Find awesome synth power, realistic instrument emulations and creative effects options among our hand-picked selection of free plugins
In case you haven’t noticed, there is rather a lot of music software around these days. Here at Plugin Boutique, we host over 6000 plugins from nearly 200 developers, so we like to think we’re pretty clued in on how many options there are out there for aspiring music makers.
Choice is definitely a good thing, but it can also be overwhelming, especially if you’re just starting out on your music production journey. Sometimes you just want to sit down at your computer, boot up your DAW and start making sweet, sweet music without having to think too much about the tools at your disposal.
With this in mind, we’ve compiled a list of some essential plugins to help you get started making music. Our list features vintage instrument emulations, synths, effects and more. Oh, and best of all, all of the plugins on this list are completely free, so you can stack the shelves in your sonic larder without having to worry about a hefty grocery bill.
What Free Plugins Do We Recommend?
In the below sections, you’ll find our pick of the best free plugins available on Plugin Boutique. You can skip to a particular entry using the links below or continue to read from top to bottom.
In This Article
Free Acoustic Instrument Plugins
Free Synths for Cooking up a Storm
Free Vintage Synth Emulation Plugins
- Cherry Audio Synthesizer Expander Module
- TAL-U-NO-62
Solid Free Reverbs for Any Track
- TAL-Reverb 2
- MNTRA Instruments Borealis-LE
Take Charge of Your Dynamics
- Melda Production MCompressor
- Audio Damage Rough Rider 3
- Techivation T-Puncher Free
Apply Simple Saturated Slapbacks
- Denise Audio Slappy
Free Guitar VST Plugins
- GuitarML Chameleon
- Blue Cat Audio Blue Cat’s Free Amp
Free Acoustic Instrument Plugins
Do you remember that feeling you had as a kid when you walked into a music shop and saw all the shiny new instruments hanging on the walls? And that other feeling you had when you looked at their price tags? One of the great things about plugins is that you can assemble a collection of virtual instruments for far less than their physical counterparts, and still get impressive results.
Sampleson CollaB3
Best free organ emulation
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Price: |
Free |
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Platforms: |
Windows or Mac |
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Type: |
Virtual Instrument |
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Format: |
VST, AU, Standalone |
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Features: |
Virtual tonewheel organ, leakage emulation, rotary speaker emulation, inbuilt effects including chorus and reverb |
Try Sampleson CollaB3, a faithful emulation of the Hammond B3 vintage tonewheel organ. Sampleson has painstakingly modelled the noises, clicks, leakage, rotary speaker and tonewheel that you’d expect from the real thing, as well as a great-sounding chorus and reverb.
Ample Guitar M Lite II
Best free virtual guitar
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Price: |
Free |
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Platforms: |
Windows or Mac |
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Type: |
Virtual Instrument |
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Format: |
VST2, VST3, AU, AAX, Standalone |
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Features: |
Sampled from the Martin D-41 Acoustic Guitar, double guitar technology with different samples for the left and right channel, realistic strumming action with 14 strum notes and 28 ways to play each chord |
Chords, strums and more – all from a great-sounding and well-recorded acoustic guitar. If you’re looking for a guitar with no strings attached – nor any cables, come to think of it – then ‘going virtual’ is a great idea.
Ample Guitar M Lite II emulates realistic acoustic guitar performance even when just fed MIDI, and has plenty more parts of the process to pull off as well, including microphone blending. Here, you can strum, use different articulation (fingering and others), and add effects.
Ample Sound Ample Bass P Lite II
Fingered bass instrument to keep your low end in the pocket
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Price: |
Free |
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Platforms: |
Windows or Mac |
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Type: |
Virtual Instrument |
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Format: |
VST2, VST3, AU, AAX, Standalone |
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Features: |
Fingered P-bass tones, sustain, hammer on/pull off, accent. Models the playing of a real guitar for an authentic experience. |
We’ve already detailed Ample Sound’s free guitar plugin above, but you might actually find the bass even more useful, as it can take care of a bassline across many genres. Ample Bass P Lite has everything that non-guitarists need to get a real bass into their tunes, and even a lot that existing guitarists and bassists will appreciate too – like the Tab Player which can play back and even export tab formats.
Heavyocity FOUNDATIONS | Staccato Brass
Unlock the most epic quarter of the orchestra
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Price: |
Free |
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Platforms: |
Windows or Mac |
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Type: |
Virtual Instrument, Kontakt Instrument |
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Format: |
Kontakt / Kontakt Player |
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Features: |
Bring home the brass with this instrument for perfecting staccato stabs. The hard work has been done by Heavyocity so you can slot well arranged and mixed brass stabs into your tracks. |
If you’re a fan of the spine-tingling, suspenseful and dramatic sound of classical staccato instruments, downloading this free Kontakt library instrument by Hevyocity should go straight to the top priority spot on your to-do list.
Yes, it’s a Kontakt instrument, however, don’t fret… You can still access this splendid staccato brass VST plugin through the free Kontakt Player. With bold textures captured from a real-life, prestigious brass ensemble, this entry is definitely in competition as one of the best classical VSTs you’ll find online.
Reflekt Audio YoJo
How about a banjo? Why not?
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Price: |
Free |
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Platforms: |
Windows or Mac |
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Type: |
Virtual Instrument |
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Format: |
VST3, AU |
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Features: |
Four layers that you can blend into your custom-perfect banjo sound. Envelopes, multiple types of filter, reverb and pitch tricks. What’s not to like? |
When you think of virtual instruments, your mind may jump to strings, pianos or so on, but it likely doesn’t often take in the fair, twangy sounds of the banjo. If you’re limited to free plugins, though, you could do a lot worse than picking up Reflekt Audio’s YoJo banjo instrument.
Four separate layers can be blended in with gain and panning, and their names – Main, Flavor, Low, High – will give you some idea of their usage potential. There’s a standard ADSR envelope section to affect the timing of the virtual banjo, and effects including multiple Filter types, a Reverb dial, and a Pitch knob to transpose the entire instrument’s sound.
Free Synths for Cooking up a Storm
A good synth is worth its weight in gold, except when the synth in question weighs absolutely nothing and is free to download.
Dawesome Zyklop
The resynthesizing synth with a lot to offer
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Price: |
Free |
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Platforms: |
Windows or Mac |
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Type: |
Synth |
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Format: |
VST3, AU |
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Features: |
Sample-based resynthesis instrument that skews your input sounds and processes them for transformation. |
Zyklop is a single-oscillator version of the larger Myth synth. Despite being somewhat cut down, there’s a huge number of capabilities on display here given a single oscillator.
Gaze into its ‘iris’ oscillator and get captivated by its experimental sound. Zyklop is a machine that takes in samples and resynthesizes them into new combinations. Once you’ve got the source resynthesis going, you can use shape transformation parameters to adapt the sound into completely new sonic territory, and that’s before you get into envelopes, LFOs and more.
Newfangled Audio Pendulate
A physical modelling synth that’s real and unreal at the same time
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Price: |
Free |
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Platforms: |
Windows or Mac |
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Type: |
Synth |
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Format: |
VST2, VST3, AU, AAX |
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Features: |
Physically modelled oscillators inspired by real-world objects, Wavefolder to add harmonics and drive, West-coast-style Low Pass Gate and more inspiring features. |
It’s all too easy to slip into monotonous routines in the studio, continuously reaching for the same sounds over and over again. Let’s face it, the only way to shake off studio stasis is to wake up and choose violence. On those occasions you’ll need a suitable weapon to match your frame of mind, and Newfangled Audio and Eventide’s Pendulate is the perfect choice.
A monosynth that uses a double-pendulum-oscillator to create pure chaos, the synth also sports a wavefolder and low-pass gate inspired by the work of west coast synth legend Don Buchla. There are no boring synth sounds here; expect biting basses, searing leads and gritty textures. The oscillator, wavefolder and low-pass gate can all be modulated by the included envelope generator, as well as LFO, MIDI and MPE sources. There’s also 136 presets included, so you can get gnarly tones straight out of the box.
KV331 Audio SynthMaster Player
Best range of premium factory presets
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Price: |
Free |
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Platforms: |
Windows or Mac |
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Type: |
Synth |
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Format: |
VST, AU |
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Features: |
Simplified version of the full SynthMaster plugin, over 500 high quality factory presets for instant inspiration |
In the case of KV331 Audio’s SynthMaster Player we’ll have to calculate its value in some other way, perhaps by comparing it to its multi-award-winning older sibling SynthMaster. The dual-layer semi-modular soft synth has been a favourite of global electronic music artists like Martin Garrix, Zedd, Armin Van Buuren, Solveig and Axwell and has been described as the one and only synth you’ll ever need by MusicRadar.
Belonging to such prestigious blood stock makes SynthMaster Player a very valuable synth indeed, and as a free download it’s an essential plugin for music making. A simplified version of SynthMaster, it’s targeted at users who prefer using presets rather than spending their time tweaking knobs. There are over 500 factory presets to enjoy, and users can edit 12 easy parameters or the bypass states of layer or global effects assigned to each preset.
Free Effects Collection
Making sounds is fun, but mangling them is even better. There’s really nothing quite like delving into a bag of tricks to make something sound ten times better than it did originally, which is why having a whole heap of effects at your disposal in your DAW is seriously recommended.
Kilohearts Essentials
Best free plugin effect toolbox
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Price: |
Free |
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Platforms: |
Windows or Mac |
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Type: |
Effects Bundle |
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Format: |
VST2, VST3, AU, AAX |
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Features: |
Huge array of plugin effects for a range of applications and purposes, works within the Kilohearts plugin ecosystem, lifetime free updates |
Thankfully, that’s exactly what you’ll get if you download Kilohearts Essentials. If you’re looking for some of the best free VST plugins, Kilohearts Essentials is a good place to start, as it offers a huge range of FX plugins in a single grab bag.
Kilohearts have created their own plugin ecosystem with isolated effect modules called Snapins that can be loaded into the company’s paid-for Multipass and Snap Heap hosts. Kilohearts Essentials nets you a large range of 30 Snapins that includes a distortion, filter, compressor, reverb, delay and much more – all for free.
Snapins can also be loaded into Kilohearts multi-award winning, semi-modular synth Phase Plant, which you can read more about HERE.
Free Vintage Synth Emulation Plugins
The problem with vintage synths isn’t to do with their sound, but the eye-watering sums that you’ll have to part with to own one. Retro gear has experienced a huge boom in recent years, and getting your hands on a decent analogue synth could end up setting you back a couple of grand and a peaceful marriage.
Thankfully, software emulations of vintage gear are also a thing, and you can now store era-defining synths safely away in your DAW, ready to be pulled out and dusted down at a moment’s notice.