10 Best Free Plugins for 2021
The new decade is well underway. That means the time to expand your plugin arsenal is now, and what better way to do it than by snatching up as many dope free plugins as you can find?
Well, as it turns out, in 2021 the free plugin “market” (if you can technically call it that) is completely oversaturated. There are literally thousands of free plugins available to anyone with an internet connection and the resolve to click a mouse once or twice.
In some sense, it’s simply too easy. Bulking up a surplus of free software may seem at first like common sense, but it’s a great way to overstuff your hard drive with useless toys. Not all free plugins are made equal; some are must-haves, many others are must-nots.
Here are the 10 best free plugins for 2021.
Steven Slate Drums SSD 5.5 Free
At $149, the full-fledged SSD5 is one of the best bang-for-your-buck virtual drum instruments in the industry. Yet amazingly, even if $149 is too steep, you can still get a surprisingly complete version of the legendary plugin for zero dollars and zero cents.
The latest 5.5 version offers a demo that is both fully functioning and never expires. We’ll repeat that for you. The free demo is fully functional and it never ever expires. The only difference between this and the full thing is that, instead of 148 kit presets, you get 3.
But one great sounding versatile kit is better than 10,000 mediocre kits, and considering the user-friendly interface and included groove library, SSD5.5 Free is a steal.
If you prefer versatility to the one-size-fits-all method behind SSD5, and/or you’re after electronic kits, then Electronik Soundlabs’ RVK-808 is an unbelievably powerful free tool. With 17 different kits and an astounding 272 total samples, you can spend hours customizing and tweaking without ever opening your wallet.
This is a free virtual acoustic guitar plugin, which, purely through virtue of even existing at all, is incredible. What’s even more incredible is how good it sounds and how versatile and powerful the controls are. You can adjust pretty much anything pertaining to play style, and you can even switch between “double-tracked” and “single-tracked.”
Complement your virtual acoustic guitar with a surprisingly realistic virtual bass, for the same reasonable price of nothing whatsoever. This plugin gives you a range of choices in terms of play style and articulation, and you can even tune down to Drop D!
Possibly the most generous plugin on the list is this powerhouse synth suite from IK Multimedia. In tune with Slate’s method, this plugin comes as a fully functional, non-expiring demo that includes a total of 38 effects and 50 presets.
While much fewer than the paid full version, that is still an awful lot, and with a high-tier audio company like IK Multimedia, you know you’re getting really good sounds too.
If you can watch the 33-second intro video on the homepage without feeling an instant pull towards this company, you’re alone in it. “Let’s all become something” is definitely the coolest free-plugin-company motto we’ve ever heard, and Spitfire Audio really shows you they mean it.
LABS is an entire band and then some worth of virtual instruments. You could absolutely make a full album with just the tools you get in this one free plugin.
Not so subtly inspired by the world-renowned LA-2A, this free compressor can be used in much the same way to achieve shockingly similar results. Just like the classic LA-2A, ADHD’s Leveling Tool is particularly great when it comes to drums and vocals.
However, for just a few knobs, it is versatile enough to be useful on pretty much anything.
We love iZotope. We love free iZotope plugins even more. Vinyl is a unique and transformative tool for injecting raw vibe into your work, and it even comes with a drool-inducing “decade select” feature ranging from the 1930’s all the way to the 2000’s.
As is usually the case with iZotope, the user interface is very visual and extremely easy to use and understand. It’s also fairly small and light on CPU load. If you’re in the business of lo-fi, this is something you’d be insane not to download immediately. If you work in just about any other genre, well, you’d frankly still be insane not to download such a special free tool.
What’s better than a free iZotope plugin? Two, of course. While vocals are always best doubled manually, that’s normally tough luck after the fact. Having a dedicated solution to single tracked vocals that need more width is a staple skill of any producer, and iZotope has made that both easy and totally free.
Just like Vinyl, Vocal Doubler is also incredibly easy to use right away and presents a modest CPU load. If any reasons why this is a no-brainer exist, they’ve hidden themselves quite well.
Native Instruments Komplete Start
Okay, so it isn’t a big surprise. If it isn’t broken, why fix it? The bundle you get for free from Native Instruments has been the world’s best free plugin for years, and 2021 is no exception. You just can’t argue with 2,000 customizable sounds.
Other individual virtual instruments on this list may be more impressive technically; but nothing comes close to this level of versatility. Music production is ultimately a creative endeavor, and creativity needs room to explore. No free plugin on the planet gives you anything close to this much space to roam and wander.
In Conclusion
Free plugins are getting better and more prevalent every day, let alone year. By the time you read this, some altruistic software developer somewhere will have no doubt released a new free plugin to blow your mind and avoid your bank account.
We can hardly keep up ourselves. The bottom line is: it is a great time to be a bedroom producer, and by spending time sifting through the options instead of whipping out your credit card, you can arguably build a complete arsenal of third party plugins that Karl Marx himself would approve of.
