VST Plugins

If you want to talk VST plugin essentials, you can’t forget noise gate.

It can be handy in a variety of recording situations, especially noisy ones like bedrooms, basements, and home studios. Gate can go a long way towards eliminating unwanted noise in your mixes. But even if not for that, “trance gate” effects are quite popular in electronic music.

It’s good news, then, that in this guide, we look at the best free noise gate VST plugins you can download, install, and start using immediately.

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7 Best Free Noise Gate VST Plugins 2023Read More »

Many music producers and sound engineers utilize vocoder effects in their mixes. For some, it represents a rather critical part of their VST library.

Vocoder effects can be heard in a variety of musical styles. These days, it is often heard in EDM, pop, or even hip-hop tracks, but it has also been utilized by the likes of Neil Young, Black Sabbath, Phil Collins, Jackson 5, Daft Punk, and The Beastie Boys, among many others.

In this guide, we’ll look at the best free vocoder VST plugins to help you create unique sounding vocals.

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13 Best Free Vocoder VST Plugins 2023, Create Unique Sounding VocalsRead More »

If you’re looking to record some guitar, amp sim VST plugins are essential. And fortunately for you, there are quite a few options to choose from.

In this guide, we’ll be looking at the best free standalone guitar amp simulator plugins.

Admittedly, you will find many of the “usual suspects” on this list, but there might be a couple you haven’t come across yet.

So, let’s get into the best free standalone amp sims to boost your songs.

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17 Best Free Standalone Guitar Amp Simulator VST Plugins 2023, Boost Your SongsRead More »

Hardware sampling was invented in the 1940s by Harry Chamberlain and rose to popularity with 80s and 90s hip-hop and dance music. Today, sampling is used in a variety of musical genres, be it R&B, rock, country, classical music, or otherwise.

Samplers are first and foremost used to trigger different sounds. But there are also a lot of producers that think of them as instruments unto themselves.

Not surprisingly, as “in the box” digital recording grew in popularity, software samplers also became more commonplace. Today, you can even get them as free VST plugins, and as you’re about to see, there are even some samplers with unique features out there!

In this guide, we’ll look at the best free sampler VST plugins.

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13 Best Free Sampler VST Plugins 2023, Capture Great SoundsRead More »

Every sound engineer, music producer, composer, and beatmaker needs access to powerful tools to be able to enhance and bring their music to life.

These days, recording is mostly done “in the box,” with VST plugins. And in recent times, even the free ones are starting to sound better and are quite versatile besides.

There are different categories of VST plugins you’re going to need to build out your library to handle the many things you want to be able to do. So, whether you need to build from scratch, supplement, or augment your toolkit, you’ve come to the right place.

In this guide, we look at the best free VST plugins of all time – essential instruments and effects.

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42 Best Free VST Plugins 2023Read More »

So, you want your vocals to sound pitch perfect.

You can either spend a near eternity recording dozens of takes, editing, and gluing together the best takes, or…

You can make corrections using autotune.

Naturally, autotune is the more efficient, preferred way, especially in pop music, where some producers and artists even use it as an effect (Cher and T-Pain, for instance).

But can you get autotune for free? What is the quality of a free autotune VST plugins like?

Here you will find the best free autotune VSTs to improve the pitch of your vocals.

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6 Best Free Autotune VST Plugins 2023 – Greatly Improve Vocal PitchRead More »

Music producers, sound engineers, beat makers, and home recordists use them often. Most composers consider them essential.

What are we talking about?

Strings.

Strings are perfect for traditional and even modern compositions. They can create atmosphere and vibrance. They can create or enhance the mood of a song, whether it’s happy and cheerful or haunting and ambivalent.

In this guide, we’ll look at the best free string VST plugins.

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11 Best Free Strings VST Plugins 2023 – Free Sample LibrariesRead More »

There are so many ways to record guitar these days.

You can go “old school” and mic up an amp (or even multiple amps).

You can take a line out of an amp.

You can record directly through a DI or multi-effects processor.

You can record a guitar direct, and “re-amp” it later to achieve your ideal tone.

You can even do a combination of the above!

But it’s never been more popular to do your recording “inside the box,” which is exactly what free guitar VST plugins allow you to do.

Using these, you can shape your tones during recording and even after recording, right from inside your DAW.

Let’s look at the best free guitar VST plugins. Every producer needs these!

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33 Best Free Guitar VST Plugins 2023 – Essential For Any ProducerRead More »

There’s one instrument that appears in most songs.

No, it’s not guitar. Not piano either. Although these instruments are incredibly popular.

It’s the drums.

Drums and/or percussion – real, artificial, or some combination thereof – are often considered vital to a song, because they form the rhythmic foundation. They provide the backbone.

Whether you’re a music producer, sound engineer, composer, or beatmaker, drums will prove essential to your ongoing music creation efforts.

In this guide, we’ll look at the best free drum VST plugins with super realistic sounds.

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11 Best Free Drum VST Plugins 2023 With Super Realistic SoundsRead More »

The more sophisticated your mics and inputs, the more nuances your microphones will pick up. Which is why pricier gear can be like a double-edged sword.

This is where audio sweetening comes in. But novice sound engineers don’t know where to start, and even intermediate producers don’t always have a firm grasp of all that’s involved.

A de-esser is an essential tool – not just for taming harsh consonants in the vocals (the “s” sounds or sibilants), but also for unruly hi-hats, cymbals, and more. You might even utilize a de-esser at the mastering phase.

So, in this guide, we’ll look at the best free de-esser VST plugins to sweeten your audio, achieve more clarity in your mixes and masters, and compress your vocals to perfection.

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7 Best Free De-Esser VST Plugins 2023 – Get Perfectly Compressed VocalsRead More »