Essential Free Tools For Music Making
Kilohearts kHs One kilohearts.com
Earlier this year, Kilohearts announced that it was discontinuing its impressive virtual analogue kHs One. The downside is that users can’t exect future updates and there’s no VST3 version. The upside is it can be downloaded free!
Full Bucket Music Bucket One
Full Bucket makes a host of wonderful free emulations. Its latest revives the Crumar Bit One, an Italian rival to the Juno-106.
Newfangled Audio Pendulate
Built around a physics-based ‘chaotic oscillator’ Pendulate is a wonderfully weird, inspiring synthesiser that specialises in unstable tones.
Spitfire Audio BBC Symphony Orchestra Discover
BBCSO Discover is an introductory version of Spitfire’s full library, with 34 instruments.
Surge XT surge-synthesizer.github.io
Surge might seem like old news, but this open source synth is getting updated on a regular basis and it’s now more powerful than ever.
Ujam Usynth Drive ujam.com
Ujam makes easy-to-use plugins popular with the EDM crowd. Drive is the free edition of its Usynth app, aimed squarely at mainstream house sounds. It’s handy and good quality.
VCV Rack vcvrack.com
We’ve mentioned VCV Rack in these pages plenty of times but it’s always worth highlighting. A flexible and expandable virtual modular rack, which can be used in standalone mode for free.
Vital Audio Vital vital.audio
Vital is a ‘spectral warping’ wavetable synth that uses morphable sampled sounds as its oscillators, making it stand out against the more common freeware virtual analogue synths.
Matt Tytel Helm tytel.org
Some freeware synths can look a little dated, or rough around the edges, but not Helm. This slick instrument could easily pass for a paid-for product, in terms of both its UI and sound.
Steven Slate SSD 5.5 Free stevenslatedrum.com
The free version of Steven Slate Drums is the go-to for many producers looking for realistic drum sounds without shelling out.
FREE DAWS
Traktion Waveform Free tracktion.com
Waveform is a great DAW, and this free version is probably the most generous and powerful free audio environment on the internet right now.
Serato Studio serato.com
Serato Studio is an easy-to-use, expandable audio environment aimed at introducing people to electronic production. Its slick sampling tools are worth a try even for seasoned hands though.
Apple GarageBand apple.com
You’re probably well aware of GarageBand and – if you own Apple hardware – may already have access to it. It’s come on in leaps and bounds in recent years, so shouldn’t be ignored.
