The Free VST Plugin Mega List

By The Article Master on March 16th, 2023

If you are looking for free VST plugins, the KVR Audio Product Database is arguably the most comprehensive resource for music producers, sound designers, and audio engineers looking for information on audio software and virtual instruments. One of the standout features of the database is our listings of over 3000 free plugins.

The free VST plugin collection in the KVR Audio database covers a wide range of categories, including equalizers, compressors, reverbs, delays, synthesizers, and more, as well as offers developed for our very own KVR Developer Challenge.

With so many plugins on offer, the KVR database makes it easy to filter, locate, research and test new tools for your studio. It's entirely possible to find a collection of free VST plugins that can provide a solid foundation for any music production project, whether you're just starting out in music production or are a seasoned professional.

Check out all the free plugins in the KVR Database.

Below are just a few of our personal favorites.

ValhallaSupermassive has been designed from the ground up for massive delays and reverbs. Get ready for luscious clouds of reverb, otherworldly delays, and swelling waves of feedback unlike any you've heard before. Supermassive has 16 out-of-this-world reverb/delay modes and best of all, it's free. No strings attached.

Featuring many synthesis techniques, a great selection of filters, a flexible modulation engine, a smorgasbord of effects, and modern features like MPE and microtuning, Surge is a synthesizer powerhouse and it's hard to believe it isn't released as a commercial plugin. Thanks to Vember Audio, the original developers of Surge, it has been made completely open source and lives on GitHub.

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TDR Kotelnikov is a wideband dynamics processor combining high fidelity dynamic range control with deep musical flexibility with several unique features such as individual release control for peak and RMS content, an intuitive user interface, and high-precision algorithms. With a sonic signature best described as "stealthy", Kotelnikov has the ability to manipulate the dynamic range by dramatic amounts, while carefully preserving the original tone, timbre and punch of a musical signal. As such, it is perfectly suited to stereo bus compression as well as other critical applications.

Luftikus is a digital adaptation of an the MAAG EQ4 with fixed half-octave bands and additional high frequency boost similar to the hardware's famed ''Air Band". As an improvement to the hardware it allows deeper cuts and supports an auto-gain mode where overall gain changes are avoided.

Luftikus is based on JUCE and is open source (MIT licensed). Downloads and source code available on github.

Kilohearts Essentials is a free collection of extremely useful effects which can be used as regular plugins in your DAW or loaded as Snapins in any Kilohearts Snapin Host. If you own any of the Kilohearts Snapin Host plugins (Phase Plant, Multipass, or Snap Heap) all these effects are immediately available for you to combine and modulate to your heart's desire. The collection includes Bitcrush, Chorus, Comb Filter, Compressor, Formant Filter, Frequency Shifter, Phase Distortion, Haas, Resonator, Trance Gate and many more.

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The winner of the KVR Developer Challenge in 2021, WhispAir is a software instrument for Microsoft Windows (VST2/VST3/CLAP) and Apple macOS (VST2/VST3/CLAP/AU). It is written in native C++ code for high performance and low CPU consumption. Features include three flexible wavetable oscillators, a stereo filter, three modulation and four envelope generators, unison mode and chorus, all accesible via a conveniant single page UI.

CHOW Tape is an analog tape machine physical model, originally based on the Sony TC-260. The current version can be used to emulate a wide variety of reel-to-reel tape machines. The physical modelling process is described in a technical paper presented at the 2019 DAFx conference. This work began part of a class project for Music 420 at Stanford University (CCRMA). With plenty of options to control, a wide range of tape effects and saturation are available.

Gatelab is a creative gate sequencer, volume Modulation generator and beyond. It randomizes a unique combination of parameters and is delivering ever-evolving patterns and endless rhythmic effects. Chop up any audio signal through a number of music-creation and sound-mangling features and generate fresh new ideas on the spot. It can also send MIDI data, giving it the ability to control or randomize parameters in other plugins.

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Deelay is a free delay plugin with a collection of features packed into a simple, minimalistic interface. Diffusion for creating reverbs from small chambers to huge cinematic swells, distortion from subtle saturation to aggressive waveshaping, modulation for making your sounds come alive, and much more. Explore five distinct delay modes, and 100 factory presets.

dpMeter5 is a precise digital audio multi-channel meter including RMS, EBUR128, DIAL and TruePeak (ISP) measurement. It is the successor of the very popular dpMeter4 and adds GUI resizing and preset management. It goes further than simple metering though with features like the ability to record metering results as automation data and match loudness, peak or true peak levels to a given reference level making it an incredibly handy utility plugin.

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