If you use a DAW like Cubase, and would like some great freebie plug-ins and virtual instruments, go get the Computer Music “100 Best Free Plug-Ins Ever” issue now on newstands at Borders, Barnes & Noble, etc.

Okay, the mag is 16 bucks, but it’s loaded with great virtual instruments and plug-ins. Mostly on the PC side. Drum machines, guitar amp effects, lots of synths, Yellow Tools Free (a 2GB free software sampler),
even a full-fledged sequencer/audio app or two.

My favorites are the SQ8L, which is a spot-on recreation of the old Ensoniq SQ-80 digital synth; WaveSim, a great recreation of the 80’s PPG Wave 2.2 digital synth (used by Thomas Dolby and others); OxeFM, an FM synth that sounds just as good as NI’s FM8, and Studio Devil and Voxengo Boogex, two great-sounding guitar amp emulators.

Lots of wicked weird effects units as well.

I highly recommend this!

Re: Free synths and FX for Cubase (and other DAW’s)

thanks for the notice dave!

Re: Free synths and FX for Cubase (and other DAW’s)

Dave - can you give me an indication of which edition the mag is - I checked in our newsagents and the Computer Music there had a DVD on recording tips. I’ve either missed it, or we are a little behind, but if you can give the month that would help.

Cheers

Re: Free synths and FX for Cubase (and other DAW’s

Ah, Wellie, always good to see you, mate.

It’s not an edition of CM itself. It’s a separate publication that CM puts out once a year.

Since CM is published right there on the old sod, you could give the CM offices a ring or contact them through their website to find out where you can get this.

Re: Free synths and FX for Cubase (and other DAW’s

Mate thanks for that - a little bit of follow up research has led me to an on-line source called my favourite magazines

Prices etc are all on the site.

Cheers

Re: Free synths and FX for Cubase (and other DAW’s

Thanks for the heads-up, Dave.

Those ones you mentioned interest me indeed, and since I finally finished building a new PC it’s high time I started bolting some virtual instuments into the rack.

The monthly issues are a couple or so months late here, but since it’s a special I’ll keep a constant vigil. In fact keeping with the theme of Old Blighty, I think I’ll jump on the Triumph and go for a look right now.

Re: Free synths and FX for Cubase (and other DAW’s

Thanks Dave.

I found the issue at one of the local newsagents.

I also stumbled across a copy of Magix Music Studio 12 Deluxe for $50 - marked down from about 130 or so. It’s from early ‘07 so has probably been updated since. But they finally integrated Audio and MIDI into one package (they had them separately for years until not long back) that is powered by Samplitude. As a cheap VST host with some instruments and FX bundled along with a neat-looking feature set, it looks like a neat hobby package.

Computer Music - $20, Music Studio - $50.

$70 for a swathe of instuments and FX with a virtual studio to run them in is hard to beat for tinkering with at home. Add a few other freebie instruments like Greenoak Crystal and some others lying around and there’s some good noises waiting to be made.

The new(er) PC is built and running, and once a couple more bits are added I’ll throw all this stuff in together and see how it all goes.

Re: Free synths and FX for Cubase (and other DAW’s

Yes, I buy Computer Music, Music Tech, and FutureMusic every month. Always plenty of free new samples on the DVD’s, as well as at least one full VSTi. Plus demos to try out - and the kicker is, some of the demos never expire (you just can’t save or load). An example is Arturia’s Jupiter 8V demo - you can’t save or load to it, but otherwise, it’s fully functional, and doesn’t emit any of those annoying beeps (or silence) every 30 seconds or so (and it doesn’t time out). I have Jupiter 8V on both my PC and my main Mac, and since I understand programming, it’s no problem for me to dial in a sound, then when I’m happy with it, record it as audio into Digital Performer or Logic. If I absolutely need to save my settings, I take a screenshot of the GUI before I quit the DAW.

It’s not a secret, but it’s not really broadcast to every corner of the globe either - there are several products you can download and use as demos in this way. Native Instruments allows you to download and demo Massive, Absynth4, GuitarRig 3, FM8, B4II - actually just about all their instruments. The demos quit after 30 minutes (and you can’t save anything) - enough time to find and mark down a sound you want to use. Then just close your DAW and quit, and relaunch it, put the demo back on a track, and record your part as audio.