aidan o driscoll Posted June 23 Share Posted June 23 (edited) From another thread started recently by @craigb in the coffee house I thought it an idea to add a list post here of DECENT FREE usable Vst instruments and efx. Myself and the keyboard player compiled this for other band members so we could all have the same plugins where possible when swapping projects. THIS IS NOT AN EXHAUSTIVE LIST BY ANY MEANS, others here may have more links to share but this is the one used by our band members and they generally seem happy So here goes our list - ALL FREE last time I checked: INSTRUMENTS: ARTURIA stuff is really good. They specialise in all the retro synths like the DX7 etc. They have an all encompassing plugin called ANALOG LAB with sample presets of all the near 40 retro synths they sell. This is the recently released FREE version of Analog Lab. The other thing they also do is sell retro preset packs with the original sounds from lots of 70s/80s bands like Depeche, Marouder, Floyd, Vangelis, Jarre. These preset packs are on sale for $5 each and should work in the free analog lab https://www.arturia.com/products/software-instruments/analoglab/free https://www.arturia.com/sounds Native instruments ( mix of Instruments and effects ) They have FREE KOMPLETE START which has all sorts of free instruments + then there is FREE KONTAKT 7 ( included in free Komplete Start ) which is a sampler with instruments also. ( The latter, I have the paid Komplete and Kontakt full ). Also has the FREE Guitar Rig Player https://www.native-instruments.com/en/products/komplete/bundles/komplete-start/ Cherry Audio: https://store.cherryaudio.com/bundles/synthesizer-expander-module-synthesizer https://store.cherryaudio.com/bundles/surrealistic-mg-1-plus-synthesizer This is a decent FREE drums plugin ( Real Kit ). So its if you want a real drum sound rather than electric drum machine type sound. We have used this. https://stevenslatedrums.com/ssd5/#SSD5FREE DX7 Free - https://www.kvraudio.com/product/dexed-by-digital-suburban Retro Synths: PG-8x 2.0 - https://sites.google.com/site/mlvst0/ OB-XD 3.4 - https://www.discodsp.com/obxd/ TAL-U-No-62 ( Juno 60 clone ) - https://tal-software.com/products/tal-u-no-62 TYRELL N6 - https://u-he.com/products/tyrelln6/ Mono Analog Synth - https://blamsoft.com/vst/vk-1-viking-synthesizer/ EFFECTS: Convology XT - Its an IR Reverb Free plug - https://impulserecord.com/cvxt-download/ to register - Latest ver once registered - https://impulserecord.com/cvxt-library-downloads/ Slate Fresh Air - dynamic high frequency processor - https://slatedigital.com/fresh-air/ ECHO - https://valhalladsp.com/shop/delay/valhalla-freq-echo/ Delay - https://valhalladsp.com/shop/reverb/valhalla-supermassive/ Vicious Compressor - https://xferrecords.com/freeware Equalizer - https://www.tokyodawn.net/tdr-vos-slickeq/ EQ / Soothish - Parametric EQ - https://www.tokyodawn.net/tdr-nova/ Vintage Tube Pre-amp https://fuseaudiolabs.com/#/pages/product?id=301060823 SO - if you are adding to this list, I would much appreciate you NOT just adding freebie links for the sake of it, but to add free plugins that you would stand over out of past OR present usage Edited June 23 by aidan o driscoll 5 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
satya Posted June 23 Share Posted June 23 There should be different list for instrument and different post for effects 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aidan o driscoll Posted June 23 Author Share Posted June 23 4 minutes ago, satya said: There should be different list for instrument and different post for effects Done Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
satya Posted June 23 Share Posted June 23 Already a list is there but in different place in forum 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aidan o driscoll Posted June 23 Author Share Posted June 23 (edited) Fair enough @satya .. but as I said in OP this list here its not just adding free vsts, its adding them having used them previously or currently and willing to stand over them Edited June 23 by aidan o driscoll Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DamienF Posted June 23 Share Posted June 23 Sixth Sample Deelay (yes, it's a delay) 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luc Posted June 23 Share Posted June 23 Definitely the BBC Symphony Orchestra Discover by Spitfire plugin https://www.spitfireaudio.com/bbc-symphony-orchestra-discover 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pat Osterday Posted June 23 Share Posted June 23 Klanghelm freebies - https://klanghelm.com/contents/freeware (saturator, reverb and two character comps) Kilohearts Essentials - https://kilohearts.com/products/kilohearts_essentials (Transient Shaper, Dynamics, great utility bundle) Saw Arturia, NI, Valhalla, Fuse and TDR already mentioned and second those! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PavlovsCat Posted June 23 Share Posted June 23 (edited) @aidan o driscoll If you've never used Vital, you've got to try it. It's free and I own maybe a few dozen paid soft synths and I like Vital more than most of them. Check it out. It absolutely deserves to be on your list, IMO. https://vital.audio/ Edited June 23 by PavlovsCat 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Walton Posted June 23 Share Posted June 23 (edited) 4 hours ago, aidan o driscoll said: Fair enough @satya .. but as I said in OP this list here its not just adding free vsts, its adding them having used them previously or currently and willing to stand over them I think that was also the intent of the other thread. As it is favorite VSTs not just VSTs that happen to be free and may or may not be worth your time Edited June 23 by Brian Walton 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PavlovsCat Posted June 23 Share Posted June 23 (edited) On 6/23/2024 at 4:23 PM, Brian Walton said: I think that was also the intent of the other thread. As it is favorite VSTs not just VSTs that happen to be free and may or may not be worth your time Starship Krupa's thread is an excellent, curated list of free effects. He has been a fountain of information to this community -- and for me personally. The effects on this list certainly could be added to his thread. I have a two curated lists of free instruments; one is a curated list of free sample libraries and sample and synth plugins and is a curated list of for Kontakt freebie libraries -- I thought of those threads as covering the basses Starship Krupa's effects list didn't cover. It would be ideal to strengthen those threads instead of creating duplicates, IMO. Those lists are both pretty thorough and represent many hours of work and contributions from the community. They've become valuable resources for many people and they're linked at other forums, Reddit, etc. as valuable resources. I wish Bandlab would pin them; at many other forums, they would be pinned. Keeping them active is significant; it makes them better resources and makes SK and I feel it's worthwhile to keep updating them. So, ideally, these recommendations could go in those respective threads. On the other hand, I'm just happy to see someone sharing their experiences and knowledge to make things easier for other musicians on limited budgets, however it's accomplished. I think Aidan is doing a good thing by sharing his knowledge and advice to help others. To me, that's the real bottom line. So, in the end, this thread still gets my LIKE, because it's helpful to others. This is the similar curated list of free sample libraries and plugins that I created and have maintained since 2022. But it gets lost on the forum because it's not pinned, so you may not have been aware of it. Edited yesterday at 04:49 PM by PavlovsCat 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Starship Krupa Posted Sunday at 11:08 PM Share Posted Sunday at 11:08 PM Yeah, that was the intention when I started those 5 years ago. The rules/suggestion are that these are 64-bit plug-ins that people have tried and are known to work with Cakewalk. There's a LOT of good stuff in those topics, so go check 'em out if you haven't. And bump them if you can. I've never been able to get TPTB to sticky them. I understand why that might be, they may not want it to seem like these products are endorsed by them in any way. It's an indicator of the cultural firewall between the Coffee House part of the forum and the Cakewalk part that there are so many users of each that don't know what's going on in one or the other. There's plenty of stuff in those threads that I don't think has ever been posted in Deals because they weren't news, rather stuff that had been around for a long time, like the Dead Duck stuff. They also have some historical value in showing how the freeware world has changed in the past 5 years. The starting principle, that it was possible to put together a studio using only free software, is probably something that 5 years on, nobody would even question. I counted, and just between the two FX bundles that I recommend everyone install regardless of what else they have on their system, Kilohearts Essentials and MeldaProduction FreeFX, there are over 70 top quality plug-ins. The ratio of small freeware-only developers to industry leaders giving away loss leaders has also changed. These days you could say that it's possible to make it happen using only major companies' free loss leaders. Also there's been the phenomenon of middle-sized developers closing shop and releasing their entire line for free and/or releasing older versions for free (you can pick up some very nice ToneBoosters plug-ins this way). 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Starship Krupa Posted Sunday at 11:09 PM Share Posted Sunday at 11:09 PM (edited) Odd duplicate post....this space was intentionally left blank. Edited yesterday at 05:27 PM by Starship Krupa 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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