Let’s be honest, we all love free stuff, especially free VST plugins for Ableton Live, Logic Pro, Cubase, Bitwig Studio or any other DAW! Tell me one electronic music producer doesn’t!

Ableton Looper Cheat Sheet (Free Download) Live looping can be a different way of expression. It can force you to compose in real time which can end up with amazing unexpected result. Looper out of all of Live’s devices is the most “Independent” as it’s recording, processing and rendering audio all by itself. It might seem daunting or even useless to Ableton users who haven’t got.

That’s why I’ve written up this review of my top choices for free plugins that you may want to check out and download to use in your music.

Speaking of free stuff, if you haven’t signed up to us yet, you can get free sample packs and tutorials by some of our featured artists from the BassGorilla Podcast – all you need to do is sign up here.

This list is in no order and may be expanded to include other plugins over time. Let me know in the comments if you know any other great free plugins at the bottom of this post!

1. SampleTank FREE

Windows, Mac OS X It’s insane that something as good as SampleTank could be free. It comes with a wide range of virtual instruments, from basses to drums, guitars, synths, organs, ensemble strings and orchestral sections, vocals and much more! You can upgrade to SampleTank 2L or 2.5 XL if you’re impressed with the quality of the sounds you hear in the free version.

• Sample based sounds (parent): 58

• Preset sounds (child): 146

• Combi sounds (combi): 0

• Total sounds: 204

• Total size: 579 MB

2. Flux BitterSweet v3

Windows, Mac OS X BitterSweet from Flux is a free transient shaper plugin. It works well for adding more ‘punch’ to your drums, especially your kicks, snares and toms. The extra punch comes when you turn the dial to the ‘bitter’ setting. You can soften the punch of a sound when you turn the dial towards the ‘sweet’ setting. It is available as a 32-bit and 64-bit plugin. Features:

• Output Gain, controlling the gain at the end of the processing.

• Bypass routes the incoming signal direct to the output for a true smooth transition between processed and clean signal.

• Three different transient processing modes:

• Main, using a regular stereo signal scheme for the processing.

• Center, processing the Mid channel only, very efficient for snare and kick drums.

• Stereo, processing the Side channel only, very efficient for panned rhythmic/transient instruments.

3. Glitch 2

Windows, Mac OS X, Linux Glitch is an audio effect plugin for Windows (VST), Mac (VST and AU) and Linux (VST), available in both 32-bit and 64-bit formats. Featuring a new and improved sequencer which can play multiple effects simultaneously, with the ability to trigger unique scenes from every note on your keyboard, Glitch can be as gentle or as brutal as you like. Add the occasional splash of re-trigger or stretcher to single hits within your drum loop, or fill the entire sequencer with random effect blocks for a totally chaotic trip down the digital rabbit hole… the choice is yours! Features:

Sequencer

• Each program consists of 128 scenes that can be triggered via MIDI notes. Each scene has its own unique sequencer pattern, timing, and effect settings, allowing you to create tons of unique variations for every moment in your song, all ready to go at the press of a key!

• Multi-lane sequencer allows many effects to be played simultaneously, to create interesting layered sounds.

• Improved sequencer timing controls to better match your groove and song structure.

• Intuitive pattern editor with drag’n’drop. Draw, erase, resize, split and join blocks with ease.

Effects

• 9 cheeky little effect modules designed to slice, dice, chop, screw, twist, turn and mangle your sounds into radical new forms.

How To Download A Plugin For Ableton Windows 7

• Tempo-synced effects can easily be dialled in to precise musical timings such as 16th notes, 8th note triplets, and so on.

• Filter, mix, pan and volume controls on each module, to help shape and fine-tune the output.

How To Download A Plugin For Ableton 10

4. Zebralette

How To Download A Plugin For Ableton Windows 10

Windows, Mac OS X Zebralette by U-He is just one of its big brother Zebra2’s oscillators packed into a simple, easy-to-learn framework – but you have everything you need to make some pretty amazing sounds. Sounds that can be directly loaded into Zebra2 later. And should you eventually decide to upgrade to Zebra2, you will already know everything there is to know about the oscillators. Zebralette has two LFOs (one per voice, one global), a multi-stage envelope and three on-board effects (chorus, EQ, delay). Not forgetting Zebra2’s famous dual spectral effects, which include several squelchy filter algorithms. Download Zebralette Here

5. Camel Crusher

Windows, Mac OS X CamelCrusher is a free ‘colouring’ multi-effect plugin. It offers two characteristically different distortion sounds which can be blended together to create a wide variety of tones and textures. Great for guitars, drums and plenty more! There’s also a warm, smooth analogue-style low-pass filter with buckets of resonance. Assign a MIDI controller and start tweaking! Finally, let’s not forget the easiest-to-use compressor you’ll find anywhere. It can ‘phatten’ up your sound as quickly as you can turn up the ‘Amount’ knob! Features:

How To Install Ableton Live

• Two different distortion types.

• Warm, analogue-modelled resonant low-pass filter.

• High quality, easy-to-use compressor, with ‘Phat’ mode.

• Powerful ‘MIDI Learn’ function.

• A collection of useful Preset patches to get you started.

• Randomize for instant inspiration.

London, Los Angeles and online electronic music school Point Blank is in the midst of Ableton Month, and as part of the proceedings they are giving away specially-made Max for Live plug-ins. The free devices include a rather powerful Kick Drum Designer, the unusual but surprisingly useful Monster Timestretch, a very cool Funky Arp arpeggiator and many more.

Download all Point Blank plug-ins for free – registration is required.

Ableton Free Download

Taken together the devices offer enough features to produce an entire track with. And this is exactly what Point Blank instructor Dan Herbert does in a three part series of tutorial videos. Starting with the aforementioned Kick Drum Designer, Herbert builds up a track layer by layer while showcasing the individual plug-ins and imparting some very useful production tips and tricks along the way.

Check out part 1 of the video tutorial here. Go here for part 2 and part 3.

Visit the Point Blank homepage to learn more about their offerings.