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Xaleph
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Xaleph Collaborator

Xaleph

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Posted (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

1.2 Samplers

Native Instruments

Spectrasonics:

Spitfire Audio

1.3 Synths

Native Instruments

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:

iZotope: 

? 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

4. Non-DAW Tools

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:

 

To Add

To Review

SINE Player, Soundpaint, Musio
Orchestral Tools, 8Dio
NES VST

 

 

Edited by paradiddlesjosh
Added a Non-DAW Tools section, formatting
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gravitygauntlet Apprentice

gravitygauntlet

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Posted (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 by gravitygauntlet
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Xaleph Collaborator

Xaleph

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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

Edited by Xaleph
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paradiddlesjosh Contributor

paradiddlesjosh

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Posted

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
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Sengin Apprentice

Sengin

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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.

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paradiddlesjosh Contributor

paradiddlesjosh

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These resources aren't plug-ins: they're great reference tools!

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!

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Nase Community Regular

Nase

Posted
Posted
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

 

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Xaleph Collaborator

Xaleph

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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.

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Nase Community Regular

Nase

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Posted

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.

 

 

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timaeus222 Enthusiast

timaeus222

Posted
Posted (edited)

Here are some of my recommended tools I've used the most (I'll mark which ones were already mentioned as "*"):

Drums (Libraries) -

Drums (Samples) - I always go back to these

Synths - I always go back to these

Samples -

Transitions (Samples) - I always go back to these

Effects -

Effects (free or nearly so) -

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 by timaeus222
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pixelseph Enthusiast

pixelseph

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Posted

Guitar:

Bass:

Amp Sims:

Pedal VSTs:

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WarezWolf Newbie

WarezWolf

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Posted

I’ve been leaning on MAXMSP as a live user a lot.  I have some weird quirks about making every patch from init due to some elitist misconceptions early on in my journey, but I learned quite a bit that way.  Strayed from it during the whole “vintage emulation” craze but back to focusing on creative design rather than modeling.

 

Thinking of making the move to Bitwig, anyone rocking ‘nix with BW?

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Master Mi Enthusiast

Master Mi

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Posted (edited)
19 hours ago, WarezWolf said:

I’ve been leaning on MAXMSP as a live user a lot.  I have some weird quirks about making every patch from init due to some elitist misconceptions early on in my journey, but I learned quite a bit that way.  Strayed from it during the whole “vintage emulation” craze but back to focusing on creative design rather than modeling.

 

Thinking of making the move to Bitwig, anyone rocking ‘nix with BW?


If you are looking for your first DAW, also check out Samplitude Pro X(8) Suite if you own one of the newer Windows versions:

https://www.magix.com/int/music/samplitude/suite/

It comes with:
- an incomparably huge amount of high quality content
- a really logic and intuitive interface for a good learning curve, with some of the best metering devices on the worldwide DAW market (this also includes several stereo and surround metering devices, vectorscope, spectral measurements, spectral editing and sophisticated peak and loudness metering - or a tuner for instruments) - also a kinda flexible and user-friendly interface you can put together like you wish and also save it as a preset
- several skins (would recommend the dark Carbon Skin, which looks really stylish)
- one of the most complex MIDI editors
- around 80 GB of really good VSTi (lots of them in the great Independence sampler) and synth content for nearly any kind of music genre (no loops - just around 80 GB of pure sample content)
- and besides the standard plugins, Samplitude Pro X Suite also comes with some really outstanding plugins like Independence FX (this plugin collection alone is huge stuff - from normal reverb, plate reverb, convolution reverb with a visual interface to place sound signals within the selected room as you wish, several kinds of delay, chorus, flanger and phaser, compressors, filters, gate and distortion plugins, equalizers, preamp, cabinet and mic modelers or even a vinylizer), Analogue Modelling Suite, Vintage Effects Suite, Convology XT Complete for a large amount of impulse response presets, or the good ol' Vandal: Virtual guitar and bass amplifier plugin, with which you can form your real electric guitar or one of the included VSTi electric guitars (would recommend the excellent electric guitars with lots of articulations and editing options in the Independence sampler) into kinda any possible guitar sound (if you really want to go "rockin").

Usually the enhanced Suite version of Samplitude (if you go for Samplitude, always go for the Pro X Suite version with around 100 GB of content - it is far bigger than the standard Pro X version with just around 20 GB of content) is around 600 bucks (Bitwig Studio is around 400 bucks and comes with around 12 GB of content).

But at the moment (until December 8th) there 's a special offer for the enhanced Samplitude Pro X8 Suite for just around 200 bucks.

There's also a free trial version in the link if you want to check out the interface and some core functions of the DAW.

Edited by Master Mi
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WarezWolf Newbie

WarezWolf

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Posted (edited)

Thanks for the recommendation.  I’ve been using digital audio workstation software for quite some time (since the days when it was “cakewalk or bust” on windows and then sonar shortly afterwards).  I am quite happy with Ableton Live.  I am an IT professional as well and have concerns with using windows as a platform with which to run it on.  Companies such as adobe state that your consent is implied for their usage of your intellectual property and creative projects for the purposes of training machine learning models.  Copilot may follow suit with an “opt out” model very shortly.

Combined with Microsoft’s failure to gain any traction for the WASAPI driver model, and the inherent issues with closed source software operating on such a fundamental layer of computing with no way of keeping its privileges check and no way to understand the full scope of telemetry and any changes made to those practices (see: recall, a new windows feature involving screen capture)

 

the list of reasons why I’d like to switch to an open source operating system are endless.  Live does not support Linux officially.  Bitwig has an almost identical workflow and ergonomic philosophy, and integrates the modular MSP philosophy of “Max” much more seamlessly into the UX.

 

if after reading this you still think I would benefit by giving the DAW you mentioned a go I certainly will.  I want to say I have a license from a humble bundle or something?

Edited by WarezWolf
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WarezWolf Newbie

WarezWolf

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I’d also like to add that I have a ton of outboard gear, but I’m going to say the thing that makes OGs angry:

 

There is no factor other than workflow preference and need for tactile feedback that keeps anyone from doing literally anything they could possibly need to do ITB.

 

In addition ive heard insane things that certain DAWs “sound” a certain way (warmer, cleaner, etc).  There is no factual basis for any of it.

so my desire to do it all ITB makes having a daw that supports CLAP a priority for future proofing my workflow.

 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/CLever_Audio_Plug-in

Dont want to get into the nitty gritty but basically all industry standard plugin formats namely AU, VST, RTAS (and its successor) are proprietary.  There’s some weird history with VST that confuses some people about this, but it’s a proprietary format developed by steinberg for steinberg hosts (Cubase).

having an open plugin format is important, and I believe it is important for the CLAP format to take its place among those other contenders.

 

Edited by WarezWolf
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Master Mi Enthusiast

Master Mi

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Posted (edited)


@WarezWolf

Ah, 'kay, I didn't realize at the time that "live user" referred to Ableton, which was the name I knew the DAW by.
I also didn't know that even Ableton (just like Samplitude and all the Native Instruments VSTi products) was developed here in East Germany - really interesting.

But once you've been working with a good, stable, properly equipped and smooth-running DAW for a long time and you've figured out, learned and internalized all the functions, I would really stick with this DAW in the future.

If this CLAP software architecture proves itself in contrast to the well-known VST interface - and the opportunities and application possibilities already look promising - then after a few years the majority of other DAW developers will also follow suit and implement this system.

On the other hand, Steinberg could also develop an upgrade for its VST-based system, which will then also enable multi-dimensional plug-in parameter and envelope chains such as CLAP.
So, no reason (hehe) for fitful sleep 'n' apocalyptic "the composers without the newest features die first" dreams.

...

"Patience is the key to paradise." (Arabic saying)

...

So, new developments like this don't really knock my socks off too much.

I'm always a few years behind the times, so to speak, and I'm still completely satisfied with good old Windows 7 Professional, my still really powerful PC environment (Intel i7-6700 quad-core processor system, 32 GB DDR-4 RAM, a pretty energy-efficient GTX 750 Ti as a still useful oldtimer graphics card and a still pretty much free 2TB HDD) and of course with my DAW Samplitude Pro X4 Suite, which is 4 versions behind the current Samplitude version (all this saves a lot of time, money, nerves and you avoid those really annoying Windows reinstallations or Windows upgrades - including required mainboard and other hardware upgrades und reinstallation of all the software after every few years).

Since I've already got all the software and hardware stuff I really needed and wanted during the last years, I'm really content with that.
I'm much more focussed to develop some legendary composition skills and to finalize my (during the last years conceived and especially during the last 2 years further developed) dynamic mixing concept I named "Life Force" (I'll show the results with a remix I might already finish towards the end of this year). ))

Edited by Master Mi
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