10 EPIC Free Synth Plugins You Need for Sound Design 🎹

Howdy! Today we're here for a roundup of my 10 favorite FREE synth plugins for sound design that you should go download.

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TAL Bassline and Noisemaker

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Timestamps:
0:00 Howdy
1:54 - Surge
3:54 - Dexed
5:36 - Pendulate
7:33 - Exakt Lite
10:01 - OB-Xd
12:36 - Tyrell N6
15:00 - Tunefish
17:12 - Synth1
19:25 - TAL Bassline
20:43 - TAL Noisemaker
22:28 - PG-8X
24:05 - Zebralette
26:27 - Odin 2
29:28 - Voltage Modular Nucleus
30:50 - AAS player

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#freeplugins #musicproduction #synthplugins

[danilyaster]

1:54 - Surge
3:54 - Dexed
5:36 - Pendulate
7:33 - Exakt Lite
10:01 - OB-Xd
12:36 - Tyrell N6
15:00 - Tunefish
17:12 - Synth1
19:25 - TAL Bassline
20:43 - TAL Noisemaker
22:28 - PG-8X
24:05 - Zebralette
26:27 - Odin 2
29:28 - Voltage Modular Nucleus
30:50 - AAS player

[fukcggle]

Your voice should be a free synth plugin.

[cosmos]

This Guy has a great voice for late Night Radio Shows - Smooth House, Smooth Jazz - I can hear him doing a Midnight Show.

[thecluelessuploader]

Damn this guy's voice can really get him a serious movie deal.

[elProdigio]

Sound design tip => The Venus Theory guy voice as wavetable: best growl dubstep ever.

[LukeSniper]

Bit of a long comment, but I just wanted to say how helpful your videos (especially these free plugin ones) have been for me the past few months.

I attended Berklee from 2007-2010, where I was a double major in Guitar Performance and Electronic Production & Design (back then, the program was Music Synthesis). I had to leave for medical reasons with just ONE part-time semester left. After which I spent OVER A DECADE trying to get back to my studies to complete my degree, only to be continually ignored by the college every time I reached out. It was a clerical error or something like that which resulted in every request I sent to the degree completion office never actually landing in front of a person (despite multiple calls, emails, requests, etc). FINALLY somebody actually paid attention to me and figured out what the hell was going on (even then it still took 6 months to figure out the problem) and I was able to enroll in classes again this summer to finish up.

But there was another problem: I'd spent the 12 years prior working as a private music teacher and performing musician, and much of that time was spent without me owning a computer or having access to any of my old gear (which remained in storage, in Boston, while I was in California, for that time). I had done NOTHING even remotely related to the stuff from the EPD program. If a band I was in was recording, we paid someone and did it in a professional studio (often to tape!) So now I found myself enrolled in my capstone class for the program with my skills in this area rustier than the Titanic and ZERO knowledge or ownership of modern plugins that could do what I needed to do what I wanted to do for my big final project (which is a John Carpenter/neon-slasher esque EP). Those 12 years had also not been kind on me financially and I didn't have the resources to purchase a bunch of plugins (not that I'd know which ones I would actually use).

These videos not only gave me a look at some great free plugins I could get, saving me countless hours of searching, but helped me brush up on some long dormant skills and knowledge. The summer semester is just about over and I have three tracks that I'm about to start my final mixing on. Vital and the Tyrell N6 rose to the occasion and they're all over those tracks, as well as Valhalla Supermassive and a number of others you've mentioned on this channel.

So I felt I owed you a massive (or SUPERmassive?) thank you, Cameron. Your content has made the incredibly steep uphill battle I've had coming back to this after such a long time, and with such high standards as the final course at Berklee in a program dedicated to this sort of thing would be expected to have, so much more manageable. I still have a lot of rust to shake off when it comes to this stuff, but without the time I saved because of your videos, I don't know that I would have been able to get any of my work to the point it was even close to where it needs to be for this.

Thank you

[russisaac]

You do these reviews better than any other reviewers on youtube. No bullshit, No wasted time just a straight to the point overview and a few sound examples. More than enough time for a person to decide if they want to give it a go. Excellent job! many thanks.

[jarfmusic]

I'd add Vital to this list - thing is literally the most powerful and easy to understand Synth I've ever used and it's also completely free!

[VenusTheory]

What's your favorite free synth? 🤔
Edit: OB-Xd has now been made into a paid plugin - must have happened right as I was making this video. Sorry about that! :(

[tommythecat]

Surge changed my life. I have Serum, Massive and many other must-have synths, but something always draws me to it. It's incredibly powerful, not the most intuitive UI but man, once you learn how to tweak it you can do pretty much anything! A friend challenged me to do a whole EP just with it, and two months later I was 50€ richer.

[discordmodyoshi]

1:54 - Surge
3:54 - Dexed
5:36 - Pendulate
7:33 - Exakt Lite
10:01 - OB-Xd
12:36 - Tyrell N6
15:00 - Tunefish
17:12 - Synth1
19:25 - TAL Bassline
20:43 - TAL Noisemaker
22:28 - PG-8X
24:05 - Zebralette
26:27 - Odin 2
29:28 - Voltage Modular Nucleus
30:50 - AAS player
(copy pasted from a top comment, i made this so i dont need to scroll down)

[iamgeorgesears]

Ah, Synth1... the one synth I have used for over a decade, and still use to this day.

[tonverfall_studio]

Nice overview of the free softsynths out there. A couple of thoughts:

Surge: I absolutely agree this is an astonishing synth. One thing I think they've done really well is the mod-matrix, where the available modulation targets are an overlay of controls over the normal sliders. Fantastic. I consider it a spiritual sibling to the Waldorf Blofeld, though with a bit more flexibility, as all 3 oscillators in Surge can be configured with any of the available waveforms.

Dexed vs. ExaktLite: as I'm somewhat of a fiend for FM, it's important to point out that these two synths cannot be directly compared, in the same way a TX81Z is not a DX7. ExaktLite is a 4-op FM synth, whereas Dexed is a 6-op. From what I can see, ExaktLite is essentially an emulation of the TX81Z.

Odin II: I think it's a little misleading to present Odin II as some kind of beta-quality project. It's actually the evolution of the same developer's earlier Odin synth, which has been in development for going on 5 years. I find it to be very solid and mature.

[itsgoubie]

i like that you're actually looking towards the synths in the bubble thing. nice touch!

[nostaligctraveler]

When your voice is so suprising that everyone in the comments talks about it instead of talking about how fucking amazing Surge is

[redmission]

Got the OB-Xd, the Arturia Matrix-12 and OB-Xa, and a Dave Smith OB-6. I love to mix and match them all! 😍 Oberheim is my fav!

[Novalarke]

Tyrell N6 has an AMAZING chorus effect. I like it because it's very simple to mess with and it has a very Buzzy sound. When chorused, it's big and scary sounding.

[安齋哲也]

So far the only tutorial I've seen that takes it slow and doesn't require prior experience to soft design.

[EasyHeat]

I've been diving into all things digital after decades of being an analog multi instrumentalist and recording guy. You're channel is more than helpful, and even if it wasn't I'd stay for the voice. Seriously, you should do voice over/acting, or radio! Thanks!

[BirdYoumans]

I've been messin' with "free synths" for a few years now and you landed on some of the best ones for sure. The people at U-he have some incredible stuff and I love the full bucket plugs tho I don't see any on your list. But yours are definitely great choices! Speaking of U-he, I never thought I'd buy a software synth since there are so many great free ones, but I'm about to pay the license fee for Diva. Analogue heaven. At 77 I go back to when the hardware versions were all we had. Diva does all of them and you can mix and match components so to speak. Just thought I'd mention that. Good vid by the way. Good job picking the top 10. I'm sure all of us have another pick or two, but then that's the nature of being individuals. Uncanny tho how yours is almost the same as I would pick. A good synth is a good synth no matter how old it is.