As producers, we all have that dry streak of not being able to produce due to beat block. After years of experience, I’ve found the best way to never be stuck on beat block ever again is to play around with different plugins in creative ways. After spending a few years testing free VSTS, here’s six that in my opinion are a must have:
Number one: Sonab by Sonos Zarus.
This plugin allows you to stream the sound coming into it onto other instances of Sonos. For instance, you can connect to a private group, create a link, and send it to yourself. You can preview how the song sounds on your phone without exporting it. The playback is quick, and it works in reverse as well.
Number two: Transpire by Sonic Anomal.
This is a transient shaper that’s precise and versatile. It allows you to boost transients, smooth them out, or fade them. You can also adjust reaction time to make sounds either snappy or faded.
Number three: S Doubler by Soldier Sound.
This plugin makes your sounds wider by doubling them and spreading them up to four voices. It has a very tight but rich sound, and you can adjust the mono or stereo spread.
Number four: Refire by Autobuy.
This plugin processes drums with modules for distortion, saturation, and more. It lets you enhance drum tones, add noise layers, and use a clipper for extra saturation.
Number five: Prism by Tokyo Dawn Records.
This plugin previews a frequency spectrum in a visually stunning way. You can customize the colors, inputs, and settings to create an impressive visual representation of the audio spectrum.
Number six: Ozone 11 Equalizer by Native Instruments.
This free EQ offers a sleek interface that can influence the way you approach EQing. Changing the spectrum’s window size can improve your EQing experience.
