1. Big Muff Vst
2. Big Muff Vst Free

Jan 16, 2011  This is likely the Big Muff circuit heard on most of Smashing Pumpkins' Siamese Dream album, so that should give an idea of the potential of this version. This is the rarest of the two op-amp Big Muff versions. Version 5 OP-AMP 'TONE BYPASS' BIG MUFF (USA circa 1978) - Practically identical sound to the V4 op-amp Big Muff described above. Now that you’ve picked your DAW, you’re all set to start building your collection of free VST plugins. Remember to always go for quality instead of quantity. The biggest mistake people make when discovering Virtual Studio Technology and the world of free VST plugins is to download hundreds of freebies and to hoard them on the hard drive. May 22, 2008  The best of the muff series was the little big muff. I imagine Rene that you could make a fuzz vst better than the any EH in your sleep, unfortunately a lot of people like to romanticise that crap and do not understand that technology has improved distortion for guitars by leaps and bounds since the original Big Muff. Big Goat is an analog modeled simulation of one of the greatest fuzzbox ever made in the mid ‘70s and used in countless records. Current version: v1.0.1 (May 2019) The signal passes through 4 cascaded amplifier stages, where 2 of them are clipping stages. The result is a sustained fuzz, very rich in harmonics, with a unique tone. Introduced in the mid-late 1970s, the Big Muff Pi V4 features one less gain stage and Op-Amp chip circuitry, but is housed in the same classic enclosure as its predecessor, the V3. Though it isn't based around the classic four-stage Muff circuit, it has a unique, metallic sound that is great.

Mokafix Audio's Efflam Le Bivic is a man with a mission, and that mission is to create plug‑in versions of a huge range of vintage fuzz and distortion pedals. (Actually, he's a man with two missions, the other one being electric piano emulation, but we'll cover his Wurli and Rhodes models another time.) At the time of writing, there are no fewer than 14 of these in the Mokafix range. Two of them — a SansAmp GT2 clone and a Boss Metal Zone emulation — are freeware, while the others cost a princely nine Euros apiece. And such is Efflam's attention to detail that some of them are little plug‑in suites in their own right: Muffin Rider, for instance, consists of four separate plug‑ins that faithfully recreate various historical variants of the Electro‑Harmonix Big Muff.

A couple of other standard‑fare pedals are on offer, such as the inevitable ProCo Rat and Ibanez TS808, but much of the range concentrates on cult effects, many of which haven't been emulated in software before. So, for example, if your mix is simply not complete without a virtual Shin‑ei Companion Fuzz, Fender Blender, Roland BeeBaa or Maestro Brassmaster, you've come to the right place.

The plug‑ins are available only in VST format for Windows machines. They are installed by dragging the DLL files to your plug‑in folder, and authorised by entering a user name and licence key. If you're installing all of them at once, this gets old fast, and it would be nice if a single authorisation could enable multiple plug‑ins.

For such affordable plug‑ins, they boast slick and consistent user interfaces, in most cases based on doctored versions of the original pedal layouts. You can, of course, use them in any context, but their spiritual home is as part of a signal chain being driven by an electric guitar and feeding an amplifier and speaker cabinet. To this end, I tested them in Cubase with NI's Guitar Rig playing the latter part. This enabled me to A/B the Mokafix plug‑ins against NI's own emulations of the same pedals, where possible, as well as a couple of real ones. An unusual feature is that you can choose the degree of oversampling employed, between 1x (no oversampling) and 4x; the difference is subtle, but higher settings can sound smoother and less edgy.

It's difficult to set up precise A/B tests, especially where hardware is concerned, since it's hard to eliminate all the variables of level, impedance and so forth. In general, though, I was impressed at how well the Mokafix plug‑ins capture the character of the pedals they emulate. In a three‑way shoot-out between Mokafix's The Bat, Guitar Rig's The Cat, and my own US‑made ProCo Rat, it was an early bath for The Cat, which sounded thin and flat by comparison. Round two was much more interesting, because although I could never quite get Mokafix's plug‑in and my pedal to sound exactly the same, I often found myself trying to tweak the pedal to sound more like the plug‑in, rather than the other way around! If I had to sum up the difference, I'd say that the plug‑in sounds a shade looser and more ragged, with a more complex bottom end. Obviously, it's a matter of taste, but those are the sort of qualities I like in a distortion pedal, and I would actually choose Mokafix's plug‑in over the real thing in many cases.

The same wasn't quite true of my favourite distortion pedal, a battered '70s Japanese knock‑off of an MXR Distortion+; Mokafix's D Plus is a little thinner, and lacks the same chunky quality on low notes, but it's certainly in the ballpark (despite having the knobs the wrong way round). Likewise, the various Big Muff versions are both subtly different from one another, and more complex and playable than the one built into Guitar Rig. Much thought, too, has gone into the Kung Fuzz Fuzzface clone, which offers various 'under the hood' parameters not controllable on the real thing, and sounds great. Whether the more obscure emulations, such as the BeeBaa or Brassmaster, sound authentic I couldn't tell you, but they certainly sound distinctive — especially the latter, with its Brass control, which appears to have something in common with ring modulation.

All in all, these plug‑ins make a very nice addition to a computer‑based guitar setup. I like the fact that you can buy just one or two, or a larger bundle of your choice (nine Euros each; bundles of three, six, nine or 12 effects cost 23, 38, 52 and 66 Euros respectively). Since 20‑day demo versions can be downloaded, there's really no reason not to give them a try. And if Efflam ever runs out of vintage pedals to model, I'd be curious to hear any original designs he can come up with. Sam Inglis

SUMMARY

A VST plugin is a software effect or a virtual instrument intended for use in a host program that supports Virtual Studio Technology. VST plugins are used to expand a digital music studio, in the same way hardware effects and instruments are utilized in a real studio. The Best Free VST Effects - Guitar Amp. If you're not happy with the standard GUI of your VST host, you can also download Requietus' cool GUI's (as shown here to the left) for the entire SimulAnalog Guitar Suite. Download Guitar Suite. Best free VST Guitar Amplifiers page 2.

The Mokafix Audio range provides a cheap and very effective way of expanding the palette of distortion and fuzz effects in your Windows DAW.

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Want to make high-quality music productions for nothing? We’ve created a comprehensive guide to the best free VST plugins 2018, best free VSTs for 2019 and 2020. I’ve included every effect you could ever need from vintage style EQ, Compressors, Classic Synths, Amp Simulators, Delays, Drum Kit, Reverbs, Autotune alternatives, Limiters, Bit Crushers, Nexus VST, Lo-fi FX and a ton more.

There are hundreds of free VST effects or music producers in this list, so take your time, you are going to need a large mug of coffee to after receiving a large volume of these beauties!

For ease, I’ve split up the list of free VST Plugins into categories in the following order: Classic Synths, VSTInstrument Bundles, EQ & Compressors, Channel Strips, Amp Simulators, Reverb, Delay and finally FX.

To get you started.

What Is A VST Plugin?

Virtual Studio Technology VST Plugins for short. It allows the person using a DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) to install software from 3rd party companies. VSTs give you various audio FX (effects) and virtual instruments as plugins inside your DAW. This was first developed and introduced to the market by Steinberg with their DAW Cubase in 1996, it was a game changer for sure and gave huge flexibility and opportunity for software development and huge benefits to the music creators.

So without further ado, let’s get to it!

Classic Synth Sounds

For me having a new synth or plugin inspires me to create new music. I’m constantly looking for new synths and FX to use in my own music productions. So, I’ve done the hard work for you to bring together, in my opinion, the best VST plugins available right now.

This compiled list is the best of the best and features everything from classic synth sounds to vintage compressors, fantastic delays and guitar amp simulators. I think if you downloaded all of these you could produce most genres of music to a pretty high standard.

Dexed FM Synth

The Dexed FM Synth is closely modelled on the sound quality of the classic Yamaha DX7. The DX7 was used on countless recordings in the ’80s. Everyone from Prince, Phil Collins, Whitney Houston to Brian Eno have used sounds from the DX7 in their chart-topping hits.

Many artists used the default presets the rom synthesizer had to offer at the time as it was very complicated to use. You can make use of the cartridge manager to load some of these iconic patches/sounds, thanks to Black Winny from KRV Audio, oh and check out spitfire audio as well!

Download the Dexed Synthhere (Mac / PC) – Check what is the best computer for music production.

MiniMogue VA

This is an emulation of the classic Minimoog with a couple of extra features thrown in for good measure including a very nice user friendly audio interface.

This is a classic sound which you should ensure you have in your plugin folder. For me, some of my favourite artists and producers have used the Minimoog’s classic sounds in their audio productions.

From the bass lines of Parliament-Funkadelic to Dr Dre using the synth for lead lines on The Chronic album to J Dilla using the Minimoog Voyager on his legendary album cut, Donuts.

Download MiniMogue VA

TAL – Noisemaker

TAL-Noisemaker is arguably one of the best free VST plugins for logic pro x you can download. The synth includes a small effect section with a reverb, chorus and a simple bit crusher effect. TAL-NoiseMaker includes new filter types as the self resonating 6dB low pass and a notch filter. Its improved amplitude ADSR is very suitable for slow pads as for really fast envelopes.

Download TAL-Noisemaker

TAL U No 62

TAL-Noisemaker is arguably one of the best free VST plugins you can download. The synth includes a small effect section with a reverb, chorus and a simple bit crusher effect. TAL-NoiseMaker includes new filter types as the self resonating 6dB low pass and a notch filter. Its improved amplitude ADSR is very suitable for slow pads as for really fast envelopes.

Download TAL-Noisemaker

TAL U No 62

This one is a great free VST synth. TAL used a Roland Juno 60 as a reference for the oscillators and filters. The classic Roland Juno 60 synth has been considered by many to be one of the most important synths in popular music. Artists such as Mac Demarco, Tiesto, Disclosure and many more are fans of this classic.

Download Tal U No 62

Crystal Synth

Crystal is a great free VST and it’s been around for a while. Nonetheless, it is still capable of generating some great sounds. It was created by Glen Olander who later went on to create Spectrasonics Omnisphere.

Download Crystal Synth

Synth 1

Synth 1 is an emulation of the classic Clavia Nord Lead 2 (Red Synth). The plugin has a huge range of useable sounds. I’ve seen so many session players that still use Nord Lead for live performances and in the recording studio. It’s another must-have addition to your plugin folder.

Download Synth 1

Modulair Synth

It is a synth capable of a wide variety of sounds from great bass tones to pads and lead synth.

Download Modulair Synth

Another synth we’d love to add to this list is the Xfer Serum VST plugin. You can read our in-depth guide about Xfer Serum!

VSTInstrument Bundles

Next up I have put together a number of fantastic bundles to download, which include a huge array of sounds and all the best free VST instruments 2018 has brought us.

Native Instruments Komplete Players

This is an incredible set of free VST instrument plugins and sounds from our friends based out of Berlin, Germany. This bundle is available totally for free. It includes three virtual instruments with over 500 sounds to choose from. Komplete Players features everything from free piano, vintage Rhodes, Organ, Strings and some awesome inspiring sounds from Reaktor 6.

A version of Guitar Rig is also included which has a great AMP model and some really nice effects, delays, reverbs and modulation. Many engineers use guitar effects on a bus channel for vocals or drums. If you had to download one bundle, this would be the one I would recommend.

Download Komplete Start Players Bundle

Sampletank Custom Shop

Sampletank is another awesome bundle of high quality sounds for you to use entirely free. It includes 30 instruments from a free VST Piano, Violins, Flutes, Saxophones, Choirs, Acoustic Guitar and Electric Guitar, Bass Guitar, Drums and more.

Download Sampletankhere

Syntronik Free (Sampletank)

This is another great VST that is a must-have. They have sampled 38 of the most desirable synths. This version includes 50 presets which all use different sample sets. The sounds of this analogue style synth are incredible from great Minimoog to Jupiter sounds.

The possibilities are endless with this Synth as you can layer up to 4 presets on top of each other to create a new sound and then alter the sound with a huge range of effects inside the instrument.

Download Syntronik Freehere

Steven Slate Drums SSD5 Free

This is, in my opinion, one of the best free live drum VST plugins you can get. Steven Slate has created a name for himself producing some of the best live kits with world-class engineers like Chris Lord Alge. You only get one kit but you can tune it differently and use all the features of the SSD5.

Download Steve Slate Drums SSD5 Freehere

VST Instrument Bundles (Paid options)

If you have a few dollars/pounds to spare a month or you are working on a specific project for a brief I’ve decided to include some great paid monthly services that I think you should check out:

This would be a great option if you are working onmusic for a film score or TV series. The quality of the recordings in these sample libraries is simply fantastic and has been used by many top composers.

East West Composer Cloud

This service includes over 40,000 audio recordings, which includes everything from orchestral music to world music instruments and rock sounds. The subscription cost is $19.99 per month (around £16 in the UK & Europe)

Roland Cloud

Over the years, Roland has created some of the greatest synths and drum machines known to mankind. They have influenced modern music culture and inspired so many top artists and producers, especially in early Hip Hop. So it’s no surprise that their cloud service is very popular, they have made available their most iconic synths and drum machines on a digital platform, meaning you can now gain access to them all for around £18.95 a month.

This is pretty good value if you can’t afford to buy a vintage original 808 drum machine, for example. I believe that Roland also has some of the top VST plugins for FL Studio all in all.

Native Instruments Komplete

I think the updates and the overall quality of sound that Native provide is incredible. Komplete Select offer 7000 sounds and 45G of audio samples, all for the price of around £159. Which, if you work it out over the year you’re paying the same price as theEast West Composer Cloud, but you get to keep all the samples and instruments. Their FL Studio plugin expansion pack is especially neat.

EQ, Compression & Channel Strips

Most DAWs that you will use have amazing built-in digital EQ and compression plugins. These are great tools for cutting out unwanted frequencies in a boxy sounding acoustic guitar track or levelling out the volume of a vocal recording with a high-quality compressor plugin.

I’ve put together a list of my favourite EQ, Compressors and Channel Strips that add character to your mixes and help colour the sound in a specific way. Most of them are emulations or inspired by top mixing consoles or outboard gear you would find in some of the best recording studios from around the world.

Code Red Free – Shattered Glass Audio

This plugin takes inspiration from an early British console from the ’60s. So if you’re looking to give some of your tracks a 60’s over-driven sound this is the plugin for you.

EQ 560 – Red Rock Sound

This EQ is also another take on a classic EQ from 1967 it’s a 10 band graphic precision equaliser. This plugin can be used on anything from heavy drum breaks to soft acoustic guitar tracks. It is also one of the best free VST Plugins for vocals.

T Rack Classic EQ

This is another free product from ikmultimedia, this time in a 6 band EQ from T Racks. Its a nice sounding EQ on most audio material but I think it’s best suited to acoustic guitars and rock vocals. I would say it’s one of the best free vocal VST plugins 2018 brought us.

Ceil – Channel strip (Acustica Audio)

Ceil is based on a heavily modified British channel strip that we sampled at the end of 2017, during one of our official workshops held at a studio near the lake of Como.

This is a free plugin, but only until 14th February 2019. After this, it will be available at a price of $99 (around £79). So if you are reading this in time, sign up for an account to grab this channel strip for free. I’ve downloaded it, had a play and it sounds great on most audio recordings I’ve tried.

Logic Channel (windows only)

Inspired by the famous “nine thousand series” British console, the Logic Channel. Great sounding plugin it includes dynamics, EQ and gate. Sounds great on drums! Smack labs also do two other plugins inspired by the 5000 series British console.

SL532 EQ (windows only)

Compressor SL 543 (windows only)

Levelling tool Compressor – Audio Tools

This is a great sounding compressor taking huge influence from LA 2A compressor. If you are looking to add character and saturation to drum tracks, this compressor will do the trick. You can use this lots of different ways, from really driving the input to get an over-driven sound to using it on a bus for some parallel compression.

Download Levelling Tool Compressor from Audio Tools

Monster Extreme Dynamic Processor

This compressor is one of the most versatile compressors on the list. Again from Slate Digital, I’ve used these compressors in many projects and really like the sound of them. You can use them on drum tracks to get a really aggressive sound or on a vocal track and even on a master bus for a mix.

It can also work as a great free vocal mastering VST plugins. This is a must-have in my opinion. You need to sign up for an Ilok 2 account but its worth it.

Download Monster Extreme Dynamic Processor

Amp Simulation

I have a few bundles I’d like to point you towards.

Guitar Rig 5

The first is Guitar Rig Free which I mentioned earlier. It can be downloaded separately and the full version has been used by top recording bands such as Nine Inch Nails.

Ignite Amps

They are making some fantastic products for guitarists and bassists, from amp simulations to great sounding distortion pedals.

Download Ignite Amps

Amplitube Ik Multimedia

They offer a free version of Amplitube 4 which has 4 amp models and lots of effects.

Download Amplitube

Reverb

Smarteletronicx Ambience Reverb

This is a convolution reverb that can compete with some of the best reverbs in the market. It sounds great on strings and lovely using it on an upright piano that worked really well.

Download Smarteletronicx Ambience Reverb

TAL Reverb-4

This is a great vintage sounding reverb.

Download TAL Reverb 4

Ambient Reverb Stone Voices

This one is fantastic for long reverbs and spacey soundscapes if you’re creating ambient music. It has 100 second reverb time which is mad! Great on long notes/drones.

Download Ambient Reverb Stone Voices

u-He Protoverb

Natural sounding reverb with a variety of different room settings.

Download u-He Protoverb

Voxengo Old Skool Verb

This is another great vintage style reverb, very good on vocals, pads and piano.

Download Voxengo Old Skool Verb

Delays

Big Muff Vst

Voxengo Tempo Delay

Tempo delay is a good delay plugin for adding movement to synth or bass sounds and lines, percussive grooves and vocals. In fact, great when mixing vocals and create harmonies in conjunction with a pitch shifter. It’s one of the free vocal harmony VST plugins I would most recommend.

Download Voxengo Tempo Delay

Wat Kat

If you’re a guitarist you will need to download this. It’s an emulation of the Wem Copy Cat tape Echo used by countless top guitarists. If you’re looking for a great 50’s rock n roll or rockabilly sound, this is a killer piece of software!

Download Wat Kat

Tal Dub Delays & Various FX (Chorus to Vocoders and Filters)

They offer three delay plugins from vintage tap echo to classic delay.

Download Tal Dub

Tal has a great chorus, reverb and distortion fx that is worth adding to your collection.

Download Tal Dub Products

Various FX

Dead Duck 25 Effect Bundle

This includes everything; compressors, delays chorus etc.

Download Dead Duck 25 Effect Bundle

Revival

This is an interesting effect. It adds low end or high end to the signal. I know it sounds boring, but trust me it’s not. It warms up the signal as if it were running through an old tube preamp or tape. Great for acoustic guitars and drums!

Download Revival

Izotope Plugins

Vocal Doubler

This is an effect the emulates double tracking.

Download Vocal Doubler

Vinyl

This one is a great effect for adding a lo-fi vibe to your songs. It can make your song sound like it was created in the 1920s! I know that artist Just Blaze has used this plugin before!

Download Vinyl

Mfree FX Bundle

This has everything from autotune, pitch corrects, reverbs, compression eq and analysers. Deadmau5 is a fan of these plugins so you can’t go wrong downloading this bundle.

Download Mfree FX Bundle

Last but not least some plugins from Xfer Records

Download Xfer Records Bundle

OTT Compressor and the Delta Modulator (a bit crusher)

My Recommendations

Before I finish up here are my favourite plugins from each category:

– For Synths it has to be the Syntronik free, it’s incredible! I have lots of hardware synths in the studio and the guys at ikmultimedia have done a great job recreating classic synths.

– EQ wise it has to be the EQ 560 console emulation. This is very very close to many commercial plugin emulations.

– One of my favourite compressors is the Leveling Tool Compressor. I’ve always liked the sound of LA2A compressor on a drum bus or electric guitars. I believe they used this compressor on many of the red hot chilli peppers guitar tracks.

– In terms of bundled instruments, I’d go with the Komplete Players as it includes the fantastic Guitar Rig and tons of sounds. I’ve been a fan of Native instruments products for years and use everything from Maschine to Traktor in a career. I’ve even used Guitar Rig live in a DJ set and works well.

– In terms of the Reverb, I really like Ambience which I’ve been using for a long time.

– The Wat Kat delay is a great sound for guitarists so for me at the moment that’s the best for me in the list.

– FX wise it would have to be Mfree FX as it has so many tools from autotune to delays and much more besides.

Free DAW Recommendation

If you are looking for free VST effects the chances are you might need a great free DAW (Digital Audio Workstation).

So in this regard, I would point you in the direction of the best free DAW available right now (In my opinion) Cakewalk by Bandlab.

Download Cakewalk

Bandlab by Cakewalk is essentially Sonar Platinum minus some bundled fx. Sonar was around $600 for the platinum version and now it’s available free.

It includes some excellent FX and a wide range of VST instruments with unlimited audio tracks. I think if I was looking to create music on a budget this DAW, together with the best free VST plugins effects above would give me a dream starting point for a home recording studio and plenty of scope to create great recordings.

Of course, there are plenty of DAW options on the market to choose from, Reaper, FL Studio 12, Cubase, Logic Pro X, Garageband for example, so do your research before you decide what’s best for your set up.

I hope you enjoyed this list and found it helpful, please share this with fellow friends and musicians. Spread the word, as they say. Thanks, Mark

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