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What Free plugins do you use on a regular basis?

CatComposer

Senior Member
I've been exploring dozens of free plugins, most of which I find aren't that good, or at least, I'm not able to derive obvious
benefit from them in a short space of time.

But I have discovered some excellent ones:

1. TDR Kotelnikov.
For clean compression.
2. Fresh Air and La Petite Excite
for excitation.
3. Mtuner
for tuning my guitar!

I'm sure there are plenty more out there.
So what do you wonderful people use?

I'm mostly interested in effects to add to vocals, acoustic guitar, and orchestral samples.
I'm not interested in drum effects and crazy distortion.

I still haven't found a good free plugin for subtle saturation, but I know there are many I could test.

For most of the ones I've tried, I either can't hear any difference, or they distort the sound and ruin it.
 
My most used free plugin is Hammersmith piano, but I also use Raum almost as much. Fresh Air, Sanford Reverb and reaper plugins (especially reaxcomp) are others that get regular use
 
Looks like Raum used to be free but is now $79 😢

I have tried OTT but it seems too intense for my kind of music.

I appreciate all the suggestions thus far.
 
Also check this link out: https://bedroomproducersblog.com/2021/01/20/free-saturation-vst-plugins/

It talks about the following plugins
  • IVGI
  • FerricTDS
  • SGA1566
  • BPB Saturator
  • Airwindows Tape
  • CHOW Tape
  • Saturation Knob
  • Tube Saturator Vintage
  • TubeDriver
  • Voxengo Tube Amp
  • FreeAMP
  • Szechuan Saturator
  • ADHD Leveling Tool
  • Tape Cassette 2
Yes, thanks.
I have seen this list and have tried some of them already.
I am more interested to know which of these people actually use,
because that indicates they might be of similar quality to paid plugins.

It's good to know you use Chow Tape.
I will certainly spend some time evaluating that one. 😊
 
I like to keep things simple when it comes to plugins. I mostly work with REAPER's stock ones plus with those included in Komplete as a more colorful alternative. I also have all the Elements plugins from IZotope as well as Ozone Standard.

Frankly, the only freeware plugin that I have installed and use regularly is Valhalla Supermassive (in addition to Room and Shimmer, of course).

Recently, I've discovered Sitala. It seems like a good little tool to have in one's arsenal, as a more simple and lightweight alternative to Battery (I don't use beats in my music very often).
 
I use, quite often (Sound Design):

Distortion:
Softube Saturation Knob
Klanghelm IVGI

Compressors:
Klanghelm MJUCjr, MAGC
Tokyo Dawn Kotelnikov, Molotok

Utility:
Voxengo Span
Smartelectronix S(m)exoscope

Reverb & Delay
SnesDelay
Dragonfly Reverb
Valhalla everything that's free

Other:
Tal Vocoder
Tal Reverb
Chow Tapemodel
PaulXStretch
iZotope Vinyl
Fresh Air
VennAudio FreeClip
Kilohearts Free plugins (stereo!)
Most free Melda plugins see some use too.


furthermore, less often, but these do see use:

Sequencers:
Arto Vaarala Kirnu
BlueARP

Synths:
TAL-U-No-62
TAL Bassline
PG-8X
RC-808
MonoFury
Retropluginpack
Chipdrum
Chipwave
Magical 8bit Plug
Famisynth
Medusa2

A bunch of stuff from the Reaktor User Library too.

Oh, and not a plugin but brilliant anyway: Cecilia 5
 
Synths / samplers:

- Newfangled Audio Pendulate
- Nusofting Sinnah
- Plogue Sforzando
(Karoryfer samples has a bunch of excellent free libraries)
- Vital (free tier)
- REAKTOR ensembles


Mixing / mastering:

- Meldaproduction MFreeBundle (essential stuff really)
- Xfer Records OTT is pretty much an essential / nobrainer
- Chow Tape
 
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