Hey guys, in this video we’re going to check out 10 of the best free VST plugins that are
a must have for your digital audio workstation.
All of these will give you some more mixing options, beyond what your DAW already has
included, and they’ll all be available in the video description for download, so check
them out.
Before you do that though, make sure to give the video a like and subscribe to the channel
so you can see all our new videos.
TDR Nova by Tokyo Dawn Labs is a parallel dynamic equalizer.
With this plugin, we can use it as a simple 4 band parametric equalizer if we want, by
adjusting the band with the frequency, gain, and Q controls.
The bands can be set to peak or a high or low shelf, and we get can high and low pass
filters off to the side as a separate control.
What’s interesting about this plugin is that it merges the equalizer bands with a
compressor, giving, threshold, ratio, attack, and release controls for each of them, in
a bit of a different way than a multiband compressor would, and we also get to do things
like solo only a specific frequency band to monitor it on its own.
Rough Rider by Audio Damage is a free compressor plugin that’s a lot different than most
included DAW plugins.
Many basic compressor plugins are designed to be transparent and just make minor dynamics
changes.
Rough Rider on the other hand is not like this at all, it’s a very aggressive compressor
and it’s very noticeable even with the most minimal settings.
It’s recommend for use on things like drums bass, guitar and backing vocals, but it should
be avoided on some other instruments, like your lead vocals or an acoustic guitar.
Blue Cat’s chorus is a great plugin to add a little more depth to a track, or widen it
out into stereo if you need to.
We get easy to use delay, depth, and rate controls to adjust the amount of chorus sound,
and then spread for the stereo spacing.
After that, we can simply blend the wet and dry chorus with the wet and dry level knobs.
Span by Voxengo is one of the best free frequency spectrum analyzer plugins available.
This plugin gives us a graphical view of all our frequencies and their levels.
We can use both time and frequency averaging to see how it looks overall, instead of little
peaks using the settings.
We can also add in a second track and compare them both on the same graph, that way we can
visually see where the frequencies interact.
I like to use this on a master channel or sometimes individual tracks, and it really
helps to balance the bass frequencies when mixing at home, where it can be difficult
to monitor these levels accurately.
Saturation Knob by Softube is a free and easy to use saturation plugin.
Saturation plugins like this help to make a digital track sound a little more analog,
by adding subtle amounts of harmonics and compression to replicate a tube processor.
This plugin sounds great on individual tracks and can help improve the overall mix when
used just a little bit.
We’ve got a level knob to change the amount of saturation, and a switch to control whether
it affects the entire frequency range or doesn’t affect the high or low frequencies.
TDR Kotelnikov by Tokyo Dawn Labs is a free compressor that’s great for use for mastering.
It’s a very smooth and transparent compressor you can add on the master channel to manage
your dynamics.
Like a lot of compressors, we get threshold, ratio, attack, and release controls, with
a makeup and output gain.
It also helps that it can respond more to an average time to help retain its transparency.
ReaXComp is the included multiband compressor from Reaper, but you can get it for free with
the ReaPlugs plugin package.
We can add as many bands as we like and adjust their frequency range, and each of them get
controls for the threshold, attack, release, ratio, and levels, so we basically have unlimited
options to setup our multiband compressor.
This plugin package also has a lot of other free plugins included, like equalizers, compressors,
and a noise gate, so it’s worth adding to a digital audio workstation if you’re not
already using Reaper.
GSnap Autotune is an excellent free autotune plugin from GVST.
This plugin can be setup in either an automated mode where the plugin snaps to the nearest
note on a selected scale, or in MIDI mode.
In MIDI mode, we can route a MIDI track into the plugin, and the autotune will snap to
those notes instead.
We’re also given controls for adjusting how tightly the autotune locks the notes,
and the speed it does it at.
Finally, there’s a few MIDI controls for pitch and vibrato.
Since not all digital audio workstations come with an autotune plugin, GSnap is a great
way to add it in.
It’s not melodyne, but it’s a great start considering it’s free.
The LePou Amp Suite plugins provides a few different guitar amp simulators that can be
added to turn a direct input electric guitar sound into something that sounds like it’s
been recorded with an amplifier and microphone.
We can also use impulses with an impulse plugin to change our cabinet and mic settings.
A lot of these plugins give us controls like we would have on a regular amplifier, like
a drive for distortion, levels, and EQ controls.
Overall, these offer a great way to record electric guitar, especially when you have
limited equipment to get a high quality amp recording.
With this setup, all you would really need for a simulated amp signal is a small audio
interface or a USB guitar cable.
The Focusrite Scarlett 18i20 is an excellent audio interface to build a home around.
It features 8 inputs which all include microphone preamps, giving us enough inputs to record
a full drum kit with reinforced parts of the kit.
But if you need more than that, it can also connect 8 more microphone inputs over the
ADAT optical connection on the back.
This interface also has 2 inputs on the front which can be switched to instrument mode to
record a direct guitar.
For outputs, we can connect two sets of headphones, stereo monitor speakers, and we get additional
line outputs to connect hardware equipment.
All this makes the Focusrite Scarlett 18i20 a great choice for home recording, so check
them out in the video description down below.
Oril River is an algorithmic reverb plugin that provides great control and a very high
quality sound.
We start off with a pre-delay, which basically determines how late the reverb starts, and
then a stereo width.
There’s a few different variations for the reverb and early reflections we can switch
between and a decay time.
Then we can adjust the room size, diffusion, and dampening for the reverb tone.
We’ve got a few EQ controls for the reverb effect, and a level to adjust the balance
between the early reflections and reverb, and also the overall wet-dry mix.
Thanks for checking out this video on free VST plugins.
Let us know what some of your favorite free plugins are in the comments.
If this video helped you out, give it a like, subscribe to the channel, and press the bell
icon to get notifications.
Also, check the video description for links to social media accounts, and products featured
in this video.