50 Best Free Vst Plugins

22.12.2020

Free is the magic number… particularly when starting your music production journey, or operating on a tight budget.

Here’s our list of the top 50 best VST plugins (2021): It’s a table with a search function, so search for what you’re looking for, & it’ll come up! ‘delay’, ‘mastering’, ‘compressor’ (if you want more in-depth info, use the table of contents to navigate past the table). And most importantly, can it host VST plugins? The best free digital audio workstations right now are Tracktion 7 and Cakewalk by BandLab. Both applications can load VST plugins. Step 2: Downloading Free VST plugins. Now that you’ve picked your DAW, you’re all set to start building your collection of free VST plugins. After exploring thousands of great plugins for hours, we bring you a minimized list of best vst plugins out there. It includes a little over 100 plugins. As the cherry on the top, the below list also mention the top 100 vst plugins that are entirely free of cost and paid. What’s resulted is an amassing of a total of the 50 best VST plugins that are available online to buy. We are familiar with plugins that promise users all sorts of magic, only to be disappointed by high promises in exchange for some decent coinage. Well, DLYM is a free VST effects plugin that you can download now. Make your songs sound more grand with delay effects. DLYM acts like a delay modulator and has many effects that you can use. This plugin includes 2 modes to process audio. It also allows you to fine-tune everything to your liking. Best Free VST Effect Plugins Part 2.

Adam Hignell takes a look at some incredible VST effects you can get for exactly zero dollars.

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N.B Unless stated, the following Free VST Effects are compatible with Mac and Windows OS, although not necessarily Catalina/Big Sur at time of publishing.

Valhalla DSP Supermassive / FreqEcho

There are many reasons to love Valhalla’s plugins range. For starters, they’re kind to your wallet: Every plugin is priced at just $50, except for a smattering of equally brilliant ones that they give away for free!

But even if $50 is a step too far for your budget, they offer some of the baddest Free VST Effects plugins on the market. Foe example, you can get experimental with their FreqEcho plugin – it echoes incoming audio or MIDI while adjusting the frequency of the resultant echoes in a multitude of tempos and ratios. You can then adjust Mix, Feedback, Delay timing and Hi/Lo-pass filtering and pitch.

And then there’s SuperMassive, which is even more badass and far too well-designed to be a free plugin. It’s a clean, humungously powerful reverb which can also modulate, warp and delay in a myriad of increments, from subtle to bananas. It even comes loaded with a whole bunch of amazing sounding presets, categorised by style.

Check out the full range of Valhalla DSP Plugins here here.

TAL Chorus LX

It’s pretty old. It’s got a tiny user interface. And extremely basic controls. But, for me, it sounds closer to a genuine JUNO-60 Chorus pedal than any other software on the market. And that is something to celebrate!

In fact, many of TAL’s plugins are phenomenal, and free, but I guess they’ve gone on to bigger and better things, as updates and 64-bit versions are in short supply. The Chorus LX, however, is still going strong on my Live 10 / Catalina laptop! If you want warm, musical-sounding chorus effects, this is one of the best, and completely free.

NOVA DAWN – Tokyo

Nova Dawn Records is that rarest of things; a record label that makes audio plugins. With Nova, they’ve released an exceptional Free VST Effect EQ plugin that gives many paid-for competitors a run for their, er, money. A parallel, dynamic EQ, it can respond to incoming signals and execute complex EQ manouevres with ease. It’s also super clean-sounding and gives warm boosts without artifacts.

Voxengo Span

It’s all very well having a gymnastic EQ plugin that can show and execute cuts, boosts, passes and shelves in infinite, colorful detail. But sometimes you just need to see what is really going on. The simplicity of Voxengo Span is its secret weapon. There are no controls, save a very useful Hold function, and a couple of options for view-adjustment. All you have is a highly accurate waveform analyser. I put it on my master channel on every single track and get more frequency detail than from any premium plugin I can think of. It’s great. It’s free. Win/win.

Glitchmachines – Fracture, Cataract & Hysterisis

A triple-threat of audio and MIDI sound destruction, Fracture’s Free VST Effects are high-quality and easy to use. And capable of making sounds get very freaky, very fast.

Cataract is a MIDI effect which you can load up to 2 audio samples into, and set about warping the bejeezus out of them with Morph, Delay, Filter, 2 LFOs, Scan (kind of like a modulating gate effect) and even an 8-slot Mod Matrix. That’s enough processing power to turn the simplest audio snippet into a swirling, belching beast.

Meanwhile, Fracture and Hysterisis are Audio effects, so whack them on any audio channel and you can create almighty new sound textures immediately.

Hysterisis is a stutter machine, that can tempo adjust and delay incoming audio with a variety of modulation efects applied thereafter. Fracture is more geared towards adding, as they describe it, ‘Robotic articulations’. You can affect different parts of the audio signal with varying degress of LFO, filter, modulation and more, then mix and blend the signal parts into one composite outcome. These three effects all sound great on drums, vocals, synths and sound effects.

Cableguys – Pancake 2

Autopan is a very useful feature that comes with most DAWs as standard. Cableguys have taken this concept several steps further with Pancake, a juiced-up take on a regular pan tool.

You can set a tempo-synced pan timing, draw in the shape of the pan yourself or use on-board tools to create and tweak. Store up to 8 pan shapes for quick recall, and you can also control all of this with any MIDI controller or keyboard.

U-He – Protoverb

The good folks at U-He have struck again – this time it’s a rather excellent, if experimental, reverb plugin. Designed to aid research into fully-fledged reverb software, Protoverb users are invited to submit their best (and worst) reverb settings to aid the team’s research into performance and usability. A small proce to pay for a clean, capable and oftentimes impressive-sounding room-modelling reverb unit.

Reverbs can go from simple, clean stereo rooms to wild, distorted trails of destruction. You can achieve delicious or diabolical with ease! Add in some really cool presets and you’re well on your way to a superior reverb.

N.B Protoverb is VST only.

Looking for free instrument plugins? Check out our top selections here

About the author:

Adam Hignell is a music producer, mastering engineer, DJ and label-owner based in Brighton, UK. When not providing content and tech support for Mixed In Key, he produces music under the alias Don Dayglow, provides professional mastering and mixing services, and runs the independent Disco/House label Particle Zoo.

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Top 10 FREE VST Plugins You Need 2019

In life many things don’t come free, but then again sometimes they do… VST plugins do so more often than not and that’s a good thing for many of the uprising producers, musicians and composers out there. We scouted and looked through many of those top 10 lists of instruments and plugins and came up with a mix of our own. In no particular order, here is our pick of the top 10 free VST plugins you should check out.

Before we even get started with this list, there’s also a HUGE selection of free sample libraries, sample packs, plugins and soundsets available at https://vstbuzz.com/freebies. Some of our favourites include:

Shortnoise: A free electronic sample library for Kontakt with a huge 6GB of content and over 300 Kontakt instruments to choose from including Electronic Grooves, Arpeggiated Sequences, Manipulated Synths, Cinematic FX, Unique and Expressive Performance Patches, this beauty has a whole world of surprises waiting to be unleashed!
Sonatina Symphonic Orchestra: a free orchestral sample library VST plugin – while not as advanced or ambitious in scope as commercial offerings, SSO contains all the basic building blocks for creating real virtual orchestrations. It’s primarily aimed at beginners, but also more experienced composers looking for something lightweight and/or portable might find it useful.
Pocketblaus Cello: A stunning free solo cello library for Kontakt created by Australian composer Blake Robinson. The library sounds gorgeous when soaked in reverb and is perfect for slow moving, expressive cello lines and fast, choppy spiccato lines.

1 ModulAir by Full Bucket Music

Full Bucket Music is a developer that mainly concentrates on soft synth plugins. Their iteration of KORG PS series in the form of FB-3100, 3300, 3200 synths was a smashing hit, and now they’re back with ModulAir and we can freely say that this is THE BEST freeware modular synth out there now. VCV rack is its competition and it’s a great freeware synth but ModulAir is an actual VST plugin which means it can integrate with your DAW and that’s something that VCV rack still can’t do.

This soft synth is still a work in progress application but it actually feels very stable and looks polished in its current state of development. The latest version features 38 module types and the ability to host 18 modules per patch. It supports 64 voice polyphony, file import and MIDI learn for quick control mapping.

The user interface is really simplified and minimalistic and not in a bad way because it allows the user to quickly navigate and manage complex patches with ease. It doesn’t feature virtual patch cables but it has drop down menus instead. This is a must-have synth for every modular fan out there with the lack of space in their studio or the lack of cash for actual hardware.

2 Stereo Buss Compression by Minimal System Group (MSI)

This is a Windows only plugin but even so it’s very special. Yes we know that there are many other free “mastering” buss compressor plugins out there and sure they all give you that kind of final touch and glue to your mixes, but in all honesty MSI Stereo Buss does it better than most others, plain and simple.

Here is what the guys from Plugin Boutique say about MSI Stereo Buss:

This plugin is perfect for those producers looking to add the finishing touches to their latest masterpiece. Modelled on legendary buss compressors from classic analogue consoles the Minimal System Group Stereo Buss Compressor could be just what you need. Analogue Buss Compressors are the secret behind many classic releases. Often very simple units, a buss compressor’s job is to ‘glue’ all the elements of a track together and make mixes sound bigger with more punch and character without losing clarity.

It was paid software at first but the nice guys from Minimal System Group have made it freeware since 2014 and it is featured on many a bedroom producer’s plugin lists and it is still the best freeware mastering buss compressor out there.

3 LABS by Spitfire Audio

If you have been living under a rock for the past few years then you have maybe never heard of Spitfire Audio, developers of top-notch orchestral sample libraries. LABS is a freeware rompler VST instrument. It is a simple sample player that serves as a platform for Spitfire Audio’s free sound libraries. The company keeps releasing new expansion packs for LABS and they never cease to amaze us with the quality of their free content.

Where LABS lack in features due to its minimalistic look, it compensates in sound quality and each new sample pack we got was very unique and of high-quality sound. The minimalistic look is rather convenient actually and it features a few controls. This way you can concentrate more on the sound quality and composing than tweaking all of the options.

We highly recommend LABS as it is an excellent sample player with free downloadable virtual instruments for all composers and music producers who need high-quality acoustic sounds.

4 Ignite Amps Emissary Bundle

Now here is something that every guitar player will appreciate. Ignite Amps is a developer that has been around for quite some time and the fact that they actually created their own hardware custom-made amplifier head, modelled it and then created a sleek looking plugin is simply awesome! And not only that but they made it completely free for everyone to use. Plus they have a whole bunch of other guitar tools out there as freeware plugins.

This amp bundle also comes with their own NadIR cabinet impulse response plugin for guitar cab simulation which features a whole bunch of modelled cabinets but you can also load your own. Even though this amp is built for metal and hard rock genres it still features an awesome clean channel and if you dial it back a bit you can get some really smooth crunch sounds. Check out their Pro F.E.T. distortion and power amp plugins also.

5 SSD5 Free by Steven Slate Drums

Best Free Vst Plug-ins Ever

For all of you out there looking for some free high-quality drum samples then you won’t find better than Steven Slate Drums 5. This is a freeware acoustic drum kit developed by Steven Slate and his team at Steven Slate Drums. If you are aware of Slate Digital and their amazing plugins then you know what to expect from Steven Slate. Being a free version SSD5 features only one drum kit however there are no other limitations. This is a totally usable drum kit that feels like a complete product in all honesty. You can tweak it the way you wish and a provided drum kit can fit into every rock music track.

Best Free Vst Synths

6 Camel Crusher by Camel Audio

Camel Crusher is a very well known and beloved plugin by producers and engineers alike and for a very good reason. It is very simplistic featuring a distortion and compression mixture in a single user-friendly interface. It also has a filtering option. This is the kind of plugin that is not for the faint-hearted as it can really destroy your tracks if not treated with care. But when you know what you’re doing it gives you some really meaty results as it can drastically change the texture of your sound. It has a lot of presets that range from total annihilation to tube warmth.

Camel Audio was the original developer but then Apple acquired them so the original version of the plugin is still available as freeware from third party VST websites.

7 Wider by Polyverse Music

Wider is a really simple freeware VST plugin that does its job really well. Amazingly well to say the least actually. Polyverse Music have teamed-up with Infected Mushroom to treat you with this amazing stereo widening tool for your tracks. Wider is derived from a stereo width module that is featured in their commercial VST called Manipulator. What makes this plugin so unique and amazing is the ability to broaden the stereo width of the signal without causing phasing issues when played back in mono.

You can’t make it simpler than this because Wider features only one control parameter and that’s it. The slider affects the amount of stereo processing but be careful when pushing it too far though, because too much stereo widening can make your track sound as if it doesn’t exist in the same space with others in your mix. Treated carefully this plugin is one of the best stereo wideners, while keeping your mix compatible with any type of playback system.

8 KOMPLETE Start by Native Instruments

Native Instruments? Need we say more? And this is not just one plugin but an actual collection of freebies you can use in your production. This is a great bundle of free instruments and plugins alike. It features more than 6GB of content which spans over various samplers, synths, sample libraries, mixing plugins and more. It is definitely something that every new producer and composer should take a look at.

9 Vocal Doubler by iZotope

The guys from iZotope have been known to put out a freebie from time to time and Vocal Doubler is their latest entry into the freeware world. This plugin is designed for natural doubling effect for vocals and also to add richness and depth to other sound sources. Basically it offers an artificial double-tracking technique. It is very easy to use simply by interacting with the visualization in the center of the GUI. You drag the position around to affect the stereo field and to introduce variations.

You are guided by percentage amounts of “Variation” and “Separation” as well as an “Amount” knob.

10 DLYM Delay Modulator by Imaginado

The creators of excellent DRC synthesizer are back with a freeware modulation multi-effect plugin. It is actually inspired by DRC’s built-in chorus effect but it expands to create a more versatile modulation tool which is capable of creating anything from subtle flanging and phasing effects over to extreme choruses and out-of-tune effects.