VST freebies & cheapies, what do you like?

So far (using "D'Cota") I installed the thing, then in the "devices" pull-down menu, selected it as an active instrument. I went to the midi track "inspector" thing, and where you select your midi channel or instrument, I selected "D'Cota" from the list, played it via the midi keyboard I've got plugged into the interface, and fiddled with the sound parameters via the editor window.

"quite simple really". Er.... well, it was less of a faff than that sounds, anyway.

I'm not sure how it works with "Reason", though.

Here's some free vst instrument faves:

MDA E Piano as used by Roots Manuva.
Ephonic Drumatic drum machine is good, as is his Invader fx synth for noises and his analogue style delay
Cheeze Machine and Crazy Diamonds are both old school seventies style string synths.
MutantKoto and the effects that the same guy offers are pretty fucked (in a good way.)
da Hornet is an emulation of a Wasp. It used to be commercial but now it's free. It's not actually amazing but I thought Pash'd like a go on it.
The Japanese Synth 1 has become maybe the classic free synth as long as you ignore the uninspiring presets. There's plenty better ones to be d/led from KVR of you wanna.
Karma FX Synth offers plenty of modular opportunities and has a developer who does quyite a lot of updates.
Andreas Ersonn's Ibli and PolyIblit are my favourite free synths. They can sound rough as fuck. He also does an electric piano that sounds very different to the MDA one.

MDA do a good basic range of, well, everything. This is a really good starting point.
TbT Tapestop emulates a tape slowing down or up. It's cool. He also does a good compressor and limiter.
Tiny God has some fucked stuff including the Throbber plug in insp. by Throbbing Gristle.
Frohmage is a filter that can make a big difference to your material.
Voxengo OldSchoolVerb reverb.
Sir is an excellent convolution based reverb which means that you'll also want to be heading here if only to find out what that means.
And you'll want to be looking at everything by the developers on the Smart Electronix site to find a ton of weird and/or useful stuff.

I can't say enough good stuff about the Fish Fillets pack from this guy:

http://www.digitalfishphones.com/main.php?item=2&subItem=5

These are comparable in quality to Waves plug-ins - not kidding!

This stuff is pretty wicked.

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/kriminal68/Karnage.html

I recommend it highly!

http://www.nomadfactory.com/products/free_bundle/
http://www.kjaerhusaudio.com/classic-series.php

Couple of effects I forgot above:
PSP PianoVerb "reproduces special kind of reverberation originally provided by piano strings" and sounds real nice.
Voxengo Boogex is an amp simulation.

I've downloaded everything that looks interesting, and will stick the lot in my vstplugs folder tonight! More later, perhaps.

I used to sometimes before 4.6. Now that they've got multiple AU outputs not as much. The AudioEase VST wrapper is pretty good.

Soooo....any good sites for free MAS or AU plug-ins?

I know there's a program that creates an AU shell for each VST, try http://www.osxaudio.com if you haven't already, lots of links to free AUs and samples.

http://bram.smartelectronix.com/

The "Supaphaser" is great, you'll never touch the MAS phaser again.

http://www.soundhack.com/

I've been driving myself crazy trying to find a free VST I used to use called Crusher_CJF.dll. It's not that it's a great VST, but I've been trying to recover some old Fruity Loops tracks, and I apparently used it on 80% of them. Have googled it and all that turns up are dodgy and/or dead links.

If anyone happens to have it, I'd love you forever if you could email it to me.

Goldwave is an oldie but goodie and I also like Reaper OK.

i haven't tried it (yet) but there's a free line 6 pod plugin available this month for peeps with an ilok

http://www.line6.com/news/offers/864

Audio Damage have a freebies page. The compressor is pretty good and can go from subtle right up to "nuclear blast". The tremolo helps spice up organs and pads. The fuzz isn't that great on guitar, more useful as a "totally mess up your sound" effect.
http://www.audiodamage.com/downloads/

ah yes i've been meaning to try those. i have a couple of AD plugs, they're really really good.

are there any cheap AUs out there that emulate 90s romplers such as the roland SC-88? i know of the edirol hyper canvas but it's pretty expensive

anyone know of a sampling synthesizer plugin? i'd like to be able take a sample and spread it across the keyboard. i'm pretty you can do it in Ableton, but programming MIDI in Ableton drives me crazy and i'd love to find a vst that can do it in Cubase.

I was looking for a free VST harmonizer that sounds good and there it is: Pitchproof. It can even do chords.

is there any such thing as a vst that would allow me to vary the tempo of audio as it plays?

with or without pitch shifting? maybe put it into a free dj program like Mixxx, record, and import back into your DAW?

preferably without pitch shifting i think, though yeah that technique sounds useful too, thanks.

Btw free dj program would work for this as well:

anyone know of a sampling synthesizer plugin? i'd like to be able take a sample and spread it across the keyboard. i'm pretty you can do it in Ableton, but programming MIDI in Ableton drives me crazy and i'd love to find a vst that can do it in Cubase.

― precious bonsai children of new york (Jordan), Tuesday, May 21, 2013 1:04 PM (10 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

oh, you mean just using it to pitch the sample and bouncing it out as audio? or something else? because that's what i normally do in my DAW, but it would be nice to trigger the samples via midi as well as sequencing audio files.

You can take a sample and map out cue points to a midi device, tho we may be talking about two diff things

I'm an idiot abt this stuff

ohh ok, hmm. i actually haven't messed with dj programs much because i'm an idiot about dj'ing.

also i downloaded a bunch of these free vsts yesterday, haven't checked them out yet: http://varietyofsound.wordpress.com/downloads/

The VoS VSTs are awesome - you can make some fucked-up self-oscillations and time-pitch-shifts with their NastyDLA effect

It's also a pretty good delay effect.

Anything good going in the various Black Friday sales - soft synths, Ableton packs, etc?

soundtoys 5.1 for half price!!

Yeah same. I literally didn't use compression on my first few records because I didn't understand it and my mixing decisions were hilariously naive. Now I have a lot more experience and have consumed countless tutorials, so I do in fact know how a compressor works. But I still prefer to work sort of quickly and intuitively, and if a few minutes of knob-turning isn't working then I'll try something else, or often just change the part.

I've never mixed someone else's record where changing the arrangement or instrumentation isn't an option, that would be an interesting challenge but way harder I'm sure.

But I still prefer to work sort of quickly and intuitively, and if a few minutes of knob-turning isn't working then I'll try something else, or often just change the part.

Yes, same here. And in the past I would beat myself up over my inadequacy, but now I don't care. I just move on. Same way that in the past I would pride myself on being some kind of 'power user' of a program or piece of equipment (this is back in the 1990s on an Atari ST and Akai samplers and so on). Now, I've got a DAW that has hundreds of commands and options, and all sorts of ways of doing things that I don't know about or understand, but I don't care. I just want to get the job done and come out with something I'm pleased with, even though I know it could always be better. That's not to say that I don't still want to improve, but I'd rather improve in the course of doing something, finishing something, not just spend hours learning techniques for the sake of it.

For drums I would recommend the Waves SSL G Bus Compressor, it has a nice way of gluing things together and also works well with other instruments.

I have an Arturia 1176 plugin which I like for more dramatic drum mixing, the 'all buttons in' setting blows things up nicely and pulls a lot of the room sound in, which can work nicely running in parallel with a cleaner drum mix.

I don't know what the best 1176 style plug might be, UA maybe, there is a Waves CLA one, I'm very happy with this Arturia version.

https://klanghelm.com/contents/products/TENSjr

Free version of their new spring reverb plugin based off the giant studio spring units, sounds really nice

I posted it in the other thread but I'm also enjoying this emulation of the Kawai K1

https://www.nilsschneider.de/wp/nils-k1v/

Cool K1 plugin, love that. CD-Rom game and Cinemax channel vibes...

UA is running a $49.99 "guitar" bundle: https://www.uaudio.com/uad-plugins/plug-in-bundles/uad-guitar-fx-bundle.html

This is a hell of a good deal considering it includes the Lexicon 224. Also comes with Space Echo, Dimension D, LA3A, CE-1, a leslie.... I've only played a little bit with it so far. But that reverb, holy shit. Supposedly the code is ported from the hardware. These are native plugs, you don't need UAD hardware.

!
Thanks for the tip... UA stuff always sounds great, but usually super pricey....

This is intriguing -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5d70Vk3_o70

I'm not sure about the "physical modeling" thing. Is it using your recorded sound to trigger a sampled instrument and blending the two? It's cheap enough where I think I'll just give it a shot.

If it uses 'physical modelling', then I would say it's not using samples at all. I'm pretty interested in this too but I'd like to hear what people have to say about it before shelling out $29. I downloaded a couple of Sampleson physically modelled electric piano VSTs a while ago, though I see from my notes that I haven't used them yet. I must say I am attracted to the idea of this kind of thing. I absolutely refuse to use sample packs or multisampled 'virtual instruments'. I don't want the bloat on my computer in terms of the file sizes. Aside from a number of varieties of 909 (e.g. Samples from Mars packs, which are very good), I more or less stick to synths and whatever I choose to sample myself, as I always have.

Saw this covered on the BPB site today and downloaded it immediately. Looking forward to using this.

https://wildergardenaudio.com/maim/

It degrades and alters the input sound using MP3 compression and other adjustments. The sound examples using drums don't seem that remarkable but there's a video on YouTube where it's processing a piano pattern and that sounds a lot more intriguing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALmvEnr0XPo

Some comments say the effects are reminiscent of Digitalis. I might have that already installed, not sure. It's true, I think, that a lot of these things kind of cross over with each other in terms of the results that can be achieved. I'm still using the 32-bit sampler Shortcircuit to load samples and even that has some nice sound processing options built into it.

And contrary to what I wrote yesterday, I also downloaded the free Boz Digital Labs Steinway 1926 piano Lite version, which has also just been written up on BPB. True, it's somewhat multisampled, but apparently only 50 MB in total, which is what I like to see. I like the sound of the demo audio files. I rarely use piano, but I can see that this will be useful.

I started messing around with Haptic Perc, it's an odd duck. There's no wet/dry control, so it's mostly adding tonal info to the attack of your source recording, which will always be audible. So it sounds kinda lame if you use a drumkit loop and try to make it sound like a hand drum, but works pretty well if you're tapping your fingers on the desk (also had some interesting results using brushes on a snare or sticks on a practice pad). The tuning slider also has zero labels, so you're purely going by ear (and it's a little hard to even get back to a previous setting).

Still pretty unique & cool though. I had a track with some hand drum samples that were too short/overly truncated and I was able to use it to generate a more natural sounding decay, it sounds nice blended with the original track.

Hmm. There seems to have been not much interest in it so far. On YouTube I'm still seeing only Sampleson's own promotional videos, which aren't that revealing of what it can do. I'd certainly try out a trial version, but they haven't provided one. I don't think I'm going to spend $29 on it without trying it.

But I'm now quite interested in Sampleson's Metapiano ($89). Sounds really nice, and as I mentioned before, I just refuse to use huge multisampled instruments. This is only 60 MB (and also claimed to be light on CPU). Only thing is, I don't really use piano much, if at all, but it's tempting all the same.

Gonna have to get this I think

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79EZpULr6J0

Heh I've always done this by individually pitch shifting or time stretching each hit (as audio, not midi). Looks fun though.

I bought it but haven't used it yet.

that looks cool. Logic added "Beat Breaker" to a recent update, which can chop things up really quickly, but isn't as retro as this one. I haven't messed with BB too much but it is quick! I remember learning about chopping breaks in a 1995 (?) issue of Future Music. It was written before most samplers had graphic displays! so it was all, take the total number of samples for a loop, divide by 8/16, those are your chops. ha. Not sure today's producers (definitely including me!) would have that kind of patience!

Donationware if you have Ableton and Max4Live, it generates waveforms from jpgs -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUgpLswC_4U

New Hainbach dropped. I like this one...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxBC6XzuMPs

and it's free!

Not free, but this looks pretty crazy. Although I suspect that it mostly provides a way of doing things I can already do with various plugins and automation, except with cool visualization and UI. The spatial/sound wall stuff might be more interesting for doing sound design for film, I just don't need all of that control over stereo placement/movement in music. Or maybe I do?

https://bedroomproducersblog.com/2024/08/02/audiocube-3d-audio

DSP56300's emulation of the Waldorf XT is in public beta now

https://futurenoize.com/dsp56300/builds/xenia/beta/

Microwave II ROMs (upper and lower) are here

https://dbwbp.com/index.php/9-misc/37-synth-eprom-dumps

the main DSP56300 page has the process for getting the plugins past Apple security, just replace Osirus w/ Xenia

recently picked up Amigo and it rules, very inspirational

Any vocal compression recommendations? Been using the free ones in Cubase but still hate my vocals

I never found a plugin better than the one included in Reaper - it's nothing fancy but does the job. Kenny Gioia has some great youtube tutorials on mixing vocals irrc, and he mainly uses cheap/built-in plugins for these.

Universal Audio LA2A was a free a few months ago for a brief time, I think it sounds quite good (regardless of price).

Their free plug right now is the Century Channel which is a whole channel strip which incorporates I think their LA3A model. I have their LA3A and its another banger but I've only used it for guitars- it does rule at that. Plus its some kind of preamp modelling and I guess a Neve-type EQ. So for free definitely try that out.

Also check out the Analog Obsession LALA - AO's stuff is good to seriously great, IMO, and it's all free/donation.

If you find the LA2A style of compression too gentle for what you want, try a 1176 type before it (such as the Analog Obsession Fetish).

before it like both on in series, FET/fast comp -> Tube/slow comp etc. if that wasn't clear

free 303 emulation until December - it sounds good and it's simple, a lot of other emulations seem to gild the lily this is just the basics + distortion + a sequencer you generate with MIDI export (or you can play in MIDI)

https://www.imaginando.pt/products/tv3-acid-synth

https://www.guitarcenter.com/Universal-Audio/UAD-Guitar-FX-Bundle-1500000416989.gc?icid=LP9396

here's a great bundle of native UAD plugins for $50. UAD makes the best plugins, these are top notch and a no brainer at this price!

Lexicon 224: amazing late 70s digital reverb emulation, licensed/authorized from Lex themselves. worth the $50 alone, no question. World class if you want that Eno / Blade Runner sound (who doesn't)

LA3A: great compressor especially for guitars

Galaxy Tape Echo: space echo w/ spring reverb

Brigade Chorus: CE-1 chorus

Waterfall rotary: Leslie, really nice

Studio D: Roland Dimension stereo chorus, very subtle, great for stereo-izing

I've never actually used a UAD plugin before, thx for the heads up

I got their free channel strip and really like it, don't know if I'd shell out for this stuff tho.

Tbh I just want the compressor and maybe the tape echo, but if I'm gonna get one for $30 may as well get the bundle.

honestly, yes. I don't think you'll be unhappy with the LA3A. I like it just as much as the other UAD comps I have, the LA2A, 1176 collection and the Century strip.

Are they dramatically better than the analog obsession versions?

I'm fairly temped to pick up something off UA's site right now because any standalone purchase gets you the Pultec collection free (not that I need, since the Logic one seems alright and I still have yet to get my head around the Pultec thing anyway...)

AO is cool. I found their SSL buss comp to be amazing. STEQ is another great one. Didn't much care for their LA2A. I liked the idea of Frank but found it not so satisfying in practice.

For free stuff, they're great. On sale, UAD is better IMO.

(If I didn't use Logic with its more than good enough built in vintage comps/eqs I'd probably be a bit more excited about AO)

I can't live without my AO eqs and Comper, but they're much better than stock for me.

Which ones do you like the most?

Blended EQ and Harqules are my go-tos for color, and I've gotten use out of a ton of the other ones of various ilks.

Gotta say I don't love some of these UA plugins at first blush, but maybe it's me. Little things like the Lexicon reverb still being audible even when the mix fader is all the way dry (not that you'd ever want that but it seems a little weird), and I couldn't seem to adjust the synced rhythmic values on the space echo, or get it as wet I wanted. Maybe these are too-faithful recreations and I'm used to versions that have made them easier to use and added more parameters? The LA3A seems cool so far.

New mode for Valhalla Supermassive, less colorful/odd than the other modes and kind of sounds the most like Eventide Blackhole of the Supermassive modes to me.

Jordan- try the Lexicon on a send, you'll be much happier I think.

UAD currently has a free download of their 1176 FET compressor

For free it's a must have. UAD's freebies are great.

I caved and bought the S.K.Y. Keys plugin after being bombarded with ads for it, after poking around it's a pretty fun little instrument with plenty of potential, well worth the £24.

Soundtoys new reverb is free for the next month, $99 after

https://www.soundtoys.com/

!!!
Thanks milo, I love the soundtoys stuff...

It's really cool, I had an Amen break loaded into Amigo when I downloaded it and spent a long time just playing with the pink cursor dot that can shift it from regular reverb to a kind of bloom to reverse.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Imubcby-rkw

Wow, this looks incredible