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 synth emulations, virtual instruments, 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.
Best Plugins To Start Making Music In 2024
1. Sampleson CollaB3
2. KV331 SynthMaster Player
3. Kilohearts Essential FX
4. TAL TAL-U-NO 62
5. Audiomodern Filterstep
6. Vital Audio Vital
7. TAL Tal-Reverb 2
8. Eventide Pendulate
A Collection of Acoustix
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.
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.
If it’s guitar sounds you’re after, check out Ample Sound’s Ample Guitar M Lite II, which brings the Martin D-41 acoustic guitar directly into your DAW, or the Ample Bass P Lite II, which emulates the Fender Precision bass.
Synth Stock 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. 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 brother 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 bloodstock 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.
Essential FX
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.
Thankfully, that’s exactly what you’ll get if you download Kilohearts Essentials. This free plugin collection offers a huge range of 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.
Vintage Synth in a Tiny Package
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. The TAL-U-NO 62 is a truly excellent emulation of the famous Roland Juno-106, a staple of early 1980s pop that has been revived in the last decade by artists like Frank Ocean and Tame Impala. An original Juno-106 was used as a reference for the plugin’s oscillators and filters, and it also features its distinctive analog stereo chorus effect.
Creative Rhythmic Effects
With the right creative tool, simple sounds can be transformed into something entirely different, providing your track with energy and impetus that it might have never had before. Audiomodern Filterstep is one of those tools; a modern motion filter plugin which allows you to add intricate rhythmic movement to anything you want.
Choose between a high pass, low pass or band pass filter type to start off, then play around with the smoothness of the effect and the resonance of the filter, and control the cutoff frequency range. Each step on the sequencer shows up as a vertical bar, which you can adjust up or down to control the filter. You can customise the sequencer too, via note divisions, number of steps and more.
Free Synth with Power
Need..more..power! The big fish in the synth pond tend to attract the majority of music producer’s hooks, with Xfer Records Serum, Arturia’s V Collection and Pigments and u-he's Diva all appearing regularly in the upper echelon of the plugin charts. With the waters full of heavyweights, it can be difficult to make a splash, but not in the case of Matt Tytel’s super synth Vital.
Vital is a free spectral warping wavetable synth that allows you to stretch, smear and skew a waveform’s harmonics six ways to Sunday. There’s a sample-based oscillator that lets you use audio files as sound sources and a plethora of modulation options. The fact that this extremely powerful synth is free to download is a minor miracle, especially considering the free and pro versions of Vital are pretty much exactly the same. The only difference with the paid version is you get extra presets and wavetables, new skins and unlimited access to Vital’s unique text-to-wavetable feature.
Solid Reverb for Any Track
Singers have been using reverbs for decades to add depth and character to their otherwise strained warblings. Perhaps the most popular and widely used effect in music production, a good reverb can be put to use on vocals, instruments, drums and anything in between (yes, even bass).
If you want to avoid getting bogged down in the minutiae of a mix and need a versatile reverb that will work on multiple tracks, look no further than TAL-Reverb 2. Smooth reverb with a warm, vintage vibe, TAL-Reverb 2 has an easy-to-use interface with an EQ section for some sonic shaping. Use it subtly to add ambience, or crank up the Room Size knob and Wet slider for a super diffuse and lush ‘verb.
For Dirty, Industrial Sounds
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 a 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 are also 136 presets included, so you can get gnarly tones straight out of the box.
With the essential free plugins we’ve mentioned above, you should have more than enough tools to get started making music. As well as free plugins, we also feature a variety of wallet-friendly deals and bundles on our site, so make sure you check them out to see if anything catches your eye.
