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

[PavlovsCat]

3 minutes ago, Tianzii said:

This one! I love free kontakt player instruments that can be downloaded through Native Access.

You don't have to worry about finding the downloadables next time you setup your computer.

Thanks!

Agree. 

[PavlovsCat]

Just made some updates to the list (see the original post).

This list is getting links from other forums, Reddit, and elsewhere, but because this forum doesn't pin threads like this and I see some folks in this forum are beginning to create similar, but much smaller lists, I'm starting the wonder if I should keep working on it. Let me know if you find this list useful. It took many hours to compile the list, and of course, it takes effort to keep adding to it regularly and maintaining it. As long as people here find it useful, I'll keep it going. 

Edited June 24 by PavlovsCat

[satya]

i always trust this site review more than BPB

https://integraudio.com/free-plugins/

[PavlovsCat]

3 hours ago, satya said:

i always trust this site review more than BPB

https://integraudio.com/free-plugins/

The list looks pretty solid. I knew a lot of stuff on their list to be good choices. I spend way too much time on this stuff! I recognized everything. 

[PavlovsCat]

I just added a bunch of free sample libraries, some that I really love. The only reason some of them weren't in the original post are that I have so many free and paid libraries on my drives that I forgot about some of them when compiling the list. But I saw something that jogged my memory and I added them. The newly added libraries include a lofi piano, a very cool Wurly electric piano, a harp, synths, and more and I have more I'll be adding in the coming days.  

If you appreciate this list and finding out about free sample libraries that someone else has already installed and tried out and can recommend (and save you the time from downloading and installing free libraries that don't cut it), please comment and let me know, or even post a Bapu style "installed" to keep this thread going. If you know of some high quality free sample libraries you'd recommend, please post in the thread and share them! I promise that if I don't already know of them, that I'll check them out and consider adding them to the original post if I could also recommend them to a friend. 

My motivation for creating this list was the idea that it might help someone who loves making music but is short on cash.  Of course, a lot of people who come here to spend, spend, spend, have posted in this thread, and it's great that they get some joy from it too. But if this brought joy to even one musician who was low on funds, I feel it was worthwhile. Growing up the son and brother of music teachers, music has always been part of my life and I want to do what I can to help others enjoy the gift of music too. Idealist? Sure. But I feel certain it's helped some people. This list and my free libraries for Kontakt pretty high in Google from people linking to it from other forums and websites. If you know of other communities, especially ones for musicians on a tight budget, please let them know about the list. 

Edited July 7 by PavlovsCat

[TracingArcs]

FYI.  None of Christian Hensons instruments are available on Pianobook anymore (and have not been for some time). if you ask nicely on the Pianobook Discord. Some kind people will give you a link. Not sure how legit that is. But what remains of the mods there do not seem to mind. Seems Spitfire is not engaging anymore with PB. I would also suggest that people make backups of any Pianobook instruments they have. or download now and do so.

[PavlovsCat]

13 minutes ago, TracingArcs said:

FYI.  None of Christian Hensons instruments are available on Pianobook anymore (and have not been for some time). if you ask nicely on the Pianobook Discord. Some kind people will give you a link. Not sure how legit that is. But what remains of the mods there do not seem to mind. Seems Spitfire is not engaging anymore with PB. I would also suggest that people make backups of any Pianobook instruments they have. or download now and do so.

Thanks for sharing that, @TracingArcs. I removed the impacted libraries from the list. 

I've been a big fan of Pianobook and have been sad to see how it's died out since the Henson controversy and  departure. Clearly, no one replaced him. I suppose we could say the same about Labs. There are still libraries being added, but it's infrequent by comparison to what it once was and I've found that they really haven't been at the same quality level we used to see. There have been some very talented samplists to come out of the Pianobook community, like Dan Keen and Hunter Rogerson (who both have moved on to release commercial sample libraries). It would be great to see the community revived. 

[TracingArcs]

Share your sentiments completely PavlovsCat. I was a demoist for PB from the start (under the name Bemused). Recent chat on the site indicating some of the mods have gone and the rest have not heard from Spitfire. An amazing resource for all (and helped Dave Hilowitz - Decent Sampler get a foothold ). There has been talk of setting up elsewhere. But the cost and other issues rule it out.

[PavlovsCat]

3 hours ago, TracingArcs said:

Share your sentiments completely PavlovsCat. I was a demoist for PB from the start (under the name Bemused). Recent chat on the site indicating some of the mods have gone and the rest have not heard from Spitfire. An amazing resource for all (and helped Dave Hilowitz - Decent Sampler get a foothold ). There has been talk of setting up elsewhere. But the cost and other issues rule it out.

Oh yeah, how could I forget Dave Hilowitz.  He's awesome and I love the videos he makes too. Come to think of it, I should be looking at adding the best of his libraries next. If you have recommendations,  please share!