VSTs (Virtual Studio Technology) are plugins that typically work with any Digital Audio Workstation or DAW, such as Garageband or ProTools or Cubase or even BespokeSynth. VSTs can add effects to your sounds, enhance your audio, or generate sounds themselves, like synthesizers or they may use samples (or recordings of notes) to generate sound, for example, Spitfire Audio's BBC Symphony Orchestra.
Some VSTs can download extra samples (or instruments), for example Decent Sampler (which let's you add guitars of various styles, pianos, violins and much, much more). They are like apps in themselves and often require an additional app to use. Some of them are proper pains in the bum, having their own downloading and plugin management system, but those definitely worth the effort simply because of the range and quality of sounds you can get from them, are:
- Decent Sampler - lots of amazing free sounds in the Pianobook collection.
- Spitfire LABs - again lots of amazing free sounds.
- Kontact (Free Native Access player)
- Sine Player - Amazing orchestral and pianos… and much more.
My favourite VSTs are:
- Ample Guitar M II Lite. Accoustic guitar that even has pedals and a very strange "strumming editor"
- Ample Bass P Lite II. Nice bass, but for me at times lacking the really low notes.
- Baby Comeback - Echo that reminds me of dub music.
- BBC Symphony Orchestra - beautiful sounds.
- BreadSlicer - sound chopper upper
- CollaB3 - organ
- Cymatics Space Lite - beautiful reverb
- DecentSampler - AMAZING samples available
- Filter MS-20 - sound mangler
- FKFX Influx - sound mangler
- Fracture - sound mangler
- FunkBass - nice bass with some beef.
- Gorilla Bass - fugly distorted monster bass
- Guitar Rig 6 - amps and effects... wow!
- Kontakt - lots of free instruments of a high quality. The Free Orchestra is amazing.
- LABS - lots of free instruments of a high quality
- MODO BASS 2 - free bass, absolutely amazing.
- Odin2 - amazing synth
- Panstation - left right panning
- Podolski - amazing synth
- RaveGenerator2 - sampler (add a sound, play it keyboard)
- Ripchord - steal chords from midi files
- Soundpaint - amazing free piano.
- Stochas - probabalistic sequencer
- Surge - amazing synth
- SynthMaster 2 Player- amazing synth with lots of presets of amazing noises.
- TAL-NoiseMaker- amazing mono synth
- TDR Kotelnikov - compressor
- tonespace - generate related chords
- TyrellN6 - amazing synth
- ValhallaSpaceModulator- amazing flanger
- ValhallaSupermassive- amazing reverb
- Vital - amazing synth
- Wider - stereo tool
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