Lets face it, software is expensive. It is also a necessity more so than a want if you are serious about making computer based music. While there are hundreds of free plug-ins available online, more often than not two problems will arise: One, most of them are for PCs leaving us Mac users feeling left out. Two, most of them are vary poor quality.
While I do agree with the saying, “The tools are only as good as the artist,” meaning a person with skill will be able to make due with anything, I also believe the opposite is true; that at some point the artist can only be as good as his tools are.
This being said, I scoured the internet in search of free audio plug-ins that are both compatible with Mac (though not necessarily exclusively) and are of the utmost quality. Having just returned from my journey, dusty, dirty, and sporting a full on mountain man beard, I present to you my findings: Eight freeware Audio Unit plug-ins from some of the biggest names in the industry.
1. Camel Audio – Alchemy Player
- For: Mac/Win
- Download it here
Camel Audio’s Alchemy Player is as you guessed, a smaller version of their flagship synth Alchemy. Under the hood it sports the same synth engine and sample playback capabilities and comes with a 1 GB sound bank.
Bonus Content – If a gigabyte of sounds isn’t enough for you, when you sign up for a free account you will have an extra 380 MBs of sounds bestowed upon you.
2. U-He – TyrellN6
- For: Mac/Win
- Download it here
U-He is best known for their Zebra synth. A little side project between U-He and German online magazine Amazona.de gave to the world TyrellN6. I have used this synth in many a project and I must say that I am pretty amazed at the quality of not only the synth itself but the huge patch library it comes with.
3. U-He – Zebralette
- For: Mac/Win
- Download it here
Speaking of the Zebra synth, say hello to his little sister, Zebralette. Zebralette is a single oscillator from the Zebra synth packed into its own synth. Don’t be fooled though, Zebralette is way more than a watered down version of Zebra.
4. Applied Acoustics Systems – Swatches
- For: Mac/Win
- Download it here
AAS makes some of the most advanced physical modeling synths on the market today. The Swatches library, which plays via the free AAS Player, is a collection of their best presets from across their entire line of synths. You can also purchase additional sound banks to expand your sound palette.
5. IK Media – AmpliTube 3 Free
- For: Mac/Win
- Download it here
IK Media is well known for their excellent guitar amp and effects emulation software, so it makes sense they would release a free version of their ever popular AmpliTube 3 Software. Although this is a trimmed down version, there is still plenty to keep you shredding your axe, including nine stomps boxes, four amps, five cabs, three mics, two rack effects plus more.
6-8. Native Instruments – Komplete 8 Players
- For: Mac/Win
- Download them here
Native Instruments is a company that needs no introduction, which is why I don’t understand how these guys always get left out of “Free Plug-in” lists. They are in my opinion the cream of the freeware crop. With the introduction of Komplete 8, the free players are the exact same product as the full versions, which can be updated via online purchase. The free players consist of the Kontakt 5 Player, Reaktor 5 Player, and Guitar Rig 5 Player, and ship with over 3 GBs of content.
Do you know of any other freeware soft synths or insert effects that are a cut above the rest? Let us know in the comments.
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Have got to agree on the Tyrell. Excellent synth and a really nice sound to it, This is slowly replacing Sylenth as my go to synth for leads and basses.
Also feel the TAL Noisemaker synth is a really good one to mention, you can get get some excellent FX sounds (amongst others!) out of it.
The Stillwell 1973 and Vibe-EQ are also worth a look and the evaluation seems to be unlimited.
Tal-Audio!!!!
http://kunz.corrupt.ch/products
I second that!
Tal audio and “Valhalla” has some free stuff, though I am not sure if the shimmer and room from valhalla are free. Both plugins are really nice for some clean verbs.
I got them for free at least at one point.
http://www.valhalladsp.com/
I was really hopeful about the TAL-Vocoder but the sounds I was getting out of it in Logic Pro 9 with Omnisphere just didn’t sound well.
I think Propellerhead Reason has spoiled me in that I’m used to being able to use any synth I want to vocode with the BV512. I stopped using Reason when I started using logic Pro (I didn’t like the whole ReWire setup) but was kind of shocked that you can’t route any synth you want into the EVOC 20 PS to use as the carrier. I’m looking into third party vocoders that will let you do this but haven’t seen any that jump out at me yet.
Try the evoc track oscillAtor. It’s in inserts not I struments and it will allow you to do just that. Same problem myself!
Airwindows Channel is amazing.
ALmost all of them can be used in 64 bit hosts
Check out massey’s plugins. They have free demos of all their plugs that never expire. They just cant save or recall your settings. They are still really great though.
Not the most exciting but a very, very useful plug is
http://www.bram.smartelectronix.com/plugins.php?id=4
Thanks, I didn’t know about the U-He free plugs.
If you’re looking for more free audio unit plugins:
http://logicblog.info/logic-pro-blog/2011/10/07/20-free-audio-unit-plugins-worth-checking-out.html
Have fun!
The NI Kontakt player for me has been very limited unless you get the full version. They have some instruments, but you can’t load your own samples unless you get the full version. I feel like that’s really the main point of kontakt.
You can load external patch files (Kontakt, NN-XT- Sound Font, so on) in the free players but they cut out after I think 20 minutes of use. It’s a work around if you have a sound you just can’t do without I know, but I did find the free library to have some vary useful sounds.
Twisted Tools has tons of free Reaktor patches and ensembles. Worth checking out….
http://twistedtools.com/
Try Triple Cheese & Crystal free synths you’ll have fun for sure. In Ableton with Analogue or Operator you can easily make amazing synth sounds in minutes, build a soundbank in Sampler than share. Just made a pan drum synthplug in Operator, it’s not nice looking but it works great. These kinds of exotic instruments are generally expensive because they are hi quality pro recorded, everybody needs that. But just love to tweak my own instrument library, it’s cheaper too. Danski is a nice place to land. Thanx
http://u-he.com/TripleCheese/
http://www.greenoak.com/crystal/Crystal/Crystal.html
Hi hey, all the plugs youve mentioned above are Win compatible as well. This is a great site – great articles, but why the Apple / LogicPro centricity?
Hi Waynoss. If you’re after Windows plugins, check out our article here: Over 90 Free VST Effects Plugins
Melodo: The 1st community sharing plug-in (Audio Unit):
http://comelody.com