# Favourite FREE Plugins ?



## nuyo (Aug 23, 2020)

Let me know some of your favorite freebies.

I would say:
Ozone Imager and OTT


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## tomosane (Aug 23, 2020)

TDR SlickEQ and Kotelnikov. I should probably buy the "premium" versions of these plugins just as a gesture of support, even though the free versions are plenty for my needs


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## bill5 (Aug 24, 2020)

I hope it's not blasphemy to post this https://www.gearslutz.com/board/music-computers/1301575-best-free-plugins.html


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## vitocorleone123 (Aug 24, 2020)

tomosane said:


> TDR SlickEQ and Kotelnikov. I should probably buy the "premium" versions of these plugins just as a gesture of support, even though the free versions are plenty for my needs



The GE versions, esp. of Kotelnikov, are worth every penny. Pick them up when you find an online seller having a sale.

My nomination in addition to those named: Valhalla Supermassive

Also
OBXd
Baby Audio Magic Switch
Luftikis
Acon Digital Multiply
Tracktion Waveform Free
Voxengo MSED
Voxengo Latency Delay and Sound Delay

And some that were free once
Soundtoys Little Plate
NI Raum
Aurturia Plate
Some PA Plugins


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## Dex (Aug 25, 2020)

I keep forgetting about OTT. I should definitely try using it more often. 

TDR Nova is excellent because of its equal loudness property: it really helps you tell whether or not your moves are improving the sound or just making the instrument louder.


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## jcrosby (Aug 25, 2020)

Dex said:


> I keep forgetting about OTT. I should definitely try using it more often.
> 
> TDR Nova is excellent because of its equal loudness property: it really helps you tell whether or not your moves are improving the sound or just making the instrument louder.


I've got to say OTT is the one free plugin I come back to all the time. A little goes a long way, but it can do wonders to pull out detail, add sustain, even things out. etc...


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## TomislavEP (Aug 25, 2020)

99% of the time, I use REAPER stock plugins along with all of those included in Komplete 12 as an alternative. Also, the Elements series from IZotope plus several reverbs from Valhalla DSP. I rarely feel the need for additional plugins, including the free ones.

Speaking of which, Valhalla Supermassive is perhaps the biggest surprise (in a positive sense) when it comes to free plugins I've encountered yet.


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## MartinH. (Aug 25, 2020)

I've only downloaded this a couple days ago, but man there's some cool stuff in there. I should have tried them out sooner so I'll mention them here: 









MFreeFXBundle


The biggest and the most powerful FREE plugins pack available



www.meldaproduction.com


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## Dietz (Aug 25, 2020)

Klanghelm´s IVGI doesn´t cease to amaze me as the perfect virtual replacement for slightly overdriven mixing console inputs. Incredible on basses, e-pianos ... actually everything with hard digital transients and/or boring overtone structure.


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## tf-drone (Aug 25, 2020)

Hi,

favourite free VSTs change quite often, but mostly on top are:

Digital Suburban: Dexed
DiscoDSP: OBXD
LongSound: Microverb
Stone Voices: Marazmator
TAL: Noisemaker


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## Cathbad (Aug 25, 2020)

TDR Nova and Kotelnikov are superb. I use them on everything I produce and can't recommend them highly enough.

Best Service has a free version of Halls OF Fame 3 with a pack of presets for Bricasti M7, Lexicon 224 and more. Installation is a bit awkward but the sound is great.


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## Dex (Aug 25, 2020)

Loudmax is awesome. I use it all the time. Have a part that’s too dynamic? Slam it into loudmax to retain the tambre and feeling of the dynamic differences while evening out the volume.


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## Bluemount Score (Aug 25, 2020)

Voxengo SPAN



TomislavEP said:


> Speaking of which, Valhalla Supermassive is perhaps the biggest surprise (in a positive sense) when it comes to free plugins I've encountered yet.


Yes I love playing around with it too!!


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## labornvain (Aug 25, 2020)

This resource is indispensable: KVR's plugin search engine.









Free effect VST Plugins, VST3 Plugins, Audio Units Plugins (AU), AAX Plugins and Rack Extension Plugins for Windows and MacOS - Page 1 of 89


Free effect VST Plugins, VST3 Plugins, Audio Units Plugins (AU), AAX Plugins and Rack Extension Plugins for Windows and MacOS. They are sorted by user rating. - Page 1 of 89




www.kvraudio.com





Using the various search criteria, I have it set to "Free" "Effects" plugins sorted by the "Most Popular."

I could have also added keyword data to look for something specific. 

Really cool resource. 

Personally, I would highly recommend anything by Klanghelm. They have some free plugins that are great (MJUC Jr and DC1A)

The Blue Labs "Gain" plugins are used constantly. They come in 12db, 24, and 60db varieties.

Plugin Alliance - Elysia Niveau Filter is really useful for Fast Mixing™.

The Softamp PSA distortion unit is conceived for guitar, but is has an amazing distortion algorithm (the holy grail of dsp) that I would happily pay big bucks for. I use it mostly on an aux bus.


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## azmusic (Aug 25, 2020)

Color: IVGI, Saturation Knob, La Petite Excite, Chow Tape
Verbs: TAL Reverb, Convology XT, Halls of Fame
EQ: Ignite PTEq-X, Acustica Coffee, PinkCM, RS-W2395C, Nova, Lufitkus, Acustica Coral, Baxter
Color Comps: Adhd Leveling Tool, MJUC Jr, Hornet Fat FET (CM), airwindows ButterComp2, Pressure4, Logical4, Kotelnikov, LimiterNo6
Transient: Sonic Anomaly Transpire
Amp: Ignite Amps
Utility: Voxengo MSED, SPAN, Ozone Imager, TBProAudio Isol8, dpmeter4
De-ess: AirWindows DeEss


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## vitocorleone123 (Aug 25, 2020)

I forgot two:

BlueArp
TBProAudio mvmeter2


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## JEPA (Aug 25, 2020)

RIBS for sound design


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## tc9000 (Aug 25, 2020)

airwindows

so much unbelievable stuff just given away for free

(EDIT: perhaps technically not free, but volantary donationware?)


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## jamieboo (Aug 26, 2020)

Not wanting to hijack-refine nuyo's post, but what are people's favourite free plugins for specifically orchestral (traditional symphonic) music?

Thanks


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## nuyo (Aug 26, 2020)

jamieboo said:


> Not wanting to hijack-refine nuyo's post...



I said freebies. I didn't even say it needs to be anything music related. 

Free Orchestral:
Project Sams Free Orchestra


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## jamieboo (Aug 26, 2020)

But I don't mean libraries. I've got HO Diamond and I'm reasonably happy with it.
I mean free plugins other that libraries that people creating Orchestral music might recommend.


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## tf-drone (Aug 26, 2020)

Hi Jamie,

creating orchestral music means working with a sample library. There are attempts in synthesizing all the acoustic instruments, but, even with physical modeling synths, the result not even comes close.

However, there are free libraries in VST format:
DSK Overture
VSCO2 by Bigcat or Versilian
Sonatina Symphonic Orchestra
https://soundtrackistanbul.com/?page=kilissymphonyorchestra (Kilis Symphony)
One Track Orchestra


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## jamieboo (Aug 26, 2020)

Eek! I'm obviously not being clear!
I have a library that I am happy with. I don't need to know about freebie libraries.
I'm just idly curious about other 'non-intrument' plugins that people who make orchestral music use - things like Ozone, Luftikus etc.
So basically plugins capable of giving subtle, less sound-designy benefits.


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## mixtur (Aug 26, 2020)

Softube saturation knob is getting a lot of use here, and so is TAL chorus-lx which is based off the Juno chorus. Melda also have some great freeware utilities like a channel notepad and volume control.


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## jamieboo (Aug 26, 2020)

Thanks mixtur, I've never felt any need for a chorus, but I have often wondered about saturation.
I've just always been a bit cautious about plugins that apply a colouration that may drift into the realm of the unnatural.
Generally speaking I'm going for an orchestral sound like Holst, Stravinsky, or Williams. Given that, do you imagine that HO could still benefit from a bit of saturation?

Thanks


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## tc9000 (Aug 26, 2020)

For free orchestral-appropriate(?) FX I like Dragonfly Hall Reverb and Reverberate LE.


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## chrisr (Aug 26, 2020)

tried installing OTT (windows installer v1.2 downloaded from pluginboutique) - but it doesn't seem to be installing the .dll's ?? - anyone got any ideas?


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## Tim_Wells (Aug 26, 2020)

chrisr said:


> tried installing OTT (windows installer v1.2 downloaded from pluginboutique) - but it doesn't seem to be installing the .dll's ?? - anyone got any ideas?


Sorry, I'm no help here. I'll just add that I was also unable to get OTT to install properly in Windows 10. Haven't tried recently, though.


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## nuyo (Aug 26, 2020)

chrisr said:


> tried installing OTT (windows installer v1.2 downloaded from pluginboutique) - but it doesn't seem to be installing the .dll's ?? - anyone got any ideas?



Why don't you use the original installer from Xfer ?

https://xferrecords.com/freeware


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## MartinH. (Aug 26, 2020)

Great thread, I discovered quite a few new toys this way. Thanks a lot everyone!



jamieboo said:


> But I don't mean libraries. I've got HO Diamond and I'm reasonably happy with it.
> I mean free plugins other that libraries that people creating Orchestral music might recommend.



Panagement!




jamieboo said:


> Thanks mixtur, I've never felt any need for a chorus, but I have often wondered about saturation.
> I've just always been a bit cautious about plugins that apply a colouration that may drift into the realm of the unnatural.
> Generally speaking I'm going for an orchestral sound like Holst, Stravinsky, or Williams. Given that, do you imagine that HO could still benefit from a bit of saturation?



Sure, subtle saturation can come from the recording equipment used to record the orchestra. When it's mixed on an analog mixing console that has its subtle effects as well.




jcrosby said:


> I've got to say OTT is the one free plugin I come back to all the time. A little goes a long way, but it can do wonders to pull out detail, add sustain, even things out. etc...




Holy fuck, this is amazing! I have heard many tales about the power of OTT and how there's no mixing problem that can't be solved by adding more OTT instances (memes aplenty), but when I tried to find it I somehow didn't succeed or got distracted and lost sight of it again. But now I managed to get it from https://xferrecords.com/freeware after waiting for a long time for the page to load and... wow! This is exactly what I needed for the Doom OST synth stuff. Love it! I shall abuse its power till a portal to hell itself opens...




chrisr said:


> tried installing OTT (windows installer v1.2 downloaded from pluginboutique) - but it doesn't seem to be installing the .dll's ?? - anyone got any ideas?



The original installer that I used defaults to "C:\Program Files\Steinberg\VstPlugins", but I pointed it at my own vst directory and all went smoothly.


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## chrisr (Aug 26, 2020)

nuyo said:


> Why don't you use the original installer from Xfer ?
> 
> https://xferrecords.com/freeware



That site is non-responsive for me unfortunately.

EDIT - just tried again and waited - now downloading from there. Note on the installer that it is updates to elevate permissions - will try install now...

EDIT 2 - Great, it works, thanks. Going to have a play now. Suggest others DL from same source.


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## Tim_Wells (Aug 26, 2020)

Same... just got OTT installed. Seems to be working. Thanks!!


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## nuyo (Aug 26, 2020)

Tim_Wells said:


> Same... just got OTT installed. Seems to be working. Thanks!!



I wounder why Xfer doesn't charge for this plugin. Everyone seems to like it a lot. ^^


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## jamieboo (Aug 26, 2020)

MartinH. said:


> Panagement!



Hello! I'd been very curious about Panagement. But then I was wondering about how useful it would be for a library that is already recorded with each instrument in situ. And then I queried it here and was told that it was not advisable to use it with an already panned library. Hmmm.


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## Kuusniemi (Aug 26, 2020)

Audio Damage's RoughRider3 is fantastic.


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## jcrosby (Aug 26, 2020)

MartinH. said:


> Holy fuck, this is amazing! I have heard many tales about the power of OTT and how there's no mixing problem that can't be solved by adding more OTT instances (memes aplenty), but when I tried to find it I somehow didn't succeed or got distracted and lost sight of it again. But now I managed to get it from https://xferrecords.com/freeware after waiting for a long time for the page to load and... wow! This is exactly what I needed for the Doom OST synth stuff. Love it! I shall abuse its power till a portal to hell itself opens...



Yeah OTT is great! It really can do wonders. No surprise give it's Serum's developer built it. And for sure, synths are especially awesome for OTT. It evens them out, gives them movement where they previously sounded static... Really incredible little freebie!


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## MartinH. (Aug 26, 2020)

jamieboo said:


> Hello! I'd been very curious about Panagement. But then I was wondering about how useful it would be for a library that is already recorded with each instrument in situ. And then I queried it here and was told that it was not advisable to use it with an already panned library. Hmmm.



I never use it to pan anything either (and it being a binaural panner I wouldn't recommend it because of potential phasing issues, so that's probably what people meant when advising against it), but imho the stereo width widening or narrowing and the distance slider are great to help positioning different in situ recorded libraries. Just don't overdo it.
If you turn the head delay to 0% you probably can even pan a bit with it without causing phase issues, but I never really tested that. But for panning I tend to use sliders in Kontakt or the pan dial on tracks in Reaper.


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## jamieboo (Aug 26, 2020)

Interesting, thanks MartinH.
And yes, it was the peril of phasing that people mentioned.
But even using the distance slider... Hmmm. Surely anything that affects positioning shouldn't be necessary with a library like HO which has everything correctly positioned in the first place?


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## MartinH. (Aug 26, 2020)

jamieboo said:


> Interesting, thanks MartinH.
> And yes, it was the peril of phasing that people mentioned.
> But even using the distance slider... Hmmm. Surely anything that affects positioning shouldn't be necessary with a library like HO which has everything correctly positioned in the first place?



If you have one all in one library recorded in situ in the same room and you like the sound then sure, there's no need to change any of that. But many use a combination of libraries recorded in different rooms. Or maybe you want to match a recording with your HO library that sounds a little different. I used it a lot when trying to build a template that gets as close as possible to my reference track. I had one instance on almost every single section. Mostly just slight tweaks to stereo width, which other tools could do as well.


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## jamieboo (Aug 27, 2020)

Thanks for the info MartinH!

Also, what is this OTT that everyone is raving about? Would it be useful for traditional orchestral music, or is it better suited to more contemporary shenenigans?


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## Cathbad (Aug 27, 2020)

jamieboo said:


> Thanks for the info MartinH!
> 
> Also, what is this OTT that everyone is raving about? Would it be useful for traditional orchestral music, or is it better suited to more contemporary shenenigans?



It's a multiband upwards and downwards compressor.

Yes, it's useful for orchestral music *USED SPARINGLY. *Very light settings can help clear up low mids on a group or master bus, if needed. Used on individual instruments, it can help certain lines to project and cut through a dense texture.

Others can tell you more about how it's used in other genres.


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## Tim_Wells (Aug 27, 2020)

nuyo said:


> I wounder why Xfer doesn't charge for this plugin. Everyone seems to like it a lot. ^^


I thought there was a paid version with more features... but I'm not seeing it. So maybe I have it mixed up with something else.


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## tomosane (Aug 27, 2020)

I'm not 100% sure but I think OTT is more or less the same thing as the multiband compressor module in Serum. Maybe it was released for free as a teaser for Serum?

I've not really used OTT myself, but recall seeing a couple people on youtube use it to make string spiccatos more aggressive and such


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## VSriHarsha (Aug 27, 2020)

nuyo said:


> I wounder why Xfer doesn't charge for this plugin. Everyone seems to like it a lot. ^^


Go ask them & tell them not too. May be they’ll charge around $59 soon.


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## vitocorleone123 (Aug 27, 2020)

If you have ProMB already you can get close to what OTT does (and sound better, to me) with a single instance, but it takes 2 to do it fully. There’s a video out there somewhere I watched that also had a couple starter presets for ProMB that were OTT-like. It’s possible Saturn2 could also approximate it. Those aren’t free, but they’re “free to use” if you already paid for them


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## VMC (Aug 27, 2020)

Cathbad said:


> It's a multiband upwards and downwards compressor.
> 
> Yes, it's useful for orchestral music *USED SPARINGLY. *Very light settings can help clear up low mids on a group or master bus, if needed. Used on individual instruments, it can help certain lines to project and cut through a dense texture.
> 
> Others can tell you more about how it's used in other genres.


You know they say it’s highly adviced not to use multi band compression in the mixing phase. Use it in the Mastering level.

VMC


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## tomosane (Aug 27, 2020)

^ You'd usually use MB compression on the mastering level *if* you can not access/fix the mix -- if you can, in most cases you'd ideally avoid MB compression entirely

That said, MB compression as a deliberate and harsh effect on *single* tracks can work nicely, for instance if you want to spice up some string spiccatos in a super duper epic trailer track, and the samples are wet in a way that they have some problematic frequencies so that standard compression doesn't work that easily, or something like that


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## ghobii (Aug 27, 2020)

OTT is probably free because it's just a copy of a native effect in Ableton.


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## chrisr (Aug 27, 2020)

VMC said:


> You know they say it’s highly adviced not to use multi band compression in the mixing phase. Use it in the Mastering level.
> VMC



As we're all discussing this plugin a bit - i'll throw in my thoughts, having briefly played with it.

I quickly tried this on an existing mix across the mix bus. IMO it would be incredibly easy to screw up a mix or master with this plug, it is as it's name implies, completely OTT in what it does. I probably won't be putting it anywhere near my full mixes.

I may use it on an individual element or stem to make it pop. I can imagine it might work well on percussion or synths (and even then used in parallel/NYC style) to liven them up a bit.


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## Dex (Aug 27, 2020)

VMC said:


> You know they say it’s highly adviced not to use multi band compression in the mixing phase. Use it in the Mastering level.
> 
> VMC


People say a lot of things. It doesn't make them true.


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## Cathbad (Aug 27, 2020)

VMC said:


> You know they say it’s highly adviced not to use multi band compression in the mixing phase. Use it in the Mastering level.
> 
> VMC



That's bullshit advice. If you have a good understanding of MB compression, and hear a need for it in a mix, then use it - no matter what "they" say.

As an example, Joel Dollie recently did a video tutorial about mixing tubular bells. He suggested using MB compression to tone down the transients and make the bells sound more distant.

On group channels, different levels of MB compression might be required for strings, percussion etc because of their different characteristics. However, I do usually use OTT only on the master and very rarely anywhere else.


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## VMC (Aug 27, 2020)

Dex said:


> People say a lot of things. It doesn't make them true.


Well, few of our instructors in SAE NYC said that. 


Also, I heard Alan Meyerson saying “ We don’t normally use MB compression right away in the mixing level. We do but if anything won’t work as in spare. Hans is quite particular about these things.....”

VMC


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## VMC (Aug 27, 2020)

chrisr said:


> As we're all discussing this plugin a bit - i'll throw in my thoughts, having briefly played with it.
> 
> I quickly tried this on an existing mix across the mix bus. IMO it would be incredibly easy to screw up a mix or master with this plug, it is as it's name implies, completely OTT in what it does. I probably won't be putting it anywhere near my full mixes.
> 
> I may use it on an individual element or stem to make it pop. I can imagine it might work well on percussion or synths (and even then used in parallel/NYC style) to liven them up a bit.



I agree with that.

VMC


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## VMC (Aug 27, 2020)

Cathbad said:


> However, I do usually use OTT only on the master and very rarely anywhere else.




That’s exactly what I was talking about.

VMC


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## nuyo (Aug 28, 2020)

VMC said:


> Well, few of our instructors in SAE NYC said that
> Also, I heard Alan Meyerson saying “ We don’t normally use MB compression right away in the mixing level. We do but if anything won’t work as in spare. Hans is quite particular about these things.....”
> VMC



Junkie XL often says that he uses Multiband Compression to pump up his sounds but I don't know what he actually means by that.
He does it on the composing/sound design level though.


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## nuyo (Aug 28, 2020)

vitocorleone123 said:


> If you have ProMB already you can get close to what OTT does (and sound better, to me) with a single instance, but it takes 2 to do it fully. There’s a video out there somewhere I watched that also had a couple starter presets for ProMB that were OTT-like. It’s possible Saturn2 could also approximate it. Those aren’t free, but they’re “free to use” if you already paid for them



Do you still have a link to this video ?


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## Cathbad (Aug 28, 2020)

VMC said:


> Well, few of our instructors in SAE NYC said that.
> 
> 
> Also, I heard Alan Meyerson saying “ We don’t* normally* use MB compression *right away* in the mixing level. We do but if anything won’t work as in spare. Hans is quite particular about these things.....”
> ...



Two big caveats in what Alan Meyerson says, in bold. 

Many MB compressors (not OTT, but Fabfilter ProMB and my Cubase stock plugin, probably others too) have presets for various vocal or drum settings. Obviously, they are intended for use on individual tracks, or group tracks. So to say that multiband compression is only for use in the mastering stage is just not true.

Speaking of OTT specifically, my experience of it is that it's most useful on the master chain, used very very lightly. But others in this thread have uses for it elsewhere, particularly to help an individual instrument project through the texture. Probably better to test it out and see if it achieves the desired effect, than not even try it because of something someone - no matter how eminent - said.


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## mixtur (Aug 29, 2020)

jamieboo said:


> Thanks mixtur, I've never felt any need for a chorus, but I have often wondered about saturation.
> I've just always been a bit cautious about plugins that apply a colouration that may drift into the realm of the unnatural.
> Generally speaking I'm going for an orchestral sound like Holst, Stravinsky, or Williams. Given that, do you imagine that HO could still benefit from a bit of saturation?
> 
> Thanks


I guess it´s a matter of taste, but saturation tend to make things larger than life if that´s what your going for. Saturation Knob works on pretty much anything I've tried, just drive to taste.


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## bill5 (Aug 29, 2020)

So anyway, back to the topic 

Has Klanghelm been mentioned? Their free effects are excellent: https://klanghelm.com/contents/main.html


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## tomosane (Aug 30, 2020)

^ Klanghelm has some really baller plugins. I especially like MJUC personally, but because the paid version offers oversampling (not to mention way more possibilities) and costs next to nothing, I don't think I ever used the free version in an actual project


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## VSriHarsha (Aug 30, 2020)

tomosane said:


> ^ Klanghelm has some really baller plugins. I especially like MJUC personally, but because the paid version offers oversampling (not to mention way more possibilities) and costs next to nothing, I don't think I ever used the free version in an actual project


I like their user interfaces but I don’t have any of theirs heard those are good.


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