Five More FREE VST Plugins Every Producer Must Have in 2020 Going into 2021
By: Cole Purdy
Tags: Vsts, Audio, Music Producer, Music Production, Music

5 More Free VST Plugins that Every Producer Must Have in 2020 Going into 2021

After the previous article and video about this topic, it was requested that I tell the world about five more. Ask and you shall receive in this world, and thus I am following through with five more free VST plugins that every producer must have in 2020 going into 2021.

In the previous iteration, I tried to divide my focus between instrument plugins and sound modifiers. In this one, we will only be talking about free VST plugin instruments that every producer must have. These should all work with most any DAW on the market and are plugins that I use consistently.

Roland Zenology Lite

Roland Zenology Lite is a collection of patches from the Roland Zenology plugin. The full version is somewhat pricey, although an amazing device. The free version is available to anybody who has a free Roland Cloud membership and is a tool every producer should put into their toolbox.

The plugin features a large number of presets and patches which emulate some of the greatest Roland sounds ever crafted. While the device cannot do much in terms of patch creation, or patch modification, what you get out of the box is something with sounds you’ll find yourself going back to time and time again.

The plugin can be on the CPU intensive side, so those of us who have lower specs on our machines will have to keep that in mind with how we approach our production workflow. However, this producer is on a terrible laptop and by simply creating my melody and then bouncing it to audio, I can work around the CPU usage that the Roland Zenology Lite tends to use.

Nils K1v

The Nils K1v is one of my personal favorites as a producer. The plugin is an emulation and recreation of the Kawai K1 and does an incredible job with it. The device has hundreds of patches right out of the box, which pretty much all sounds great. One of the biggest features the plugin has though, is its ability to work with the actual hardware synth.

One could create patches on their Kawai K1 and then use them with the Nils K1v VST. Here’s where it gets even better, though. You can actually do that in reverse as well. One could make patches on the VST utilizing their computer’s interface for easier sound design and then export and use those patches on the original Kawai, which is utterly incredible.

Dexed

It would be impossible to have lists like these without talking about Dexed. Dexed is very similar to the Nils K1v in that it’s an emulation of a classic. Dexed emulates the Yamaha DX-7, which was one of the most influential, popular and widely beloved synthesizer keyboard stations of all time.

While the interface in Dexed is fairly complex and far from self-explanatory, one doesn’t need to worry about sound designing in it if they don’t want to. Like the Nils, Dexed can use patches from the original device. This means that you can use patches designed for a DX-7 in Dexed. There are seemingly infinite patches one can find on the internet and it’s easy for a producer to lose hours to digging through all of their newfound sound toys.

Steinberg Model-E

Steinberg’s Model-E is a must have freebie for any producer looking for great sounds. The synth has almost eighty patches and more can be found on the internet. The interface is simple, yet capable of designing great things with a little big of knowhow. Every producer should grab the Steinberg Model-E if they’re looking for free VST plugins in 2020 going into 2021.

Vital

At this time, any producer who has the internet knows about Vital. However, Vital must absolutely be mentioned. Vital is a wavetable synthesizer that really made a name for itself in a very short period of time.

Vital is similar to Serum, but there’s a free version that really only is limited by the lack of preset patches. With the free version, you only get somewhere around thirty free patches, however it doesn’t limit your ability to sound design with it. One could grab hundreds of wavetables and really dive in and make whatever sounds they could dream up with vital, making the free VST a sound designing producer’s dream come true pieces of free plugin software.

CollaB3 (Honorable Mention #1)

CollaB3 is an organ emulation that sounds great. The settings are simple, the GUI is clean and it’s hard to argue with the sounds it creates authenticity. Anyone looking for a great free organ VST, look no further as the CollaB3 simply gets it done in that particular space.

VB-1 (Honorable Mention #2)

The Steinberg VB-1 is a bass emulation VST plugin. Its interface is simple, yet effective and the sounds that it creates are authentic and great. The tone is legitimate and provides you the ability to create a bass tone that feels as if it’s a real bass rather than a synth or an 808, making it great for old school hip hop, pop music, rock, etc. Basically, it’s good for almost anything.

AMPBL (Honorable Mention #3)

AMPBL is a P-Bass style bass emulation by Ample and it’s a wonderful VST for anyone looking for an authentic bass sound. it’s the free version of their full P-Bass emulation, however it’s still a completely wonderful and useable sound. The only major thing that the AMPBL has over the VB-1 is the velocity sensitivity. With the AMPBL, if you smack the key, you can really hear the string being hammered on to the fretboard.