Top 5 Free VST Plugins for Producers in 2020
As producers, we all are constantly looking for VST plugins. Unfortunately, they’re often times expensive. Let’s save cash, leave the wallet at home and dive into my top five free VST plugins for producers in 2020.
These will be an assortment of options. The way I’ve decided to do this is for two of them to be instruments and three of them to be sound altering devices such as reverbs, delays, etc. This way, by grabbing all five, you’re ready to get to making music happen, already.
Surge Synthesizer
Surge is definitely the best free synth VST option available on the market. It’s incredibly versatile and adaptable, allowing the user to hone in and really craft some special sounds and presets. Speaking of presets, Surge includes hundreds of them right out of the “box”, which makes it an amazing synth to install, open up, and create music immediately.
One of the biggest things that Surge has going for it is the community around it. Surge is beloved and has a dedicated fanbase of audio engineers who have created more presets than one could ever try out. With the Surge, the possibilities are seemingly endless and the fact that it’s free it just crazy.
Synthmaster Player Free
Synthmaster Play Free is one of those VST plugins you sincerely won’t believe is free. It is often times listed as a synth, but I question the accuracy of that definition. It is a synth in that it uses oscillators to generate sounds, but there’s no real way to modify the sounds in it.
However, that should not deter you from Synthmaster Player Free because Synthmaster Player Free has five-hundred free presets. Yes. Five hundred. Honestly, every producer should have this in their arsenal.
Valhalla Supermassive
It would be utterly impossible and downright silly to make a list like this and not include Valhalla Supermassive on the list of top 5 free VST plugins. The Valhalla Supermassive plugin is a delay and a reverb combined in to one incredible little piece of virtual gear. As Valhalla puts it, it’s designed to create “massive” delays and reverbs. I can’t even begin to tell you how many tracks of mine have had Valhalla Supermassive on them since getting this gem.
The GUI on Valhalla Supermassive is simple, clean and highly functional just like the rest of the Valhalla lineup. It has a mix knob (so wet/dry signal mixing), width controls, high pass and low pass filters, modulation rate and depth controls and much more. Also included are a ton of amazing presets that can add life to any melody with just a few clicks. Grab the Valhalla Supermassive today.
Izotope Vinyl
How could any list of free vst plugins be complete without Izotope Vinyl? You’re right. It couldn’t be. This is a must have for any producer.
Izotope Vinyl is a plugin that is designed to emulate what vinyl sounds like. It creates dust, scratches, warping and mechanical noise to give your sounds a texture that makes them feel very authentic and warm. All of these are completely customizable so you can really hone in your sound.
The spin down feature is a personal favorite, although you’ll have to understand how to work automation in your DAW to utilize it to its fullest.
Whether you’re making lofi or just trying to create texture in your sounds, isotope Vinyl is an absolute must-have in your workflow.
TAL-CHORUS-LX
The Tal-Chorus-Lx is the best free chorus VST plugin on the market by a landslide. This was the chorus that was originally on the TAL-U-NO-LX plugin (which is a Juno-60 Clone).
The chorus feature two different modes, has a dry/wet control, a volume knob and only supports stereo channels. The sounds that this creates are very analog sounding and authentic and it’s incredible. Grab it immediately.
