The Best Free VST Instruments in 2021 for Music Production

Music Production can be really expensive and the prices for many of the big sample libraries out there can be really discouraging for passionate musicians on a tight budget. Luckily these days there are a lot of really awesome plugins you can get completely for free and with all of the companies competing with each other in the market today, we as customers are enjoying more high quality free products than ever before. So without further ado here are the best free VST instruments in 2021 in no particular order. I only included the best ones that are actually useful.

1. Spitfire Audio Labs

This one is my absolute favorite free plugin ever, hands down! Basically it is a big collection of all kinds of sampled and synth based instruments. Getting so many free instruments by itself is already fantastic, but the reason I love this library so much is the quality and diversity of the instruments you can find here. Besides more common instruments like a bass guitar, a drum set and a string ensemble, you will also find lots of very unique instruments and sounds. For example, one of my favorites is called Arctic Swells, which is a combination of a violin and and a native flute and it just sounds absolutely beautiful. Another very popular one is the Soft Piano, a very intimate sounding felt piano that is just perfect for quiet and emotional songs and instantly inspiring.

Overall the feel of the library is very artistic, which can be a huge plus if you are into this style of music, but it might also be a bit too niche for people who are looking for more basic instruments, even though there are a good number of more straight forward instruments too, as I mentioned above. Personally I can't recommend this one enough and I think you can really feel the passion behind this project.

All you have to do is go to https://labs.spitfireaudio.com and download the Spitfire Audio App, which lets you download and install all of the Labs instruments. Right now there are already about 40 instruments and Spitfire is constantly adding new ones, so it is a good idea to check the website sometimes or follow the YouTube channel of Spitfire Audio to stay up to date.

2. Spitfire Audio BBC Symphony Orchestra Discover

Another one from Spitfire Audio. This one is a complete Orchestra with all of the main sections. So you are getting Violins 1 + 2, Violas, Celli, Basses, Trumpets, French Horns, Tenor Trombones, Bass Trombones, a Tuba, a Piccolo, Flutes, Oboes, Clarinets and Bassoons along with some tuned and untuned percussion, including Timpani hits, a Glockenspiel, a Vibraphone, a Harp and a few others

Basically it is a smaller version of the full BBC Symphony Orchestra which you can upgrade to Core or Professional later. The library comes in it's own dedicated plugin and is incredibly small at just about 200MB, which is really nothing considering how much content you get here. The other versions are much bigger in size and have more microphones, articulations and additional solo instruments.

One downside of Discover is that you get just one dynamic layer and no additional round robins, so the same sample gets played, if you press the same key twice, which can make it sound a bit machine like, especially with shorter notes. The sound itself is still very good though, so it is a great opportunity to get started with orchestral compositions and you won't find anything else with so much content completely for free.

Actually this library costs 50 dollars, but if you go to the following link https://www.spitfireaudio.com/shop/a-z/bbc-symphony-orchestra-discover/ and fill out a short survey, they will send you the plugin for free after 14 days. Another benefit is that they will deduct these 50 dollars, even though you haven't paid anything, from the price of the Core and Professional editions for you, should you choose to upgrade later.

3. Vital

Vital is one of the most powerful and intuitive free synths on the market today. One of the key features here is that literally everything that is going on is directly displayed visually, which makes it very easy for beginners to learn, especially if it is your first synth.

Even though it is very easy to get started Vital is a very powerful synthesizer and things can get extremely complex very quickly. It's a great free alternative to Serum, since they are pretty similar in a lot of ways. Even though Serum is much more expensive I actually think they are equally capable and Vital is just getting started.

You can download Vital for free on the official site: https://vital.audio/

4. Surge

Surge is another really good free synthesizer. If you have a bit of experience you can really make all kinds of sounds with this one. It can be a bit more intimidating to use for beginners though, since the interface looks a bit complicated at first and you don't get a lot of visual feedback like with Vital.

But once you know how it works it's definitely worth it. Another good thing is that you get a huge amount of presets, much more than with the free version of Vital. So if you use a lot of synth sounds in your music, I would just get both.

You can download Surge here: https://surge-synthesizer.github.io/

5. Orchestral Tools - Sine Factory

If you are looking for more real sampled instruments Orchestral Tools Sine Factory is a great place to look. Basically it's Orchestral Tools version of Spitfire's Labs. All you need to do is sign up with your Email and they will inform you every time they release a new free instrument.

As with all Orchestral Tools stuff the quality here is top notch. Especially the Organ is the most impressive one I have heard so far. The Helix strings are also together with the Labs Ensemble Strings and the BBC Discover ones the best free strings you can get at the moment. At the moment there are not that many instruments yet, but I'm sure they will soon upload more.

You can sign up and download all of the instruments here: https://www.orchestraltools.com/sinefactory

6. Ample Guitar and Bass

Ample makes really nice guitar plugins and luckily they also offer a free bass guitar and an acoustic guitar. They sound pretty good and allow you to do single plucks, strumming and all kind of other stuff. As an alternative you can also find a bass guitar and various guitars in Labs, which sound great but offer you a bit less control, so if that is very important to you the Ample ones are a good choice.

You can download both of them here: http://www.amplesound.net/en/download.asp

7. Kontakt Komplete Start

When you get into music production sooner or later you will come across Kontakt. It is needed for all kinds of music libraries from Native Instruments as well as third party developers. For many years the high entry price of Kontakt was making it difficult for new musicians to get started.

Luckily Native Instruments now offers a completely free start bundle called Komplete Start. It includes all kinds of useful instruments and synthesizers. It is definitely worth checking out because once you have the Kontakt Player, you will have access to even more free content. You can find a few of them further down the list.

You can find the Komplete Start Bundle here: https://www.native-instruments.com/en/products/komplete/bundles/komplete-start/

8. Steven Slate Drums 5

Steven Slate Drums 5 is one of the best drum plugins you can get at the moment and the free version offers plenty of content and might be all you need for your tracks.

You can choose between a few different drum sets, so it should work well with all kinds of genres. The only thing that bothers some people is that it is a bit cumbersome to install.

You can get it here: https://stevenslatedrums.com/ssd-free/

9. MT Power Drum Kit 2

If you don't want to go through the installing process of Steven Slate Drums 5 you can also take a look at the MT Power Drum Kit 2, which is also pretty popular.

Like the name suggests, this one lends itself more to powerful drumming for rock and heavy metal songs. But for that it works really well.

Here is the download page: https://www.powerdrumkit.com/download76187.php

Another alternative would be the drum kit in Spitfire Labs which sounds excellent in my opinion. The only downside is that it doesn't have a special interface, where you can see the drum kit.

10. Project Sam - The Free Orchestra

Project Sam's The Free Orchestra is a nice gift for lovers of orchestral music. There are 12 different patches including Heroic Horns, Wild Winds, Ominous Lows, Sordino Violins and more.

It also has a very nice choir, some percussion and some special effects and drones.

For this library you need the Kontakt Player mentioned above. You can get a registration code for the library here: https://projectsam.com/libraries/the-free-orchestra/

After that you can download and install it via native access.

11. Keep Forest - Ferrum Free Edition

If you would like to add some bombastic trailer style percussion to your tracks, you need to look no further. The free version of Ferrum gives you one very comprehensive patch with various powerful hits and a good selection of metallic hits.

It also comes with a very useful rhythm and effects section and gives you a lot of freedom to manipulate the sounds. Ferrum is another Kontakt Player instrument just like The Free Orchestra above.

You can get it here: https://keep-forest.com/store/libraries/225185

12. Pianobook / Decent Sampler

Pianobook is another passion project from Spitfire Audio's co-founder Christian Henson. At first the idea was that people from all over the world could sample their own Pianos and share them with the community, but over time it changed into something bigger.

You can find all kinds of free instruments on Pianobook now, not just pianos, even though they have a lot fantastic and very unique pianos. Everyone can participate here, so not all of the sounds here are polished, but that's the charm of it. 

There is something very interesting and intimate about hearing all of these personal instruments and letting people tell their stories on the site. The community seems to be getting bigger and bigger and there are already a lot of great sounding instruments and more are added all the time. I'm excited to see how this site will evolve in the next years.

One downside is that some of the instruments can only be played in the full version of Kontakt, but luckily there is an alternative. A lot of the instruments are available in the free Decent Sampler plugin now. 

There isn't a specific category with all of the Decent Sampler instruments on the site yet, but there is a simple way around this. Just click on any of the categories on the site you are interested in, for example "Pianos". Then click on the EXS24 tag at the top and most of the results will be available for Decent Sampler now.

You can browse through all of the instruments here: https://www.pianobook.co.uk/

And here is the Decent Sampler: https://www.decentsamples.com/product/decent-sampler-plugin/

Bonus tip: there are also a few free instruments, which you can download inside the Decent Sampler plugin.

I hope this list of the best free VST instruments in 2021 will be helpful for you to start making some amazing music. I wish you all the best!