TOOLS OF INTEREST
It is really easy to get started with making music nowadays, as there are plenty of tools released on a daily basis. From free to affordable to almost daily sales. The only limit is the space on your hard disk or SSD. But where to even start? This is where the following section might help.
Instruments:
AKAI - MPC Beats (limited to 1 instance, 8 MIDI + 2 Audio tracks, but can be used as VSTi in any other DAW)
Apisonic Labs - Speedrum (a "spiritual successor" to One Small Clue POISE, Lite version available)
Big Fish Audio - Momentum (a free and powerful WAV/AIFF loop mangler)
IK Multimedia - MODO DRUM CS (one drum kit)
Rayzoon - Jamstix (an amazing drummer brain)
IK Multimedia - MODO BASS 2 CS (one e-bass)
Spitfire Audio - LABS
Spitfire Audio - BBC Symphonic Orchestra Discover
Orchestral Tools - SINEfactory
Vienna Symphonic Library - the "HELLO Free Instruments" series (offering an Orchestra, Piano, Small Percussion and more)
Project Sam - Free Orchestra 1 and Free Orchestra 2 (the latter has just been released, Kontakt Player license included)
Soundpaint - started by 8dio's CEO Troels Folman as more advanced sample player engine to NI Kontakt (Full), offers many free sample sets
Decent Samples - project started by David Hilowitz as alternative to NI Kontakt (Full), offers many free/affordable sample sets
Sound Props - "Free Series" (offering a synth, guitars, bass and drum sample sets for free/small donation, needs Kontakt 6+ Full)
kv331 audio - Synthmaster Player (the free version comes with over 600 presets!)
Cherry Audio - Voltage Modular Nucleus ("entry level" to Modular Synthesis), Synthesizer Expander Module and Surrealistic MG-1 Plus
DISTRHO - Cardinal (a proper open-source variant of VCV Rack, plugin variants available)
Surge Synth Team - Surge-XT (a free and open source hybrid synthesizer)
Matt Tytel - Vital (spectral warping wavetable synth, a free "basic" version is available)
Blaukraut / Dominique Wurtz - Charlatan 3 (free virtual analog/VA synthesizer with OSC morphing techniques, Windows/Linux only)
thewavewarden - Odin II (a free and open source hybrid synthesizer that was heavily inspired by Reason Studios' Thor)
TAL Software - among offering outstanding and affordable studio tools, their free synth/plugin selection is nothing to scoff at
Full Bucket (freeware synths covering: Korg, Crumar and ARP Instruments)
Nils Schneider Kawai K1 (freeware emulation project of the Kawai K1)
Phuturetone - offering various interesting synthesizers (also check out the
Plugins4Free backup for even more VST plugins)
nakst Audio Plugins - offering various interesting synthesizers (e.g. 3-OSC subtractive, "hybrid"/Wavetable, FM, and Phase Distortion -- IMPORTANT: only CLAP/AU/FL Studio Native version available, no VSTi - VST based DAW need a CLAP2VST3 Wrapper)
Sonic Charge - Cyclone (Yamaha TX16W/Typhoon sampler)
CWItech - TX16Wx Software Sampler (If you want a highly powerful Soundfont2 loader / sampler)
PotenzaDSP - Amigo Sampler (affordable yet powerful "Amiga Tracker inspired" sampler)
Please do remember, our kind License Provider
Musiclab also offer 14 day trial versions of their virtual guitar range.
PRESETS FOR SYNTHESIZERS
Soundpacks - an information page highlighting sample sets and preset packs that have been released for free
PresetShare - a free synth presets exchange platform (account signup needed)
Tom Wolfe's Synth Vault - the free Monthly Preset Club (account signup needed)
SAMPLES (more of them):
Pianobook - started by Spitfire Audio's co-founder Christian Henson, offers many free/affordable sample sets in various formats
99Sounds - independent label and sound effects repository, started by Tomislav Zlatić, founder of Bedroom Producers Blog (mostly WAV)
More recommendation for free/affordable tools can be found at the #audio-tech-deals section on our
Discord server.
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UPDATED: 01-JUL-2024 07:15 UTC+2
UPDATED: 30-SEP-2024 23:35 UTC+2 -- Unfortunately, VSTBuzz no longer exists.
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