Free VST plugins can help you save money on music production. Use these top websites to find them easily.
Virtual Studio Technology, or VST for short, provides an interface to edit and work on audio and music. It also allows you to enhance the audio using VST plugins.
VST plugins are tools that work as an extension for your digital audio workstation or DAW. These plugins help in various ways, like mixing audio, adding virtual instruments, music effects, and much more.
Not all VSTs are free, though. So, we have compiled a list of authentic websites that offer completely free VST plugins and instruments.
Plugins 4 Free has a vast range of effects and instrument plugins to offer. You'll find five primary categories of instruments along with their sub-categories: drums, instruments, samplers, synths, and vintage.
Plugins 4 Free also offers tons of effects plugins. Effects also have five main categories: time, signal, frequency, character, and miscellaneous. You can browse through the sub-categories to find the effect you are looking for.
The site shows you a complete description of the plugin and the support for the system type. Moreover, it also lets you sort plugins according to ratings, newness, OS filter, or random recommendations. You can scroll down to the other users' ratings and comments for guidance.
Plugins 4 Free, as the name suggests, provides all VST plugins free to download. It supports various systems, including low-end 32-bit Windows, 64-bit Windows, macOS, and Linux.
Splice helps musicians get access to tools and content to create their music. It's a popular platform in the music industry that provides a range of free plugins, including instruments and effects. It also allows you to sync your data with the cloud.
Splice offers all the major types of instrument plugins, including bass, drum machine, piano, synth, sampler, sequencer, and a lot more. You can also choose from various effects plugins such as an amp, equalizer, reverb, pitch, and more.
The site has a unique feature that displays a list of music releases that use the plugin. This feature helps musicians get an idea of the usage of a particular plugin. In addition, you can apply filters to narrow down your search results.
Splice offers both free and paid plugins. You can find the free ones by navigating to the Plugins section, where you'll see an option named Free Plugins. Click that to display all the available free plugins.
Plugin Boutique is a massive library of VST plugins. It provides a platform for manufacturers to display their products and offers various plugins for effects, instruments, and studio tools.
You can select the type of effects or instrument plugin you are looking for or browse all the plugins from the main menu. Plugin Boutique offers various effects such as amp simulator, bit crusher, chorus, and many more.
You can also download the instrument plugins from Plugin Boutique. It has all the popular types of instruments on offer.
Plugin Boutique has both free and paid plugins. To get a free plugin, simply click Free on the home page. It will then display a list of different plugin types available for free.
Bedroom Producers Blog makes it easy for you to access free VST plugins available in the market. It has a designated section for free plugins in its main menu. Various plugins are available for effects, instruments, utilities, and host applications.
Effects plugins include chorus, compressor, equalizer, filter, flanger, guitar amp, etc. It also offers instrument plugins like drums, sampler, piano, orchestral, and several others. In addition, you'll also find other helpful utility plugins such as step sequencers, arpeggiators, and spectrum analyzers.
Bedroom Producers Blog provides a complete description for each plugin. If a plugin has a limited free version, it shows the limitations in the description menu. All the plugins listed on the website are free to use across different OS and DAWs.
Landr is a blog that has compiled a list of around 248 free VST plugins. It has listed many plugins, including effects, instruments, and utilities. As the blog has a massive variety, it is better to use its table of contents to navigate your way through the plugin types.
In the table of contents, you'll find plugin categories such as drums, synths, compressors, filters, and several others. The plugins available on Landr are filtered from thousands of plugins available on the internet. So, you'll find the best ones here.
Landr provides a helpful description for each plugin. The download links are embedded in the header of the plugins.
Hip Hop Makers is another site with a big library of VST plugins. It has categorized lists of top free plugins for each category. These lists help you save time in your search and help evaluate each plugin effectively.
The site has more than 400 plugins available for download. It collects the plugins from all over the internet. So, you'll find pretty much everything here. Each plugin has a description to help you understand its proper usage. The writers also mention their recommendations for the users and let you know the operating system support for each plugin.
Hip Hop Makers lists all the plugins that are available free of cost. The website's primary goal is to provide users with all the required free plugins under one roof. They are best suited for hip-hop music but are certainly not limited to that genre.
Audio Plugins for Free makes it easy to search for your required plugin. This is because of the several search filters that refine your search results. You can search for a plugin based on its popularity or the date it was posted. It also displays a brief description of each plugin.
Since the site has a vast library, it has further created a separate section for the best plugins in each category. This section is called Best of the best.
You can also download various effects plugins such as audio analysis tools, compressors, delays, and several others. Various instrument plugins are also available for download, including piano, synths, organ, drums, bass, and percussion.
All the plugins you see on the website are available for free. You can download them for your preferred operating system as it has files for Linux, Windows, and Mac.
VST plugins serve as a great utility to minimize your work and enhance productivity. Instead of building things from scratch, they lend you a helping hand with the best pre-defined practices.
Internet is flooded with websites that offer free plugins, but only a few are authentic. But with this list, you know where to look when you need free VST plugins.
Ali has been a tech enthusiast since 2005. He is a power user of Android, Linux, and Windows. He has an Advanced Diploma in Business Management from London, UK, and is an English Literature graduate from Punjab University, Pakistan.
Join our newsletter for tech tips, reviews, free ebooks, and exclusive deals!
