​

So you're broke but want an excellent resource for getting started in music production. No worries, AudioSex has you covered. Below you will find a great freeware resource arranged into alphabetical categories to make finding what you need easier than ever.

If your favorite freeware isn't listed then post up the name, the category, a link to the download page and we'll integrate it.

This is a work in progress so we need your help to make this the best it can be.

*As of November 2015, I (Oysters) have taken over maintaining the first post of this thread. there is a lot to add on to this post, so please be patient! thanks!!*
**just want to say thanks to SAiNT for letting me do this, thanks to everyone who has posted links on this thread, thanks to Cat for starting this thread in the first place, back before i had even joined AS, and an extra special thanks to nadirtozenith and superliquidsunshine **

Amp/Cabinet Emulation
LePou Plugins / Nick Crow Lab - 8505 Lead / Nick Crow Lab - 7170 Lead / audiorammer - California Sun / Mercuriall - Cab 2.1 / Mercuriall - Cab 3.0

Analyzer
Blue Cat's FreqAnalyst / Smartelectronix - s(M)exoscope / Steinberg - SLM 128 / Toneboosters - TB EBULoudness / Voxengo - SPAN / Sonic Visualiser

Arpeggiator
CodeFN42 - RandARP

Bitcrusher
TAL - Bitcrusher / Xfer - Delta Modulator / Tritik - Krush

Bundle
Acustica Audio - Nebula3 Free Bundle / Melda Production - MFreeEffectsBundle / kiloHearts - kHs Essentials / Anarchy Effects / Music Entropy - Guitar Gadgets

Chorus
Acon Digital - Multiply / Blue Cat's Chorus / TAL - CHORUS-LX / Variety Of Sound - NastyDLA / Xfer - Dimension Expander / GVST - GChorus / Matthieu Brucher - ATKChorus

Clipper
GVST - GClip

Compressor - Single Band
GVST - GComp / GVST - GComp2 / Klanghelm - DC1A / TDR - Feedback Compressor II / Variety Of Sound - ThrillseekerLA / VladG - Sound Molot / Pensadia - SOR 8 / HoRNet - CompExp / Matthieu Brucher - ATKSideChainCompressor / Matthieu Brucher - ATKColoredCompressor / Matthieu Brucher - ATKCompressor / Matthieu Brucher - ATKStereoCompressor

Compressor - Multi Band
GVST - GMulti / Xfer - OTT

DAW
Zynewave - Podium Free / Tracktion 4 Free / Presonus - Studio One 3 Prime / Avid - Pro Tools First / LMMS / Magix - Samplitude Pro X Silver / MuTools - Mulab

Delay
GVST - GDelay / GVST - GDuckDly / TAL - Dub-3 / Voxengo - Sound Delay / GVST - GRevDly / Expert Sleepers - Ping Pong Delay / Expert Sleepers - Multitap Delay / Steinberg - Karlette / Sanford Delay / Matthieu Brucher - ATKUniversalVariableDelay / Matthieu Brucher - ATKUniversalDelay

Distortion & Saturation
Klanghelm - IVGI / Variety Of Sound - TesslaSE / TAL - Tube / Nick Crow Lab - TubeDriver / Xfer - 8-bit Shaper / Auburn Sounds - GFM Distort / TSE - BOD / TSE - R47 / TSE - 808 /audiorammer - Red Skull / audiorammer - Fuzz-Stone / audiorammer - Fuzz-Stone[Ge] / audiorammer - Whamdrive / audiorammer - EddieVsHeaven / Taiga DSP - Gravel / Matthieu Brucher - ATK SD1 / HY-Plugins - HY-Lofi

Drums - Synth
Anarchy Rhythms

Drums - Sample
Beatskillz - Beatfactory

EQ
Acustica Audio - RedEQ / Brainworx - Cleansweep 2 / Elysia - Niveau Filter / Pegasys - EQ-15 / TDR/VOS - SlickEQ / Variety Of Sound - BootEQ mkII / VladG - Sound Nova-67P / TAL - USE / Blue Cat’s Triple EQ / Mellowmuse - EQ1A / TDR - Nova / TBProAudio - sTilt / Ignite Amps - PTEq-X / HOFA - 4U+ DynamicTiltEQ

Expander / Gate
GVST - GGate / SPC Plugins - Gater / HoRNet - CompExp / Matthieu Brucher - ATKSideChainExpander / Matthieu Brucher - ATKColoredExpander / Matthieu Brucher - ATKExpander

Filter
GVST - GBand / GVST - GHi / GVST - GLow / Xfer - DJMFilter / TAL - Filter / TAL - Filter 2

Flanger
Blue Cat's Flanger / TAL - Flanger

Host / Sequencer
Xenakios - HourGlass / Frank Rittberger - Smidy Free

Kontakt Instrument
Gramofon's Kontakt Freebies Master List

Limiter
GVST - GMax / Variety of Sound - ThrillseekerVBL / VladG - Sound Limiter No6 / Thomas Mundt - Loudmax / Matthieu Brucher - ATKStereoLimiter / Matthieu Brucher - ATKLimiter

Instrument
Steinberg - VB-1 / bigcat Maize VSTis

Midi
Soundlib - MidiTest / Expert Sleepers - MidiNull / CodeFN42 - Cales / CodeFN42 - CCStepper / CodeFN42 - Chordit / CodeFN42 - Chordz / CodeFN42 - MIDIChFilter / CodeFN42 - NoteMapper / CodeFN42 - VeloScaler

Multieffect
NUSofting - Anything Mod

Phaser
Blue Cat's Phaser / Expert Sleepers - Phaser / Matthieu Brucher - ATKStereoPhaser / Adam Szabo - Phazor

Pitch Correction
GVST - GSnap

Pitch / Frequency Shifter

Preamp
Acustica Audio - AcquaVox / Mercuriall - JCM800 Hot / Mercuriall - JCM800 / Mercuriall - Harlequin / Mercuriall - Tomato / Voxengo - Tube Amp / Nick Crow Lab - Wagner Sharp / TSE - X30

Reverb - Algorithmic
PSP - PianoVerb / TAL - Reverb 3 / Variety Of Sound - EpicVerb / Voxengo - OldSkoolVerb / TAL -Reverb 2 / TAL - Reverb 4 / MuTools - MuVerb / Sanford Reverb / Kushview - Roboverb

Reverb - Convolution
Knufinke - SIR1 / LiquidSonics - Reverberate LE

Sample / Library Manager
Soundlib - AudioExplorer / CodeFN42 - Kontakt LibOrganizer

Sampler
Plugin Boutique - Zampler / Native Instruments - Kontakt 5 Player / Magix - Independence Free / Sonic Charge - Cyclone

Speaker / Monitor Simulaton
beyerdynamic - Virtual Studio

Stereo Imaging
GVST - GMonoBass / Auburn Sounds - GFM Psypan / Sanford Bass Tightener / RAZ Audio - STC-3 / Flux - Stereo Tool v3

Synth
g200kg - Kamioooka / Ichiro Toda - Synth1 / TAL - Bassline / TAL - Elek7ro / TAL - NoiseMaker / TAL - U-No-62 / u-he - Podolski / u-he - Tyrell N6 / u-he - Zebralette / GVST - GGrain / GVST - GSinth / GVST - GSinth2 / Expert Sleepers - Crossfade Loop Synth / Steinberg - Neon / Steinberg - Model-E / Auburn Sounds - GFM Koch / Native Instruments - Reaktor 6 Player / DASHSignature - daHornet / Tru-Urban - Synthetik / Metric Halo - Thump / Applied Acoustics Systems - AAS Player / Ohm Force - Symptohm PE / Martin Lüders - PG-8X 2.0

Tuner
GVST - GTune

Utility
GVST - GFader / GVST - GGain / GVST - GLFO / GVST - GNormal / Blue Cat’s Gain Suite / Expert Sleepers - Buffer Delay / Expert Sleepers - Latency Fixer / Expert Sleepers - Merger / Expert Sleepers - Clocker / NUSofting - VSTPLOOGGin / CodeFN42 - VSTNotepad / Sound Radix - Muteomatic

Vocal Processing
Auburn Sounds - Graillon

Vocoder
g200kg - Vocov / TAL - Vocoder

 

Last edited: May 17, 2016

A few nice things.

• DAW
  Tracktion T6

• Analyzer
  Toneboosters TB EBULoudness / Steinberg SLM 128

• Equalizer
  Brainworx Cleansweep 2 / Elysia Niveau Filter / Pegasys EQ-15

• Reverb
  PSP PianoVerb1

• Fx
  beyerdynamic Virtual Studio

• Sampler (Rompler)
  Beat Zampler / E-MU Proteus VX

11/05: Proteus VX added (Proteus 2000 sounds as VSTi, with ability to load other E-MU libs).
07/27: Tracktion T5 added (solid DAW for OS X and Windows, beta for Linux).
09/03: Tracktion T5 -> T6

 

Last edited: Sep 3, 2017

1)I really love all GVST stuff in particular Gclip, GFader and Gband (bandpass filter)

http://www.gvst.co.uk/downloads.htm

2)unbelievable quality filter is the Vengeance Philta (CM Edition) you can get on the net, freeware

3)Blue Cat Dual gain, for mid-sid and L/R independent gain

http://www.bluecataudio.com/Products/Product_GainSuite/


4)Camel Crush distortion plugin is the Camel Phat's little brother, it's really handy and good sounding

http://www.camelaudio.com/camelcrusher.php


5)LoudMax compressor and very clean limiter, cool if you are competing in the Loudness War

http://loudmax.blogspot.it/


6)Xfer Dimension EXpander. Can creat beautiful space. it's a sort of combo reverb+delay. EDM must-have

http://xferrecords.com/freeware/

7)Xfer DJMFilter. it's a simple but cool plugin. it's a dj filter very clean with drive and resonance controll. it's the perfect alternative if you don't have Fabfilter Simplon.

7)s(m)exoscope, waveform viewer.
http://bram.smartelectronix.com/plugins.php?id=4


8)again if you are competing in the loudness War this is a must-have.
TT Dynamic range meter, compress2impress

http://www.dynamicrange.de/it/it/download

 

below are some Great FREE Plugins (in my opinion ! *yes* ) not yet listed at a first glance...

1. Amps/Preamps Emulations :

Guitar Amp 'AXP Soft Amp Flextron DC14' : 'Flextron DC14'
Guitar Amp 'AXP Soft Amp SoftAmp FM25' : 'SoftAmp FM25'

Guitar Preamp 'Mercuriall JCM800 Hot Preamp v1.0' : 'Mercuriall JCM800 Hot Preamp v1.0'
Guitar Preamp 'Mercuriall JCM800 Preamp v1.0' : 'Mercuriall JCM800 Preamp v1.0'
Guitar Preamp 'Mercuriall Harlequin Preamp v1.0' : 'Mercuriall Harlequin Preamp v1.0'
Guitar Preamp 'Mercuriall Tomato Preamp v1.0' : 'Mercuriall Tomato Preamp v1.0' :

Cab Emulation 'Mercuriall Cab v3.0' (for Windows 32/64bit and OS X) : 'Mercuriall Cab v3.0'

1b. Overdrives, Distortions,...

Overdrive 'AXP Soft Amp Charbooster' : 'Charbooster'
Overdrive 'AXP Soft Amp SoftDrive GV' : 'SoftDrive GV'

'Acrobatics Rombo' : 'Acrobatics Rombo' (Near the bottom of the page !)

_____________________________________________________________________​

2. Choruses :

'Variety Of Sound NastyDLA' : 'NastyDLA'
'WOK Quatropolis' : 'wOK Quatropolis'
'MykraChorus v2.0' : 'MykraChorus v2.0'
'Distorque Audio Azurite' (Multi-Voice Chorus) : 'Azurite'
'Acrobatics Vento' : 'Acrobatics Vento' (At the bottom of the page !)

_____________________________________________________________________​

5. Delays :

'e-phonic TapeDelay v0.2' : 'TapeDelay v0.2'
'e-phonic Retro Delay' : 'Retro Delay'
'arcDev Noise Industries ET-301 v1.5' : 'arcDev ET-301'
'arcDev Noise Industries Dubb Box v1.0' : arcDev Dubb Box v.1.0
'Elottronix v1.3' (Based on the Effect of 2 coupled 'Revox B77') : 'Elottronix v1.3' (To all the fans of the 'Robert Frippitudes' !!! )
'Retro Sampling Vintage Tape Delay v1.0' : 'Vintage Tape Delay v1.0'
'AcmeBarGig Aftershock Digital Delay v1.0' : 'Aftershock Digital Delay v1.0'
'eTAP2 Engineer' : 'eTAP2 Engineer' (Lovers of 'Hank Marvin' ('The Shadows') sweet Vintage Echo sound... here's your 'Graal' !!! )
'Minimal System Instruments Digital Delay' : 'Digital Delay' NOTE : It can take half (or even more !) of your DAW Screen space, be aware...

_____________________________________________________________________​

8. Equalizers :

'VescoFX Free Queue' :'VescoFX Free Queue'
'Kuassa basiQ' (Baxandall Type EQ) : 'Kuassa basiQ'

_____________________________________________________________________​

X. Utilities :

'VescoFX Outsider Phase Plugin' ( A Plugin that will take any track and turn it inside out, making it sound as if the audio surrounds you !!!) : 'VescoFX Outsider Phase'

_____________________________________________________________________​

Somewhat 'Out of Category', mainly because these are 'Bundles' (thus including several different Effects) are :

* 'Antress Modern Plugins Bundle' (~ 30 Individual Plugins) : 'Antress Modern Plugins v4.95'

* 'AcmeBarGig Plugins Bundle' (mainly oriented toward 'Amps', 'Preamps',... Guitars/Basses stuff) : 'AcmeBarGig Plugins'
NOTE : As you'll noticed it... you'll find these 'at home' , as the 'Official Website' is down for a while now...




...To be continued... *yes*

 

Last edited by a moderator: Nov 14, 2015

Everyone knows le free vsts are garbage... say the rich from their solid gold castles... All the freeware Voxengo, MDA, TAL, proggies are awesome!!! Also Crystal... and nabla... and I dig Harmonaut as well, not to mention the Fish Fillets stuff... This makes me want to make some music using nothing but freeware... lets make that a thing!!!

 

Here:
http://patcharena.com/downloads/comment.php?dlid=1316&ENGINEsessID=b448b641756eec0040f5fc5766447210

quote - The Virtual Software Synthesizer Sound Designer Index 2014 by CHE

A-Z Sound Designer Index (State October 2014)

Soundbanks, Presets & Patches - Internet Addresses
- only for the Virtual Software Synthesizer

A reference book in *. PDF & *. RTF Format


Idea and Concept by Sonic Sirius
http://ohlenbostelhelge.magix.net/public/

< end_quote

 

Some I have used & Like are

Flux Stereo Tool, Flux Bittersweet II - http://www.fluxhome.com/products/

Klanghelm DC1A & IVGI - http://www.klanghelm.com/products.php

Nebula 3 Free Bundle - http://www.acustica-audio.com

Aqua Plugins - Red EQ, Aquavox, Stradipad free - http://www.acustica-audio.com

CD Soundmaster - R2R Audio Plug-In, APX-44 Free - http://cdsoundmaster.com/

FilterGrizzly 2 - http://shop.cfa-sound.com/products/filtergrizzly2-filter-vst/

& Also all the Free Native Instruments Stuff & Players ect. Embertone do some great free ones

 

i love the stuff from signaldust:
bass synth Dolphin Bassline
synth Pink
room reverb Tila2
eq Dust Equalizer
limiter 4L2
clipper TSClip

synthschool has an odyssey emulation that i use a lot (it has a poly mode!) and a 303 (no sequencer) tbstrip

 

About '[size="4]bedroomproducersblog[/size]', we can take an advantage right now !!! *yes*

Part 2: Best Freeware VST Effects

* Distortion (coming soon)
* Flanger (coming soon)
* Guitar Cab (coming soon)
* Reverb (Convolution) (coming soon)

So, Guys and Gals, let's go, rush, rush, rush,...

 

Thank you!


@ Studio 555
Nine Volt Audio going out of buisness with a giveaway would be nice "Soft News". Thanks for the heads up!

Filter:

Ohmforce Fromage Win/Mac 32/64bit
Philteroid Win 32bit
Saltline Liscstep Win 32bit

Compressor:

Audio Damage Rough Rider Win/Mac 32/64bit

EQ:

Voxengo Marvel GEQ Win/Mac 32/64bit VST,VST3,AU
MEqualizer Win/Mac 32/64bit
Q-meleon Win 32bit

Delay:

Glitchmachines Hysteresis Win/Mac 32/64bit (Glitch Delay)

Transient:

SleepyTimeDSP Transient Win 32/64bit
Audio Assault Transient Win/Mac 32/64bit

Multi Effect:

Glitchmachines Fracture Win/Mac 32/64bit

Various:

kvr Developer Challenge (see the previous challenges, too!)
Variety of Sound
Tal FX Win/Mac 32/64bit
JB VST Bundle Win 32bit (Toneboosters)
mda smartelectronix Win/Mac
Full Bucket Music Win 32/64bit Synth`s

Free Sample Packs, too?

http://www.delamar.de/category/free-samples/
http://www.musicradar.com/news/tech/sampleradar-13154-free-sample-downloads-217833
http://99sounds.org/
http://bedroomproducersblog.com/

 

i add this to the arsenal...

https://vladgsound.wordpress.com/downloads/

You find a compressor, a limiter , and a parallel eq all vst and au 32& 64 for free,colored type

 

Excellent Free Synths

HG Fortune - Home Page

HG Fortune - Free Content

HG Fortune - Download Page

 

Excellent thread, found a load of stuff I never knew about, due to the collective input. Just goes to show the amount of stuff that is available to those with even the smallest of budgets. Some good quality plugins. Will be cool to keep referring back for additions & that.

Nice one

 

@ Guitarmaniac64, as well as other eventual Users of that 'Mercuriall Cab v3.0',


When I posted that 'Cab' Plugin in 'AudioZ', I provided you a solution to be able to get all that 'Mercuriall' stuff working properly.
Below are these (identical) explanations...

"...Inside this 'Mercuriall Cab' folder (the downloaded one), the only file that's neither a '.wav' file, nor a snapshot, is a 'configuration' file : 'mercuriall_cab_v3.cfg'.
If you open that file by selecting it, right-clicking with your mouse, then selecting 'Open with Notepad', you'll see the following :

C:\Documents and Settings\Andrew\Application Data\Mercuriall Cab

As when you launch 'Mercuriall Cab v3.0' for the first time, a 'Mercuriall Cab' folder is automatically created within your system, and inside it a new 'mercuriall_cab_v3.cfg' (your own) is automatically created as well.
You must then simply try to find that location within your system, then simply place all the content of that 'Mercuriall Cab' folder (the downloaded one) inside the newly created 'Mercuriall Cab' folder within your system, and which content that 'mercuriall_cab_v3.cfg' with your own info.

For example, mine is as follows (under 'Win7 Ultimate Edition' 32bit) :

C:\Users\Studio 555\AppData\Roaming\Mercuriall Cab

With that in mind, you can simply change that location afterward if desired (by writting a different location, always by editing it within 'Notepad', then save it as is). And of course, don't forget to place all the IRs within that new location (the place where you decide to put your 'Mercuriall Cab' folder).

The trick here is TO NOT overwrite your 'mercuriall_cab_v3.cfg' (automatically created during the first launch of the Plugin) with this provided within my download (this that indicates 'Andrew' as the User !).

In fact to be short, all the content of the downloaded 'Mercuriall Cab' folder (Library) less the 'mercuriall_cab_v3.cfg', must to be placed inside the newly created 'Mercuriall Cab' folder within your system.

A last tip, is to simply launch a Search for that 'mercuriall_cab_v3.cfg' or its folder 'Mercuriall Cab' within your system. When you found it, simply put all the content of the downloaded Folder ('Mecuriall Cab')
inside it (don't overwrite your newly created 'mercuriall_cab_v3.cfg' !!!), and the next time that you'll launch your 'Mercuriall Cab v3.0' Plugin, you'll get all working fine..."



Hope all this 'blabla' can perhaps help other Users of 'Mercuriall Cab v3.0' as well... *yes*

 

To expand little more

Chorus
http://www.jovankoncar.com/j1000/ch4d.rar
http://distorqueaudio.com/plugins/azurite.html

Compressor
http://www.digitalfishphones.com/main.php?item=2&subItem=3
http://electric-snow.net/plugins.html
http://www.audiodamage.com/downloads/product.php?pid=ADF002
http://www.terrywest.nl/compressors.html

Delay
http://theodosynthsarchive.wordpress.com/category/odd-odo-delay/
http://www.vst4free.com/free_vst.php?plugin=Classic_Delay&id=1874
http://www.vst4free.com/free_vst.php?plugin=PpDelay&id=937
http://valhalladsp.com/valhallafreqecho

Distortion, Saturation, Overdrive
http://www.digitalfishphones.com/main.php?item=2&subItem=2
http://www.vst4free.com/free_vst.php?plugin=Ferox&id=2063
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/4063301/FerricTDS_1.5.1.zip

Limiter
http://www.yohng.com/software/w1limit.html

Phaser
http://www.adamszabo.com/phazor/

Reverb
http://www.vst4free.com/free_vst.php?plugin=MVerb&id=913
http://www.vst4free.com/free_vst.php?plugin=Classic_Reverb&id=1872

Spectrum Analyzer
http://betabugs.de/products/oszillos-mega-scope/
http://www.voxengo.com/product/anspec/

Sampler
http://www.vemberaudio.se/shortcircuit.php
https://www.linuxsampler.org/downloads.html

Various
http://illformed.org/downloads/illformed_old_vst_plugins.zip
http://mdsp.smartelectronix.com/livecut/
http://sleepytimedsp.com/downloads

 

If you want to see what has come out recently in the way of free vst's this guys site archives them in a monthly format and he presents them on a quick to scroll and read page so its easier to check things out. The link above is for December of 2014 here is the current list of monthly archives.

Another site that does this is the bedroom producers blog and he creates an ongoing list of new releases but he takes several pages to do so and if you're in a hurry to check the new releases to see if you missed anything his format is for sure a lot slower to browse through but he may be more thorough in finding stuff nobody else has. categorized VST and VSTI etcNews on latest releases

MY TOP FAVORITE FREE VSTI that I have not seen mentioned yet or links provided to directly

Many of these will take J Bridge to work but another option could be to rewire to reaper with the synth loaded in reaper since the bridging in Reaper is better than what I enjoy in my main DAW.
Charlatan http://www.blaukraut.info/
Lokomotiv http://www.kvraudio.com/product/lokomotiv-by-archetype-instruments
Mausynth http://rinki.net/pekka/mausynth/
Tube Ohm Antitranspirant and M Phasewave http://www.tubeohm.com/TubeOhm/Products.html
Mono/Fury, Ragnarok, Deputy, Nabla http://www.fullbucket.com/music/vst.html
OBXD https://obxd.wordpress.com/
skins for lots of synths at flavors of lime http://flavoursoflime.blogspot.com/ Especially needed for oatmeal and voyager
Oatmeal http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=133930 the official oatmeal site is down but this thread has a few download links for oatmeal.
PG8X https://sites.google.com/site/mlvst0/ Martin is working on upgrading to version 2 and a thread at KVR has a link to the beta if your interested. Add delay and reverb to this baby and you are getting a commercial quality vsti. http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=310856&start=1185 scroll down to look for a drop box link to the latest beta that is mentioned in this thread.
Prodigious ( based on a moog prodigy and my favorite free lead synth to shred on ) and Poly 2106 plus a ton of fx is hosted for the now defunct synthscience here http://www.vst4free.com/index.php?dev=Synthescience&l=10
Voyager http://www.vst4free.com/free_vst.php?id=383 also hosted there as well and it rocks be sure to look around for some extra banks online this synth is commercial quality just like several mentioned here.
Enzyme Lite version http://www.humanoidsoundsystems.com/
M THEORY ETC by UGO http://www.ugoaudio.com/index.php/vst-plugins
________________________________________

For FX go here and view the list of vst's that KVR recommends for their one synth competition and if you do want to compete and participate in this competition you are only allowed to use free FX or those that come with your daw. They limit the choice of synth to one synth and every month they see who gets the most votes and award prizes to the winner who writes the most popular composition.https://sites.google.com/site/kvrosc/recommended-plugins

Tape Stop http://www.vstplanet.com/News/14/Tape-Stop-VST-free-effect-plug-in.htm
________________________________________
TOOLS and the use of good safe practices to prevent yourself from having computer problems.

Note: It sometimes makes sense to avoid certain free synths and FX since you won't have to go to the trouble to uninstall the lite versions of synths you might later on be able to get full commercial versions of. I would avoid these free synths to save you the trouble of having to uninstall them later on unless you just want their lite versions. Now if you read below there is an exception if you can use REVO to install them.

These might be synths you would want to try normally that I personally would avoid because I would want the full version and not have to deal with the problem of uninstalling them :Sampletank FREE, The free stuff from Native Instruments, Synthmaster player, AAS Swatches, XILS LAB Poly KB II CM and XILS 3 CM/ BE, Dune BE/ CM, Aalto BE/ CM (magware) ALSO STW REFLEX free it is cool but I looked around and found its big brother the pro version at you know where so try it out if you want, its an awesome delay but now I personally will need to uninstall the free version to put the pro version on my system< Better safe than sorry. Another free vsti is the older version of GSI VB3 called Organized Trio but I know where to get the full version free so not wise to do that either.

REVO RELATED INFO.
Now if you install these free versions you might want to use revo uninstaller to install them as it will then keep a log of every file that program installed including the registry keys that the program places in your registry and then when you do want to uninstall it REVO will be able to get it all easily and accurately so no hidden file will be left behind to cause you trouble when you do get around to installing a non legit version of the more robust full version that would otherwise cost you a load of cash.

You can always use tracer in REVO to trace a new re-install to discover the places the installer puts files but to me using revo to install sounds like a good thing to do. A sand box program like sandboxie might make sense as well to protect your computer from viruses and spyware if you are worried a lot about that. I think our favorite place to shop around the net for software is fairly well trouble free in that regard though, at least it will be if we are all careful and work to keep it that way
(KNOCK ON WOOD)

Short article on how to use Revo.It includes a link to revo as well

HOST FILE RELATED RESOURCES
Then I will also use some tools to help me manage my host file which I will share the link to because it is freeware. http://www.abelhadigital.com/hostsmanmore host file related goodness

FIREWALL RELATED STUFF
And then I will use my windows firewall extension to create new rules for any and all exe files that wish to try to call home and I can either do that manually or just set the firewall to routinely block files that try to communicate with servers like automatic updates and when they try to call home make windows firewall block it and ask me what to do, I can then wither allow it or choose to block it and whatever I do creates a rule to block or approve any communiques that are made by that exe etc.

For manual method to block an exe file go here. video 1 on youtubevideo 2 on youtube

FREE Software that extends the functionality of windows firewall to block and then notify you of exe's that are trying to call home.

cool page with solutions to lots of computer problems and tools to prevent problems. Another similar site

 

That's all you need:

BedroomproducersBlog

 

I must mention the BOSCOMAC reaktor ensembles..
Absolutely stunning quality.. Can't beleive they are free. Ofcourse you can always donate.. Definitely on my list of giving something back to this guy..

http://boscomac.free.fr/

please check it out..

 

Yep, this has a HUUGE resource and it is really helpful. They way the writer organised and consistently placed the plugins in front of a nice background made those
free tools look commercial as HELL. And the person has really listed some amazing free plugins out there

I recommend everyone check that link out

 

Try the 2 or 3 plugs from VSTZone!
Incredibly good stuff and free aswell!

http://www.vstzone.sk/

Better than some of the payable plugs out there!


And btw. If you like, I could create an installer for all plugs listed in this thread as an AudioZ freeware collection or so.

I allready created one for me and my friends including over 120 free vst's but there are also not so free plugs integrated so I would recreate that installer and post it on the main page or so.