Freeware Instruments Thread

[Paul Fogarty]

i was replying to something else, but came across this.. be mindful STEINY isn't supporting vst2... so hopefully many will switch to vst3

Synth1 by Ichiro Toda is legendary status..there is like 25-30k+ of patches you can download also for it

plugin boutique also carry some freebie vsts (not excluding the monthly giveaway when you buy)

beat-de mag also have some nice stuff, but the mag is german and it's a bit of a "faff" . they do loads of  sampler stuff for zampler

TAL is a good site for freebies

Valhalla also do a nice reverb free

there are a few sound generators e.g. for dx7 that you can import the sysex into e.g.

https://www.thisdx7cartdoesnotexist.com/

maybe you know this already.. but on the off chance ya don't.

 

 

[Bridget Murphy]

On 10/31/2020 at 9:16 AM, abacab said:

Note that 'Free Reed' is a type of instrument design, and not free, as in beer.

These instruments are for sale. But they do have a free demo.

LOL, I think scook and I were typing about the same time. He beat me. You gotta be fast to beat scook! ?

Thank you for that resource. That will be really helpful.

[Bridget Murphy]

On 10/31/2020 at 9:06 AM, Starship Krupa said:

Thanks, @HIBI, I really like the koto and sakura.

(For some reason .SFZ instruments keep falling off my radar, maybe because they don't get as much flashy promo as the likes of Kontakt and Sampletank, so I appreciate the .SFZ people in this thread reminding us!)

My contribution today is one I noticed that @scookmentioned in another thread. If you want reed instruments, (Virtual Accordion, Concertina, Bandoneon, Bayan, Melodeon, Melodica, Flutina, Harmonium), check out Syntheway's Free Reed Aerophone Instruments collection.

Thank you for sharing this resource.

[Bridget Murphy]

On 10/31/2020 at 9:06 AM, Starship Krupa said:

Thanks, @HIBI, I really like the koto and sakura.

(For some reason .SFZ instruments keep falling off my radar, maybe because they don't get as much flashy promo as the likes of Kontakt and Sampletank, so I appreciate the .SFZ people in this thread reminding us!)

My contribution today is one I noticed that @scookmentioned in another thread. If you want reed instruments, (Virtual Accordion, Concertina, Bandoneon, Bayan, Melodeon, Melodica, Flutina, Harmonium), check out Syntheway's Free Reed Aerophone Instruments collection.

I should try their concertina.

[Starship Krupa]

Cherry Audio have a holiday gift for all, Synthesizer Expander Module.

...."a free emulation of the classic Oberheim® self‑contained synthesizer module of the same name."

It's a monophonic monster, should be great for classic leads and basses. It's a faithful recreation, so only one built-in effect, phaser. So it will require external FX to sound like modern synths.

[Starship Krupa]

Been a few months, but multiple free instruments released. The theme this time is dreamy ambient pads.

Ibiskus is a nice instrument for ambient and lofi sounds.

Arctic Dreams is another one, based on piano sounds.

Love-Fi 3 Lite is yet another one, from a longtime favorite ambient instrument maker, Quiet Music.

[Bridget Murphy]

On 10/30/2020 at 6:06 PM, Starship Krupa said:

Thanks, @HIBI, I really like the koto and sakura.

(For some reason .SFZ instruments keep falling off my radar, maybe because they don't get as much flashy promo as the likes of Kontakt and Sampletank, so I appreciate the .SFZ people in this thread reminding us!)

My contribution today is one I noticed that @scookmentioned in another thread. If you want reed instruments, (Virtual Accordion, Concertina, Bandoneon, Bayan, Melodeon, Melodica, Flutina, Harmonium), check out Syntheway's Free Reed Aerophone Instruments collection.

Have you ever tried to use this? Can you share some of your work using this tool, I'd love to hear that concertina library.

[Starship Krupa]

9 hours ago, Bridget Murphy said:

Have you ever tried to use this? Can you share some of your work using this tool, I'd love to hear that concertina library.

Sorry, I haven't tried the instruments. I got free-reed instruments confused with reed instruments being offered for free.

Have you tried this (found in the concertina.net forum)?:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1KZ1EPAueS-xBiBLDeMVfa3Fvno85UHHg?usp=sharing

It needs an .SF2 player, but those are plentiful.

[John Vere]

Too many free instruments not enough time! Oh what a terrible problem!! 
Someday we’ll have to put together the “Greatest Hits” collection from this wonderful thread. 

[Starship Krupa]

1 minute ago, John Vere said:

Someday we’ll have to put together the “Greatest Hits” collection from this wonderful thread.

Peter @PavlovsCat has attempted to do just that. I'm not sure where to find his list at the moment. He was maintaining it in the Deals subforum.

There are way too many great free instruments that aren't in this topic just because nobody has gotten around to posting them.

Even in just the 5 years since we started the topic (and its sister topic about freeware FX), there's been such an explosion in the area of loss leader plug-ins that I don't have enough time to try them much less post about them.

At some point, I hope to get another song into a releaseable state....

[PavlovsCat]

55 minutes ago, Starship Krupa said:

Peter @PavlovsCat has attempted to do just that. I'm not sure where to find his list at the moment. He was maintaining it in the Deals subforum.

Tagged by one of my favorite forum members, @Starship Krupa, I'm hanging out with the family right now, but I had to reply!

I created, and still maintain, two threads on free sample libraries and free synths.  These are all libraries I've tried and feel are at a high enough standard,  I can recommend them. I started by creating a list of libraries that play in free players and then,  after some requests,  created a similar list for free libraries for KONTAKT.  I actually plan on making some new additions to these lists in the next few days, as there's been some new freebies worth recommending.  

Best free sample libraries that work in free players:

https://discuss.cakewalk.com/index.php?/topic/52223-best-free-sample-libraries-soft-synths-curated-list-of-reviewed-recommended-instruments/

Best Free Sample Libraries for the full version of KONTAKT (although I ended up putting in KONTAKT PLAYER libraries too after people suggested  doing so)

https://discuss.cakewalk.com/index.php?/topic/65790-best-free-sample-libraries-for-kontakt-a-curated-list-of-recommended-libraries/

[Bridget Murphy]

On 5/3/2024 at 4:57 PM, Starship Krupa said:

Sorry, I haven't tried the instruments. I got free-reed instruments confused with reed instruments being offered for free.

Have you tried this (found in the concertina.net forum)?:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1KZ1EPAueS-xBiBLDeMVfa3Fvno85UHHg?usp=sharing

It needs an .SF2 player, but those are plentiful.

So you mean reed instruments offered for free and not free-reed instruments(concertina, harmonica, etc.) I got it all wrong too. Haha. Anyway, thanks for the G drive link. I might this link useful someday.

[Starship Krupa]

5 hours ago, Bridget Murphy said:

So you mean reed instruments offered for free and not free-reed instruments(concertina, harmonica, etc.) I got it all wrong too. Haha.

Yeah, well, even though I think of myself as pretty good with words, sometimes my brain kicks into pattern-recognition mode at the expense of context.

When I was in my late teens I heard a couple of college students talking about how they were going to apply for student visas and for a couple of minutes I pondered how that worked: was the bank targeting college kids as being good credit risks? Was MasterCard doing the same thing?

More recently I was frustrated by not being able to find a good emulation of a spring reverb. It took me years to find one that I thought was worth spending money on (Wavesfactory won the contest), but before I found it, every year March-May my eye would get distracted by Plugin Boutique's deal page with all of these effects companies having "spring sales."

[Starship Krupa]

Free powerhouse instrument A|A|S Swatches has been updated to include sounds from their new String It soundpack.

Swatches is over 730 sounds from across their range of modeled instruments.

IMO one of the best free virtual instruments out there.

[user 905133]

Thanks for the heads up.  Maybe you know: did they ever include sample presets from Exodus (for Chromaphone) in any of their Swatches sampler? 

[Starship Krupa]

2 hours ago, User 905133 said:

sample presets from Exodus (for Chromaphone) in any of their Swatches sampler? 

Yes, a month or two ago, or whenever it was that Exodus was released. Once a soundpack is released it's unusual for them to wait to include a dozen of them in Swatches and announce the new version.

Whenever they send me email saying a new soundpack has shipped, I go straight to the Swatches product page and check to see if they've put the treats in there for downloading and I can't remember ever being disappointed that they hadn't done it yet.

At this point, if I sat down with Swatches and spent only 30 seconds auditioning every sound in it, I think it would take me 4 hours or so to finish, if my math is right.

Edited May 15 by Starship Krupa

[user 905133]

16 minutes ago, Starship Krupa said:

Yes, a month or two ago, or whenever it was that Exodus was released. Once a soundpack is released it's unusual for them to wait to include a dozen of them in Swatches and announce the new version.

Whenever they send me email saying a new soundpack has shipped, I go straight to the Swatches product page and check to see if they've put the treats in there for downloading and I can't remember ever being disappointed that they hadn't done it yet.

At this point, if I sat down with Swatches and spent only 30 seconds auditioning every sound in it, I think it would take me 4 hours or so to finish, if my math is right.

Thanks for the reply. The last Swatches zip file I downloaded was in March.  I don't download them all.

The email says "The Exodus sound pack is available now at the special introductory price of only $19—a 50% off discount. . . .The promotion ends on April 22, 2024."  Maybe they will include it in a later edition of Swatches.  Not a big deal; I was just wondering if they skipped the Exodus presets for some reason.

Edited May 15 by User 905133

[Starship Krupa]

12 minutes ago, User 905133 said:

Thanks for the reply. The last Swatches zip file I downloaded was in March.  I don't download them all.

The email says "The Exodus sound pack is available now at the special introductory price of only $19—a 50% off discount. . . .The promotion ends on April 22, 2024."  Maybe they will include it in a later edition of Swatches.  Not a big deal; I was just wondering if they skipped the Exodus presets for some reason.

Hold up.

Rather than just going by what the website had been telling me, I just checked A|A|S Player and I don't have sounds from Velvet Chic, Split Personality, Exodus, String It, Real Illusions, Bass Factory, Hop Riffs, or Love Lost....

What the hell is up with that?? Every time one comes out, as I said I check the page to see if they've put in the latest sample sounds and I only download if they do.

I guess I should tell them. Maybe they have the wrong build up on the website.

[user 905133]

11 minutes ago, Starship Krupa said:

Hold up.

Rather than just going by what the website had been telling me, I just checked A|A|S Player and I don't have sounds from Velvet Chic, Split Personality, Exodus, String It, Real Illusions, Bass Factory, Hop Riffs, or Love Lost....

What the hell is up with that?? Every time one comes out, as I said I check the page to see if they've put in the latest sample sounds and I only download if they do.

I guess I should tell them. Maybe they have the wrong build up on the website.

I just finished comparing numbers: the website shows 72 sound packs; AAS Player shows I have 71.  I know I have all of the ones you don't seem to have.  I even tried installing aax and nks on my second and third installations.

I was thinking maybe I got a defective version (maybe a server issue). All three times the Page Down to see the full agreement didn't work.  I just had an empty box.

Feel free to quote my details when you report it.

BTW, I didn't count the presets, but the first one is numbered 1 and the last one is numbered 736.  There were no missing numbers where Exodus should be. 

Edited May 15 by User 905133

[Starship Krupa]

8 minutes ago, User 905133 said:

All three times the Page Down to see the full agreement didn't work.  I just had an empty box.

Same here.

I'll try downloading it again and see if the missing ones show up.