Please note: There is an updated version of this post. Some of the plugins are different so you may still want to browse this older post as well. You can find the newer post here: There are a lot of great free plugins out there.
However, I’ve always been put off by how difficult it is to spot the good ones from the masses of mediocrity. So I decided to do something about it. For the past year I’ve been on a mission. I’ve been scouting the internet, lurking on forums, talking to people And downloading tons of free plug-ins. Most importantly I’ve been test driving everything on real projects to see how the plugins perform.
It’s been a ton of work and I’m not easy to please But starting today I’m happy to present you the results: My view on the absolute best of the best of free VST/AU plugins out there at the moment. I am very glad I took on this project. Along the way I’ve discovered a number of brilliant tools that have since become a part of my workflow. I’m sure the same will happen to you if you give these a shot. Big respects to all the developers involved for handing out these great tools for free.
Many thanks to all the people who tipped me off with plugins! I would have missed a lot of good ones if there wasn’t for your feedback.
A few notes before we begin. Please note I’ve only decided to accept plugins that are available for both PC and Mac.
There are a lot of great PC/Mac only plugins out there, and I know many small developers simply can’t afford to create versions for different platforms. My apologies – I wanted to make sure this post works for everybody.
If you think I am missing some essential PC/Mac specific plugins,. I could do PC/Mac specific posts later. All of these plugins are free, but some may require for you to register on the developers website before you can download. I can safely assure that in these cases it will be worth the trouble. I’ve put the plugins in an ordered list based on the value they deliver me. Ordering many such different kinds of plugins is obviously difficult – please make your own judgements. They’re all great in any case.
All plugins are available in the most common VST and AU formats for Windows and Mac. In addition some are available in other formats such (like RTAS and AAX). Majority of the plugins are fully 64 bit compatible, too. Right Let’s roll! Audio Damage Rough Rider If you are in need of a traditional compressor that has the ability to make things pump but can also do a lot more, you should try this one out. Rough Rider can be tweaked for really mild compression or serious hardcore pumping action equally.
Rough Rider is not exactly a transparent compressor – it adds a bit of vintage style coloring to the sound. Great plugin. Platform: Mac & PC, 32 bit and 64 bit.
Voxengo MSED Admittedly, Voxengo MSED is not a very sexy plugin. But it is an extremely useful tool to have in your arsenal. It is a mid/side signal encoder/decoder. The most obvious use for it is for widening or narrowing the stereo image by adjusting the volumes of the mid/side channels. You can also use it to swap stereo channels or swap the polarity of a signal.
Platform: Mac & PC, 32 bit and 64 bit. LePou HyBrit I definitely wanted to mention one of the excellent LePou guitar amp simulation plugins. After playing around with all 5 of them (there are a few more Windows exclusive ones as well), the HyBrit stood out for me. But it really is a case of what kind of sound you are going for – they are all nice. HyBrit is a simulation of a classic Marshall amp and it sounds great. LePou’s plugins offer a more traditional approach on guitar amps plugins as opposed to something like Native Instruments Guitar Rig for example.
If you like HyBrit, make sure to check their other plugins as well! Platform: Mac & PC, 32 bit and 64 bit. (download the “Amp sims pack” for latest version of all their plugins) 22. Voxengo Stereo Touch This little plugin is great for turning monophonic material into spacious stereo. It uses a classic M/S technique to achieve it.
I see Dave Pensado rocking similar techniques in his videos all the time. Stereo Touch is a basic, but very very useful tool that can really make a big difference. Platform: Mac & PC, 32 bit and 64 bit. TAL NoiseMaker The NoiseMaker is a very versataile, phat sounding and traditional analogue-modeling synth. It’s fun and easy to tweak but also comes with whopping 256 presets. This synth can do some serious bass – great for layering under reese or stab sounds for example. Sound quality wise it easily beats many commercial synths out there.
I especially like how the pulse wave oscillator sounds. Platform: Mac & PC, 32 bit and 64 bit. Camel Audio CamelCrusher CamelCrusher is a simplified version of Camel Audio’s brilliant CamelPhat distortion plugin. Don’t let that fool you though – it is a great sounding plugin. It has two distortion types – tube and mech. They both have a unique distinctive sound.
The plugin also features a low-pass filter with resonance control, as well as a simple compressor. I’ve found CamelCrusher to be at it’s best when used subtly in a “parallel distortion” type of setting.
The included mix knob makes that very easy. A great way to beef up your sounds. Platform: Mac & PC, 32 bit and 64 bit. Voxengo Tube Amp Voxengo have loads of free plugins available and they’re all good. This is another one of my favorites. True to it’s name, the tube amp simulates analog tube distortion.
Music Plug Ins For Mac Os X
The sound varies from a mild “warm” overdrive to a fuzzy distortion It sounds very good – that is all you need to know really! There are not many free plugins around that offer this kind of sound. That is why TubeAmp is a valuable addition to your toolbox.
Platform: Mac & PC, 32 bit and 64 bit. Applied Acoustic Systems Swatches Swatches is a collection of sounds played via the free AAS Player plugin (included in the download). AAS are a pioneer of physical modeling software instruments and this can really be heard in these sounds. If you ignore the usual synth arpeggios (which are nice in their own right though), you will find some really interesting and unique sounds here. There is no control over the sounds, which I kind of like though!
There’s plenty to play around with – Swatches currently includes 104 presets with new ones being added every once in a while. My favorites include the cinematheque sounds. Platform: Mac & PC, 32 bit and 64 bit. Hope you enjoyed this post. If I may, let me ask you to do 3 things: 1. Spend time learning to use these great plugins properly.
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NI is big enough to be able to give away something pretty generous in the form of Kontakt Player Free, which comes with 650MB of sampled instruments split into five sections. Band contains 13 instruments including guitars, basses, acoustic drum kits, electric pianos and a drawbar organ. World has six exotic instruments and Synth has 12 synthesized leads, pads, basses and drum kits. Vintage contains 13 classic analogue synths and keyboards, while Urban Beats has five drum loop production kits. You’d be mad not to get it! This virtual organ for Windows provides three different organ models and nine drawbars which can be modified to change the tonewheels and the frequencies present in the signal.
As well as six different waveform shapes you can use key click which is a key part of the organ sound, percussion switches, sustain and vibrato as well as using key split mode, monophonic mode for bass sounds and scalable pitch bend. Onboard effects include saturation, distortion and fuzz and there is of course the requisite rotating speaker effect. Modelled acoustic guitars don’t often come for free. Spicy Guitar gives you nine types of guitar: four folk, two classical, one flamenco, one jumbo and one gypsy as well as a choice of either nylon or steel strings. You have MIDI keys for playing notes and then control keys for the playing articulations like legato, palm mute, harmonics, sustain or chord detection. There are different chord types and also a strumming engine to recreate the action of playing that’s virtually impossible to do by using MIDI keys.
The free version of NI’s hit Guitar Rig processing suite is a generous free giveaway as well as being expandable with extra packs if you want to purchase them. You get one amp, 17 cabinets and 13 effects taken from the full version as well as 50 presets.
The software uses an intuitive drag and drop system and there’s a tag-based browser for easier searching as well as automation support and Live View for a more streamlined workflow while performing live. It’s a great way to get started with virtual guitar processing.
Although technically discontinued, Steinberg still makes its classic VB-1 bass instrument available for download both for Mac and PC. It’s four voice polyphonic which is fine for bass, since bass is usually pretty mono or duophonic, and has damper, pickup position, pick position and wave morph controls as well as a ramdomizer to quickly create new bass tones. In today’s world of mega-sample libraries, it’s a refreshing 4.3MB in size, which is tiny. Many longtime Cubase users will remember this charming little bass instrument and now it can be yours for free.
Fan Patch 1.3 Download Manual Base Install. If you wish to return player unit colors back to normal, right click Age of Empires III: The Asian. Extended Infantry is a little mod for Age of Empires III that enhance the infantry. 5.86 MB, Extreme Fortification 3.0 (Mac). 26.09 MB, Fan Patch 1.3 for Mac. Jul 26, 2012 - Note: After downloading an updated version of this patch, uninstall your previous one, and reinstall the new one - including reinstalling the files. Requirements G4/G5 or Intel processor running at 1.4GHz or faster Mac OS X v10.3.9. Age of empires III: The Warchiefs patch 1.04 (English). [1.3] - Editted by pftq - AOE3 patch 1.05, March 26 2006 - Spanish Swiss Pikes. Any ways enjoy my scenerio:) Created by Golth1 on Age of Empires III Heaven REVIEW: This. Age of empires 3 heaven : fan patch 1.3 for mac 2. Aug 24, 2013 - The GameRanger Asian Dynasties balance team is happy to introduce Fan Patch 1.3. Together with the support of a large portion of the Mac.