I’m lazy and therefore tend to stick to a single set of 707 samples i found on rolandclan a few years ago.
With that being said, the goldbaby stuff always looked good and he’s got a bunch of free stuff on his website
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Thanks! This topic should be sticky 
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VCV Rack for open source modular synth mayhem that integrates with DAWs via AU or VST bridge:
Literally hundreds of free modules from authorised ports of Mutable Instruments (Braids, Clouds etc) to delays, sequencers, phasers and just about anything else you can think of. It’s truly amazing.
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Free DAW: https://www.tracktion.com/products/t7-daw
Free DAW: http://ardour.org
Both of these are full-blown DAWs with all of the features you’d expect from a costly big-name product. T7 used to be a commercial DAW and offers a terrific GUI that’s easy to use.
Ardour is a free and open source DAW that has been around for years, always being developed. It’s essentially the same product as Harrison MixBus, but with a slightly different mixer channel. It’s free if you want to build it from source, or if you have a Linux distro. However, you’ll have to donate at least $1 if you’d prefer the Mac or Windows binary installers.
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Many of those CM sounds come from my own studio - I provided samples for Computer Music’s cover disc for over a decade - everything from vintage synths to a full collection of multi-sampled orchestral instruments.
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I always recommend people that are looking to get into “music production” to buy an issue of Beat/ComputerMusic/FutureMusic Magazine for the bundled CD and - depending on preference, either download REAPER or get an intro version of Ableton Lite.
That´s not “free”, but it´s usually a less-than-20-Euros investment even with the Ableton Lite option.
speaking of which:
At some point I had almost 10 Ableton Lite licenses/CDs kicking around since they came bundled with every other controller, keyboard, audio interface or other studio gear… handed those out like candy to friends.
So go ask on a forum if maybe someone has a demo version to give to you. 
great thread by the way, every forum needs something sticky like this.
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As an aside / addendum, I’ve just discovered that reaper now exists in Linux native format - using Windows VSTs via Wine now seems tricky, and there’s no support (yet) for LADSPA plugins, but it works well enough.
Edit: using the Carla rack, LADSPA (and more, including Windows VSTs) FX and instruments are all functioning well. Nice.
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Wait for Black Friday / Cyber Monday and do your major DAW/sample/plugin purchases then. Many developers discount their products to an absurd degree during that period.
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I wanted to contribute something I find very useful. This software allows you to run single VSTs as standalone applications. It works on several platforms and loads quickly. It is available for free or donation. It’s a great way to test out VSTs or utilize them in all their sonic glory without all the sometimes unnecessary features of a DAW. Plus you can sequence plugins from your electron machines midi tracks. So simple yet powerful.
http://www.hermannseib.com/english/savihost.htm
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Found some useful free plugins this year. Also thought I’d just make a list of the ones I’ve found that have proven themselves useful over time. Some are free all the time, some are free at certain times of the year. I got all these for free, but yeah, some might not be free at this time. Keep an eye out around Black Friday and Christmas though.
Maybe not the best descriptions, but test them out and see what they can do for you.
Instruments
- Spitfire Labs - all sorts of great sample instruments. Lap Steel, mandolin, lots of great pads and textures.
- OB-Xd - lovely free Oberheim emulation.
- Dexed - DX-7 emulation. Can load DX-7 patches.
- Uh-e Tyrell - underrated free synth from Uh-e.
- Lira-8 - software emulation of the crazy Lyra-8 synthesizer.
- iZotope Iris 2 - granular beast of a synth.
- Xenakios PaulXStretch - vst version of the old paul stretch granular time-stretching app.
FX
- Acqua Celestial - interesting emulation of the SSL Fusion.
- Arturia Jun-6 Chorus - emulation of the great Roland synth chorus sounds.
- Arturia Filter Mini - Moog-like filter with sequencer.
- Arturia Rev Plate 140 - cool old plate reverb emulation.
- Audiomodern Filterstep - another cool filter with step sequencer.
- AudioThing Filter Jam - looks like a filter from a science lab. Can get some great textures with this thing.
- AudioThing Texture - interesting granular reverb.
- Fuse Audio Labs RS-W2395C - old-school looking characterful EQ
- Izotope Ozone Imager - stereo width plugin.
- Izotope Vinyl - nice little vinyl plug. All the crackles you need. Updated slick interface.
- Native Instruments Raum - nice reverb. Some interesting features and modes.
- Slate Digital Fresh Air - plug gives some nice high end “air” to the mix.
- Sonimus SonEQ - pretty nice Pultec EQ emulation.
- TAL chorus - another nice Juno chorus emulation.
- TAL Reverb 2, 3 and 4 - 3 is especially cool for ambient washes, imho.
- TAL DAC - imparts some old-school crunchy lo-fi sampler vibes.
- Tokyo Dawn Labs Kotelnikov mastering compressor Fairly simple and clean workhorse.
- Valhalla Supermassive - excellent reverb/delay. Just try it.
- Valhalla FreqEcho - frequency shifter
- Valhalla Space Modulator - all sorts of modulation fx
- Voxengo Span - frequency spectrum analyzer, check volume levels, etc.
- YouLean Loudness Meter 2 - handy plugin to check levels on master channel while mixing.
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Just got this. I sold my Lyra-8 in the autumn and haven’t really missed its presence in my music but it was a helluva instrument. This emulation will do nicely as sample fodder and background textures.
After about an hour fiddling with the emulation it actually feels a little more predictable than the actual thing, in a good way.
i’d appreciate some insight from DAW users into any recent open source softwares that are simple and efficient. (on OSX)
Specifically i’m after useful mastering bus utilities, ideally an Engineers Filter type plugin that just removes (sub) frequencies without roll off.
Have you tried Airwindows?
http://www.airwindows.com/vsts/
Meanwhile, anyone looking for free (for personal use; paying for professional application) dub riddims need look no further than here: https://riddimstore.com/
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never heard and seems like a very interesting project
there’s a lot in here… is “Capacitor is an EQ. It’s got highpass and lowpass controls: rather than generally boost or cut highs and lows, it’s more about making the treble or bass just stop at a certain point. It also reacts well to automation.” what i’m after?
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I’ve not used that one myself, mainly having played with the tape and Mackie simulators, but it sounds like it could be. The Airwindows plugins are so lightweight and can usually be downloaded as a compressed file of all of them to date, so it’s well worth just diving in.
Let us know how it works out for you!
yeah i’ve delved in and i recommend everyone try them out, there’s some really usable high grade stuff in there with the kind of interfaces i like.
the tape stuff (chrome oxide) is super lush.
will support if i end up using regularly but like any plug in chocolate box there’s so much temptation and choice it’s overwhelming and distracting.
also there’s seemingly always an element of emulation and character (which is really nice!) in all his plugins.
I’m still after a no frills brutal filter just that cuts/removes below/above any inputted frequency range.
maybe there’s a M4L plug that does this?
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Just here to second the Airwindows recommendation. Really great sounding stuff with stripped down interfaces that encourage me to use my ears instead of my eyes.
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