Free Vst Instruments List
I’ve been storing a list of websites where you can download a large number of free VSTs to play around with VSTs . Its not a complete list, but the amount of VSTs that are on all these sites combined should be enough to keep you pre-occupied for quite a while If you’re interested in getting more cool VSTs check out VSTBuzz – a music software deals website!
Download Free VST instruments. DSK Indian DreamZ. Free VST Page 1 of 2 1 2. DSK Dynamic Guitars DSK Saxophones DSK The Grand DSK Overture. 7 Best Free Virtual Instruments – VST/AU Plugins for Mac & PC Virtual instruments are software emulations of traditional instruments or hardware electronic musical instruments. There is a staggering range of virtual instruments available nowadays, covering multi-timbral rompler modules to dedicated emulations of guitars, basses, drums. Best Free VST Plugins 1. Native Instruments. Native Instruments has done a remarkable job by releasing KOMPLETE START. It’s a complete audio-mixing bundle that contains a variety of VST plugins, virtual instruments, thousands of audio effects, and several other free resources for music production. Earlier all these elements were available.
The starred ones are my favourites, but the other sites in the list are well worth checking out aswell for some great little gems.
Tweak Bench : Great site. Really nice clean lay out, and allows you to donate money towards any vsts you like.
VST Categories: Synths, Samplers, Percussion/Drums
KVR Audio: Absolutely excellent site. Probably the “Daddy” of all VST and audio technology sites. Has a news section with the latest news in music technology. Developers challenges – competitions for people to make the best VSTs, banks and patches, the ability to rate plugins, huge community on the forums. One stop resource for pretty much all of the plugins out there.
VST categories: All
Rekkerd : Rekkerd only hosts good plugins. Some of the best ones hosted on there are the DSK ones – well worth a look at.
VST Categories: Instrument, effects, synths
Delamancha : Really nicely laid out site – easy to search, easy on the eyes. Has a freeware section, and a paid section (with demos). NB – All software on here is Windows ONLY
VST Categories: All
Don’t Crack : Brilliant website – well laid out, easy to navigate, has all the VSTs you need. Has RTAS, and MAS formats aswell. Allows you to sort by OS. This site has a huge amount of information and options on it – well worth checking out!
VST Categories: All
VST4Free: Pretty well laid out website. Lots of great VSTs on it. Easy to sift through
VST Categories: Drums, Synths, Instruments, Samplers, Vintage
VST Planet: Nicely laid out site. Good range of popular vsts and an “Editors Choice” list of plugins which is cool
Free Vst Instruments Mac
VST Categories: Synths, Drums, Piano, Bass Synths, Organ
Gersic: “The Giant Plugins List” – really does have quite a lot of VSTs on it. 1957 in fact. Contains VST effects aswell as VST instruments. Good description for each plugin and pictures of all of them.
VST Categories: Ambience, Analog, Bass, Beat Slicer, Chip/LoTech, Drum, Frequency Modulation, Granular, Other, Phase Distortion, Physical Modeling, Sample Based
https://renewvehicle481.weebly.com/blog/download-design-space-for-mac. GTG Synths: Nice short list of only about 15 VSTS – quality over quantity on this site.
VST Categories: Synths, samplers, drums/percussion
AM VST : Nicely laid out site – great feature is that it gives you minimum system requirements for each vst. Only about 10 vsts on here.
VST Categories: Synths
Home Musician VST plugins : 29 free vst plugins – mainly synths – some vst effects too.
VST Categories: Synths
Free Plugin List : Easy to navigate – can search for Mac OS, or Windows, which is handy. Has wide range of plugins – random plugin selection also.
VST Categories: Mixed
Sad Glad : 670 VST plugins. Not a very attractive website, but it does the job. No ads anywhere on it. Directs you to the original homepages of the plugins, so if you’re searching for something specific, you’re better off just going to its website, rather than here.
VST Categories: All
Free Music Software: Clean site, easy to navigate. Has a number of good plugins on it.
VST Categories: Bass, ,Bass Guitar, Brass, Drum Machine, Drums, Electric Piano, Emulators, Exotic Instruments, Flute, Guitar, Lofi, Mellotron, Music Generator, Nature Sounds, Organ, Percussion, Piano, Saxophone, Strings, Synths
Audio Mastermind : Has one of the largest collections of vsts out there. Has pretty much everything you could want on it – 17348 links and 1112 categories.
VST Categories: All
TPG : Small amount of plugins – only about 12 overall. Quite harsh on the eyes – lots of retro synths on here.
VST Categories: Synths
VST Central : I’m having a hard time deciding if this is laid out well or not. In some ways its good and in other ways its difficult to follow. Handy in that it lists the OS for each VST, but not easy accessible in that you can’t sort by category – you have to search for a keyword, and hope it brings up what you want. Most of the links are user submitted which is different from the rest of the sites.
VST Categories: All
Shuttlebug Records : Mainly VST effects – some good ones on here, not much to offer though.
VST Categories: Synths, Effects
Free VST Blogspot : Some good VSTs on here. Not a huge range to offer, but worth a quick look
VST Categories: All
Free Loops : Generic VST site – has all the usual vsts on it, raning from instruments and synths to effects.
VST Categories: All
Destroy FX : Some good plugins on here, not a huge range, but whats on offer is good.
VST Categories: Mainly synths
Jeroen Bree Baart : Well laid out – allows you to download all of the vsts in a free .zip bundle which is nice.
VST Categories: All
Numerisson : Only windows VSTs on here. A good selection of VSTs
VST Categories: Synth and FX
MDA : Well laid out – has a nice option to download all of the vsts in a bundle (one bundle for Windows and another bundle for Mac OS) – which is always nice
VST Categories: All
There you have it – a list of plenty of plugins for you to play around with. Honestly, I can say I havent tried many at all. However, one of my favourites that is just a lot of fun to play around with is Toad by Tweakbench – recreate those classic Nintendo sounds!
No matter if you’re making classical music, writing underscores or producing hip hop beats, harps are beautiful instruments that can add a whole other level of atmosphere to a track. Unfortunately, many commercial harp sample libraries are pretty expensive – especially if you want to use harp sounds only occasionally. That’s why I’ve put together a short list of good free harp VST plugins and libraries on this page.
Free Harps & Celtic Harps
Versilian Studios: Etherealwinds Harp II: Community Edition
Formats: VST, AU, SFZ
Audio example:
A few years ago, Versilian Studios released Etherealwinds Harp. This free harp VST became so popular that Versilian has now published version 2, which updates both interface and sound. Etherealwinds Harp II: Community Edition is a reduced version of Etherealwinds Harp II, which the company calls “quite possibly the most complete lever harp library in existence”.
The 255 samples span over five octaves (C2 – A6) and come across very smooth, harmonious and easy to blend into any soft, dreamy arrangement. To get more control over your sound, you can change the amp envelope, volume, pan and reverb. While not accessible through the instrument interface itself, the download of Etherealwinds Harp II Community Edition comes with seven effect samples (.wav) and 16 vocal samples, taken from the vocal library included in Etherealwinds Harp II.
DSK Music: DSK World StringZ
Format: VST
Free Vst Instruments Listening
Audio example:
DSK World StringZ offers more than just harp sounds. In fact, the instrument includes a total of eight world instruments: cumbus, dobro, kanun, koto, dulcimer, tar, Turkish oud and a Celtic harp. Obviously, this Celtic harp is what I was mostly interested in for this list. Playing around with it, I found the sound to be quite present and earthy as I would expect from a Celtic harp. I especially enjoyed the lower tones, which feel a little more mysterious.
The interface offers you control over the amp envelope, the fine tuning and a filter (HP or LP). You can also automate all these values via MIDI. One word of warning: The fine tuning slider does not give you numeric values or offer a simple way to reset (that I know of) – so if you change the tuning, it might be difficult to get back to the original tuning setting. One feature that DSK World StringZ doesn’t have is a built-in reverb. Obviously, you can always slap on your DAW reverb (or any of your favorite effects plugins) if you want to add more space. No matter if you’re looking for a Celtic harp or if you can use some world strings in your production, this is a cool little plugin to try out!
DAT: Microharp
Format:Kontakt Library; full retail version of Native Instruments Kontakt 4.2.4 or higher is required
Audio example:
Microharp from Dream Audio Tools is another Celtic harp. In this case, a “very small wooden Celtic harp” was sampled with four round robins for each articulation. The instrument comes with two main articulations, picked and fingered, as well as with a patch that mixes both articulations. While the picked samples sound smoother and more traditionally harp-like, the fingered patch has an almost surprising “ethnic” feel to it. Its particular character might not work that well in classical pieces, but it could add some interesting textures to other genres.
The Kontakt library features four octaves, with the lowest note being C2 (not surprising due to the size of the instrument). For effects, it offers a delay and a reverb. Not a ton, but certainly useable!
To get DAT Microharp, you will have to add it to your shopping cart on the Dream Audio Tools website and check out.
Performance Samples: River Harp
Format: Kontakt Library; full retail version of Native Instruments Kontakt 5.5.1 or higher is required
Audio examples:
River Harp by Performance Samples is a little different from most instruments in this article. Instead of offering individually plucked string samples, you will find a collection of textures and glissandi here. The name “River Harp” is quite a fitting description of the sound as the performances come across as flowing and organic. These are the kinds of textures that we composers and producers would love to create and re-create with harp VST plugins but typically have a hard time doing so.
While the sounds themselves are fun, using them can be tricky because they’re not time-synced. While this is not such an issue with the glissandi (which you wouldn’t expect to stick to being time-synced anyway), it might take some additional time stretching work to fit the textures into an existing arrangement.
What’s really cool (and definitely not expected for a free instrument) is that River Harp is recorded with two mics (close and far), which you can mix and pan to your taste. This added flexibility makes the River Harp easier to mix. The creators of River Harp also want you to know that some of the tails are cut-off and only minimal noise reduction was applied (the honesty is appreciated!).
To get River Harp, you will have to check out through Performances Samples’ online shopping system.
Sonatina Symphony Orchestra Harp
Free Vst Instrument Pack
Format: Kontakt Library; full retail version of Kontakt is required (unfortunately, I’m not sure which one, but I’m guessing 4 and higher).
Audio example:
Sonatina Symphony Orchestra was a project by Mattias Westlund. More than 10 years ago, he created a free orchestral sample library primarily aimed at beginner composers. Today, this original library is not online anymore, however, a derivative version still exists at Bigcat Instruments. This version also includes a concert harp patch, which I found surprisingly useable due to its straight, classical sound.
The Kontakt patch allows you to change the amp envelope, the reverb and the EQ (at 100 Hz, 1kHz and 5kHz – which turn out to be great frequencies to play with). I would probably use this with a convolution reverb, since the built-in reverb sounds somewhat unflattering (at least in the wetter settings).
Sonatina Symphony Orchestra Harp is super easy to install: Simply download and save the patch into your Kontakt libraries folder.
Other Harp Instruments
Decent Samples: Bowed Nagoya Harp (Taishōgoto)
Format: Kontakt Library; full retail version of Native Instruments Kontakt 5.3.1 or higher is required
Audio examples:
The Taishōgoto is also known as the Nagoya harp and is a relatively modern string instrument, being invented in 1912. The pitch of the individual strings can be changed by pressing a number of typewriter-like keys. Although the Taishōgoto is typically strummed, for this Kontakt library by Decent Samples, the instrument was played with a violin bow. So if you’re looking for a plucked sound, this instrument won’t match your needs.
Instead, this library offers a texture-heavy bowing sound that lies somewhere between viola, harmonica and world instrument (check out the audio example to hear what it sounds like). While this is maybe not the most powerful sound on its own, I could imagine using this as a layer to add an interesting texture. One drawback I found while playing it is that the samples are somewhat short and the loop very noticeable. Unfortunately, this means that the library is not great for creating longer static pad sounds (if you use different note start points, you can achieve a nice effect where notes are rhythmically fading in and out, though).
Besides ADSR envelope and reverb, you also have control over the level of the two microphones that were used: an Oktava mic and a contact microphone. Since these are quite different in character, I’ve found it fun to play around with them and dial in a sound I enjoy.
To get the Bowed Nagoya Harp by Decent Samples, you will have to register with your name and email address.
Over to you…
Do you know of any other good free harp VSTs or libraries? Let us know in the comments!