Your Recommended Free PC Software

[Andy2]

I've not looked at this thread before and am amazed at the amount of free stuff out there, and the hard work that must go into all these.

what would be cool would be an SOS demo project recorded using only freeware software.................mmmmmmmm!

[forart.eu]

For those who are interested in, here's my (WIN32) Open Source software list @ ReactOS' wiki.

Contributions are welcomed !

[PlaguesBand]

hi guys, how's it going?

gotta be NorthPole (awesome filter) at:
http://www.prosoniq.net/pub/freebies/pc/NPOLE.ZIP

I'm sure the outstanding SIR reverb http://www.knufinke.de/sir/downloads/Sir_1011.zip has already been covered here but worth mentioning just in case.

dB Tempo Delay is also really nice. It is made by db audioware and you can find it at: http://www.db-audioware.com/dB-T-tempo-delay-more.htm#download

PLEASE NOTE: this link is to downlaod a demo of their entire (albeit not that huge) mastering suite which is time limited 30 day trial only. To just get the free delay, download the whole demo, start the installer and make sure you choose a custom installation. Now if you untick all the trial versions and just leave the delay at the bottom of the list it will just install the completely free full version of the tempo delay. I easily rate this as one of the simplest and most effective tempo delays I have ever used. The layout makes it really simple to get some beautiful stereo delays.

Cheers

Chris

[Mark Knutson]

I just tried the Fender Rhodes, Wurlitzer, and Hammond B3 plugs from Soundfonts.it.

I think they sound surprisingly good, but I will mention that they have nag screens where the controls are obscured for a bit by a donation screen when you open the control panel.

Their web site isn't clear on what it costs to get some of the nags removed, but the B3 one is 15 euro, and there is a new version of the B3 for 40 euro. Much better value than the NI ones.

The author also explains that he was inspired to develop the fender rhodes after seeing Ray Charles play one in the Blues Brothers movie! That is the great scene where Ray, a music store owner, shoots a pistol into the wall by a youth is trying to steal a stratocaster.

[wavesound]

hi ! my favorite PC/mac free software is ardour, it is a clone of Protools.
For the moment it works on both macOS and linux but will run on windows soon.
ardour
take a look at the screenshot It seem to work very well (better than cubase I think)
to try it on a PC you just have to insert a live CD of Linux in your computer : agnula demudi live

Hi
You can get 64studio as a live CD/DVD and just run this to test all the sound apps you need on Linux.
http://64studio.com/

Its a learning curve as when you first started any mutitrack software, but once you have it you'll stay with it.
Give it a go.
Cheers
Bob
wavesound

[XdigiX]

Greetings!

Some very useful stuff here:
http://www.techsupportalert.com/best_46_free_utilities.htm

I've found myself revisiting this site on numerous occasions, it seems to be pretty regularly updated, and the ratings seem to me to be pretty accurate and knowledgeable.
e.g. ccleaner which always seems to be a favorite of this forum is highly recommended and notably Ad-Aware and Spy-Bot have fallen out of favour.
I know most of you wouldn't dream of setting this stuff loose on a DAW partition and may anti-virus may be disabled etc, but for other use I thought I pass it on!!

boo to a goose

[tea for two]

Samplers

http://acousmodules.free.fr/acousmodules3_en.htm

[Indigo2]

Actually I'm looking for a software, that's "not as good as it could be".
I have tried to help some schools find a midi-software that only enables them to connect a midi-keyboard and play back through the Microsopft GS Wavetable.
It's intended for exams in the Danish high schools, so it should not feature more than the above mentioned, since that could be use for cheating.
I have found several on-screen midi keyboards, but most of them - even the simplest one - can also display chords played, and that can be use for cheating.
So does anyone know af a freeware program, that just connects a midi-keyboard with the Windows Microsoft GS Wavetable, then I know a some teachers, who'll be very pleased.

[TensionDeficit]

Hey, I'm new here. Don't know if this was recommended, but I just found out about this recently at another forum:

Hydrogen Drum Machine
http://www.hydrogen-music.org/

[FirstBassman]

+1 for Audacity and Free Amp.

Though Audacity does not have a "Save As wav." Have to "Export" to wav. Just a little of a pain.

[timoc]

+1 Sir, Voxengo, Kjaerhus, Digitalfishphones and Audacity!

I've been discovering midi synths this year; been using the free ones only. You can hear the freealpha and the orca in action on my songs "faith" and "my notes on a scandal" http://users.skynet.be/timocarlier/index.html

freealpha
http://www.linplug.com/Instruments/Alpha_3/alpha_3.htm
This synth has really convincing and rich sounds.

orca
http://www.fxpansion.com/index.php?page=12&tab=60
I use this for bass sounds most of the time.

The only thing I can't find is a free good drum synth.

[ulrichburke]

Someone mentioned N-Track, it's got one AWESOME feature that got left out of their post.

You can plug complete music packages into it. So if you have Reason and Garritan (for example), you can take your MIDI track, shove it in N-Track, plug Garritan and Reason into N-Track and use their sounds with your midi file within N-Track! Mixing on the fly as you listen to your track on the great sounds! Just like you'd do with something like Cubase, except for a fraction of the price!!

ulrichburke

[Michael B]

N-Track isn't freeware?

[timoc]

Greenoak Crystal - Quite possibly the king of free synths, here's what they say:

Greenoak Crystal Download

4Front Piano, ePiano & Rhode -
4Front Downloads

I downloaded both of these and have been using them. Great stuff!

[musifalsk]

www.jeroenbreebaart.com

These are some awesome plugins!!

I really like the Ferox, one of the best tapesim plugins
and its free!

[onesecondglance]

to make up for my misdirected earlier post...

natural studios ns_kit is good... and comes as an unexpiring free version:

here's the link. the free stuff is in the forum.

you can get it as a soundfont or as separate wave files, should you be in a cut-'n-paste kinda mood. there's also a scratchy, lo-fi kit on there and a decent piano.

also, you can get a stripped down version of Independence from yellow tools by registering on their website:

(register for the user area, then go to "Downloads" on the menu on the left)

takes ages to download but that's only because you get over 2gb of samples for free. useable as a standalone or VST and the quality is pretty sweet.

[danf]

I see that there haven't been any free RTAS plugins mentioned here, probably because there aren't that many of them around anyway... although the izotope vinyl comes in both VST and RTAS formats. Here's a list of a few free or usable demo version RTAS plugins.

[magicdog]

Free Amp 2 - great VST Guitar Effects processor, includes a Guitar Synth.

http://frettedsynth.asseca.com/ampsims.html#FreeAmp2

This has been updated and moved to here:

http://frettedsynth.home.att.net/

It is now V3 but my Cubase SX 2.2 doesn't like it...

[Jim Taylor]

hi,

i don't think anyone's put this link, it does have some of the stuff already mentioned but hey, it's all in one place here

[gazfactory]

hi,
the last article written by Craig anderton about Customising Sonar's SFZ Files reminds me that some years ago, i have made a SFZ editor which is here : http://carrieres.free.fr/sfz.htm
best regards
Chris