50 Best Free VST Plugins for Music Makers

6 min readJul 11, 2019

Producing music was one of the most expensive hobbies. However, it became more accessible as VST Plugins becomes popular. In fact, some great tracks in the past few years are produced in garages or bedrooms by producers with a relatively low cost. VST Plugins are one of the most thrilling trends in mixing music. Before, it was unimaginable to acquire quality music mixing tools with no cost. Today, several excellent free VST plugins exist for all enthusiastic music makers out there. However, the free software industry is constantly changing. So, how would you know the best free VST Plugin to install? Don’t worry! We have scanned the internet for the best free VST Plugins available and made a list for you.

What are VST Plugins?

Before we go to the list of best free VST Plugins available, let’s discuss first what VST is. In addition, we will also talk about what VST Plugins are for, its types, and how to use it.

VST stands for Virtual Studio Technology. VST Plugins are being used by amateurs, as well as professional recording artists and sound engineers to boost their music tasks. Plugin, as the name suggests, refers to software installed on another program in order to enhance that program’s capabilities. You plug this software to other program and use it, rather than to work on it alone.

VST plugins are all compatible to use with the most renowned DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) applications. You can use these in making audio projects both in professional studios and your own home.

Using VST effect and instrument plugins, you will be able to integrate various effects and instruments to your music recording project. With this, you can produce a piece of incredibly more enthralling music.

VST Plugins — what is it for?

Originally, to achieve such effects like reverb and compression, physical instruments and hardware are required. And before, most instruments and equipment needed to do this kind of work is astoundingly expensive and requires a lot of space.

Because of this, the idea to develop VST was born. It was designed to replace those bulky physical instruments and equipment. Rather than paying loads of money for effects hardware, some synthesizers, instruments, and other more expensive music equipment, you can just use VST Plugins that are able to perform the most basic functions.

The truth with VST Plugins is that you can produce an entire song or music piece from scratch, without using a single physical instrument.

Categories of VST Plugins

VST plugins are categorized into three main types:

1. VST instruments Plugins

These are also known as VSTi Plugins. These are used to create music as if it was made by a synthesizer or other instruments like guitars or piano. Most of the VSTi are developed to look and sound like some well-known hardware synthesizers.

With VSTi plugins, you can create sounds just like using actual instruments, but cheaper because there’s no need to buy the actual physical instrument.

One of the best features of VSTi Plugins is that they are able to match synths produced by some well-known synthesizers, such as Hammond B3, Moog Voyager and many more. These synthesizers produce remarkable sounds, making them expensive. Therefore most people are not able to buy it. That’s why music people are very thankful for this VSTi Plugins.

2. VST Effects Plugins

After you produce music from scratch using VSTi, VST effects plugins work its magic to alter or modify it in various ways. VST Plugins can’t make sounds on their own but can add effects such as compression and reverb.

Like the VSTi plugins are designed to create music like using an actual instrument, VST effects plugins are also designed to do effects like actual physical effects. Using VST effects plugins, you can apply any effects to your music as you wish. Not just simple effects, but also the effects the same as those produced by expensive effect hardware available.

3. VST MIDI Plugins

VST MIDI plugins are developed specifically for MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface). Like VST effects plugins, VST MIDI plugins are unable to produce sounds. However, it can process modify MIDI data and pass it on to other plugins.

VST MIDI transposes the music, as well as to do arpeggiation. With the effective use of these plugins, you can make artificial music to sound more natural, and can modify it further in various ways.

VST Plugins — How to use it?

Virtual Studio Technology is developed to such extent that there are VST which are capable to function by itself. However, VST Plugins are specifically designed to be used in digital audio stations. You must download and install certain DAWs such as Sonar, Ableton Live, FL Studio, or other more.

Getting started with using VST Plugins is very simple. Most process flows like this:

Search for the VST plugins you wish to use
Download it
Some plugins may be contained by a ZIP file, if so, unzip it.
Put the extracted files of downloaded VST Plugins in a folder in which you can easily track them.
Sometimes, VST Plugins are downloaded as an executable file. If this happens, all you need to do is run it. The installation process will start.
Select the installation folder for VST.
After installation is finished, start your DAW
Search for the newly installed VST.
Start creating your new music project in DAW. Choose your new VSTi as an instrument, and by using the mixer, put your new VST effect Plugins on a track you made.

Now that we know the essential details about VST Plugins, here is the list of 50 best free VST Plugins that you can use:

And here are the top 5 best Free drum VSTs to complete the list:

Alan Vista Cymbalistic
AudioSpillage MiniSpillage
Alan Vista Chau Gongs
Alan Vista Royotoms
BeatSkillz Beat Factory Drums

We hope you enjoyed and enlightened enough about VST Plugins as you finished reading this article. Be sure to check these VST Plugins and start creating your own compelling music! With pure talent and excellent utilization of these plugins, you will be able to create music of your own and start your professional music producing career.