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Wednesday 16 August 2017
Rocking In The Free World Forum
Click the picture or the text for the new 'Rocking In The Free World' forum.
Thursday 10 August 2017
Free Audio Mastering Tutorial - Focus On Results WITHOUT Buying New Equipment
Free Audio Mastering Tutorial that focuses on results WITHOUT buying new equipment, is NOT written by a patronising boor and does NOT require a degree in Astrophysics to get past the first paragraph???
(I know... I did a little wee too).
Thursday 6 July 2017
Rocking in the Free World - A collection of FREE VST and VSTi plugins available on the internet.
Contents (use control+f or use the jump links)
Hey guys,
Thanks for being patient, this is the first chance I’ve had to sit down
and compile this. I’ve tried to do it like a proper document as hopefully it
can get shared round to any other interested parties. After much deliberation
(because who the fuck wants to be a blogger?) I've decided to post it as a
'blog' simply for ease of sharing as it's just a single link that can be sent
to friends and loved ones. I can't do fancy formatting so if you think it looks
boring go fuck yourself. All of this stuff is freely available online but I’ve
tried to compile the bits I’ve found useful into one place as I’ve had to do a
lot of trawling through forums and developers websites etc to get this far.
Everything here is 100% legal. No illegal file sharing or illegal rips, no
cracked software.
This list is non-definitive and there are new plugs being made available
all the time. I've made no concerted effort to include every bit of freeware
that exists, I'm just trying to spread the love on some of my favourites. I’m
by no means the first to make a list, there are others out there.
This is really aimed at people with a basic home recording set-up and no
money to buy expensive hardware or software plugins. However, there are things
here that I believe would make a fine addition to any studio or producers set
up.
So just briefly, this is a list of the bits and pieces I’ve found
particularly useful in making the record I’m currently working on. I was unwell
and didn’t have access at the time to my studio equipment so I started hunting
online to find alternative ways of proceeding, armed with a guitar, a bass and
a midi keyboard and my trusty old Windows Vista laptop. I wasn’t expecting much
as I had no money to buy VST and VSTi’s. Instead I looked at what I could get
FOR FREE and it was bloody amazing, there are loads of VERY generous developers
out there and when you think about the time it must’ve have taken to code some
of these it’s nuts. Some of these beat the living crap out of plug ins that
supposedly cost a few hundred quid or more.
I would especially recommend that you check out the second to last
chapter on Plogue Sforzando as this for me was the biggest prize of the lot and
is totally unlike anything I’ve come across before. THIS is where you get your
realistic drums and sampled instruments.
I’ve split the categories and tried to add detail and instructions of
use where necessary (so you hopefully don’t have to spend three days trying to
get something working). For some of these you have to sign up to a mailing list
to get access to the download, but I just unsubscribed straight away afterwards
for some of them and I don’t seem to get much junk from the others (the ones I
wanted to keep up to date with). At any rate, I’ve not included anything in
this list that costs money.
I’d definitely encourage you to explore for yourselves as there are
undoubtedly some things that you’ll love and I’ll despise and vice versa… I
would say to stay away from the ‘studio monitor’ emulators though, I tried a
few of them including a beyerdynamic one. Supposedly they emulate studio monitors
so that you can mix using headphones and get a similar result to mixing using
monitors… Very enticing when you’re mixing on the quiet but I found that when I
played these mixes back on actual monitors things were wayyyyy off. This might
just be me sucking though.
Also, stay away from the kazoo emulator VSTi, probably my biggest let
down of the year. Zappa it ain’t.
I’m using a PC so I’m not sure how many of these come in AU format for
Mac, from memory a fair amount do and there are some that are Mac only that I
was cruelly denied so I guess it cuts both ways.
When you download the zip file for each plug you’ll need to extract the
whole file into your VST folder that’s linked to your DAW. If there are any
other places I can suggest you put stuff I’ll specify.
I’m a messy bastard but can I earnestly suggest that you create sub
folders to store these bits and bobs before you even start downloading… When I
started everything was all in a jumble and after downloading a heap of new
stuff my work flow was seriously hampered when it came to actually using the
new plug ins and samples. If I had my time again I’d have all my ampsims in one
folder, all my synths in another, compressors in another etc. Just easier that
way and you spend less time trying to find a particular thing when you could be
getting on with whatever you’re working on.
I’m not
housecleaning out of spite now, just wallowing in my own fetid mess like usual.
Websites For Cultivation (2.0)
www.vst4free.com is a goldmine, although I found that picking things out based on their rating was inaccurate as something that a single person had listed as 5* would be higher in the list than something that 80 people had listed as 4.6* … It’s a piece of piss to download stuff from this website, it’s very well laid out indeed with categories etc. for you to explore new things. I’ve tried to link from vst4free where possible as I’ve found it to be the best in terms of the amount they have in one place, it’s like a congregation of developers who offer freeware. There are some things NOT listed on vst4free though so it’s certainly not a catchall.
Also check out www.bedromproducersblog.com:
Landr is a good source:
And KVR has a heap of stuff:
I haven’t had chance to try all the freebies out there (although I’ve
definitely tried over 300 free plugs…), some of them are laughable, some of
them didn’t work at all, some of them crashed my computer every time I loaded
them BUT, some are life changing. Here is my list of faves:
Guitar Amps (3.0)
Just a quick word to say that your main struggle here is dynamics, if you make music that’s limited in dynamic range then ampsims are great… I made a Black Metal track and could mix the guitars to sound right for the style with relative ease. If you’re making music with a high dynamic range however things will become tricker. I’ve tried to introduce as much dynamic as I can in the other instruments so that the overall mix isn’t hampered by this. If you’ve got an acoustic guitar, double tracking your amp sim electric guitar track with it is normally a great start.
Also the lack of feedback is terrifying, just a nasty hum instead so DON'T whatever you do stop playing (or you might want to use a soft gate instead because otherwise... Zombie fingers?). A good 90% of my guitar tone is feedback and the remaining 10% is shoddy playing. I've gone back and nicked a load of feedback sections from my old work and pasted them over some bits of the new album, although I've also tried to accept the fact that this is a different process and things are not going to sound the same as before. I'm considering making an SFZ (read further down) instrument that uses tuned feedback (for this very purpose) so if anyone thinks this is not just a totally bad idea let me know and I'll do it.
I’ve found that to my ear, putting actual guitar pedals in front of
these ampsims does them no favours and results in a very heavily compressed
sound. If I want the tone of a particular ‘hardware’ pedal, my signal chain
goes Guitar > Pedal > Interface > Impulse Respose > Graphic EQ.
Skipping the amp sim seems to get a better result in almost all cases when
using overdrive, distortion or fuzz pedals BEFORE your interface.
The graphic EQ is really important here and having gained more
experience as I’ve gone along I’ve learnt that in most cases I’d high pass
above 10KHz using a soft curve and low pass below 100Hz using a steeper curve.
I’d then notch out unwanted mid range mid range frequencies by ear.
Neither of these last two points are gospel though, make up your own
minds. I don’t want to end up sounding like this fucking idiot - http://tweakheadz.com/the-art-of-recording-vocals-and-how-to-get-great-sounding-vocal-tracks/
(That article genuinely made me very sad, what better way to put people
off trying than to be an elitist snob. It really sums up everything that's wrong with the mine field of 'Internet Tutorials'. It’s just and right to use whatever you
have access to without the fear of reprisals from the kind of specimen who
calls himself ‘Rich the TweakMeister’ … ☹ . It’s not very punk to link to $1600 hardware
compressors to people who are just starting out is it Rich you utter fucking
moron? Do you think ‘top’ producers are reading your blog on ‘The Art of
Recording Vocals’ or do you think it’s more likely that it’s people who’re new
to the game and probably just have access what they can afford? Whilst making
some relevant points on technique you’ve also come across as a generally rather poorly
constituted individual (cock), so I hope you thoroughly enjoyed sniggering at
your own mirth while you wrote that shit fest Rich).
I did say that it
upset me…
So moving on… Amp
Sims.
Aradaz Green – Very unassuming interface, but definitely my favourite
guitar amp plug, most of the others are great for distortion or for whisker clean
but this one feels a lot more expressive for overdrive. It is PC only though.
If you use this I recommend turning the built in ‘cab’ and ‘IR’ switched off
though and using NadiR as the built in options don’t compare (more info on
NadiR below).
Boogex – First one
I played around with, has decent overdrive sounds and built in mic and cab
responses that sound good (remember to turn these off if you opt for NadiR).
Comes in VST and AU.
Poulin – You can find these listed on vst4free, there are a bunch he’s
made but I enjoyed Hybrit (a Marshall emulator), Le456 (Engl), LeCto (Mesa
Boogie) and LeGion (his own special blend)
Ace – This is made
by Shattered Glass who seem to ‘specialise’ in making things sound valvey. This
is a Fender Tweed Champ emulation. It’s fucking cool. Again, it comes with an
inbuilt ‘cab’ setting that you can turn off and load an impulse response from
an actual Fender Champ into NadiR. Shattered Glass also made the SGA1566 plug
that’s they claim to be the most accurate digital representation of a
12AX7 preamp to date… HOWEVER, I think I’d need to plug my HD into a warp core
to power it without it crapping out and glitching all to shit…. You might have
better luck though as I’m running VISTA.
( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGylKM-Mkws )
( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGylKM-Mkws )
TSE – TSE are good, check out the X50 (although it’s really meant to do
crazy metal it’s pretty fun). Also check their R47 which is a ProCo Rat
emulator to stick in front of your amp of choice.
AcmeBarGig – Out of
22 pages of guitar amp sims on vst4free, Acme have five, they range from usable
to stupid but kinda not the way I was expecting… For example, their 5000 watt
amp turned out to be fun whereas the amp sim that’s supposedly geared toward
70’s punk is total wank.
ShredSuite is interesting although it seems to eat your CPU for breakfast, you can build your own Frankenamp using sections of the different built in amp sims. You can have a Marshall Plexi preamp stage with a Laney Supergroup power amp stage for example. Don’t even ask me how realistic this is all intended to be but fudge it, it’s got lots of knobs to fiddle with. I used the Laney setting through a Marshall MF400A impulse response (in NadiR), an amp and cab combination that I own in the physical realm... aaaaand unsurprisingly it did not sound like the real thing.
But what? You want crisps AND a Tunnocks?
SHB-1 by Ignite - A bass amp. Can’t make up my mind about this one but
it's good for clean bass I guess. I’m still DI’ing my bass and using an IR but
I have used this on a couple of tracks.
Impulse responses (4.0) READ THIS BIT YOU BALLBAGS
NadiR – This shit is the saviour. All those amps above
and all the others you’ll find when exploring sound faker than a bin bag full
of Big Brother contestants without this bastard.
Basically some Gandalf mother fuckers somewhere learnt how to smelt the
sound of guitar cabs with a microphone and a spectrum analyser and Impulse
Responses were born.
When you load your amp sim of choice onto your audio track, put NadiR
after it in the chain. Then load up some IRs from your hard drive.
This link is a bit simple but it’ll pretty much show you what to do:
I’ve set up a folder on my hard drive called IR Files, that way I can
load them up quickly.
The IR files are WAVS that are designated as being a particular cab
loaded with particular speakers with a particular microphone in front (often
with particular mic placements offered too). These WAVS are actual snippets of
a recording which has been spectrum analysed and hence represents the frequency
response ‘sound’ of that set up. I might've gotten that all wrong but anyway,
you can load a Marshall 1960A with Celestion Greenbacks with a Neumann u87
close mic’d of centre. Or you can have a Fender Bassman in a large room with an SM57 set two inches from the grill. This is
good.
I was a bit dubious but I’ve A’B’d these against some of the recordings
I’ve made and whilst they’re not bang on they’re close enough that for SILENT
home recording I’m overjoyed. And it’s free. And silent. I’ve got about 15,000
different combinations on my hard drive, some are crap, some are good but they
were all free, just a case of using your ears to judge as ever. There are a
number of companies charging big bucks for ‘professional’ IRs as these as
modern studios seem to be DI’ing the guitars more and more these days. When
you’re just DI’ing your guitar straight into your audio interface at home,
these turn that horrible choked sound that you just can’t mix with eq into
something resembling a mic’d guitar amp in an actual room.
I still use a trusted graphic eq to low and high pass when mixing and
get rid of any unwanted resonant frequencies. Sticking some reverb on a return
channel works to liven it up, I normally use a very short early reflection (ER) ambience reverb with
EpicVerb (more on that below).
Here’s a few links to find your way:
http://bedroomproducersblog.com/2010/10/01/free-sample-shootout-6-best-free-guitar-cabinet-impulse-responses/
- A number of these links are broken or now charge per download but some are
still available.
The 7 Deadly Sins pack has over 13,000 IR files but there are a lot of
duds in there, some good stuff also though.
NadiR is only one of the free Impulse Loaders available but I’ve found
that it works the better than the others, it has zero latency for a start.
Always set the quality to ‘Extreme’ and if you opt for stereo mode it auto hard
pans the two IRs so you might want to alter that using the pan options. LePou
also does an Impulse Loader which has the option for loading up to 6 IR’s
simultaneously but it’s not zero latency so bleh.
I will keep you guys updated as I intend to roll up my wizards sleeves
and start making IR’s of my own in the coming months. I’ll be making IR’s of
digital to analogue converters though to try and make soft synths sound more
realistic, seems to me like guitar IR’s are already covered.
Said mages have also
applied the same technique to reverb spaces so you can load up the Royal Albert
Hall, or the inside of a crisp packet onto your vocal track… Search
‘convolution reverbs’ if you’re interested. I’m yet to find a free, zero latency
convolution reverb player that doesn’t make my computer die immediately.
So after all that extraneous crap, here's the link to NadiR -
Ignite amps do a
bunch of other stuff too including EQs, amps, pedals etc so have a geez.
Guitar Effects (5.0)
Phase 90 – Just for Matt Round, nuff said.
Tube Screamer – Yeah.
Snare Buzz – Yeah, I know what you’re thinking… This effect simulates
the sound of the snare buzzing when you play a note… Put it on the bass.
Playback. Turn it off again. Then back on again. Then decide whether you ever
want to turn it off again. I’ll post the developer’s own description here
because this is a classic example of someone entirely thinking outside the box.
“SnareBuzz is an audio effect plugin that emulates the wires of a snare
buzzing when there's another instrument playing near.
Why do you want to emulate this effect if every engineer in the world
has tried to get rid of it? Short: because it's cool! Long: because it doesn't
exist in the DAW environment, it's something that we are all familiar with, and
if you're really used to playing live with a band it's weird not hearing it
when recording instruments separately.”
When you're making music completely inside the digital realm, little
touches of 'real' like this can make all the difference.
Synths (6.0)
Dexed – Supposedly uses the same architecture as the Yamaha DX7 and you
can load old Yamaha SysEx files into the synth. The original synth was really
hard to program and involved lots of menu diving on a tiny screen but this has
a GUI with dedicated controls for everything. Dexed also works as an editor via
midi if you actually have a real DX7.
There are over 3000 presets available for this using the link here
(scroll down and you can watch the video of how to load them) - http://www.flstudiomusic.com/2015/08/dexed-free-fm-synthesizer-3000-presets.html
And you can download the VST here - http://www.vst4free.com/free_vst.php?id=2026
KB Plugs – These guys make a massive range of synths. 12 pages on
vst4free of emulations of some classics. I like the ‘Rolend JP-680’ but some of
the others wouldn’t work on my computer which I was a bit cut up about.
Maxsynths DR-910 – Roland TR-909 copy, looks great and sounds good,
especially when used in combination with softsynths, doesn’t quite hold up to
hardware but that’s not what this list is about. This guy has a bunch of other
stuff for free download on his site, or any donations made go to charity.
Sonigen Modular – Fucking beast. I’ve spent a whole couple of days
messing around with this one.
If you’re into the idea of toying with modular there are 6 pages of them
here: http://www.vst4free.com/index.php?plug-ins=Modular
Piano Vintage – Make a cool Roland TR-707 and 727 Latin Set if that’s
what you’re into. I am so into that.
Togu Audio Line (TAL) - TAL make synths based on the classics and
great effects too but I’ll list some of those a bit later.
Bleep – ToneBytes Bleep is a successful take on a chiptunes SID synth. I
enjoyed it a lot and it very quickly escalated into me making an 8-bit version
of My Lovely Horse from Father Ted. Shit got real.
It makes some great drum sounds but can only produce one at a time so
instead of having multiple instances I chose to resample the drum sounds into
a sampler for play back to save on CPU.
http://www.vst4free.com/free_vst.php?id=1105
http://www.vst4free.com/free_vst.php?id=1105
Martin Luders PG-8X – Recreation of a Roland JX-8P complete with the PG-800
controller. Like Dexed, it can read Roland SysEx files so you can find a bunch
on the net it’ll and load them as presets (although the zip file comes with 22 to
get you started). The lay out is great though and programming your own patches
is easy and enjoyable. I really like the sound of this one and seeing as the
voice chips are knackered in my Juno 106, this has been a very welcome
addition.
If you go to this site and check under the ‘tone’ tab there a zip files
containing 249 Roland Community SysEx files for the JX - http://www.synthzone.com/mschreier/
Martinic – (Specially for Mark Cotton) Martinic made an emulation of the
Farfisa Mini Deluxe Compact and has done a very good job of it too. Awesome
cheesy 60’s organ sound with a great interface and all the tabs and switching
of the original unit. This developer now works for Arturia so he’s a good
example of someone who’s started making freeware and based on the quality of
his work has been snapped up by a big developer and is now making plugs that
cost money.
2Dat OBXD – FML, this is my fave ‘soft analogue’ synth here and one of
the most impressive bits of freeware I’ve found. It’s an emulation of various
Oberheim synths rolled into one. Somehow it sounds ‘alive’ in a way that most
of the other virtual synths just don’t… I think it’s the filters but whatever
it is you HAVE to try this. It WILL make you sound like Vangelis. It’s comes
with a bunch of presets that can be a bit tricky to work out how to load at
first although there should be some info online based on your DAW of choice.
The GUI (interface) is too big for my screen and I’m still trying to work out
if I can shrink it but I’m still getting so much joy out of this thing that
It’s not slowing me down.
Sonic Charge Cyclone – (*Note: I’ve included this in the ‘Synths’
section whereas it should really go in the ‘Samplers’ section BUT it just seems to
fit better here). I love this SO much. It’s made me audibly laugh with joy so
many times already… It was made years ago, early 90’s (the developer purportedly still has troubleshooting emails from AFX from shortly after it was released)… It’s a 100% faithful
recreation of the Yamaha TX16W 12-bit sampler running Typhoon OS. I might be
biased here because 12 is my favourite number of bits, but this thing sounds SO
good compared to anything else, it’s just in it’s own world. This isn't some sort of sad bit-crusher effect either, it uses the exact
same architecture as the original, loads Yamaha floppy .img files etc. but
whereas Dexed falls just short of sounding like a DX7 (something about the crispness),
this thing just lives and breathes. To load files you have to click on the
floppy drive and go through all the button commands that you’d have to do on
the original, System Set Up > Utility etc, you then have to wait for the
samples to load and then click the relevant button to return to the Perform
page to actually play the sounds. I’m still using my Roland S-550, writing
floppy disks and using SCSI and shit so for me this is just part of my normal
workflow but it’s cool and fun.
Here’s the download - http://www.vst4free.com/free_vst.php?id=1838
And he’s the link to their FAQ - http://soniccharge.com/forum/topic/431-cyclone-faq
The FAQ page has all the instructions on how to operate the TX16W.
You’ll find the entire Yamaha Library online, there are thousands and thousands
of samples freely available covering everything imaginable. Whereas Akai users
seem to be really precious and aloof and charge obscene money for “Fat Sample
Sets” on Ebay, the Yamaha community just seem to be really lovely and willing
to share and help each other out. Please if nothing else listen to some of the
drums you can get through this thing, pretty much every drum machine ever made,
for free. Acoustic drums sampled at 12-bit so they’re all crunchy and nice….
Drool. The sounds have so much attack and presence and sit SO well in a mix.
Scroll through the forum and find links for downloading sounds, I think I’ve
got about 20,000 samples for this so if you’re really stuck message me and I’ll
see what I can send you but it shouldn’t be too hard, the level of generosity
and support on the net for this one is life affirming. I would seriously
recommend creating a ‘Cyclone TX16W’ folder on your HD to keep all the samples
in one place.
Of course, by routing your DAW you can also use the TX16W to sample your
own sounds, at 12-bit, which is the best number of bits.
Bits.
Processors / Effects (7.0)
Some great stuff here so have a read… I’ll start with compressors /
limiters and then go onto effects.
Cana Saint Martin – Not strictly a compressor but the Mystique is a reel
to reel tape machine emulator. Whilst I don’t really believe you can perfectly
emulate tape using software this just sounds good to my ears. I'd never admit to using the same plug on every track but this is great for warming cold mixes when required (so I seem to end up using it quite a lot)… It’s replaced an old faithful I used to use that retails at $150. It’s
not like it’s compressing the crap out of everything, it just gently rubs it
together. Maybe because I have a treble fetish this one’s been kind to me as it
just slightly softens the top out without making it sound flat. I put it one
the master channel….
Ferric TDS by Variety Of Sound – The Ferric TDS won the KVR developer
award in 2009 so it’s a few years old but as with the CANA, this is a go to
plug. I just like the sound more than many of the others I’ve tried, it’s
subtle. VOS make some seriously cool shit and come up in this list a number of
times.
Slick HDR – Again made by VOS, this is space age… Apparently they had a
conversation that went something like, “Why is everyone trying so hard to make
digital emulations of analogue technology that’s a century old when we could be
using our powerful noggins to make something that goes beyond what analogue
could ever accomplish?” - They took their influence for this from
HDR (High Dynamic Range) image processing which enhances photos taken in shitty
lighting conditions etc, like some spy satellite shit. This approach applied to
audio is very welcome indeed, this is essentially three compressors in a chain
that respond to each other to pick out the otherwise lost detailing of the
audio signal without simply squashing it in the traditional sense. It’s supposed
to be the perfect marriage between the two rocks of having a very quiet master
where you can hear the details and having a very loud master where you can’t
hear shit. I understand that’s an over simplified equation but you get me
anyway. Check dis.
Definitely check out a tutorial for using this as it’s got a learning
curve to get the best out of it (despite having a very simple interface)
Master buss - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00trQ4w5FeQ
VOS also make the VBL, LA and XTC Thrillseeker Modules which are each
based on interesting concepts plus a whole bunch of other stuff so it’s worth
perusing their other free offerings –
Code Red – This is
another Shattered Glass plug, they made the Tweed Champ in the Guitar section
above. This is supposed to be the ‘Beatles’ plug, based on the EMI TG12345
console used in Abbey Road. Waves are selling their version for £60 but this
one is free. I’m honestly not sure exactly how much I used it but it’s a worthy
addition to the list. This is a 'demo' and you can also pay for a beefed up
version although this seems to have most of the important features, it doesn't
make an alarm sound every 30 seconds and you can save.
TDR – Tokyo Dawn Labs make some of the most impressive bits of software
I’ve come across, free or otherwise. I don’t know what else to say about these
guys other than it’s VERY clean and surgical in their precision. You feel like
you’re getting a powerful tool, zero quids spent. There are videos on each of
these pages to help you get better acquainted with their respective features.
These WILL eat your CPU so I use sparingly.
The NOVA is an EQ and multi band compressor, more powerful than He-Man
on bath salts, this was a collaborative effort between TDR and VOS - http://www.tokyodawn.net/tdr-nova/
The Kotelnikov is an advanced compressor - http://www.tokyodawn.net/tdr-kotelnikov/
The VOS Slick EQ is
unsurprisingly another EQ, simpler in it’s interface than the NOVA but I very
much like this one, very nice to use. Again this is a TDR, VOS collab effort - http://www.tokyodawn.net/tdr-vos-slickeq/
VladG – Vlad now works for TDR (above). His original version of the
NOVA, the Nova-67P won second prize in the KVR developers award in 2014. It
takes a while to get your head around but it’s a truly stonking bit of kit.
It’s an EQ / Multiband Compressor.
Again, it’s worth watching a tutorial video for this one to get the most
out of the features… You’re all like, hey this is simple, hmm yes, I see what
they’re done there… Oh… Oh dear…. HOLY FUCK, AHHHHHHHHHH… Then you compose
yourself and realise that now your mixes sound like a greased Terry Wogan in a
silk kimono and otter skin loincloth, riding a dolphin bareback through the
woods at midnight - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wg-MijDLGOo
VladG also made the following:
Limiter No6 – Modular Mastering Limiter. Fuck this is good.
Molot – A very ‘characterful’ compressor with all the labelling in
Russian.
Watch those tutorials people.
Antress – Antress have a total of 24 plug ins freely available, most are
emulations of sought after compressors. They seem to have a lot of fans
although I’m yet to delve too deeply into these as I only acquired them
recently. You can search through the list here:
Klanghelm – Klanghelm have a number of plugs available on their website
for under 25 Euros but freebies I’ve used are as follows:
MJUCJR – A very good compressor, has character.
IVGI – A saturation module, this is great, I love it on piano. Miles
better than anything else I’ve yet tried in the ‘saturation’ category in terms
of it’s harmonic content.
Sleepy Time – The Transient by Sleepy Time is a spin on the
revolutionary SPL Transient Designer. It accentuates the transients in the
audio signal. Drums. Basically, just a pinch and it’s magic, it will totally
ruin the audio though if overused. I’d start by turning the Attack and Sustain
up ever so slightly and then increasing the VCA/Envelope timing just a smidge
and then assessing. You’ve then got the option to filter the effect to your
desired frequency range. You can get some really crazy shit out of it if you
abuse it but this seems best used as something used very moderately.
Fine Cut Bodies – I searched far and wide for a GOOD free aural exciter
as the BBE plug I’d been using seemed to be killing my PC slowly and painfully.
I tried a few and they fucking sucked, then I came across this one. As with the
Transient listed above, less is more here for sure. Fine Cut Bodies is a
producer who’s made this plug as a freely available download.
Acon Digital – Multiply is a good clean digital sounding chorus with
extra options, won the KVR award in 2014.
VOS – VOS are in again with the following:
epicVerb – Best reverb I’ve tried, amazingly good sounds. I like using
the REFLEX setting on a return channel on guitars recorded using the ampsims in
the first category. The Plate reverbs are great, just lots of good stuff and
easy to use, comes with tons of presets to get you started.
Nasty DLA mkII – A great Roland Space Echo emulator. Dub. Side. Of. The.
Moon.
Togu Audio Line (TAL) - Again, TAL make a bunch of effects but I’m
partial to the following:
TAL Chorus LX – An emulation of the chorus circuit from the Roland Juno
60. A basic interface but sounds characterful.
TAl DUB III – A useful analogue sounding 'Bucket-brigade / BBD' echo.
TAL Reverb III – A stereo plate reverb. I used this a lot until I
discovered epicVerb but if anyone’s still reading by this point I’d still check
it out.
TAL USE – The Ultra Simple EQ is exactly that, it’s based on a tilt EQ
where you simply cut bass while boosting highs or vice versa over a mid pivot
point of your choosing. Sometime you want to turn your thermal imagining scope
on and go all SAS sniper on your EQ but sometimes, a little nudge is all it
needs… This is your friend.
p://www.vst4free.com/free_vst.php?plugin=VeeWidener&id=2563
STW Audio – REFLEX is an ambient delay and reverb module. If you want to
sound like Sigur Ros, write some beautiful songs and then apply this effect.
Bit of a cheap trick really as you could undoubtedly get a better sound using
two standalone effects but whatever.... Instant gratification and all that.
Drums (8.0)
This is the big one for me and doubtless countless others who’ve
struggled to create ‘natural sounding’, ‘acoustic feel’, ‘live’, whatever drums
at home in your bedroom with no drum kit. I used a drum machine for years, on
my last album I recorded individual hits of each drum and sequenced them… Still
not good enough. You inevitably use whatever method you have available to you
but now we just have a better option, and thanks to some bloody nice people,
it’s free.
I’ll move on to Multi-Velocity kits in a minute but first I’d like to
run through a number of more traditional VSTi, sample based (ROMpler) kits that
I’ve acquired freely online. These have been a great in attaining a more
realistic drum sound at home.
MT Power Drum Kit 2
– Produced by Manda Audio, this kit sounds great, I use it regularly,
especially if I’m making something that needs a powerful rock sound. Fuck that
sentence, that never came out of my mouth right? The samples are well recorded
and cut through is what I meant to say.
Sean Pandy Drums –
An individual going by the name Rob Chokehold has compiled some samples made
available years ago by Sean Pandy into a VSTi. These are good for metal.
Cherry Snare – A vst4free own brand, I find this really useful for
layering over the top of another snare. It was recorded with 4 microphones
which you have control over, these can be individually panned or volume
adjusted. There is a Top Condenser, a Top Dynamic, a Bottom Condenser (lol) and
Stereo Room mics. I like to turn the two top mics off, turn the bottom
condenser and stereo room mics up and then sit this over the top of another
snare.
Black Noh Snare – Rob Chokehold again. Very similar to the Cherry Snare
in concept. This is in here because you can’t possibly have enough snare drums.
X-crash – Again, exact same concept but for a crash. Another vst4free
creation.
Alan Vista – Alan gets his own category because he's a renegade of funk
and has a special place in my heart for his contributions. He’s sampled a
number of percussion instruments and coded them to easy to use VSTi plugs. He’s
made things no one else has and done them very well. Play with them all.
de la Mancha – Dynamite Cowbell. If you don’t download this you’re just
cheating yourself. It’s also multi velocity.
Now then, the big guns…
Multi-Velocity Sampled Drums
So…
Traditionally the incoming ‘Velocity’ on the sample resulted in the same
sample being played either quieter or louder. This was okay but it didn’t make
your drums particularly realistic in the grand scheme of things.
Velocity is how hard you hit the key on your midi keyboard, OR what you
program the velocity to be if you are using a sequencer. Velocity ranges from 0 to 127.
So…
Multi Velocity samples work like this, you sample 20 snare hits and
label them, ‘Sample A’ through to ‘Sample T’
Sample A = A very light tap on the snare.
Gradually increasing to;
Sample T = The Hammer of Thor (on the snare).
These samples are then given certain behavioural characteristics in the way in which they’re triggered.
Firstly they will all triggered by midi note C1
Then, Sample A will be triggered when the velocity of C1 = BETWEEN
1 and 6.4 (we don't class 0 here as that equals no velocity)
Sample B will be triggered when the velocity of C1 = BETWEEN
6.5 and 13
Etc until we reach Sample T which is triggered when the velocity of C1 =
120 and 127
This means that with multi sampled drums you’re triggering a DIFFERENT
sample based on the velocity, not simply louder or quieter, but
characteristically different. Just like if you hit the snare harder or softer
it’s a different sound, not simply the exact same sound at a higher or lower
volume. This technology captures those nuances.
When you repeat this over the entire drum kit you’ve got a very detailed
recreation of a live kit that can be programmed and sequenced using your DAW or
played using you MIDI keyboard.
If you’re worried that you don’t have the means to make your own multi
velocity samples don’t be, I’ve found a shit ton on the net, again from very
generous contributors to the community. I’ve got 9 different drum kits at the
moment with a few more still left to program. I’ve got a 1965 Ludwig, a Sonor
kit, a Yamaha kit, another Ludwig, a Gretsch…. It goes on. There ARE people out
there selling kits online, but I’ll link below to as many places as I can
remember where you can obtain free Multi Velocity samples.
The kits come as WAV files in a ZIP. There might be anything up to a
couple of GB per kit, sometimes more as the more samples there are, the more
expressive the kit becomes and some contain thousands of individual samples.
Some have been pre-programmed and can be loaded into samplers like Plogue’s
Sforzando, the TX16WX by CWITEC (not to be confused with Sonic Charge’s Cyclone
TX16W), or Ableton’s SAMPLER instrument. If you are using Ableton, hit me up
for pre-made kits as I’ve spent a good amount of time programming them, they
normally take about a day each to program so if I can spare anyone else the
bother of doing that themselves then I’m happy to help.
Another thing worth mentioning is Round Robin samples, this essentially
means that instead of having one key assigned to each drum like you would with
a drum machine, you sample LEFT and RIGHT hand hits with the drums you’re
likely to do rolls on, ie the snare and toms and / or multiple hits on the
ride. Drum machines retrigger the sample everytime your sequencer triggers the
note so you end up with those machine gun snare rolls… Though that can sound
good if that’s what you’re going for (think Blue Monday), it’s by no means realistic. Round Robins
thus allow you to play the left and right hands in sequence with different keys
and produce a more realistic roll OR when it comes to the ride cymbal, are
normally linked to the same key, so if you hit the key 4 times it’ll cycle
automatically between samples 1, 2, 3 and 4 and then repeat. This allows you to
very naturally “ride” the ride cymbal instead of getting that horrible clipped
effect every time the sample is retriggered.
And finally before I move on to the goods… For anyone using an
electronic drum kit, you shouldn’t have any trouble loading these samples to
your kit, you’ll just have to check compatibility with your drum module.
So to reiterate, in order to access Multi-Velocity drums and other
Multi-Velocity Intruments for no cash you’ll need to download either:
Sforzando by Plogue – https://www.plogue.com/products/sforzando/
Completely free of charge. I am OBSESSED with this thing. I have a whole
chapter on it coming up.
Or TX16WX by CWITEC - http://www.tx16wx.com/
Free, or the ‘Professional’ version is 29 Euros.
Or, use an inbuilt sampler like Ableton’s SAMPLER.
You can also use Kontakt or other commercial samplers but Kontakt is
£340…
TX16WX has a slight
advantage over Sforzando in that it has multi outs but to be honest, Sforzando
has such a low impact on your CPU that you can run multiple instances of it
without trouble.
I’ll list some places where MultiVelocity drum samples can be obtained
and then I’ll jump onto Samplers and sample formats (I’m trying real hard to
stick to the format my ‘contents’ list and not just ramble on forever).
SM Drums – I’ll start with the best of the best. A LOT of time and
effort has been put into this kit and to offer it for free is astounding. Their
tagline is “Deeply Sampled Free Drums For The Masses” which is noble indeed. 2.2GB worth of samples of a 1960’s Ludwig Kit
played by a pro drummer. Up to 32 velocity layers and 8 round robins. Here’s a
equipment list: https://smmdrums.wordpress.com/category/pictures/
Here’s the link to the main site:
Click here for the SFZ (Sforzando) files, these come with buss folders
and the works:
Big Mono – This is another vintage Ludwig kit, recorded through a
vintage Neve desk. It was recorded in an airy room but that just means
character and a very natural room reverb without the need for loading plugins.
I use this kit quite a lot as it was the first kit I programmed into Ableton’s
SAMPLER. It’s also available for Sfz format so can be loaded directly into
Sforzando.
Sam’s Sonor (Sam Greene) – I love this kit, it’s got a great sound and
an excellent squeaky bass drum pedal (it’s all these things that make it more
real than a drum machine). Sam just seems to love music and has a ton of stuff
on his site. He’s kindly programmed the kit into multiple formats which you can
find here:
You can also check out his own site here: http://www.samgreene.com/sams-sonor-samples
I did have some issues with the samples mapped to Ableton’s SAMPLER, the
output wasn’t peaking but some of the individual samples were inside the
sampler. I’ve normalised everything and now I use this kit all the time, if you
have the same trouble let me know and I can send you the Ableton instrument. If I ever get round to it I
plan on coding this kit into Sfz in the not too distant so feel free to keep in touch
on that front too.
bedroomproducersblog.com
did a great entry about free drum samples but I found that a number of links
were broken so be wary if by this point you’re googling the shit out of multi
velocity drums...
The list also included standard basic drum samples so do check those out
but I don’t intend to mention those here as the focus is on multi-velocity.
To save you the trouble then I’ve pasted below the links below that
still work and have not switched over to paid downloads or paid membership.
Again, it’s certainly not my intention to be damaging anyone’s business sales
but this document is for freely available downloads only:
AVL Drumkits - A father and son duo have come up with two great sounding
kits and a bunch of percussion, all mapped for SFZ so you don’t have to
do any work. Great squeaky bass drum pedal on the ‘Red Zeppelin’ kit. Not a
huge number of layers per kit piece but to my ears they’ve got it just right.
Very impressed with these and would recommend highly. I'd mind that these seem to be panned as if you're actually sat at the drum stool, this can either work or not in a mix BUT I've had good results with layering these over another kit playing a different beat (Ã la TWO drummers) and it sounds like it's raining cathedrals.
Natural Drum Kit – Sfz only. The website is all in German put persist.
It works and sounds good.
Jazz Funk Kit - Jazz, nice.
Or Sfz @ http://www.drealm.info/sfz/GregJazz/
Michael Kingston – The Ruffrider and Easyrider kits are both good. Not
many velocity layers but I’m not sure that was entirely the angle of approach
here given the ferocity of the hits. These sound great.
Drum Mic’a – This is a Sennheiser product that’s free to download. I’ve
been unable to test it because it won’t run on Vista but I’ve listened to demos
and it sounds great. Again, the site all in German and you have to go through a
registration process in order to access the download so I hope you’ve been
keeping up with Duolingo. The prize is a massive 13,000 samples at 4GB though
so get on it. It's supposedly "the best free instrument ever" ...
Plogue Sforzando, sfz. and sf2. formats (9.0)
So now we’ve covered multi-velocity drums we can apply the same approach
to other instruments too. I love Sforzando, it was created to keep the Sfz
format alive. SFz is a royalty-free, open-source format and was created at a time when Roland had their own
format, Akai had their own format, Ensoniq had their own format etc etc… Sfz was originally created for Cakewalk and is a
simple way of telling a group of samples how to behave using a text based
editor like MS Notepad. Although Cakewalk invented the format, it's now freely available through third party players like Sforzando.
See an example of an Sfz file here - http://www.drealm.info/sfz/K-v-R/pearl%20master%20custom%20with%20zildjians.sfz
So essentially you put all your wavs in a folder, then you create an
instance of notepad and save it to that folder, then you code how you want the
samples to behave. This is how all of the multi-velocity drums for Sfz format
in the category above were created, and trust me the link above demonstrates a
fairly simple example. If you’re looking to create powerful and complex sample
based instruments I’ve found this to be a very satisfying way of going about it.
Using Sforzando you can open Notepad from within the VSTi, any changes you make
to the code you then only have to hit save in Notepad and the changes will be
applied. I’ve made TB-303 sounds out of a single sample of a bass guitar pluck
with only a few commands (or 'op codes' if you're being snazzy) and had fun doing it.
What we’re really
interested in here is instant gratification though right, so here are
some kind people who’ve got us started in the incredible world SFZ
intruments…
To load an SFZ file into Sforzando, you either drag and drop the SFZ
file onto the GUI or load it through the File menu. You will need to right
click on the SFZ file you first download and select ‘open with’ MS Notepad (or
similar), this then defaults so only needs to be done once. You will then be
able to open the text editor from within Sforzando and edit on the fly.
Have a look at this video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O62kISpCN9Y
So here we go...
Estate Grand Piano – This made me actually cry when I heard it, this shit is fucked up. This is the 1.8GB ‘lite’ version of the full product which is a mind bending 11GB and costs $79. This is donationware so you can pay what you like or even pay nothing. I’ve received at least three emails since signing up to their mailing list offering me the full product for $20 and I think next time I get offered I’m going to take it.
This is sampled from a Kawai grand piano on an estate somewhere in
Ontario.
It’s so detailed it just blows my mind.
When you press the keys down you HEAR the sound of the keys moving.
Same when you release them.
When you apply pressure to the sustain pedal hooked up your you midi
keyboard (if you don’t have on get one just for this) you HEAR the sound of the
sustain pedals moving on the actual piano this was recorded from.
The general sound is incredible. Put it this way, I bought the Nord
Electro 2 shortly after it came out for A LOT of money because it supposedly
had the best sampled piano money could buy loaded into a portable keyboard…
The Estate Grand sound better, and not just by a small amount, it sounds
crazy better. And you can load it onto a £50 midi keyboard. Hell, you don’t
even need a DAW to run Sforzando as it specifically was designed to run not
only in a VSTi setting, but also run as a stand-alone application. This means
anyone anywhere with a laptop can access the Estate Grand or indeed any other
Sfz of Sf2 instrument.
That’s big…
That’s shifting the balance of having access to great sounds from people
who CAN afford expensive equipment (albeit this includes people who save their
arses off for it), and people who CANNOT afford expensive equipment (but have
access to a computer).
It’s like musical socialism.
Yeah.
It’s my plan to make a similar Sfz instrument using my Fender Rhodes electric
piano as soon as possible, I just need to find a good pianist who can play the
same velocity uniformly across the keyboard because I’m just not that good.
Anyway, I’ll keep you posted.
So continuing on from that, we then introduce a number of sources to
obtain more SFZ instruments:
Plogue has a list on it's own site. Check the whole list but DEFINITELY
get the Big Cat Cello and Meatbass (both from Karoryfer) and the Sforzatron
(Plogue / Taijiguy). Big Cat Cello comes with both bowed and plucked samples
amongst other things. Meatbass is an amazing Double Bass and Sforzatron is a
Mellotron with extras including ADSR envelopes. I'm a massive Mellotron fan and
a number of years ago I bought a Kurzweil K2500, searched out a SCSI Cd drive and purchased a VERY
expensive sample CD just to get my hands on the Mellotron sounds. The fact that
Sforzatron is here for free is another testament of the kindness of others.
King Crimson O’Clock.
Karoryfer have a
total of 22 Sfz instruments available for free on their site, these are as
varied as tubas, Fender VI bass and the incredible 272 Merry Orks (272 samples
of a female death metal vocalist). Drummers Paradise is good.
Patch Arena has lots of goodies, Bass City is great for you FM House and Lately bass (saves you buying a DX100!!), I like the Marimba
and there are a number of analogue basses available.
Aria Engine is where it all started –
Start creating your own with this guide - http://www.keyboardmag.com/miscellaneous/1265/create-your-own-virtual-instruments-with-sfz-files/31010
Opcodes can be found here: https://www.linuxsampler.org/sfz/
And elsewhere on the web.
There are more out there, get googling. I strongly recommend creating an
SFZ folder on your HD to store all relevant files and folders in one place.
SF2 / Soundfonts
SF2 is a bit of a weird one in that it’s now a totally redundant format
but still plays in any SFZ player and has a continuing fan base. Soundfonts
come from when PC audio was fairly young, like Soundblaster young.
Read some history here - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SoundFont
So it turns out that there are about a million Soundfonts freely
available on line. I’ve got some great basses, Sega Megadrive sounds, weird shit,
gritty as fuck drums.
If you want to sound like you were making music in the 90’s this is for
you.
I can’t vouch for all of these are there are truly SO many I’ve not had
time to check them all. I’ll link below and you can fend for yourself:
https://trisamples.com/free-soundfonts/ (A
very helpfully compiled list of links)
http://freedrumkits.net/sound-fonts/
- Get your 808’s here.
Many, many more available. As with SFZ, I’d recommend storing all your
Soundfonts in one folder.
Fuck I think I’m nearly finished.
Other Sampler Systems (10.0)
Really quickly then, I’ve used Ableton’s SAMPLER to map multi-velocity
drums to an Ableton preset instrument that you can drag and drop. If you’re
using Ableton and you’d like me to try and send you these then get in touch.
If you’d like to give it a go yourself, this is a short video providing
the basics - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ggkt0xIL1c
It’s kind of fun the first couple of times and you feel like you’ve
achieved something.
Obviously Ableton itself isn’t free but if you’re already
using it then I’m happy to send you these kits for nowt.
The other plug I’d like to quickly mention again is the TX16WX from
CWITEC. I’m upgrading computer soon and am very much looking forward to playing
with this sampler. It’s very advanced and kind of the antithesis of the Sonic
Charge Cyclone. Though both are based on the same hardware sampler, the TX16WX
is how they imagine the technology would have advanced to today’s standard had
Yamaha kept making the TX16w.
The TX16WX allows for multi-outs which is a serious feature not shared
by Sforzando.
Freeware DAW & Misc. (11.0)
After posting this document I was quickly asked by a friend to recommend a capable freeware DAW. I thought this would be a useful additional chapter to tack on the end as the price of a DAW dwarfs the cost of almost any VST and would be an impasse for anyone starting out with limited to no funds.
I did some digging and it didn't take me long to discover this very well written article which includes ten free DAWs with varying features.
Vst4free also have a list of freeware hosts on their site -
Pro Tools is $599 at cost OR $299 to eligable students.
Ableton Live Suite is EUR 599 or EUR 359 to eligable students. For Ableton this includes anyone from primary to advances degree level education and most teachers.
This is a significant saving on industry standard DAWs and both come with lifetime updates. It's still a bunch of money but defintely worth a mention.
For people who are struggling to afford a computer I've also come across the following article which contains advice and lists a number of schemes available for obtaining a free or subsidised computer for families on low income or people with disabilities living in the UK. This is listed on a price comparison website but there are no pervasive opera singers or meerkats and the article was published in March 2017 so it's content is current. Amongst others, pensioners and people living in rural locations may also be covered by some of the schemes on offer. It seems to involve a lot of refurbished desktop and laptop computers with specs that should cover you for music making.
*** I have to put a disclaimer here because this is the internet, but obviously I have ZERO involvement in, or endorsement of the information provided in the following link -Always read the small print ***
I think that’s the end so thanks if you got this far, hope you enjoy
yourselves and sorry about all the swearing.
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