Best Free VSTs?

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I've been looking around for quite a while, and can't decide what to go with. anyone know any free plugins that offer great selection and/or quality? looking mostly for guitars, pianos, bells, brass, and woodwind. Thanks in advance!
NebulaYT wrote:
Sat Jan 18, 2020 6:44 pm
I've been looking around for quite a while, and can't decide what to go with. anyone know any free plugins that offer great selection and/or quality?
I always answer that question with: Synth1
Synth1 is old now, but not only has it a great sound, it is also the synth with most presets for download online!
On top of that, it is very cpu-lean
Otherwise
Anything from
* UHE
* HG Fortune

Tip: a few great VST is much preferred than 100 of vsts that you really never understand
NebulaYT wrote:
Sat Jan 18, 2020 6:44 pm
I've been looking around for quite a while, and can't decide what to go with. anyone know any free plugins that offer great selection and/or quality? looking mostly for guitars, pianos, bells, brass, and woodwind. Thanks in advance!
Did you check dsk music for vsts? If not, check out their site. Alot of their vst's work well in lmms.
https://www.dskmusic.com/

Also, for orchestral type sounds, check out Johannes Roussel's site for some nice soundfonts.
http://johannes.roussel.free.fr/music/soundfonts.htm
It depends on your operating system. You can get some pretty good acoustic like sounds with some FM synthesizers like Zynaddsubfx, Dexed (It's a FOSS emulation of Yamaha dx7 has over 1000 great presets!) and Oxe fm.

Apart from what has been suggested by others, some other good synths but maybe not so much for acoustic like sounds are Vember surge and Helm for example.

Also you can always use soundfonts or samples if you don't want to use synths.

Here are some links to help your search:
https://www.audiopluginsforfree.com/win ... popularity
https://www.kvraudio.com/plugins/window ... lar/start0
https://sites.google.com/site/kvrosc/rules

I recommend watching some Youtube videos showcasing the presets for various synthesizers and then focusing on the one or two that you like the most.
NebulaYT wrote: I've been looking around for quite a while, and can't decide what to go with. anyone know any free plugins that offer great selection and/or quality? looking mostly for guitars, pianos, bells, brass, and woodwind. Thanks in advance!
I am sorry to dissapoint you but thing you need is not existing, as far as I know. I was in the search for the same, and really there is nothing combinig all you mentioned in one. You may find some free vsti which can emulate one instrument in mediocre way, but you will have to go for commercial instrument you have to pay. If someone finds something free like this, please let us know :)
The real synths using oscilators/subractive(or other) synthesis like synth1 can never make realistic sound you require for the instruments you mentioned you need. You will have to go for a rompler synth or sampler.
Now considering the plugins you must pay...even here the choice is limited, specially if you do not want samplers like Kontakt. I can recommend one very good rompler synth covering all sounds you need and much more, it is Air Xpand!2, you can find it on plugin sales sites for good discount. It was a really nice discovery for me as the market is flooded with physical rompler all-around synths but vsti world is very poor for this one. Hope this helps. I hope I did not break any rule by mentioning commercial products here.
It all depends on the OS you're using. Some FM synthesizers, such as Zynaddsubfx and Dexed (it's a FOSS emulation of Yamaha dx7 with over 1000 amazing presets! ), may produce sounds that are very close to those of natural instruments. plus Oxe fm.

Some more good synths, though perhaps not as great for acoustic-like sounds, are Vember surge and Helm, for instance.