Menu
Software
after the success of my last video where
I shared with you my favorite free
plugins for mixing mastering and production.
I was asked many times one of
my favorite free synthesizers and
instrument plugins so that’s exactly
what I’m going to show you in this video
I’m gonna start by looking at a free
synthesizer but then I’ll move on to
pianos other instruments and drums so
there’s going to be lots of different
plugins and if you’ve seen any of these
before which I appreciate you might have
please use the chapter markers or the
timestamps and simply just skip ahead to
the next one I don’t want you to waste
any of your time but the first plug-in I
want to show you is helm which is a
synthesizer the reason I want to show
you this is that many doors just don’t
have a basic simple easy-to-use
synthesizer they all have incredible
sounding synths but some of them aren’t
very easy to access and many people were
asking about my sound design series
saying what’s a good alternative to
serum and I’d say right now this one is
a great free alternative to serum but
another reason I want to show you this
is that it’s an open-source synth and
it’s developed by a guy called matt
title or title I’m not sure and he’s a
really great guy he’s built this synth
up it’s free for anyone to use it’s on a
variety of different platforms I think
Mac PC everything really
he’s also developing another synth
called vital which I think will be an
incredible competitor to serum so I’ve
really I’ve really got my eyes peeled
for that one but what I want to show you
is just from a basic sound perspective
you could basically follow along with
anything in my sound design series using
this synth instead so just the raw sound
compared to serum it sounds pretty much
the same can access your different
oscillators here so you could you know
change oscillator a to a sine triangle
square wave it’s just really simple and
you can blend in oscillator 2 with
oscillator 1 your sub your noise
oscillator so whatever I do here on
serum I can just pretty much mimic and
helm I can turn on the filter filter
often top end
do the same thing in here just turn the
filter on
sounds pretty much the same now helm
doesn’t have all the same features of
serum, of course, this is a free
synthesizer this is a premium one that’s
been worked on for years and years but
just as a simple follow along with synth I
think helm is a really really good place
to start
just the interface itself it might look
a little bit overwhelming but
everything’s built into these little
modules you just turn them on and off
you want some delay just turn it on turn
it off and I think it’s a really nice
place to start I want to highlight that
one of the criteria for making this list
of free plug-ins is that it has to be
something that most DAWs don’t already
offer and that takes us straight on to
labs by spitfyre audio and I know a lot
of people know about it but you maybe
haven’t experienced it and it’s sort of
full depth there’s so many different
lines so many different instruments in
simple terms it’s basically a sampler so
they’ve recorded loads of different
instruments guitars drum pianos
synthesizers atmospheres processed it
and just made the controls very simple
very elegant so most of the instruments
have the same layout of controls but
they’re usually mapped to slightly
different parameters so are sure to watch
the individual tutorials for each of
them, unfortunately, my sustain pedal has
just broken on my piano but I’m still
going to try to play you some of the
different instruments just to give you a
flavor for it but I can’t possibly do
any of this justice you’ll have to
experience them for yourself
and you can, of course, change any of
these parameters so you can have a
really dry sound with no reverb or you
can drench it and then selecting in the
dial lets you know which effect you’re
using or lets you change the effect on
many of the instruments so I’ve
installed some of the lines here it’s
all authorized and downloaded through
their own app which is actually
incredibly easy to use I’m really not a
fan of downloading access software onto
my computer but this one just tends to
work for me so let’s take a listen to
some strings, for instance, you just
select what you want to play and then
you just load it up the same interface but
this time so let’s add a little bit of
reverb and see how this sounds
let’s try and find some other
instruments here so electric piano for
instance let’s just load that maybe add
a splash of reverb one of the reasons I
like this plug-in and I don’t use it in
every single song but it does keep
everything all in one space if you
search for Strings you’re gonna get lots
of different string-based instruments so
if I do a search for the guitar you can see
I’ve got this moon guitar here and if I
just load it up and see what we’ve got
to play with here if I just add a little
bit of reverb here this should be quite
a sore a different sort of sound here so
you could get all sorts of different
sounds out of that and there are just tons
in here along with a nice drum kit but I
will show you a different drum plug-in
in a minute so if I load the drum kit up
here Tom’s cymbals so it’s pretty much
what you’d expect and you can just play
little rhythms on this those drum sounds
are okay but they are far from my
favorites free drum sounds that you can
get so that sort of summarizes labs but
there is so much to this even if you
already have the plug-in you might be
missing a couple of really great sample
libraries in there so definitely go
check it out see if it inspire some sort
of creativity for you the next plugin I
want to show you is another piano it’s
addictive keys which are an extremely
realistic piano plugin now the free
version is limited to four octaves which
is usually enough for most people most
producers most applications you’d only
need four octaves I eventually went and
bought the full version because I needed
one more octave for a particular piece I
was doing and also I didn’t mind
supporting the company what I
particularly like about this beyond its
stunning realism is that it is a trial
that is it doesn’t expire so it’s not
just like a 30-day trial they really
believe in their product they give you a
virtually an unlimited trial as far as
I’m aware with four octaves you just
don’t get all the different microphone
positions so it’s slightly feature
limited but you can get stunning results
out of it and they believe in their
product so much they think that if they
give you the free version it’s gonna
work perfectly for you and some people
are going to invest and support and get
the full version as I give a sound demo
right here what I want you to really
listen to is how detailed the low end
sounds because a lot of piano plugins
sound ok in the mid-range and the low
end just Falls to pieces but just here
you’ve just got such a rich low-end on
this piano and I really really like it
as well of course as the top-end being
great I can’t really articulate this
with my skills and a MIDI keyboard but
[Music]
it just sounds so crisp and detailed to
me if you want just like a classic
studio grand sound I don’t see why I
would really reach for any other plug-in
I just think it sounds amazing
especially for solo piano pieces if
you’re like a singer-songwriter and you
want a stunning piano to hold up your
whole track then this is probably a
great choice the next plug-in on the
list is addictive drums – the demo
version so it’s not time-limited you’ve
got most of the drum kit that you need
you’re just missing a few features and
the reason I like this a lot more than
Labs is it’s got a lot of grooves built
into it but I’m just gonna play some
stuff on the keyboard here and I think
that the recordings and the
articulations are much better so for
instance if I play this kick in this
snare I just think those sound better
but also you can play the snare really
soft or with along with a high velocity
and it sounds very different at all the
different velocity layers which mean
that if you start really creating a beat
with it you can get a lot of dynamics in
there so I know my timings a bit all
over the place but it can be a fun
plugin if you’re going for that sort of
style and now while this is good and you
can just play on a keyboard like I just
did and there’s a couple of different
free kits to choose from what I actually
use this for is I go over to the beats
tab I set a tempo in my door and me just
used the beats that are pre-built into
here there are tons of them to pick from
like rock Latin hip-hop and whatnot and
I use this to practice my instruments as
a much better way than playing to a
metronome so I literally grab my guitar
or the piano more often the guitar than
anything else and I just press play here
and I find that playing along to stuff
like that, although some of it was quite
you know forward sounding I find that
that is much nicer for my practice than
just playing to a metronome and often if
I’m just recording sort of demo or
scratch projects to get some ideas out
this can really help me visualize some
beat making in a different way instead
of simply always just driving my samples
onto the channel rack and just
programming them that way in FL Studio
this really opens up a few different
opportunities for me the next plugin was
actually recommended to me by some
viewers after my last video and it’s
instead of the bx solo plugin which i
showed there which I just used because I
had it many people said I should use the
Vox angle MSE D plug-in which I didn’t
even know Vox angle had this plug-in MSE
D for my needs it was just far superior
so thank you guys for pointing that one
out to me, I would recommend everyone go
grab that one as well to round off this
video I wanted to make two quick but I
think very important points and that is
that firstly there are lists of fifty a
hundred two hundred free plugins that
you can go and download that’s great you
can explore them to your heart’s content
they might inspire you or whatnots
but honestly after testing hundreds of
plugins over the years I can honestly
say that the stock plugins built into
your DAW are usually world-class and are
everything you need whether you use FL
Studio Ableton Logic Studio One and many
other dolls these plugins are stunning
and this takes me on to my second point
which i think is actually more important
and that’s we’ve got to ask ourselves
why are we always looking towards the
next free plugin or even the next paid
plugin an awful lot of this is marketing
and you’ve really got to be aware when
you’re being marketed to so my message
to anyone listening whether you’re a
producer beat maker mixing engineer
they’re these companies they’re playing
to your insecurities playing on this
fear that you have this insecurity
that your stuff isn’t good enough and to
have your stuff be better
you need this new plugin or this new
free plugin and I think a lot of it is
just a distraction and it takes us away
from really investing in our
you know something I know I can do in
the next half hour or hour to really
improve my music is go and study
something in music theory that’s always
sort of bugged me or that I’ve been a
bit insecure about go work on my
practice you know to play my guitar and
practice so you know getting really
really tight in the groove of the
metronome you know challenge me to
finish something that I’m working on
today even if it’s just simple we can
all invest in ourselves today right now
and really better our skills without
having to chase some you know mysterious
plugin that will be fun but isn’t really
going to take us to the next level the
way that just developing our own skills
really would also if you are looking for
more sort of community support to work
on these problems and issues you have
with your music please do join my
discord server it’s a wonderful place
where we all chat about music sound
design music theory production you name
It’s all in there but anyway thank
you very much for watching this video I
do hope you enjoyed it and I hope to see
you in the next one – bye for now or
inspires you to create a different way I
love all the whole variety you can just
dive through these plugins to your
heart’s content
thank you
This week I am sharing some more of my favourite plugins /VSTs.
This video includes synths, drums and instruments.
My favourite Free Plugins for Mixing and Production – https://youtu.be/EkVc1t_04j0
▶Join my free discord server: https://discord.gg/sBbsE6e
▶Time Stamps/Chapters
0:00 – Intro
0:30 – Helm Synth
2:40 – LABS
6:10 – Addictive Keys Studio Grand
7:55 – Addictive Drums 2 Demo/Free
9:55 – Voxengo MSED
10:18 – Discussion about Free Plugins
Downloads
Helm – https://bit.ly/hemldownload
LABS – https://bit.ly/LABSDownload
Addictive Keys – https://bit.ly/AddictiveDemo
Addictive Drums – https://bit.ly/AddictiveDemo
SSD5 is another great drum kit – https://bit.ly/SSDFree
Voexengo SSD5 – https://bit.ly/VoxMSED
In this video I am using Beyerdynamic DT 770 Pro Headphones
Watch more Software videos
FAQ Software
In The Mix is all about simplifying the recording, production, mixing and mastering process and helping you unlock your creativity.
No matter which DAW you use or what equipment you have, I’m determined to help you succeed.
I try to share as much as I can about the industry and give an insight into the world of music production and the business behind it by showing you how to release and sell your music online. Being an FL Studio Power User I also focus tutorials on getting the most out of FL Studio, My DAW of choice.
