VST freebies & cheapies, what do you like?

New Hainbach dropped: https://www.audiothing.net/instruments/noises/

Recently went through a bunch of free transient shaper plugins for a specific use case, and Crack from Surreal Machines is very nice:
https://www.surrealmachines.com/transient-machines-vstau/

Also scooped a few others, I have high hopes for Rave Generator if I can get it working.

I'm kinda disappointed in Noises, it's interesting but I don't feel that you can screw with the original samples quite enough for my liking, plus bit reducers are corny.

Bought the latest cheapy background noise cleaner-upper from Waves that's just been released, I have RX Elements but it's great to have something that I can use in real-time across a track.

Got an email from Native Instruments with a bunch of free downloads from NI, Izotope, and Plugin Alliance since apparently they're all teaming up. Looks like some real useful stuff in there (mostly on the saturation, mixing, and masering side of things), I won't say no.

Free Mellotron VST:
https://www.audiolatry.com/mel-lofi/

nice!

Hora Detour module in VCV Rack is great fun - self contained vector synth, combine it with the Instruo Harmonaig module for a sort of polyphony (or maybe there's a way to get polyphonic note input into VCV Rack, I haven't really looked)

This DAW Mixbus is awesome. Pretty much this stock daw, a good editable delay and a good editable reverb = all you need for a killer mixer software.

https://harrisonconsoles.com/product/mixbus/

Really you could get by with just the DAW and a good audio editor that had some decent effects built in.

For mixing, this stuff is awesome - the EQ and compression and gain control is so deep - you don't need anything else. I've been cutting stuff with limited tracks and this app has been awesome for mixing. Don't about inputting synths or anything.

I've gone back to Acid as my cut 'em and track with a virtual drum machine or loops. I find it much easier to cut up files than Ableton, which has some cool effects built in. Acid not so much, but it was the first software like this I used, so I know how to use the edit tools - hence - it works for me.

Not really a VST thing, but not sure where else this should go. Does anyone know of any good, preferably free, collections of vocal samples? Can be singing, talking, stuff from movies or TV, whatever, as long as it is not weird generic stuff.

freesound.org might have some usable things that realm but it's a slog to go through

https://dsp56300.wordpress.com/downloads/

Finally got around to installing the Access Virus chip emulator and a Virus C BIN file, sounds and works great, takes up pretty much zero CPU

If you have Minimoog D for iOS, it's now a free VST/AU on macOS.
https://www.moogmusic.com/news/model-d-app-now-available-macos

Angela‘s reaction to

Not really a VST thing, but not sure where else this should go. Does anyone know of any good, preferably free, collections of vocal samples? Can be singing, talking, stuff from movies or TV, whatever, as long as it is not weird generic stuff.

Ooh good one

possibly the wrong thread, but i guess spitfire audio guy chose a good week on twitter to pledge support for transphobes:

https://ra.co/news/77787

It's not exactly a cheapie since the intro price is $59, but Cherry Audio's new emulation of the GX-1/CS-80 is pretty great.
https://cherryaudio.com/products/gx-80

Does anyone use Analog Obsession's donation/ware plugs? Looking at YT reviews they seem almost too good to be true.

Whoa, definitely going to get those, ty

The Best Free Plugins of 2022: Free Plugins of the Year
https://www.gearnews.com/best-free-plugins-2022/

Thank you! Some intriguing stuff in there.

Finally started messing around with Vital, seems like an extremely promising synth. I don't really know what I'm doing yet and I haven't installed any presets or wavetables (which seems to be an essential part of the experience), but I still got a cool part just from messing around with the single default wavetable in the free version. The modulation and routing is really intuitive, and the fx sound great.

I've been playing with that one, too. I've mostly been following along with the least obnoxious Youtube videos I can find, but have made a few interesting patches.

Digging the Cherry Audio Jupiter 6 emulation, might have to actually buy it. Roland's slider interface lends itself to VSTs better than knobs IMO.

Waves new free voice/vocal plug is decent, it's a handy little cocktail of dynamic eq/de-essing and a one-fader threshold/make up gain compressor. There is a gate in there too but it's not so great.

Seems like every single YT review uses these absolutely fucking dismal trap vocal tracks as their testing ground, so it's hard to get a read from some badly recorded asshole saying the same sentence three times, but worth checking out if you can take the deluge of emails from Waves that comes from signing up.

Not a lot of freebies, just tons of sales blowing up my inbox. The BPB (Bedroom Producers Blog) newsletter continues to be a treasure trove though, they released a free VHS simulator and pointed me to another free tape sim and a cool delay. I grab something from them every week (hence all the plugin mailing lists).

I did finally spring for the Vulf compressor on discount, and I'm thinking about the soundtoys Super plate too.

Super Plate is gorgeous. I got the full Soundtoys bundle a long time ago for $100 on a super sale but don't use most of it (the Lexicon Prime Time, the pitch shifting - don't care for Echoboy or the distortion devices really), the $29 upgrade to Super Plate justified the whole thing.

Nice, I got the bundle years ago (pre-dated SuperPlate). I've used them a ton, but these days it's mostly Little Plate and Filter Freak. And actually I've been reaching for EchoBoy Jr over EchoBoy...I'm sure you can do the same things in the full version, but Jr is nicely stripped down and highlights some 80s & 90s emulations that sound really cool.

And Decapitator, they all have their place though.

Yeah, Echoboy Jr is a go to (not always the final choice, but usually worth a shot)...
Recently discovered that Microshift can be pretty good to just thicken up a sound, if you use a light touch...

I have a nice Arturia Plate, but I am still tempted by anything by SoundToys, I love Echoboy Jr and use it all the time, my only real purchase this time was FabFilter's Pro-C 2 w/ 25% off.

Oh and an old Waves plug, Soundshifter cause I needed to automate a voice going up and down a bit in pitch for a job and my other pitch shift plugs are kinda stock. $20

I’m not sure I have a great ear for reverb. Most reverbs sound alright to me. Then again, I haven’t spent time comparing them back to back. If I did, maybe the differences would seem obvious. I was thinking of downloading Little Plate while it was free, but I read somewhere someone saying that they had a problem (can’t remember if it was instability or high CPU), so I’ve been wary of it. Plus I’ve been using a free Black Rooster plate called RO-GOLD. I downloaded it last year, and when I heard it, I thought, wow, I remember that sound (of plate reverb). I use it on every track I do. But maybe the Little Plate or some other one would be even better, I don’t know.

The other plug-in effect I use on everything is Valhalla Super Massive. I love that one.

I like Solaris (shimmer reverb) as well.

But I've got to the point where I am becoming much more hesitant about new plug-ins in general. It seems like a lot of stuff would be, on the face of it, more or less duplicating things I already have. And even if something's slightly different, is it worth the bother? A case in point is WA Production KickShaper. I read a lot of people raving about it on Gearspace, but one of the most recent posters complained that they didn't like it. There are already so many ways you can process kick drums, mix them together, transpose them etc., so is it really worth spending $16 (current sale price of KickShaper)?

I got Inner Pitch from Auburn Sounds for free from one of those BPB emails (it may not be free anymore), and it's a fantastic pitch shifter. Much better than Little AlterBoy (though I haven't used the Waves one).

I used to love reverbs and soft synths. Now I hardly ever use reverb, and can't seem to have enough compressors, vintage-style EQs, and saturation plugins. It's a sure sign of aging.

Would you recommend particular compressors as being vastly superior for specific tasks? I use Cakewalk and I tend to just slap the stock Pro Channel compressor on everything. It mostly sounds good enough to me but maybe I'm missing out. I do have various other compressors, such as TDR Kotelnikov GE, but I don't seem to get around to using them.

Same with EQ. I tend to just use the stock EQ. I'm probably missing a trick though. When mastering I do use TDR Nova, which I like.

I now have Melda MSaturator permanently on the mix bus and I really like what that does. I do like all the Melda plug-ins I've used.

I downloaded Inner Pitch free edition as well, but I can't remember if I've used it yet. I also have Graillon and Couture by them.

For EQ, I really like using the BLENDEDEQ and Harqules from Analog Obsession for tone shaping on channels and busses. I use stock eq or Fabfilter for surgical stuff, but with those it's nice to just use my ears and lightly boost or cut whereever makes it sound better, and the EQs themselves do have a pleasant quality.

For compressors, I'll take as much trial and error as I can get. Some of them do more than just compression (like the Vulf one, which emulates the original SP404 vinyl sim I think?), and others I think of as more harsh or smooth or transparent. Analog Obsession has one called dbComp that's easy to use and particularly good for drums. So it depends whet the instrument is and what sound I'm going for. I still don't fully know what I'm doing so I like having options in case I'm not getting the results I want with one tool.

I'll have to try the Melda saturator, I think I'm put off because of their ui, lol. I use the BPB saturator on basically every channel.

The other plug-in effect I use on everything is Valhalla Super Massive. I love that one.

New v3 of that was just released and is really really fun - also free!
https://valhalladsp.com/shop/reverb/valhalla-supermassive/

Thanks for those tips. I'll have to look into these.

I actually like the Melda UI. I find it pleasantly straightforward, at least on the small number of their plug-ins I've used.

I half know what I'm doing, because I did it for years (before giving up for many years), and half still don't know what I'm doing, because I never received any training in engineering and just picked it up as I went along. I'm too lazy to learn more, and basically still an ignoramus when it comes to the proper technical side of engineering. I just can't engage with it, the maths and scientific side, though I do semi-understand how to DO a lot of things, but without a full grasp of many of the technical principles underpinning them. I read forum posts on the technical aspects of engineering and mastering, and equipment specs and performance, but it's often way over my head. Same with Dan Worrall videos, which I enjoy watching, but don't understand half of what he says.

New v3 of that was just released

Yes, I saw that. I'm always (and possibly needlessly) scared of installing plug-in updates, in case the update changes something so the plug-in doesn't perform exactly the same as it did on a project using the older version. I imagine that wouldn't be the case with most plug-ins but I'm reluctant to take the risk.

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.