Freeware music goodies!

[phodicae]

Not only can you get overpriced software that does anything you want, you can also get the same thing for the price of zero dollars!

Why spend 200 dollars on that Serum VST when you can get groovy VITAL (https://vital.audi:ha:) for FREE!

Why spend $1,200 on that flashy elektron octatrack when you can go to https://tahti.studi:ha: and get all and more, (with limited exporting options but just audio out into audacity or something idk)

Why spend $200 on Logic or Ableton when you can get cheap Cakewalk for free?

Why spend something on sample packs and drum stuff when you can get
https://www.musicindustryhowto.com/free-drum-vst-plugins/
https://www.musicradar.com/news/best-drum-free-vst-plugins-2021
https://free-sample-packs.com/
https://www.samplephonics.com/products/free#
and countless other weird sites but most of all
https://vstwarehouse.com/

What's your favorite VST/DAW you have? What do you recommend? Help me out!

[ellievoyyd]

 

i highly recommend Plugins4Free.com !

I have made a few ("crappy":wink: 32bit plugins with synthedit that can be found here:
https://cybergrunge.net/resources/vst/vst.html

[dokodemo]

tweakbench has a bunch of really good VSTs and ive picked up a couple for myself. if you go on their site, you can pay for them. but i think thats just to support the developers, you can get them for free as well.
socalabs has a couple of VSTs as well, and they have a collection of synths that emulate sounds from certain videogame consoles like the gameboy or sega master system.
i'd also check out synth1, its extremely popular and for a good reason. it was originally hosted on geocities which is of course down, but you can find it other places.
there's also magical 8 bit plug, but i had a bit trouble finding it because it was on a japanese website + i dont think they support it anymore..?

i have a few friends who use LMMS, an open source DAW. i havent tried it out for myself, but ive heard good things about it. im not aware if it supports plugins (VSTs) though, but i may be wrong.

and of course, audacity. but everyone knows about that.

[Caesár]

If you can't afford a DAW, there's Soundtrap, it works on the phone as well and you can collaborate live. It doesn't support plugins, though.

[cinni]

I use reaper! it's free* and i like it, but i can't comment much else on it as a DAW cause i still don't really know how to use DAWs... >_>

* well, they ask you nicely to purchase a one time license after the trial but it never stops you from using the program :-)

[easy_breezy]

I like to add to this:

Found this sample pack online
This Jungle Sound pack was provided by an old school DJ

[Aarix]

VCV Rack is awesome if you're wanting to get into modular without forking out luxury yacht type money for hardware synths. There are hundreds of free modules you can pick and choose from—and some paid, but who needs 'em.

[BlazingCobaltX]

Whenever I need something I first go look at this nifty spreadsheet. My personal recommendations from this are the Ample Bass P Lite II and Mt Power Drumkit 2. The latter is donation-based, but I think it's worth dropping a few bucks considering much it sounds like a complete drumkit.

[Milo The Bun]

Not only can you get overpriced software that does anything you want, you can also get the same thing for the price of zero dollars!

Why spend 200 dollars on that Serum VST when you can get groovy VITAL (https://vital.audi:ha:) for FREE!

Why spend $1,200 on that flashy elektron octatrack when you can go to https://tahti.studi:ha: and get all and more, (with limited exporting options but just audio out into audacity or something idk)

Why spend $200 on Logic or Ableton when you can get cheap Cakewalk for free?

Why spend something on sample packs and drum stuff when you can get
https://www.musicindustryhowto.com/free-drum-vst-plugins/
https://www.musicradar.com/news/best-drum-free-vst-plugins-2021
https://free-sample-packs.com/
https://www.samplephonics.com/products/free#
and countless other weird sites but most of all
https://vstwarehouse.com/

What's your favorite VST/DAW you have? What do you recommend? Help me out!

Ooooh! I have serum but I like free goodies. Use them all the time wherever I can.
Reapers my go to DAW and tbh I have so many VST instruments/plugins I’d have a hard time listing them all.

[juliafish]

Cool samples:

Check out this website for samples of cool old synthesizers and stuff!!!!     

Legowelt Samples!

I don't remember how I stumbled across this site but the person who runs it created sample packs of their own equipment for free! It's pretty cool although I don't really make electronic music at all anymore so I don't use them much anymore.


My favourite daws:

My favorite daws to use is Ableton for recording and Renoise for my jungle tracks, I do use Fast Tracker 2 and Pro Tracker 2 every now and then for funsies but they are obviously based on older programs and Renoise is much faster to work with.

People looking for daw advice:

I would recommend anyone who is looking for daws to just try as many as possible! I have used quite a few daws and I still prefer Ableton for recording, however I don't need a powerful daw for the music I make so the only reason I have ended up with Ableton is just that I am really comfortable and used to it.

In terms of recording live bands and stuff I do have to admit logic can be quicker although it is SOOOOOOOOOOOO UGLY!, and in terms of audio editing pro tools is much more powerful too.

For these reasons I hear quite a lot people compare these 3 daws something like this: Ableton generally better for electronic and producing, Pro tools is generally better for audio editing and mixing and Logic is somewhat a mix of both.

I do think its a pretty good explanation but I would say unless you are going to be a power user and require very specific features you should just pick what is most comfortable and what has the better workflow for you. For example even though technically Ableton is geared more for electonic producing the interface is very simple to me and I already know all the shortcuts and features and I use it to record my not very electronic stuff!

Personally I would tell you to just pick what looks the coolest and give it a go!  

[Milo The Bun]

I've been making a custom soundfont for a game project i've been slowly working on. I have it up here free if ya'll wanna use it:
https://monoki.neocities.org/tronaero/freebies#lunesf2

It's just as much a work in progress as everything else lol

[infinitysnapz]

here's a bit of everything:

Valhalla Supermassive, an incredible reverb. love it to bits, great for ambient, and great for Not Ambient.

Surge XT, free and open source synth. it's very versatile, but also relatively simple to use. thousands of free presets, probably my go-to synth.

airwindows, more opensource plugins, hundreds of great, simple plugins, all developed by one person. also of note is the Consolidated Edition which has them all under one plugin, instead of taking up hundreds of rows that you have to scroll through

Bespoke Synth, open source node-based modular synthesiser. it's like MAX/MSP/Pure Data/VCV Rack but a little bit easier to understand. very versatile, very fun to play with, has Python Scripting support, and can also be used to make full on tracks, by sequencing which synths are active.

KB6 drum pack, a 2017 archive of the KB6 drum pack - 4.5gb of percussion samples. archived before most of the links were put behind a donation paywall for bandwidth reasons

ST-XX soundtracker sample packs, authentic crusty samples straight from the late 80s/early 90s - great for tracker programs, but you can probably also get some use from other softwares if you slow them down enough!