FREE VSTs

Fretwired

List out your favourite FREE VSTs.

Teufelsberg Reverb plugin. Put the sound of cold war surveillance into your music. I've been playing around with this reverb and it is really cool.

Download for free from here: Teufelsberg Reverb plugin. Put the sound of cold war surveillance into your music.

guitarfishbay

Klanghelm stuff is already pretty cheap but they do stripped down free versions of their comp and saturation plugins too http://klanghelm.com/contents/main.php

Cirrus

TDR Nova, hands down.

Fretwired

Cirrus said:

TDR Nova, hands down.

Thanks. I'll check it out.

guitarfishbay

Cirrus said:

TDR Nova, hands down.

I totally forgot about this, I think you recommended it before.  Is it useable with tracking or is there added latency?

I take it you're still on the free version and haven't upgraded to the dubiously titled gentleman's edition?  http://www.tokyodawn.net/tdr-nova-ge/

Bod

http://www.liquidsonics.com/software_reverberate_le.htm ;

Cirrus

guitarfishbay said:

Cirrus said:

TDR Nova, hands down.

I totally forgot about this, I think you recommended it before.  Is it useable with tracking or is there added latency?

I take it you're still on the free version and haven't upgraded to the dubiously titled gentleman's edition?  http://www.tokyodawn.net/tdr-nova-ge/

I'm still on the free version. However, I use it so much I feel like at some point I'm going to have to buy the GE just as a point of morality.

I've only ever used it in a mixing context with automatic latency compensation so I have no idea off the top of my head what latency the plug actually reports to the host.

guitarfishbay

Well it's free so I'll just try it myself when I get a chance.  The GE is reasonably priced too and adds a few things, so I'll likely do the same if I like it 

colourofsound

Izotope's Vinyl Plugin; recently made 64bit: https://www.izotope.com/en/products/create-and-design/vinyl.html

Heartfeltdawn

https://www.meldaproduction.com/MFreeEffectsBundle

And it is worth paying for the full version. Usually 50% off in the sales. 

Tonecarver for experimental stuff. TCStretch is fabulous.

https://tonecarver.wordpress.com/

SQ8L - the best Ensoniq ESQ-1 synth out there. 

ArcDev and Interruptor delays

Azurite for chorus. 

guitarfishbay

guitarfishbay said:

Well it's free so I'll just try it myself when I get a chance.  The GE is reasonably priced too and adds a few things, so I'll likely do the same if I like it 

I tried it.  With Logic's low latency mode it automatically bypasses it, so no it can't be used for tracking.  Still a cool plugin for free though!  If I end up using it I'll get the GE version

Fretwired

Heartfeltdawn said:

https://www.meldaproduction.com/MFreeEffectsBundle

And it is worth paying for the full version. Usually 50% off in the sales. 

Tonecarver for experimental stuff. TCStretch is fabulous.

https://tonecarver.wordpress.com/

SQ8L - the best Ensoniq ESQ-1 synth out there. 

ArcDev and Interruptor delays

Azurite for chorus. 

@Heartfeltdawn - I'll check those out - not come across them before.

Cirrus

guitarfishbay said:

guitarfishbay said:

Well it's free so I'll just try it myself when I get a chance.  The GE is reasonably priced too and adds a few things, so I'll likely do the same if I like it 

I tried it.  With Logic's low latency mode it automatically bypasses it, so no it can't be used for tracking.  Still a cool plugin for free though!  If I end up using it I'll get the GE version

When I first started using it I went mental with it in all the wrong ways, but I'd never used a dynamic EQ before so I had a lot of learning to do.

Highlight uses for me now;

- Sidechaining Bass to Kick drum so kick only ducks the low end of the bass around the kick drum fundamental.

- Getting rid of resonances (low end bloom on guitars, ringing upper mids on voices).

- Dealing with sibilance not just in vocals but also things like hi-hats in overhead mics.

- Multi-band compression that genuinely doesn't affect the sound any more than it has to (even with no Gain reduction, Multiband compression is still splitting the signal through filters)

Snap

D16 Frontier Limiter - a simply awesome thing. Really really good. Its become my go to limiter, put it on every master I think. Good on drums as well, if you like that hyper pumped saturating thing,

Grunfeld

Snap said:

...if you like that hyper pumped saturating thing,

That hyper pumped saturating thing is my second-most disliked effect/ technique ever!  (Robot Auto Tune for the win.)
Instant "next track" response from me when listening to new music on Spotify or YouTube.

TAL chorus is my favourite free chorus.  Pretty much my most used VST chorus full stop.

guitarfishbay

Cirrus said:

guitarfishbay said:

guitarfishbay said:

Well it's free so I'll just try it myself when I get a chance.  The GE is reasonably priced too and adds a few things, so I'll likely do the same if I like it 

I tried it.  With Logic's low latency mode it automatically bypasses it, so no it can't be used for tracking.  Still a cool plugin for free though!  If I end up using it I'll get the GE version

When I first started using it I went mental with it in all the wrong ways, but I'd never used a dynamic EQ before so I had a lot of learning to do.

Highlight uses for me now;

- Sidechaining Bass to Kick drum so kick only ducks the low end of the bass around the kick drum fundamental.

- Getting rid of resonances (low end bloom on guitars, ringing upper mids on voices).

- Dealing with sibilance not just in vocals but also things like hi-hats in overhead mics.

- Multi-band compression that genuinely doesn't affect the sound any more than it has to (even with no Gain reduction, Multiband compression is still splitting the signal through filters)

That's pretty much how I use Pro MB (though I don't use it on cymbals).  What interests me about Nova is the more narrow control of resonances.  Multiband compression seems better suited when a larger range of sound needs a bit of dynamic control (which works nicely with pitched low end like basses, guitars etc) or gentle balancing of a dynamic singer using a lot of range, it would seem dynamic EQ would be better suited to more fine control such as your example of taming hats etc.

Fretwired

Snap said:

D16 Frontier Limiter - a simply awesome thing. Really really good. Its become my go to limiter, put it on every master I think. Good on drums as well, if you like that hyper pumped saturating thing,

+1 from me. I use it all the time.

Cirrus

Utility plugin;

Voxengo Span.

Some VOS plugs (I've not tried them all, but these are the ones I use regularly);

NastyDLA - nice stereo delay with saturation, the option of runaway feedback, modulation etc.

FerricTDS - Tape simulator that nicely deals with peaks through tape compression and transformer saturation emulation. The thing I like about it is that unlike some of the more comprehensive tape sims (I also use Waves' J37 a lot), this one doesn't really do much by way of extra harmonics, EQ curves, it doesn't have a very strong sound. So I can stick it on, say, a drum bus to control peaks and bring up the body of the sound without worrying too much about side effects. Only slight annoyance is that as with all VOS products it's calibrated to work with a signal around 0dBfs - so if you record and mix with an eye on gain staging, you need to crank up the signal into these plugs to get them to work as intended.

ThrillseekerLA - compressor, quite thick and nice sounding.

Other random ones that have sprung to mind;

The DigitalFishPhones stuff, IF you can get them to work (only 32 bit code, no legacy support)

Sonimus SonEQ - Pultec-style controls and filter curves, good for the boost/cut thing.

guitarfishbay

Not a VST and requires you use a suitable mic, but this is donationware for measuring room acoustics and exceptionally useful (and/or depressing) - 

https://www.roomeqwizard.com/

guitarfishbay

Another not a VST but a free thing that is pretty useful to people who do not have access to any plugins but want to know a frequency of something - http://www.szynalski.com/tone-generator/

I've used it for:

- Checking how low a commercial set of speakers play (e.g. bluetooth speakers, small computer speakers).  Just gives a better picture than observing small speakers have no bass.  If you compare a track you've recorded to a commercial one and can't hear your kick but can hear the commercial one it might be a sign you've got too much energy tied up in the sub frequencies and not enough where attack can be heard more easily.  This is assuming you're going for that kind of thing.

- Checking frequencies of resonances when listening to stuff away from DAW computer.  Sometimes you miss something but when listening in another environment like an office on headphones you hear it so I just use that website, match it, make a note to sort it later.  Shakes fist at cymbals  

Cirrus

Tone generator!

That's reminded me of this bundle;

http://mda.smartelectronix.com/