Plugins tend to be specialized to a particular task.įor this reason, VSTs can be split into Instruments, Effects, and Other. We put together this list to separate the diamonds from the dirt.Įven the best Piano instrument VST will be no good as a compressor or reverb plugin. The plugins in this guide are diamonds in the rough,īecause of the amount of variation in plugins and their use cases, we have split these into categories. I’ve found lots of terrible plugins posing as the next best thing, and I’ve seen lots of underrated hidden gems. I’ve used some good ones and some bad ones. Throughout my time as a music producer, I’ve tried countless plugins. It isn’t just a vst sampler, it can be any sound you want it to. But the huge quantity of sample packs makes this an infinite universe of instruments. Not only is the plugin itself fantastic – a state-of-the-art sampler. For any music producer, Kontakt is an essential tool. This is one of the largest and most powerful plugins and sample libraries around. I tested 20 products and found Native Instruments Kontakt to be the best. This is great because it opens up access to the wider community, but it also means that there are some terrible, amateur-quality plugins on the market. Thanks to developments in technology, creating VSTs is relatively easy, and has become a process available to anyone with an interest in music and some computer literacy. The issue with this is that the VST market is saturated, there are so many plugins that do the same thing, it can be hard to choose the right one for your needs. For any sound or music-related tasks, you can guarantee there’s a VST. These days, there’s a VST (virtual studio technology) for pretty much everything. VST Plugins, love them or hate them, are one of the most important tools available to the modern music producer and help speed up the production process.

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