in spite of my terrible playing abilities and 20 years of no practice and a crap voice, I gave it another shot and now I've recorded dozens of songs for an audience of my family and a few friends). 

While yes, Christian Henson had a commercial motive in creating the Pianobook community, it doesn't stop it from being a wonderful community of incredibly generous people giving away their work without cost. To date, I don't see any major downside to the community. I realize that there are some people highly critical of it who have condemned it here, but the reality is, it costs a good deal of money and resources to keep that community going and I don't think having samplists sell their work is a bad idea at all and I don't find the model -- from what I know -- exploitive of samplists. Back when I worked at a major global brand that was then working with Bono (U2), Bono said some things that did change the way I looked at charitable work. I have always done a good deal of charitable work focused on the homeless, abuse survivors and those with disabilities. But my day job -- before becoming a business owner -- was managing/leading digital marketing. The reality is, businesses, when they give, commonly give very little to charity and do it mainly for the goodwill for the brand.  I don't want to be sued, but I can tell many stories about brands sponsoring charities where they've spent millions promoting their affiliation with a charity and only given thousands to that charity -- it's not rare and, personally, I find it incredibly exploitive and disappointing, and I wish I could have changed that, I tried. So back to Bono's point, which was very different than my thinking and I initially found it a bad idea. Bono very cynically stated that businesses will never give out of generosity and sincerely decent motives, so society should accept when they do good and mix making a profit. Part of me has contempt for the situation, but my experience tells me that he was right. Bringing it back to Spitfire/Pianobook/Christian. Unless you're naïve, you realized from day one that Christian created that community with a profit motive in mind. That doesn't make it evil. Yes, it makes it far less noble, but a career in business has taught me that it's the wrong place for naivete. The beauty of the Pianobook community isn't harmed by Spitfire's profit motive -- at least at this point. It's still a thriving community with incredibly generous and many very talented people giving away their work without asking anything in return. And if they also create works where they seek profit, I think that takes nothing away from their generosity of their work given away without cost. Has Spitfire or Christian Henson created Pianobook as a a philanthropist? Absolutely not. That was obvious to me from the beginning. But the beauty of the community isn't dependent on Spitfire doing it as a charitable effort. It can be a promotional channel for Spitfire -- and it is -- and still serve the greater good. 

Sermon over.  Peace. 

Edited January 15, 2023 by PavlovsCat

[Cristian]

5 hours ago, PavlovsCat said:

Bono very cynically stated that businesses will never give out of generosity and sincerely decent motives, so society should accept when they do good and mix making a profit.

True, in terms of percentage, businesses typically donate (or otherwise give out) <= 1% of their profit (not revenue) to charity.
In contrast, the average individual donates around 2% of their yearly income to charity.
Some businesses compensate by also offering programs where employees can do a set number of hours of charity work on the company clock.
Or they organize charitable events. But they tend to be in the minority.
My employer has a donation matching program for employees and was actually chastised for this by some business analysts.
It is the way of the financial world of today I suppose and sadly we have not found a better system yet.

Edited January 15, 2023 by Cristian

[PavlovsCat]

14 minutes ago, Cristian said:

True, in terms of percentage, businesses typically donate (or otherwise give out) <= 1% of their profit (not revenue) to charity.
In contrast, the average individual donates around 2% of their yearly income to charity.
Some businesses compensate by also offering programs where employees can do a set number of hours of charity work on the company clock.
Or they organize charitable events. But they tend to be in the minority.
My employer has a donation matching program for employees and was actually chastised for this by some business analysts.
It is the way of the financial world of today I suppose and sadly we have not found a better system yet.

I won't say what company it was. But a company I  once worked for spent around one million dollars promoting a charity event every year that got a ton of positive media coverage.  Coverage that was easily worth tens of millions of  dollars through paid media,  but getting the coverage through unpaid media (we call it earned media in the industry) was incredibly more valuable because it's more credible than advertising. The facts, the company that event (a big marathon) was named after only donated less than $10,000 a year to the charity it co branded the event with. It was all done to exploit the charity's goodwill for the benefits it had for the brand.  FTR, I tried to change that, but it fell on deaf ears. But that story isn't as rare as you might hope. 

Sharing some stories like that and advocating for better ethics in marketing did get me recognition when I ran a publication.  Unfortunately,  I  doubt it changed anything. But I don't find corporate matching programs are bad at all. It's corporate co branding and sponsorships of charity events that are often pretty sleazy if you find the details, which  are never going to be publicly available. I think most corporate matching programs are very good by comparison. 

[Esteban Villanova]

I would add LABS Gaelic Voices to the Vocal/Choir category:

NEW LABS Gaelic Voices — FREE Enchanting Folk Choir VST - YouTube

Edited January 15, 2023 by Esteban Villanova

[PavlovsCat]

2 minutes ago, Esteban Villanova said:

I would add LABS Gaelic Voices to the Vocal/Choir category:

NEW LABS Gaelic Voices — FREE Enchanting Folk Choir VST - YouTube

I agree with you, that's a worthy addition to this thread and a library I could recommend.  I presently have Labs as one entry. Do you think it would be more useful to people if I went through each Labs library in the OP and gave them a little summary and rating?

I did sort individual libraries that way for everything else  but LABS and recommended  that everyone download all the LABS libraries,  but do you think my list would be more helpful if I call out the various LABS libraries so people can see what instruments are covered (piano,  electric piano,  guitars, strings, etc)? 

[Esteban Villanova]

3 hours ago, PavlovsCat said:

I agree with you, that's a worthy addition to this thread and a library I could recommend.  I presently have Labs as one entry. Do you think it would be more useful to people if I went through each Labs library in the OP and gave them a little summary and rating?

I did sort individual libraries that way for everything else  but LABS and recommended  that everyone download all the LABS libraries,  but do you think my list would be more helpful if I call out the various LABS libraries so people can see what instruments are covered (piano,  electric piano,  guitars, strings, etc)? 

IDK about summary or rating, that's a bit subjective and might clutter the op. LABS instruments that are particularly good, like the one I mentioned or Micah's Choir (there's a LABS version), deserve a spot on the list if this is supposed to serve as a guide to people looking to build their freebie arsenal, IMHO.

[PavlovsCat]

1 hour ago, Esteban Villanova said:

IDK about summary or rating, that's a bit subjective and might clutter the op. LABS instruments that are particularly good, like the one I mentioned or Micah's Choir (there's a LABS version), deserve a spot on the list if this is supposed to serve as a guide to people looking to build their freebie arsenal, IMHO.

I love that Micah's library. I actually put the KONTAKT version on the bottom of the list because I think it's so good. I think that samplist is really talented and follow him on Pianobook. I'm going to add my favorite Labs libraries to the sorted by instrument list and if anyone thinks it's gotten out of hand and wants to suggest a way to make it easier to sort through, just post about it. I created this list to be useful to others,  I won't mind the criticism. I care more about it being helpful to people. 

Edited January 16, 2023 by PavlovsCat