The Game Composer’s Blog

I thought it might be useful to make a list of some excellent free VST’s for some of the composers and sound designers out there. I’ve been using these regularly over the last five years (or more in some cases) and they all have been solid, stable, and of a value much beyond their price:

MadShifta – A quick and easy way to pitch shift your tracks, MadShifta can help quickly add some spice to your music track or sound effect. With controls for delay, feedback, and resonance, you can shape the sound of your new pitch shifted track. This is an especially useful plug-in when used for sound effects creation.

Triangle I and II – Well, this was a surprise… as I was researching for this blog, I discovered this VST has been absorbed by Cakewalk (Roland). Thankfully, it’s still free! Triangle I and II are full of many excellent synthesizer sounds and give you the ability to shape your own sounds as well. It’s a very well designed plug-in and has been very stable in my rig for more than six years now. Great stuff.

Crystal – Another excellent synthesizer, Crystal can help bring some unique sounds and rhythms to your music. Like Triangle, Crystal is full of many great sounds but also has a powerful way to synthesize your own. One hit against it is that it is not as stable as other VST’s, but on the whole it is well worth a download. The user interface is decent but could also be a little easier. But for a free VST, you won’t go wrong with Crystal.

Audio Arpeggiator – This one unfortunately isn’t VST, but rather a DirectX plug-in. It can help add some neat rhythmic effects to any of your audio tracks. I find it useful for some music tracks, but mostly use it in the creation of sound effects.

Delay Lama – Ok, this one’s not going to get a whole lot of usage, but if you ever need a virtual singing monk, this one is the one to use. It’s got a hilarious interface and lots of different options to help you get just the right virtual monk for your music.

So there you have it, some of the VST’s that I’ve gotten tons of use out of over the last few years. Give some of them a try and see what you think.