Xaleph Posted April 17 Share Posted April 17 (edited) I was going to give this an official name (something better than "Tools we use"), but I wanted to start a post that lists some VSTs (free and paid) that I know a good number of us use for mixing. This is not intended to be a clone of a list of all possible VSTs, or like 2 people in our community use it so we put it here. It's intended to be a place to find out what others use in our space that we find particularly useful. Just replying with a simple name of a product isn't good enough for me to put it on the list (for the reason I stated above) - though you can always respond with plugins you personally found among the most useful (or just most used in each song). I want to avoid this being a junk drawer that has no real value. The value will come with a curated list of tools that we feel are worthy. For a list of DAWs we use and to find performers of specific instruments, please visit https://ocremix.org/workshop or ask in our discord. ? Sage Recommended 1. Instruments 1.1 Drums Addictive Drums by xln audio ($159 || complete: $869) [drums] ML Drums by ML Sound Lab (free) [drums] Steven Slate Drums by steven slate drums (free || $119) [drums] toontrack EZDrummer ($179) [drums] ? Superior Drummer ($399) [drums] 1.2 Samplers Native Instruments ? Kontakt (player: free || regular: $299) [sampler] [instrument building tool] Heritage Percussion by Impact Soundworks (free) [sampler] [tribal percussion] ? Super Audio Cart by Impact Soundworks (gameboy: free || complete: $149) [sampler] [chiptune] Shreddage 3 by Impact Soundworks [sampler] [guitar] Free -> Precision (free) [bass] & Stratus (free) [electric guitar] Hydra ($149) [electric guitar] - this one is my favorite of the Shreddage Line Impact Soundworks collection has a lot of instruments difficult to find, such as the Oud ($99) Spectrasonics: Keyscape ($399) [sampler] [piano] Trillian ($299) [sampler] [synth] [bass] Spitfire Audio Spitfire Labs - free [sampler] [textures] [orchestral] [live instruments] Notable Lab Instruments: ? Arctic Swells, ? Astral Forms, ? Frozen Strings, Strings, Strings 2, Amplified Cello Quartet BBC Symphony Orchestra (free) [sampler] [orchestral] 1.3 Synths Native Instruments FM8 ($149) [fm synth] Massive X ($199) [wavetable synth] Reaktor ($199) [modular synth] Odin (free and open source) [semi-modular synth] ? Phase Plant by Kilohearts ($199) [semi-modular synth] Pigment by Arturia ($199) [wavetable synth] ? Serum by Xfer ($189) [wavetable synth] Spectrasonics: ? Omnipshere ($499) [hybrid synth] [wavetable synth] Trillian ($299) [sampler] [synth] [bass] Spire by Reveal Sounds ($189) [synth] Surge XT (free and open source) [hybrid synth] VCV Rack (free || pro: $149) [modular synth] ? Vital (free || pro $80 || subscribe $5/month) [wavetable synth] Zebralette (free) [spectral synth] 2. Effects Deelay by sixthsample (free) ? Guitar Rig by Native Instruments (player: free || pro: $199) Helix Native by Line 6 ($399) [guitar amp] illformed Effects: dBlue Glitch (free but may require jbridge) [glitch] [stutter] Glitch 2 ($59.95) [glitch] [stutter] iZotope: Stutter Edit ($199) [glitch] [stutter] Vinyl (free) [vinyl record] ? Kilohearts Essentials by Kilohearts (free) Slate Digital Fresh Air (free) [vintage exciter circuits and advanced dynamics processing] TH-U by Overloud ($269) Valhalla Effects: ? Super Massive (free) [reverb] Vintage ($50) [reverb] Delay ($50) [delay] Xfer: ? OTT (free) 3. Utilities FabFilter (Pro Q 3: $169) iZotope Utilities: ? Ozone (elements: $49 || standard: $199 || advanced: $399) ? RX (elements: $49 || standard: $299 || advanced: $799) SPAN by Voxengo (free) [eq analysis] TBProAudio ISOL8 (free) [Mix monitoring tool] Tokyo Dawn TDR NOVA (free || ge: €60) [equalizer] Kotelnikov (free || ge: €50) [wideband dynamics processor] 4. Non-DAW Tools Brad the Mad's Tempo Calculator (free) [Chart, lists given bpm subdivisions as ms and Hz; chart goes from 60 bpm to 179 bpm] Tuneform's Tempo Calculator (free) [converts bpm to ms] MIDI CC List (free) [Chart, lists common CC uses] Virtual Instrument Delay Chart (free) [Google Sheet, lists delay offsets for most orchestral sample libraries] Tap Tempo (free) [Webapp, click or tap a key in time with a piece of music to get its tempo] Notes ? Native Instruments offers a starter pack with several of the recommended tools called Komplete Start (free) Free(ish) DAWs (https://bedroomproducersblog.com/2015/11/11/free-daw-software/ - he updates this regularly): Reaper Cakewalk Sibelius GarageBand Audacity (audio) Cheap Stuff / Sales Black Friday / Day after Christmas / Spring / Summer usually have sales Humble Bundle often has VSTs, sfx, and samples. Heavyvocity has some good textural tools (instruments & effects) Sample Packs: 99 Sounds’ (free) 99 Sounds’ two 99 Drum sample packs (free) To Add To Review SINE Player, Soundpaint, Musio Orchestral Tools, 8Dio NES VST Edited April 26 by paradiddlesjosh Added a Non-DAW Tools section, formatting paradiddlesjosh and Eino Keskitalo 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
100_PERCENT ROEMER Posted April 18 Share Posted April 18 Oh man, you gotta add Famisynth to the list! Not only is it 8-bit heaven, it's 100% free. http://mu-station.chillout.jp/plugins/FAMISYNTH-II/index.html paradiddlesjosh and Xaleph 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gravitygauntlet Posted April 18 Share Posted April 18 (edited) Hey Xaleph, I think you've pulled some of my VSTs from the Discord server anyway, but here's a list of some stuff I use commonly: VST Instruments u-he's Zebra2, Hive, Diva. All the u-he synths are notable for having free versions with very limited paywall restrictions; the free versions don't limit settings at all, they just play static or randomize notes intermittently after 20 minutes of rendering/use. This can be worked around by reloading the instance, and it's obviously an easy workaround for final mixdown. FM8 by Native Instruments - goes on sale a lot FMDrive - very cheap Genesis/Mega Drive synth that can read the original instrument files Roland Sound Canvas - not free but essential for a lot of GBA/SNES type sounds. A lot of them make up GBA soundfonts unaltered; Golden Sun, Pokemon, etc. Sforzando and Samplelord are both worth bringing up as soundfont interfaces; the former is free and the latter can notably read some proprietary instrument files used in E-mu kits like the Proteus. Performance Samples has paid VSTs but also a lot of freebies; I use the strings and percussion a lot. They just require a certain version of Kontakt. VST FX Guitar Rig - I use Guitar Rig 5 specifically. Its amps/cabinets are really diverse and convincing and I use the reverb effects on pretty much everything. Convology XT has a free version with a lot of convolution reverb presets. I use them in conjunction with these Impulse Responses a lot to emulate how reverb effects were achieved on the PS1. EliteReducer 2 and CMT Bitcrusher are both free bitcrushers. MeldaProduction has a lot of versatile free FX; I use MCompressor for sidechaining and MVibrato for gated/tremolo effects. ToneBoosters has a lot of free legacy FX i.e. Barricade. Tokyo Dawn Records has some good free/paid FX like Kotelnikov; I use the paid version on my master bus pretty much all the time. Edited April 18 by gravitygauntlet paradiddlesjosh and Xaleph 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xaleph Posted April 18 Author Share Posted April 18 (edited) https://equipboard.com/xaleph if you want to know my gear DAWs Reason Studio Ableton Live Audacity Garage Band Notable VST/REs Objekt (Reason RE - paid) Serum Vital Kontakt (SAC, and others) Spitfire Labs Spitfire BBC Ugritone (Doom & something else?) Reason ( Kong / Radical Piano / Pangea / Klang / Mimic / Thor / Europa) Notable Effects Guitar Rig Pro Kilohearts Reason (Audiomatic / Scream / RV7000 Mk II / Echo / Pulveriser / Sweeper / Synch EM / Alligator) Notable Utilities Psyscope iZotope Ozone Advance / RX Musescore Signalizer Edited August 7 by Xaleph paradiddlesjosh 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paradiddlesjosh Posted April 18 Share Posted April 18 I figured I should share my Equipboard as well. DAWs Presonus Studio One 4 Ableton Live 10 Notable VST Instruments Adam Szabo Viper (Virus TI emulation) Arturia Analog Lab V Intro Decidedly DecentSampler (the VSTi is free, with free libraries available at their website and Pianobook) ML Drums by ML Sound Lab (Essentials, Luxe, Meld -- the free version is a stripped-down Essentials kit) NI Battery 4 NI Kontakt 6 and Kontakt Player 7 (Pianobook also has many free Kontakt libraries -- full version of Kontakt required for those) 8dio Claire English Horn The Alpine Project Ferrum Free Edition ISW Shreddage 3 (Precision Free, Stratus Free) ISW Heritage Percussion ProjectSAM The Free Orchestra Orchestral Tools Free Series (Layers) Orchestral Tools SINEfactory (Clutch, Crucible, Dynamo, Gearbox, Helix, Lucent, Manifold, Ratio, Rotary) Plugin Alliance x Brainworx bx_oberhausen Steven Slate Drums 5.5 Spitfire Audio LABS Spitfire Audio BBC Symphony Orchestra (Core -- Discover is free and covers all the basic articulations/techniques, and the top-level Pro version has more soloists and mic placement controls) Spitfire Audio Originals (Epic Strings, Epic Brass & Winds, Cinematic Percussion, Cimbalom, Media Toolkit) Toontrack Superior Drummer 2 Vital Notable VST Effects Arturia MiniFuse Bundle (this came with my interface) Arturia Chorus JUN-6 Arturia Delay TAPE-201 Arturia Pre 1973 Arturia Rev PLATE-140 Korneff Audio El Juan Limiter (a free emulation of the legendary L1 Limiter) NI Guitar Rig 6 LE (free with Komplete Start) NI Supercharger (also free with Komplete Start) Plugin Alliance Ampeg SVT-VR Classic Plugin Alliance Black Box Analog Design HG-2 Plugin Alliance x Brainworx bx_console Focusrite SC bx_masterdesk (Classic available for free in the PA FREE bundle) bx_opto bx_rockrack V3 (Player available for free in the PA FREE bundle -- only does presets) Plugin Alliance Maag Audio EQ2 Plugin Alliance PA FREE bx_cleansweep V2 bx_solo bx_subfilter Double MS Free Ranger niveau filter Tokyo Dawn Records TDR Nova UrsaDSP Lagrange (granular delay) Voxengo SPAN Notable Utilities Akai EWI-USB Evans x Sunhouse Hybrid Sensory Percussion v2 Presonus Notion 6 Xaleph 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sengin Posted April 19 Share Posted April 19 Gonna have to mention FabFilter for their top notch effects (their UI has basically become the de facto UI for digital effects), but especially Pro-Q, Pro-C, and Saturn. As a bonus, they have many fantastic tutorials on how to use their tools, which are basically tutorials on how to use EQ, how to use compressors, etc in general. Sonible I have less experience with, but their smart:limit is a fantastic limiter. Xaleph 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xaleph Posted April 20 Author Share Posted April 20 16 hours ago, Sengin said: Gonna have to mention FabFilter for their top notch effects (their UI has basically become the de facto UI for digital effects), but especially Pro-Q, Pro-C, and Saturn. Pro-Q is like an industry standard. I see it everywhere. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paradiddlesjosh Posted April 25 Share Posted April 25 These resources aren't plug-ins: they're great reference tools! Brad the Mad's Tempo Calculator (Chart, lists given bpm subdivisions as ms and Hz; chart goes from 60 bpm to 179 bpm) Tuneform's Tempo Calculator (converts bpm to ms) MIDI CC List (Chart, lists common CC uses) Virtual Instrument Delay Chart (Google Sheet, lists delay offsets for most orchestral VST instruments; organized by instrument section, brand, library, and articulations). Use these as a starting point and adjust to your project as needed Tap Tempo (Webapp, click or tap a key in time with a piece of music to get its tempo) I was chatting in the Lounge on Discord with folks last night discussing the importance of tools like the tempo calculators: some time-based effects plug-ins (reverb and delay, but also the attack and release controls on compressors, limiters, gates, expanders, etc) have no tempo sync function. If you can convert the subdivision into ms or Hz, you can manually sync your plug-ins to your project tempo/tempi (plural of tempo). You can also use this chart to maintain a relative pulse while changing meters: in the example I gave from a project Seph and I are working on, there's an intro segment at 90 bpm, 4/4 time that evolves into a verse in 12/8 using the same structure as the intro. 12/8 is functionally equivalent to 4/4 with a triplet subdivision, but most DAWs only give tempo expressed in a quarter note bpm, so maintaining 90 bpm gives an incorrect pulse from the click. But if you check the chart, you can see that a quarter note at 90bpm equals 0.667 seconds (666.6 repeating ms, or 667 for simplicity's sake) and a quarter-note triplet equals 0.444 seconds (444.4 repeating ms). Scroll down the chart and you'll find 135 bpm has a quarter note value of 0.444 seconds and a dotted quarter note value of 0.667 seconds: for all intents and purposes, the quarter note value of 90 bpm equals the dotted quarter note value of 135 bpm! Xaleph 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xaleph Posted April 26 Author Share Posted April 26 Feel free to edit the post to add sections/links. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nase Posted May 13 Share Posted May 13 On 4/17/2024 at 10:49 PM, Xaleph said: 1.1 Drums ML Drums by ML Sound Lab (free) [drums] i tried that one out after reading about it in your post, and it's quite good. it has a rather hifi sound that works well in contrast with the age old vanilla addictive drums 1 that i still use. i got the basic drum expansion plus the grit and yamz pack. so, 90 bucks for a lot of possible combinations. these aren't the most articulate and fine grained dynamic drums, the packs are pretty small (just 300 mb on the grit drums e.g.). old AD1 has way more dynamic range for subtle ghost hits and stuff. but they sound plain good, and are suitable for harder hitting rock/metal stuff that AD1 vanilla doesn't do well. so between the two, i feel i got all the drums i need now! it does seem though like ML Drums is crashing FL Studio when you try to export audio with it. that's pretty bad :P Xaleph and paradiddlesjosh 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xaleph Posted May 13 Author Share Posted May 13 8 hours ago, Nase said: i tried that one out after reading about it in your post, and it's quite good. it has a rather hifi sound that works well in contrast with the age old vanilla addictive drums 1 that i still use. i got the basic drum expansion plus the grit and yamz pack. so, 90 bucks for a lot of possible combinations. these aren't the most articulate and fine grained dynamic drums, the packs are pretty small (just 300 mb on the grit drums e.g.). old AD1 has way more dynamic range for subtle ghost hits and stuff. but they sound plain good, and are suitable for harder hitting rock/metal stuff that AD1 vanilla doesn't do well. so between the two, i feel i got all the drums i need now! it does seem though like ML Drums is crashing FL Studio when you try to export audio with it. that's pretty bad :P Drumming simulation VSTs can take a lot of memory for sure. Ugritone is the same way - I often bounce/freeze/render these kinds of VSTs for memory purposes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nase Posted May 14 Share Posted May 14 i don't think it's that - i think the plugin just hasn't been tested well on FL. i should write the dev a letter, really. the whole plugin is a bit wonky in FL - like, the for the included presets in ML drums, half of them load with a badly distorted kick drum. when i load the kick drums myself in my own presets, all plays fine. i can use it fine right now if i just record the master with edison, the sampler, in FL... i think the finnish dude who made it needs a few bug reports from FL studio users. Xaleph 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
timaeus222 Posted May 15 Share Posted May 15 (edited) Here are some of my recommended tools I've used the most (I'll mark which ones were already mentioned as "*"): Drums (Libraries) - *ISW Shreddage Drums Heavocity Damage Drums (Samples) - I always go back to these Platinum Percussion (great for world music) BHK D&B Rough Connections Vol. 4, Bladerunner Dread Drum & Bass (for fast music) Equipped Music - Smoker's Relight Vol. 1, Vol. 2 (for Downtempo music) Black Octopus Leviathan (for hardcore EDM) Goldbaby Drums (MPC60 Vol. 1-3, When Alien Drum Robots Attack Vol. 1-2, for general use) Synths - I always go back to these *u-he Zebra2 (for practically ALL of my music honestly) *Xfer Records Serum (mostly for dubstep) Samples - 4Front TruePianos (physical model actually) *Spectrasonics Omnisphere, Trilian ISW PEARL: Concert Grand (truly an amazing Yamaha C7) ISW Resonance: Emotional Mallets (mostly for glassy percussion) Embertone Friedlander Violin and Blakus Cello (usually as solo instruments) OTS Evolution Acoustic Guitar (Steel Strings) Neo-Soul Suitcase (realistic electric piano, if I wasn't satisfied with just synthesizing that in Zebra2) Transitions (Samples) - I always go back to these ISW Juggernaut: Cinematic Electronic Scoring Tools Effects - u-he Uhbik (mostly "T" [tremolo] and "G" [granular]) *Guitar Rig Effects (free or nearly so) - Variety of Sounds Density MKIII (compressor), NastyDLA MKII (delay) *kiloHearts Essentials (most notably, Ring Modulator and Transient Shaper) ISW SNESVerb (SNES reverb emulator, $20) digitalfishphones endorphin (compressor) *dBlue Glitch v1.3 (free) and v2 ($60) Lofi Plus (bitcrusher; hard to find, let me know if you need a link) Sonalksis FreeG Stereo (Gate Plugin) Misc (free) - I always go back to these s(M)exoscope (spectroscope to check waveform loudness) *TDR Nova (Equalizer with Sum and Difference capabilities) TLs-Pocket Limiter (simple, soft knee limiter. Never got overcompression since!) Edited May 15 by timaeus222 Rapidkirby3k and Xaleph 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pixelseph Posted September 5 Share Posted September 5 Guitar: Cute Emily SG Shreddage 3 Stratus Unreal Instruments Metal-GTX (requires Plogue Sforzando) Bass: Shreddage 3 Precision MODO Bass 2 Amp Sims: Ignite Amps SHB-1 (SHB-1 is a boutique tube amp sim for bass guitar; comes with it's own cab IR built in) Ignite Amps Emissary and NadIR (Emissary is their boutique tube amplifier sim, NadIR is a cabinet IR sim that can be used with ANY other amp sim) Guitar Rig 7 Shattered Glass Audio ACE IK Multimedia Amplitube 5 Pedal VSTs: TSE Audio 808 TSE Audio R47 Plugin Boutique Face Bender Xaleph 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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