Let’s be honest, we all love free stuff, especially free VST plugins for Ableton Live, Logic Pro, Cubase, Bitwig Studio or any other DAW! Tell me one electronic music producer doesn’t!

Dec 23, 2017  50+ videos Play all Mix - 5 FREE VST PLUGINS for ABLETON LIVE YouTube Your First 15 Minutes in Ableton Live 10 for Beginners - Duration: 16:50. Collective Intelligence 370,882 views. Discover, download and learn how to use the most popular free vst and au plugins on Splice.

That’s why I’ve written up this review of my top choices for free plugins that you may want to check out and download to use in your music.

Speaking of free stuff, if you haven’t signed up to us yet, you can get free sample packs and tutorials by some of our featured artists from the BassGorilla Podcast – all you need to do is sign up here.

This list is in no order and may be expanded to include other plugins over time. Let me know in the comments if you know any other great free plugins at the bottom of this post!

1. SampleTank FREE

Windows, Mac OS X It’s insane that something as good as SampleTank could be free. It comes with a wide range of virtual instruments, from basses to drums, guitars, synths, organs, ensemble strings and orchestral sections, vocals and much more! You can upgrade to SampleTank 2L or 2.5 XL if you’re impressed with the quality of the sounds you hear in the free version.

• Sample based sounds (parent): 58

• Preset sounds (child): 146

• Combi sounds (combi): 0

• Total sounds: 204

• Total size: 579 MB

2. Flux BitterSweet v3

Windows, Mac OS X BitterSweet from Flux is a free transient shaper plugin. It works well for adding more ‘punch’ to your drums, especially your kicks, snares and toms. The extra punch comes when you turn the dial to the ‘bitter’ setting. You can soften the punch of a sound when you turn the dial towards the ‘sweet’ setting. It is available as a 32-bit and 64-bit plugin. Features:

• Output Gain, controlling the gain at the end of the processing.

• Bypass routes the incoming signal direct to the output for a true smooth transition between processed and clean signal.

• Three different transient processing modes:

• Main, using a regular stereo signal scheme for the processing.

• Center, processing the Mid channel only, very efficient for snare and kick drums.

• Stereo, processing the Side channel only, very efficient for panned rhythmic/transient instruments.

3. Glitch 2

Windows, Mac OS X, Linux Glitch is an audio effect plugin for Windows (VST), Mac (VST and AU) and Linux (VST), available in both 32-bit and 64-bit formats. Featuring a new and improved sequencer which can play multiple effects simultaneously, with the ability to trigger unique scenes from every note on your keyboard, Glitch can be as gentle or as brutal as you like. Add the occasional splash of re-trigger or stretcher to single hits within your drum loop, or fill the entire sequencer with random effect blocks for a totally chaotic trip down the digital rabbit hole… the choice is yours! Features:

Sequencer

• Each program consists of 128 scenes that can be triggered via MIDI notes. Each scene has its own unique sequencer pattern, timing, and effect settings, allowing you to create tons of unique variations for every moment in your song, all ready to go at the press of a key!

• Multi-lane sequencer allows many effects to be played simultaneously, to create interesting layered sounds.

• Improved sequencer timing controls to better match your groove and song structure.

• Intuitive pattern editor with drag’n’drop. Draw, erase, resize, split and join blocks with ease.

Effects

• 9 cheeky little effect modules designed to slice, dice, chop, screw, twist, turn and mangle your sounds into radical new forms.

• Tempo-synced effects can easily be dialled in to precise musical timings such as 16th notes, 8th note triplets, and so on.

• Filter, mix, pan and volume controls on each module, to help shape and fine-tune the output.

4. Zebralette

Windows, Mac OS X Zebralette by U-He is just one of its big brother Zebra2’s oscillators packed into a simple, easy-to-learn framework – but you have everything you need to make some pretty amazing sounds. Sounds that can be directly loaded into Zebra2 later. And should you eventually decide to upgrade to Zebra2, you will already know everything there is to know about the oscillators. Zebralette has two LFOs (one per voice, one global), a multi-stage envelope and three on-board effects (chorus, EQ, delay). Not forgetting Zebra2’s famous dual spectral effects, which include several squelchy filter algorithms. Download Zebralette Here

5. Camel Crusher

Windows, Mac OS X CamelCrusher is a free ‘colouring’ multi-effect plugin. It offers two characteristically different distortion sounds which can be blended together to create a wide variety of tones and textures. Great for guitars, drums and plenty more! There’s also a warm, smooth analogue-style low-pass filter with buckets of resonance. Assign a MIDI controller and start tweaking! Finally, let’s not forget the easiest-to-use compressor you’ll find anywhere. It can ‘phatten’ up your sound as quickly as you can turn up the ‘Amount’ knob! Features:

• Two different distortion types.

• Warm, analogue-modelled resonant low-pass filter.

• High quality, easy-to-use compressor, with ‘Phat’ mode.

• Powerful ‘MIDI Learn’ function.

• A collection of useful Preset patches to get you started.

• Randomize for instant inspiration.

In volume 4 of our free VST roundup series we’re gonna give you some soft synth magic. Why synths? Because they sound great and are fun-level infinity.

Soft synths are good for everything on your tracks: massive wall rattling lines, sneaky ambient chimes, or warm chords that lay you down for a tender sonic nap.

But though they may sound good, analogue synths are usually big, breakable and bank-bustingly expensive.

No worries. Just download these free VSTs, throw ’em in your DAW software and transport yourself away to synth heaven.

Here’s the 7 best free synth VST plugins around.

1. Dexed – FM Plugin Synth

Dexed is a superb frequency modulation synth. It’s closely modelled after the iconic Yamaha DX7.

The 6 operators are all easily modded on the simple to follow interface.

Perfect for making that blissed out synth voice you’ve been daydreaming about.

Download it here for free.

2. Helix

The download of Helix is a ‘trial’ but it’s basically fully functional.

The trial version sometimes generates some unwanted noise, or floats out of tune, but it’s still a free and powerful tool every synth lover should have.

The download page for Helix tells you that it gives you ‘Soaring leads, solid basses and glimmering pads.’

We couldn’t have said it better ourselves. Fl studio 10 for mac without crossover. Fire this beast up for some rewarding tweaking today.

Download it here for free

3. Combo Model F

Sometimes the secret ingredient to a banging track is the organ in your grandma’s basement.

Combo Model F is perfect for those times, and all the other times you need a fun little organ sound.

Take it for a rip and never look back.

Download it here for free

4. Tal-Bassline

This sleek unit will give you the big beefy bass you need.

TAL-Bassline gives you all those acid-twinged basslines you hear everywhere these days. Perfect for Trap, EDM or any other big bass needs you might have.

Use TAL-Bassline on your tracks for all your trunk thumping needs.

Download it here for free

5. SYNTH1

SYNTH1 is hosted on Geocities Japan. So get ready to take a walk down memory lane.

The download page is in Japanese so make sure you have a translator handy if you don’t speak Japanese.

But the VST itself provides the universal language of good synth sounds! So make it yours.

Download it here for free

6. Tunefish 4

No, not Tunafish. TUNEfish.

Tunefish 4 is a versatile free vst synth that can create just about anything: pads, leads, bass or any other tasty sound your track needs.

Think of it like your very own synthesizer swiss army knife. It has something for pretty much every synth situation.

Download it here for free

7. Muon Tau Bassline

The Muon Tau Bassline is modelled after the Roland 303.

Ableton Plug-ins Free Download

This small but powerful VST synth gives you that sweet sweet 303 bass we all know and love.

Put it in your DAW and reap all the bass benefits from one of the most iconic pieces of analog gear known to music.

Download it here for free

Dj Ableton Plugins Free Download

Synth by Synth

Every music creator deserves and needs a good synth session every now and then.

Best Free Ableton Plugin

So put these in your DAW and tweak, mod and record until you’ve scratched that synth itch we all get from time-to-time.

And let us know what your favourite free Synth plugins are.

Ableton Plugins Free

Because we don’t want SOME synth plugins, we want ALL the synth plugins.