some free vst plugins can perform just as good and sometimes even better than they're paid for
counterparts and in this video i'm looking at 11 free vst plugins that i actually use
in my projects even though i own a ton of premium plugins from eqs to reverbs guitar amp sims drums
and more and be sure to stick around for the last one as i put my favorite one of the bunch there
and it just might be the best one i'm zane welcome to audio tech tv links to all of these free vst
plugins are down in the description and right now let's jump in with the first one which is
magic switch from baby audio this is based on chorus effects that are found on classic juno
synthesizers the user interface is extremely easy to use you have one button here in the middle that
turns it on and off and then you have a mix slider so you can mix in how much of this you want on
your track so it's very easy to enable the magic of this widening effect now where i normally use
this is on elements of the mix that i kind of want in the background so backing vocals synthesizers
but i'll also use this on bass guitar sometimes it's available on mac and windows and right now
let's just check it out quickly on some backing vocals here here's the backing vocals with it off
and on
now we'll hear it in the mix starting with it off
it kind of widens the backing vocal making space for other elements in the mix but you can still
hear that backing vocal stand out now the next free vst that i use often is a de-esser plugin
this is called t-de-esser from techovation and this can help to get rid of unwanted sibilance and
harshness and there's not a whole lot of free de-esser plug-ins out there but this one is great
free or not now it has a very nice user interface it's easy to use you get some presets in here
as well to help you get started now i use this typically on my lead vocal track but sometimes
i'll put it on to a harsh instrument track as well as it can smooth things out so it's not as harsh
on the ears and you can get the tdsr on mac or windows now let's just give this a listen on lead
vocals here and first i'm going to turn it off
now there's some harshness on those asses in there it's just a little tinny we'll add this to smooth it out
it's a lot less harsh and i can dial it in
a little more if i wanted to now let's look at an instrument plugin that i often grab this is obx-d
from discoDSP and this is based on the classic oberheim ob-xd it gives you that excellent classic
sound but also mixes in some modern features as well and it is free from their website but they
do also have a 49 optional donation that you can give to get this plugin it's available on windows
mac and linux and this instrument always seems to find its way into my mixes you can use this on
mellow songs or even more rocking songs let's check out what i've got going on here
and now let's hear it in the mix
very nice sounding instrument and it's free now next up is a reverb and delay plugin kind
of all-in-one this is valhalla super massive and if you could only have one reverb plug-in
free or paid this one should be on your list of considerations for that one plugin because it can
do so much i use this one all over the place you can see in this mix i have it on vocals i have it
on a reverb send where i send some other things into it i know i have it on acoustic guitar in
here as well it's just a very good plugin that sounds great the user interface is nice and clean
it comes with a lot of presets in here as well and it's available on mac or windows now
let's just listen to it here on the vocal first
listen to that in the mix now
not too bad it really helps that vocal to stand out in the mix a bit next on
the list is a bass amp sim and this is bass deluxe from lost in 70s i use this plugin
on pretty much every single one of my projects it's an excellent sounding tube base amp sim
it's laid out just like an actual amp head you have two channels that you can switch between you
have a drive setting a boost compressor on board plus some presence and a very nice eq section here
and you also have a pedal board that you can turn these on and off there's a tuner built into it
and you even have cabinet sims built into it you can bypass those all together if you
really want to so let's listen to this on our base guitar right now
now this is the bass sound that i want for this song i want it to be
a little more in the high range and not so bassy it's kind of a punk song so i want that
bass line to really stick out now let's listen to it in the mix
it just adds some nice character to that bass line and of course you can see i have
the lows rolled right off which is why this wasn't so bassy but that's typically how i use this in
a mix now here's an excellent free eq plugin that i've been giving a try more and more often
this is america from analog obsession and this one's based on the api 550a hardware eq and you
can see it has a nice clean user interface you have five eq centers that you can choose for each
of the three bands that you can control so you would change the eq center by adjusting this here
and you can control how much you want to add or take away by using this dial here
and you also have this bandpass filter that you can turn on and off down here plus there's an over
sampling feature down at the bottom there they can turn on and off as well you can get this one on
windows or mac and i typically use this one on my guitars but i've been trying it out
more and more on drums and vocals so right now let's just check it out on our guitar bus here
you can hear it really brings out a nicer sound in that guitar it takes
away some of that muddiness that's there when it's off now let's listen to it in
the mix for a minute so you can hear how it helps the guitar stand out in the mix
you can hear when i turn it off the guitar kind of falls back in the mix a little bit
and this just helps it to break through and makes it more upfront in the mix i really
like this plug-in on the guitar it thickens it up and just really makes it sound great
now another free vst plug-in that i use quite often is the mt power drum kit 2.
and this one gives you the sound of an acoustic drum kit
and it also includes some great midi grooves in here so you could go in here
click on a groove press play
and you can listen to these and audition them find a drum beat that fits your song
and then you can easily just drag and drop it into there and you can use more
than one of these midi grooves you can just build a whole song through these
and another thing i like about this is the mixer section you can see it supports multi output so
i can output each of these individual drums to their own individual tracks and i can put effects
on just the kick drum just the snare and so on and then i can also have effects on the overall
drum buss and so let's hear what this sounds like it's a very very basic drum beat here
now let's listen to it in the mix here
it's a nice simple drum plug-in very easy to use and it can add drum beats to your tracks instantly
and next up is an excellent guitar amp sim this is amplitube custom shop from ik multimedia now
this is the older version here this was a song that i actually released using this plugin
and it was the older version they are now onto version five and i've used amplitube custom shop
for years the free version which is custom shop it comes with 39 pieces of gear which
includes five amps six cabinets plus a bunch of effects amplitube custom shop is available on mac
and windows and one of the things i really like about it is if you're doing double
tracking guitars so recording one guitar on the left another one on the right you can have
different amps and different amp sounds for each guitar and that can really help you
with your stereo separation so you can see on this one the left i have a marshall style amp
if we go to the right i have a fender style amp there now let's give this a listen
not too bad there's a bunch of free presets in here if you wanted to go through and give those
a listen i think you can download a bunch more if you wanted and of course these amps are laid
out like guitar amps so you can dial in your sound just like you would on a real guitar amp
now the next free vst plug-in that i actually use is the ozone imager from izotope now this is
actually the imager module from the full ozone plugin now this will allow you to take mono
tracks and make them stereo and it can also help to widen tracks and that's typically how i use
this i'll use it to widen individual elements in a mix like maybe my guitars or my synths
something like that or sometimes i'll use it on the whole mix and izotope ozone imager is
available for free on mac or windows and let's just check it out right now on our guitar bus here
so you can hear it makes a little bit of a difference but when we put it into the mix
you're going to notice a big difference so let's listen to it in the mix now
you can hear it widens the guitars and makes more space in the mix for other elements and
it just sounds great on there it's a very nice plug-in absolutely free and the next free vst
plug-in that i use quite often is baby comeback from baby audio and this is a very easy to use
delay plug-in it's actually kind of like having four delays in one because you have four different
flavors and each one is a different delay type you have wide analog saucy and cheap
you have your typical delay controls here now i typically use this on lead vocals but i also
use it on lead guitar sometimes as well it's available on mac and windows and right now let's
check it out on lead vocals so we're just going to try it without the mix just so you can hear it
now this next plug-in i've been using more and more lately this is the warmy ep1a eq from
kiive audio this is a passive eq that's based on a hardware version of a pultec
eq from warm audio and this plug-in's extremely easy to use it's well laid out you have all of
your eq functions up here you have over sampling up to 16 times if you really wanted to you have
undo and redo for any of the settings in here you have a mix control in here and you have input
and output levels plus there's presets built into it as well now i use this on guitars bass
guitar vocals pretty much everywhere but where i really use it all the time is on the mix bus and
it's available on mac and windows now let's check it out on the mix bus just to hear what it does
it just really smooths everything out and brings it all together makes the entire mix
sound great together now if you want to check out five more free vst plugins for your mix bus
click the video on the screen right now and if you liked this video
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thank you so much for watching for audio tech tv i'm zane keep creating and we'll talk soon