The computer music industry was instantly revolutionized when Steinberg's VST technology was introduced in Cubase more than 10 years ago. Now there are thousands and thousands of free VST instruments (VSTi) and effects roaming the internet - the tricky part is finding the best ones out there.
There are already some great sites that publish large databases of free plugins. You can easily get lost, but if you're feeling brave, here are a few that are worth your while:
- Don't Crac[k] - Audio freeware for mac and pc
- Gersic.com - The giant free audio plugin database
- KVR Audio - Audio Plug-in News, Reviews, and Community
- rekkerd.org - audio software news and reviews
You can (and probably should) spend hours browsing these sites in search of new toys to play with, but in the end, you'll probably compose and produce music more efficiently if you find a handful of plugins that you can always come back to. Instead of listing the best free VST plugins available (there are many), here are the best free VST plugin developers of the moment:
- Angular Momentum
- de la Mancha
- DSK Music
- Fuzzpilz
- GVST
- Majken
- mutagene
- NOVAFLASH
- Odo
- Saltline
- smartelectronix (various developers)
- SynthMaker > Examples (various developers)
- Ugo
- xoxos
