Free/Affordable Plugin Recommendations

There's nothing wrong with using free plugins. Free plugins have been used to make the Stardew Valley OST, the Undertale OST and plenty more. All that matters is getting started. Free doesen't mean low quality either, i use plenty of these plugins in my everyday workflow!

  • General
  • Spitfire Labs - A collection of free high quality instruments. I especially reccomend the lap steel, tape orchestra and atmospheres, but they are all fantastic.
  • Xpand!2 - Another large collection of virtual instruments. Not super realistic or anything, but has quite a lot of charm.
  • Sforzando is a free soundfont player. Lots of soundfonts are hosted here.
  • DSK offers dozens of free instruments.
  • Orchestral/Ensemble
  • Fantasi - A small collection of free orchestal like virtual instruments.
  • BBC Symphony Orchestra Discover - Free with a wait (or $49 for instant), the free version of what is in my opinion, the best orchestral plugin out there.
  • Orchestral Tools Layers - A really simple instrument that makes it easy for even beginners to add orchestral elements to their compositions.
  • Project SAM The Free Orchestra - An incredibly high quality of cinemaic music sounds.
  • Contemporary Instruments
  • Vital - My main workhorse synth. I use it for 95% of my synth needs. Don't let the price full you, it's incredibly powerful. Patch Bank Here!
  • Keyzone Classic - A free sample based Piano VST
  • MTPowerDrumKit2 - Free drum kit plugin
  • STL Emissary - A super high quality guitar amp and cab simulator.
  • Synth 1 - A very powerful synth for being free, with tons of community made preset packages.
  • dexed - An FM soft synth modelled after the Yamaha DX7.
  • Sitala - Just a really solid drum machine plugin
  • A few more free soft synths
    • OB-Xd - Based on the Oberheim OB-X, with some additional features.
    • Surge XT - A free and open source hybrid synthesizer, with many techniques, filters, modulations and effects.
    • MinDy S - A free synthesizer based on the Mini Moog, a classic analog synthesizer.
    • Odin 2 - A feature-rich polyphonic synthesizer capable of basses, leads and everything in between.

P.S. Don't forget to check and see what, if any, free instruments come with your Digital Audio Workstation! They are usually pretty high quality!

P.P.S. Be cautious not to get too caught up in collecting plugins. Just get what you need and make some music.

Check out 'A Free Studio' for a really cool guide on budget music making!

In addition, Plugins4Free is host to hundreds of great free plugins.

Paid Plugin Recommendations

At some point as a composer, you're (probably, not always) going to want to get high quality paid plugins. These are my current favorites.

Disclaimer! I am not being paid to promote these plugins or anything like that, just my personal recommendations (unless you're one of the plugin developers, then please pay me!)

  • Orchestral/Ensemble
  • BBC Symphony Orchestra Pro - The Ultimate Orchestral Suite. It's the most detailed part of spitfire's offerings IMO. Has instrument sections and soloists, as well as dozens of microphone positions. You can really get any sound with this. The only thing it doesen't have are sections, such as wind, string and brass, because this is is used for crafting an intricate arrangement.
  • Spitfire Albion Series - If you would prefer something more suitable for orchestral sketching, versus arrangement, this is spitifre's easier to use offering, allowing you to play the orchestra as sections rather than individual families and instruments. Each Albion library has it's own vibe though, so check out the differneces to see what suits you best.
  • CinePerc - An incredibly comprehensive percussion library
  • Contemporary Instruments
  • Piano Teq - A high quality keyboard instrument plugin which includes a variety of pianos, harpsichords, celestes, electric pianos and more.
  • Omnisphere 2 - One of the most versatile synth plugins out there, allowing you to use quite a few different types of synthesis to create an endless pallette of sounds
  • Damage 2 - The gold standard for hybrid percussion sounds
  • Helix Native - Helix is my favorite guitar/bass amp and cab modeling software. I use the Helix Floor when i play live and Helix Native to record. High quality and versatile.
  • Virtual CZ - Perfect for replicating that old school ROMpler style synth sound.
  • Super Audio Cart - Chiptune synth sounds ripped straight from old school video games.
  • Phoscyon - A faithful Roland 303 VST recreation, with a few new features as well!
  • Drumatic 4 - A really dope 10 channel drum machine with a wide range of sounds.
  • EZDrummer 2 - The best drum kit vst out there IMO. The expansion kits are also really great, my favorite is the 'Drumkit From Hell' metal kit.
  • Traditional Instruments
  • Ethno World 6 - An incredibly comprehensive plugin featuring voices and instruments from around the globe!
  • ERA II Medieval Legends - By far the most comprehensive library for medieval european instruments. Everything by Best Service is killer imo, especially their ERA series.
  • Native Instruments Spotlight Collection - A collection of instruments from 6 different musical cultures around the globe.
  • Vocals
  • Wotan Male Choir - Versatile and powerful choir plugin with Male Tenors and Basses. Think LOTR style choirs. Counterpart of Freyja.
  • Freyja Female Choir - Versatile and emotive choir plugin with Female Altos and Sopranos. Think LOTR style choirs. Counterpart of Wotan.
  • Arva Children Choir - A children choir library with boys and girls. Also, Think LOTR style choirs.
  • Storm Choir - A powerful and haunting chamber choir. Think Dark Souls or Halo style choirs.
  • Tropar - An authentic Orthodox choir. Perfect for your latin chants.
  • Rhodope 2 - Ethnic Bulgarian Choir
  • Dominus Choir - A unique choir plugin that allows you to build phrases, having complete control over what the choir is actually saying. Voxos also has a pretty robust phrasebuilder.
  • Strezov also has a much, much cheaper Choir Essentials Plugin that takes selections from many of these for beginners who don't need the options overload or don't have the funds.

    • Note: Many of these plugins may require Kontakt to play them.

    If you are feeling overwhelmed by the amount of plugins out there, bundles like Kontakt Komplete or EastWest ComposerCloud are also good options if you are in that price range.