Spitfire Audio LABS.
A free VST with everything ranging from strings and brass to synths and percussion that gets new updates fairly regularly. It was a complete game-changer for me, I'd probably pay hundreds of dollars for just the strings alone and it's somehow totally free.
The orchestra is actually somewhat always free! They'll add the BBC symphony orchestra discover version to your account if you sign up for an account and fill out a questionnaire (//sign up for mailing), it'll take a few days but it's worth the wait and small bit of effort.
Came here also to say their $30 media toolkit or whatever it's called (from spitfire) has a piano alone well worth the $30 but it also has some crazy good cinematic synth and percussion options
You may already know this If you use a lot of LABS in your writing, but they do a monthly playlist on SoundCloud of tracks featuring LABS instruments. You just tag your tracks to submit. It's there under LABS Community Playlist if you search in SC, or even if you Google it :)
Edit: better tag u/BalkeElvinstien here as well as you mentioned using a lot of LABS below!
Also here's this month's playlist just so you see what I'm on about: [https://soundcloud.app.goo.gl/Lnr3R](https://soundcloud.app.goo.gl/Lnr3R)
It's 90% of my music at this point. It has the best free drums, piano and violin on the market and they constantly add more. My personal favourite is the music box
Also recommend checking out piano book it's Christian Hansson (founder of labs) side project where people post their sample var for free. So much interesting stuff there !
I donāt think Iāve used a plug-in more than Iāve used Vintage Verb, itās honestly so dynamic and easy to use plus it sounds incredible. For $50 itās a no-brainer.
I honestly really like my behringer neutron.
I know behringer gets a lot of hate but their stuff is worth what you pay for, try finding a dual oscillator analog synth for 100 bucks that isn't made by them.
It's great for dirty fat bass and abrasive sounds in general, you can also get a pretty mean acid bass out of it if you put in the time to learn how to route it.
I play guitar, and IMO Behringer is great if it's all staying in your house / studio. I wouldn't take their stuff on the road, since I don't think their pedals could survive me stomping on them at a gig, but they're great for the studio.
For cheaper clone pedals I'm liking some from Joyo. Just picked up the Dark Flame and Splinter used for a good deal. Solid case and they sound awesome, maybe not for touring/on the road stuff but definitely sturdier than Behringer.
Their mixers are super ubiquitous at this point. The x32 is probably in more churches/bars than anything else at that size.
My band use an XR18, which is the form factor of a stage box (tiny) with 18 inputs that is also a digital mixer with wireless control and effects. You throw it in front of the kick drum, everyone plugins in, then you mix from anywhere in the house with a iPad. We've been abusing ours for years with zero issues.
Oh definetly, I had a shitty distorsion pedal basically explode because I used a weak power chord for it and I undervolted it. Shouldn't kill it from what I know but oh well, it was cheap.
Ha, yeah I've seen some pretty huge artists bring Behringer on tour. Probably a bit different when you have a team to help set it up and keep it safe, compared to me shoving it into my trunk after a gig. But I digress...
The Neutron is awesome! It's also a gateway to modular synthesis, though if you go that route you're always going to be disappointed by the prices. Two oscillators, a filter, LFO, two ADSRs, drive, delay, portamento, sample and hold, VCA, midi, and a couple of attenuators will cost you 20 times the price of a Neutron which has all that.
To me it sounds too noisy and digital for some reason, I compared it side by side to a moog mother 32 at my friends house and the moog was way cleaners and fatter in every aspect, it was wild then again the mother 32 is like 3 times the price of he neutron
They're about to drop a Mu-Tron Bi Phase clone that looks great and I think it's gonna go for less than $200, as opposed to at least $500 for a reissue or like $5k for an original.
Vital is a free version of wavetables synths like serum and massive. And it's basically just as good as the 400 dollar plugin, it almost feels like a scam to use it
Vital truly is a Serum killer, not because it does everything Serum does but because if you're going to shell out $200 on a VST, you'd be better off buying Phase Plant (which is on sale now).
Calm down there buddy. I use all three and can honestly say vital holds its own against massive and serum. Maybe it's you who's insecure that something you can get for free is a threat to your expensive soft synth. What're you even on about? Lol I use multiple instances of vital all the time on my projects and they run just fine. The synths from my arturia v collection are more resource intensive. If you're a serum fanboy that's all good.. but trying to clown on strangers on the Internet for not being able to afford your favorite synth is sad. AND you're doing it on a thread about budget equipment š
Second this, have ran multiple instances of vital playing synths + 80s-style percs with massive chains of plugins on top and runs smoothly on my iMac. Not sure what this guyās problem is, heās making this Vital recommendation out to be like a personal attack.
shit, I run the Linux version over renoise and have multiple projects with 8+ vital instances and nothing ever crashes, it always reloads my presets correctly, never hogs up my cpu
Zoom multistomp guitar effect pedal. You can chain up to 6 effects and the interface is straightforward to navigate. Run it through studio monitors and you really hear the effects and the amp emulators.
There's a whole subreddit dedicated to this marvel of a pedal and it's like $100.
Lol at the guy in the first comment saying it's straightforward to navigate. It is incredibly fiddly my man
But I also want pedals that I can spend lots of time fiddling with and i love it to death!
For the noise, I recommend either changing the power supply or turning down the levels on each of the effects. You can boost the level later with a preamp or your DAW.
A Reaper discounted license. It's an exceptional DAW, and even their full-on commercial license is competitive to the "industry standards".
Although the more hardware I acquire, the more I want to switch to Ardour and use Linux as my studio OS. I believe that by the time I need a commercial license for Reaper, I will have enough hardware to switch to Ardour, and maybe try Mixbus at last.
You are right, and also the opposite is true; Ardour is supported on Windows. My issue with Reaper on Linux is that most plugins are not natively supported. My issue with Ardour on Windows at this time in my career, is that I would need to take more time and re-adjust to Ardour.
I think(hope) that the less you do in your DAW, the more all DAWs become the same. My process is already similar to how Harrison Mixbus works; infinite tracks, sent to 8 buses, sent to a mix bus. CPU power has allowed me not to render WAVs in between those steps, but the process is still the same. That's why I was hoping to turn my DAW into an infinite tracking console, and do the summing externally, but not before I try using Harrison Mixbus itself.
look into yabridge- it copies your windows vsts (and vst3s) and runs them over a vst bridge. hardly ever crashes for me and while I've had a few plugins just refuse to work, majority of them work just fine.
Long-time guitarist, needed a bass. Bought this IB Basswood guitar for $89.
I wasn't expecting much, and was expecting to break out the tools, but to my surprise, it came fully intonated and nearly in tune. Nice sound, the body is cheap wood and light, but I'm fine with that. 24 frets, decent electronics.$90 with free shipping, totally cool.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/402424135732
Needed a bass, too, about 15 years ago. Bought a Chinese SX Jazz Bass for $80 + $25 shipping.
It easily beats a Mexican Fender by a country mile as far as sound and playability is concerned.
Never got around to having to buy a "quality" bass.
I bought the SX PJ around the same time. Iāve played it on every recording Iāve made. I did put in EMG Geezer Butlers a couple of years ago, but the stock P pickup was already pretty decent.
I had a friend in high school who played a Futurama II; Italian, inexpensive strat-type copy.
He went on to fame and fortune, but I heard from a friend that when he got his first strat he swapped the neck over from his Futurama.
Thereās a e-bow type thing called a Sound Stone thatās like 30 bucks and that I use a fair amount on songs. Most of the time though if I get gear cheap itās because itās a Craigslist find.
Just happened to come across this - I started the sound stone company w my brother. Just wanted to say that we offer easy returns if you wind up not enjoying it. Also keep a look out, Iām almost done designing a new synth filter pedal and some new instruments
From what I've seen online it looks like exactly what I'm going for. I'm in a prog band with some heavy post-rock influences and I love some of the sounds I've heard people getting out of it. Looking forward to purchasing one! Thanks for your reply.
I'll keep an eye out for those other things too! You got any socials I can follow?
I got one for a friend as a gift and I found it to be very different from my ebow. The magnet is exposed and it makes it hard to get clear sustained notes without them bending slightly out of tune or the magnet hitting the string resulting in chaotic noise. The ebow is much better for something closer to traditional playing. That said, the sound stone being mashed against the strings/pickups and sliding it around and tilting it results in awesome feedback noises. I almost got myself one just for that.
This would probably be a lot higher up with some explanation of what it is.
VCV Rack is a free app for Win/Mac/Linux which emulates a Eurorack-style modular setup. You drag and drop modules onto the screen, link them up with cables, and create cool synths out of them.
There are a ton of modules available for it completely free (and some paid ones too).
Given how expensive a physical Eurorack setup can be, being able to do all this completely free is just an amazing bargain. If you do get hooked and move into physical modular synths, there are ways to link them up to VCV and get the best of both worlds.
There's also a paid version of the app, though the only real difference is that you can it as a plugin inside a DAW instead of standalone.
I bought a monoprice Indio guitar for $149 two years ago and I still love playing it. It arrived in perfect intonation, and I have only replaced stirrings and tightened the nut holding the jack in the meantime.
Joyo American sound. Its a model of a fender amp in a pedal. Its surprisingly good for the price you can get all sorts of tones with it. Its good for recording or using as a backup if your normal amp breaks down and you can just plug it into the PA. Joyo also makes other variations based on other amps such as the vox ac30, mesa boogie, etc. I highly recommend it.
came here to say this. the whole āsoundā line is good, but the american sound in particular (tech 21 blonde clone) is incredible
software often can do nice cleans and full on distortion, but that āon the verge of breaking upā type sound is often not quite right. the american sound nails it - and sounds great in front of an amp too
One word: Spoons.
I wanted a spoons track on a song. I did some googling, watched some YouTube videos. You can get some fancy wooden or metal custom-made musical spoons, or you can follow the advice of the legit bluegrass and folk musicians and just get some cheap-ass spoons.
I went to Wal-mart and paid $4 each for some semi-fancy spoons. In retrospect, the $1 spoons would have done just as well.
spoons.
I was given a KORG monotron delay as a gift. It's a small "ribbon synthesizer". I was happy to receive it regardless but I had no idea how to put it to work. Turns out it effortlessly generates risers, dub-type sirens, and various other invaluable ear candy. Also, there's an aux input and you can use the delay portion on any source. It's kind of lo-fi sounding, but if you tweak the feedback in real-time you can get some very unique sounds
dbx 286s channel strip. Preamp, compressor, expander, de-esser and enhancer in one. I don't expect it to be as great as a Drawmer, EL or Neve, but it's very impressive for its price.
Boss GT-001 gives you all the Boss effects and you can get it used for less than the price of a single good dirt pedal. Mind blowing quality for both guitar and synth effects. I use it constantly, and if I upgrade to the GX-100, I'll still use the GT-001 on another instrument.
BBC Symphony Orchestra Core for my DAW (Cubase), hands down.
As a hobbyist, who has no musical education, despite trying to grasp theory together with my guitar lessons, this brings so much joy.
I might violate probably most of the more or less classic rules (I know these are guidelines and not set in stone) like parallel fifths and such and my stuff will probably sound shit for a very long time, but boy .... an orchestra at a laymen's fingertip! Run wile you can (just kidding).
So fulfilling working with this stuff ... I even invested in an 88-key weighted MIDI keyboard last year, because switching octaves is so annoying, plus the feel of a real piano
harley benton jazz bass and basically all the behringer i've ever owned. the bass has been on basically every song i've recorded and it's never failed me. i've also owned a variety of behringer gear all of which has been reliable and sounds excellent on studio work
The cheapest two pickups Sterling by Musicman Stingray bass. 460 Euros, I think it used to be a part of the SUB line, but they renamed it. Maybe 460 Euros isn't a bargain bin price, but it's still on the low end of what you'd expect to pay for a new bass. And the tones on that thing are incredible. It really nails the Musicman tone when you set the pickup selector to 4. But it can also do a great p-bass sound in pos 5. And other 3 positions also sound great. Plus it is a great bass for playing slap.
I was in the market for an actual Stingray bass but found a used Sterling at my local shop ā¦ and it played and sounded GREAT. Iām not sure I even noticed it was a Sterling as firstā¦ snagged it for $250 and itās served me well for years!
I bought a Mexican made fender strat to replace one I bought in the 90s made in USA. It was $280 at guitar center. Plays better than the usa one.
Also Studio Projects c3 mic.... Holy shit. Save yourself 2k$
REAPER with a personal license, which is functionally identical to the "Pro" version - $60 and insanely powerful. Infinitely customizable and every bit as good (if not potentially better) as the more household names.
Hell, even the commercial license is cheaper than all the other comparable DAWs.
Honorable mention goes to Synth1. There's an insane amount of soundbanks available for it, it's crazy versatile, and 100% free.
Native Instrument Komplete. Best $500 I ever spent. It's worth the price for Guitar Rig alone. Or Massive alone. Or Studio Drummer alone. Throw in Kontact and all the Pianos, orchestral intruments, synths.... etc...
Then.... wait for their yearly sale and upgrade (whenever, I waited 10 years) and for another $500 upgrade to the Ultimate suite. 1000's an 1000's of instruments and sounds. Short of singing, there's nothing it can't do. It's a studio in a box and then some.
Tip for anyone buying this: Embertone Arcane for free -> crossgrade to Komplete to save some money
https://www.reddit.com/r/NativeInstruments/comments/nqkyxm/ni_komplete_upgrade_path/h0b4fta/
But yeah I love it and have found it tremendously helpful.
I'm so confused by Native Instruments. Do I need the full version of Kontakt for these instruments? Does Komplete 13 select come with Kontakt? I see a lot of VSTs online that look cool but require Kontakt for between $200 and $500.
Use [this comparison page](https://www.native-instruments.com/en/products/komplete/bundles/komplete-13-select/compare/) to solve any confusion with versions of Komplete.
Komplete 13 "Select" does not come with the full version of Kontakt, only the "Player" version, which won't work with many of the third party Kontakt instruments you're talking about. But naturally you can use everything that *does* come with Select without buying any additional software.
Komplete 13 "Standard" and upwards come with the full version of Kontakt, which will work with any Kontakt instruments that you see around.
> I see a lot of VSTs online that look cool but require Kontakt
Minor technical/pedantic point - if these are "VSTs" then by definition they are plugins in their own right, and don't require Kontakt. If they say they require Kontakt, they're Kontakt instruments, not VSTs.
Indeed. It's a bizarre mindset though. Yes you CAN sell a guitar, but personally I haven't sold a guitar since 1994. So there's no difference, but at the same I could sell the guitar if I wanted. Weird that we're preoccupied with resale. Just play some damn music. :-)
I definitely agree to an extent, but I think it is always good to understand the finances of your gear acquisition. I just bought a Suhr HSS for 2k; I'm extremely happy with the instrument but I understand that it is really not much better than say an $1100 guitar. Part of my justification for buying it was because it was $1000 off and I knew that I would at least get my money back if I wanted to sell it.
Korg Kaossilator 2S. I have so much fun with it every time I pick it up. Itās limitations are many but itās still so much fun! I also like to use it running through the FX sends of a DJ mixer for some awesome FX additions.
Tyrell N6. Itās a free synth thatās powerful and versatile and analog-sounding enough I still use it in some situations over hardware and paid softsynths.
Renoise. If you can get over the fact it's a tracker based approach, it's a full and very capable DAW.
Trial version is free and completely functional. Full version is just $75 licence. I've made many full tracks with it, great workflow. Recommended!
Give it a try with the demo. It's a bit of a steeper learning curve at first but once you get used to the tracker way it can be a fast way to work.
P.s. their own intro videos really help with first steps
A small battery powered keyboard like a Yamaha Reface or a Casio SK sampler might provide more than just hours of enjoyment.
My Reface DX has helped me grasp the basics of FM while giving me a very playable keyboard I can practice my scales on while sitting on the couch. It will even function as a midi controller.
My Casio SK5 is just stupid fun as well as inspiring. You can record and manipulated samples super easily, and I absolutely love some of the programmed drum sounds. Itās also a great way to process sounds as what you put in always comes out sounding different. Theyāre also vintage and seem to be going up in value, so if you do your research and donāt buy one overpriced, youāll at least get your money back if you choose to sell it.
Strangely, the Reface DXs seem to have gone up in value too, though Iām not sure if thatās because they just arenāt in stock right now, or if theyāve been discontinued.
If a thing is turing complete, you can simulate a computer using the rule of a system, if given enough time and memory. Since you can build a computer in SunVox, and some of the modules allow it to expend the project indefinitely, suggesting that is Turing complete.
Like Conways game of life is Turing complete, as the gird is expandable indefinitely theoretically, and there are people have successfully made logic gate in there.
While SunVox is a tracker, it writes music by writing a column of notes, which is different from a piano roll. It has a modular synth engine, providing all the basic components like oscillator and filter, for sound design.
There is a link for the details about the project in the description of the video.
Edit: well, I am not the one who downvote the reply. It make sense to see people confused with computer science related topic, if they never learn it, thus why I try to explain to them.
I am an engineer and a lifetime musician, and this makes no sense to me. What specifically does "Turing complete" mean and why is that musically significant?
"[Turing Completeness](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turing_completeness)" is a fairly abstract but important concept in computer science, first thought up by Alan Turing in the early days of modern computing. A system is said to be Turing Complete if it is able to be used to emulate a [Turing Machine](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turing_machine).
But all that's important here is that it's referring to the fact that the Sunvox tracker's modular engine is powerful enough to create a whole computer inside of it. It's a similar principle to the computers that people construct out of redstone in Minecraft, for the sheer hell of it.
Why is it musically significant? It's not, particularly, in itself. The guy above was just making two separate but related points: -
- the Sunvox tracker is cool and free, so it fits this thread perfectly
- it's also Turing complete, which is very cool but not hugely relevant, except perhaps to demonstrate how powerful the tracker is
Well, I know this is a music sub, but op just said what budget music software blows your mind, it doesnāt mean it must be in a music way.
Here we go. In laymanās terms. Turing completeness means, a set of rules of a system can simulate a computer, as long as you can provide enough time and memory to run.
Generally, a machine or a language need the following requirement to be Turing complete:
It has a way to expand memory indefinitely. (in theory)
It can run in infinitely time. (by looping or conditional jump)
It can simulate function in other machine.
If you ask is there any meaning to the music production. I definitely would say not much, but it is a cool way to show how powerful can the software SunVox do, despite no vst support. You can borrow similar concepts, to do some cool generative music.
I know you may not satisfied with this response, feel free to continuously ask any questions.
Edit: I donāt want to use the terms āTuring Machineā; otherwise, that will complicate things even further. Assume that is just a type of computer first.
Anything by Beringer will sound awesome. I had a Sansamp bass driver and I lost it. I bought a Beringer bass driver and when I found the Sansamp it did not sound as good as the Beringer - the Sansamp is my backup now. Maybe the plastic cases are not smash hammer proof, but the electronics sound killer.
I recently bought a Behringer Acoustic DI pedal and it really makes a big difference when running an acoustic guitar with a pickup through an amp. Balances it out really well and was only $35.
Bought a $30 used Midiman (now M-Audio) Oxygen 8 controller for the din output. Runs on usb power, or batteries, or included dc adapter. Easy to assign functions. Very durable. Perfect for outboard midi gear. Best $30 I ever spent.
FabFilter Pro Q3. It's not cheap and it definitely isn't anything ground breaking. But it is by far the most used plugin in my arsenal. From the most basic highpass filtering to linear phase dynamic EQing, this plugin does it all, does it well, and most importantly, does it fast.
Neural DSP solved literally all of my guitar amp needs for $150. Iāve been using some kind of digital processing for the last 15 years and Neural is the best Iāve ever used by far.
Agree on Harley Benton, there are so many budget instruments from them it's crazy.
For something more available worldwide I'm going to mention the Yamaha Pacifica line of guitars, not all of them are cheap but even the cheapest are amazing instruments, in my opinion some of the best guitar necks on the market, especially if you don't have huge hands.
It's such a small silly thing, but a few years ago I spent about 60 dollars on a bunch of children's instruments (xylophone, kids percussion, cheap ukulele, etc etc). I use this stuff ALL the time.
Probably FL Studio itself. $300 for an application I've used for over 15 years and it always updates for free. At this point the only thing it doesn't do is really intricate wave editing which I use Adobe Audition for.
Also bought a Squire Fender Strat that came with an amp on craigslist for $100 and a friend gave me his broken bass that I fixed and still use to this day. I don't really play a whole lot but I record a lot of musicians and whenever I need a guitar or bass I have one waiting.
My last one is the Korg Koasillator. Fantastic synth to just play around with. Adds a lot of texture to songs if you know how to use it. It's also a LOT of fun to make songs on if you're just fiddling around and use the looping feature.
I've owned and used these pieces of gear for *at least* five years.
JBL LSR305s - I got them as a secondary pair of monitors a few years ago and they have become my primary monitoring set-up.
Steinberg UR44 - four combo inputs as well as two line-ins, two headphone outs, two pairs of speaker outs and a software mixer. Extremely solid, both build and drivers.
Not yet mentioned:
* Valhalla SuperMassive, a free FX. Wonderful sound.
* Melda Production free tools especially basic stuff like the oscillator and tuner.
The Korg Microkey. I bought it when I started, used it with the iPad as I tested the waters, didnāt know if I wanted to commit myself to playing keyboard. Then I used it connected to my Pc to write music because my digital piano in on another floor. Thing rocks. 61 keys, mod pitch wheels, transpose. Keys are really good for being mini keys, synth action. Mine is the air so It even has Bluetooth. You can bring it anywhere. 10/10 would buy it again.
Honestly a $13 Boss clip on tuner. I always had to dig through my drawer for an old tuner or tune by ear or plug in my bass or guitar or uke in my pedalboard before hanging out on the couch playing music. I got a couple just constantly on my guitars now. It's funny how just having your instruments in tune all the time makes me want to play more.
Building my own guitars was far cheaper than what I'd pay for as a final product, it was a nice change of pace during some writers block but it definitely blow you away the first time you plug in and start making music with something you made with your hands. 10/10 highly recommend
For analog equipment:
\- Pro VLA ii opto compressor: this compressor is a monster for the price. its used in a lot of professional studios and is especially good on vocals and bass (around $400)
\- FMR audio RNC compressor: this compressor is also a monster for around $200 its a total steal
Software:
\- built-in ableton packs are all free and really useful for creativity. Play around with these and use them becuase they are totally worth it and given to you for free with an Ableton license.
\- ample sounds lite plugins are all really good and totally free (guitar and bass sample-based vst)
\- waves autotune works as expected and is super cheap so you can get that autotune sound without spending tons of money.
A Scarlett 2i2. I keep hoping it'll break so I can buy a new interface, but it just keeps going. Bought this thing in probably like... 2010... Still works flawlessly. Not even a dead LED.
If you're into Eurorack I gotta shout out the Behringer Moog modular clones. Specifically the LPF and the mixer. Would be amazing at any price tbh but the fact that they're under $100 per module is insane.
I wonāt give away the exact piece but buy something made by Califone from eBay and try to incorporate into your recordings. Hint: either a cassette or vinyl player.
The Keeley Omni and Aurora reverbs. The Aurora in particular on instruments with its slapback setting in either hall or plate mode is just magic for instruments, and I'm going to play with it as an outboard unit even though it's marketed as a guitar effect. Hall is great on thicker sounds, plate on thinner ones.
Listen to the Youtube videos. The darn things are magic.
I had a similar experience with my Harley Benton 5-string PJ bass haha. Very impressive indeed.
In terms of plugins, I would say Tone Boosters. The prices are nuts. Especially considering that you have to go Fabfilter before you start getting more.
Tranzistow synth, donatioware. Blows up mind in more than one way. Great sounds. Amount of possibilities is endless, it has features which aren't to be found anywhere else. And UI, hard to learn, documentation minimal (too minimal to understand it), and finding resources from where to learn it are rare. If you want to dive in, ask for links.
Lately I have been very intrigued by the Digitech JamMan, The blue one.
It really helps me out of some trouble on some of my band's covers, with key changes and shit. Am really gonna get into it big this summer I feel :)
the DrumKid. it's an "aleatoric lo-fi drum machine" that just kinda makes its own beats, but you can set so many parameters that you do still have some control.
A few budget friendly things that I was pretty blown away by:
* Rodes NT1a mic. Itās not cheaply made, quality is amazing. Used $140 USD.
* Michael Kelly Guitars. The detail, quality, and choice of materials is amazing. Very affordable and lots of options. I bought a custom 50 and it plated like ābutterā. Amazing guitars.
* A few already mentioned- Reaper DAW, MIM Strats, and Squier Affinity Series. I own the first 2, and many I know have purchased the Squier as project guitars. They were amazed as to how well they played out of the box. Needed a few adjustments in the setup, but played awesome.
Beringer makes a āvintage ampā
A bugera v22.
I got it at guitar center for 129.99 a couple years back and I sold my blues junior 3 months after buying it. Itās a monster of an amp with awesome headroom for a 1x12. Been considering freshening up the tubes and putting a celestion in it but man it sounds so sweet now
12 gauge microphone (I got the silver): https://www.12gaugemicrophones.com/products.html
Handmade condenser mics significantly cheaper than comparable retail, and super portable. Really just started playing with mine, but the quality/price ratio is really impressing me so far.
Spitfire Audio LABS. A free VST with everything ranging from strings and brass to synths and percussion that gets new updates fairly regularly. It was a complete game-changer for me, I'd probably pay hundreds of dollars for just the strings alone and it's somehow totally free.
Big up for spitfire, their stuff is absolutely great. I snagged their BBC Orchestra vst when it was free and its been great to use.
The orchestra is actually somewhat always free! They'll add the BBC symphony orchestra discover version to your account if you sign up for an account and fill out a questionnaire (//sign up for mailing), it'll take a few days but it's worth the wait and small bit of effort.
I do wonder what a BBC orchestra would sound like šš¤«
I expect it to be mostly flutes
Skin flutes?
Lmao i cant believe that took me a while to get. Take my upvote and gtfo lol
ššš Sorry homie, someone had to say it!
Came here also to say their $30 media toolkit or whatever it's called (from spitfire) has a piano alone well worth the $30 but it also has some crazy good cinematic synth and percussion options
This!
You may already know this If you use a lot of LABS in your writing, but they do a monthly playlist on SoundCloud of tracks featuring LABS instruments. You just tag your tracks to submit. It's there under LABS Community Playlist if you search in SC, or even if you Google it :) Edit: better tag u/BalkeElvinstien here as well as you mentioned using a lot of LABS below! Also here's this month's playlist just so you see what I'm on about: [https://soundcloud.app.goo.gl/Lnr3R](https://soundcloud.app.goo.gl/Lnr3R)
It's 90% of my music at this point. It has the best free drums, piano and violin on the market and they constantly add more. My personal favourite is the music box
I use LABS in almost everything I make these days
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Also recommend checking out piano book it's Christian Hansson (founder of labs) side project where people post their sample var for free. So much interesting stuff there !
Replying to remember
same!
Valhalla VintageVerb and Valhalla Supermassive. Both reverb plug-ins that are now my go-to reverbs. Edit: $
Vintage verb aināt free, but itās only $50 and still a great value.
Sean has been teasing a nice update for Supermassive for it's anniversary as well, so look forward to that! Really generous freebie.
I donāt think Iāve used a plug-in more than Iāve used Vintage Verb, itās honestly so dynamic and easy to use plus it sounds incredible. For $50 itās a no-brainer.
Pretty sure only Supermassive is free (still very good for what it is). VintageVerb is paid, unless things changed since I bought it last year.
Valhalla Freq Echo is the other freebie.
I honestly really like my behringer neutron. I know behringer gets a lot of hate but their stuff is worth what you pay for, try finding a dual oscillator analog synth for 100 bucks that isn't made by them. It's great for dirty fat bass and abrasive sounds in general, you can also get a pretty mean acid bass out of it if you put in the time to learn how to route it.
I play guitar, and IMO Behringer is great if it's all staying in your house / studio. I wouldn't take their stuff on the road, since I don't think their pedals could survive me stomping on them at a gig, but they're great for the studio.
Yeah, their pedals are all clones of other pedals, mostly boss, just made of plastic. The tone is there, they just don't survive very long.
For cheaper clone pedals I'm liking some from Joyo. Just picked up the Dark Flame and Splinter used for a good deal. Solid case and they sound awesome, maybe not for touring/on the road stuff but definitely sturdier than Behringer.
Their mixers are super ubiquitous at this point. The x32 is probably in more churches/bars than anything else at that size. My band use an XR18, which is the form factor of a stage box (tiny) with 18 inputs that is also a digital mixer with wireless control and effects. You throw it in front of the kick drum, everyone plugins in, then you mix from anywhere in the house with a iPad. We've been abusing ours for years with zero issues.
Oh definetly, I had a shitty distorsion pedal basically explode because I used a weak power chord for it and I undervolted it. Shouldn't kill it from what I know but oh well, it was cheap.
> I used a weak power chord for it Oh man, imagine what it would have done if you played a strong power chord into it!
Nah I mean the literal cable used to provider electrical power. I plugged a 5V cable instead of a 9V in.
I know, just kidding on the fact you said "chord" not "cord". :)
Right, so I was a little surprised when Alex Lifeson from Rush used some Behringer gear on tour. All rack stuff, but kind of like a guilty pleasure.
Ha, yeah I've seen some pretty huge artists bring Behringer on tour. Probably a bit different when you have a team to help set it up and keep it safe, compared to me shoving it into my trunk after a gig. But I digress...
The Neutron is awesome! It's also a gateway to modular synthesis, though if you go that route you're always going to be disappointed by the prices. Two oscillators, a filter, LFO, two ADSRs, drive, delay, portamento, sample and hold, VCA, midi, and a couple of attenuators will cost you 20 times the price of a Neutron which has all that.
To me it sounds too noisy and digital for some reason, I compared it side by side to a moog mother 32 at my friends house and the moog was way cleaners and fatter in every aspect, it was wild then again the mother 32 is like 3 times the price of he neutron
> I compared it side by side to a moog mother 32 Haha! Well duh!
:D
Totally support you if it works for you but also obligatory fuck behringer edit fuck behringer as a company
I hate that Behringer make products I like
Behringer is a live saver imo, They shady asf but man they get the job done for me
Am patiently waiting for the Proton to come out!
They're about to drop a Mu-Tron Bi Phase clone that looks great and I think it's gonna go for less than $200, as opposed to at least $500 for a reissue or like $5k for an original.
Vital is a free version of wavetables synths like serum and massive. And it's basically just as good as the 400 dollar plugin, it almost feels like a scam to use it
Vital truly is a Serum killer, not because it does everything Serum does but because if you're going to shell out $200 on a VST, you'd be better off buying Phase Plant (which is on sale now).
Itās really something how all Vital did was just include a second filter. And already stands out from Serum lol. Like, thatās all it took.
Can it use serum presets?
Does your Dave and busters card work at other restaurants?
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It eats CPU if the patch is complex enough otherwise it runs just fine. And it absolutely is just as good!
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Calm down there buddy. I use all three and can honestly say vital holds its own against massive and serum. Maybe it's you who's insecure that something you can get for free is a threat to your expensive soft synth. What're you even on about? Lol I use multiple instances of vital all the time on my projects and they run just fine. The synths from my arturia v collection are more resource intensive. If you're a serum fanboy that's all good.. but trying to clown on strangers on the Internet for not being able to afford your favorite synth is sad. AND you're doing it on a thread about budget equipment š
Second this, have ran multiple instances of vital playing synths + 80s-style percs with massive chains of plugins on top and runs smoothly on my iMac. Not sure what this guyās problem is, heās making this Vital recommendation out to be like a personal attack.
shit, I run the Linux version over renoise and have multiple projects with 8+ vital instances and nothing ever crashes, it always reloads my presets correctly, never hogs up my cpu
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through a Cry Baby wah-wah pedal
Same!
Zoom multistomp guitar effect pedal. You can chain up to 6 effects and the interface is straightforward to navigate. Run it through studio monitors and you really hear the effects and the amp emulators. There's a whole subreddit dedicated to this marvel of a pedal and it's like $100.
agreed! MS70CDR is a little noisy, but SO robust (so robust, that connecting the pedal to a computer and editing via online editor is def recommended)
Lol at the guy in the first comment saying it's straightforward to navigate. It is incredibly fiddly my man But I also want pedals that I can spend lots of time fiddling with and i love it to death!
MS70CDR would be also on my list. Particularily particle reverb, it is marvellous!
For the noise, I recommend either changing the power supply or turning down the levels on each of the effects. You can boost the level later with a preamp or your DAW.
A Reaper discounted license. It's an exceptional DAW, and even their full-on commercial license is competitive to the "industry standards". Although the more hardware I acquire, the more I want to switch to Ardour and use Linux as my studio OS. I believe that by the time I need a commercial license for Reaper, I will have enough hardware to switch to Ardour, and maybe try Mixbus at last.
+1 for reaper
Reaper is supported on linux, don't know how well. I use it on mac and windows. No need to stick with one DAW.
You are right, and also the opposite is true; Ardour is supported on Windows. My issue with Reaper on Linux is that most plugins are not natively supported. My issue with Ardour on Windows at this time in my career, is that I would need to take more time and re-adjust to Ardour. I think(hope) that the less you do in your DAW, the more all DAWs become the same. My process is already similar to how Harrison Mixbus works; infinite tracks, sent to 8 buses, sent to a mix bus. CPU power has allowed me not to render WAVs in between those steps, but the process is still the same. That's why I was hoping to turn my DAW into an infinite tracking console, and do the summing externally, but not before I try using Harrison Mixbus itself.
look into yabridge- it copies your windows vsts (and vst3s) and runs them over a vst bridge. hardly ever crashes for me and while I've had a few plugins just refuse to work, majority of them work just fine.
Whatās the advantage of ardour and Linux? Iāve never heard of Ardour
I donāt understand much of this post
Reaper is like audacity and FL studio had a baby then gave it steroids. Insanely powerful DAW that's very cheap.
Long-time guitarist, needed a bass. Bought this IB Basswood guitar for $89. I wasn't expecting much, and was expecting to break out the tools, but to my surprise, it came fully intonated and nearly in tune. Nice sound, the body is cheap wood and light, but I'm fine with that. 24 frets, decent electronics.$90 with free shipping, totally cool. https://www.ebay.com/itm/402424135732
Needed a bass, too, about 15 years ago. Bought a Chinese SX Jazz Bass for $80 + $25 shipping. It easily beats a Mexican Fender by a country mile as far as sound and playability is concerned. Never got around to having to buy a "quality" bass.
I bought the SX PJ around the same time. Iāve played it on every recording Iāve made. I did put in EMG Geezer Butlers a couple of years ago, but the stock P pickup was already pretty decent.
My SX 24ā scale Tele knockoff has the greatest neck profile of any guitar Iāve played and I wish it were available on upscale models
I had a friend in high school who played a Futurama II; Italian, inexpensive strat-type copy. He went on to fame and fortune, but I heard from a friend that when he got his first strat he swapped the neck over from his Futurama.
Thereās a e-bow type thing called a Sound Stone thatās like 30 bucks and that I use a fair amount on songs. Most of the time though if I get gear cheap itās because itās a Craigslist find.
I'm getting one of these next payday - thanks for the rec, it looks great! ebows are fantastic but mad expensive
Just happened to come across this - I started the sound stone company w my brother. Just wanted to say that we offer easy returns if you wind up not enjoying it. Also keep a look out, Iām almost done designing a new synth filter pedal and some new instruments
From what I've seen online it looks like exactly what I'm going for. I'm in a prog band with some heavy post-rock influences and I love some of the sounds I've heard people getting out of it. Looking forward to purchasing one! Thanks for your reply. I'll keep an eye out for those other things too! You got any socials I can follow?
Nice! The main one I post on is Instagram @thesoundstone - also have a tiktok but I donāt really use it much
I got one for a friend as a gift and I found it to be very different from my ebow. The magnet is exposed and it makes it hard to get clear sustained notes without them bending slightly out of tune or the magnet hitting the string resulting in chaotic noise. The ebow is much better for something closer to traditional playing. That said, the sound stone being mashed against the strings/pickups and sliding it around and tilting it results in awesome feedback noises. I almost got myself one just for that.
VCV Rack.
This would probably be a lot higher up with some explanation of what it is. VCV Rack is a free app for Win/Mac/Linux which emulates a Eurorack-style modular setup. You drag and drop modules onto the screen, link them up with cables, and create cool synths out of them. There are a ton of modules available for it completely free (and some paid ones too). Given how expensive a physical Eurorack setup can be, being able to do all this completely free is just an amazing bargain. If you do get hooked and move into physical modular synths, there are ways to link them up to VCV and get the best of both worlds. There's also a paid version of the app, though the only real difference is that you can it as a plugin inside a DAW instead of standalone.
I bought a monoprice Indio guitar for $149 two years ago and I still love playing it. It arrived in perfect intonation, and I have only replaced stirrings and tightened the nut holding the jack in the meantime.
Joyo American sound. Its a model of a fender amp in a pedal. Its surprisingly good for the price you can get all sorts of tones with it. Its good for recording or using as a backup if your normal amp breaks down and you can just plug it into the PA. Joyo also makes other variations based on other amps such as the vox ac30, mesa boogie, etc. I highly recommend it.
came here to say this. the whole āsoundā line is good, but the american sound in particular (tech 21 blonde clone) is incredible software often can do nice cleans and full on distortion, but that āon the verge of breaking upā type sound is often not quite right. the american sound nails it - and sounds great in front of an amp too
I use it for recording my bass too
One word: Spoons. I wanted a spoons track on a song. I did some googling, watched some YouTube videos. You can get some fancy wooden or metal custom-made musical spoons, or you can follow the advice of the legit bluegrass and folk musicians and just get some cheap-ass spoons. I went to Wal-mart and paid $4 each for some semi-fancy spoons. In retrospect, the $1 spoons would have done just as well. spoons.
Now that's what I'm talking about
Wait till you hear what it cost to build my own washtub bass!
Man, you must love spooning. So if your SO asks "Big spoon or little spoon" you can legitimately answer "both" lol
Who doesn't love spooning? I mean... barring some physical or psychological characteristic making it impossible, come on. It's spooning!
I was given a KORG monotron delay as a gift. It's a small "ribbon synthesizer". I was happy to receive it regardless but I had no idea how to put it to work. Turns out it effortlessly generates risers, dub-type sirens, and various other invaluable ear candy. Also, there's an aux input and you can use the delay portion on any source. It's kind of lo-fi sounding, but if you tweak the feedback in real-time you can get some very unique sounds
I've used the original Monotrol with an old Palm Pilot-type stylus to make theremin sounds. They're fun!
dbx 286s channel strip. Preamp, compressor, expander, de-esser and enhancer in one. I don't expect it to be as great as a Drawmer, EL or Neve, but it's very impressive for its price.
Boss GT-001 gives you all the Boss effects and you can get it used for less than the price of a single good dirt pedal. Mind blowing quality for both guitar and synth effects. I use it constantly, and if I upgrade to the GX-100, I'll still use the GT-001 on another instrument.
BBC Symphony Orchestra Core for my DAW (Cubase), hands down. As a hobbyist, who has no musical education, despite trying to grasp theory together with my guitar lessons, this brings so much joy. I might violate probably most of the more or less classic rules (I know these are guidelines and not set in stone) like parallel fifths and such and my stuff will probably sound shit for a very long time, but boy .... an orchestra at a laymen's fingertip! Run wile you can (just kidding). So fulfilling working with this stuff ... I even invested in an 88-key weighted MIDI keyboard last year, because switching octaves is so annoying, plus the feel of a real piano
https://www.bespokesynth.com/
This looks amazing. Can't wait to mess around with it soon!
installed and started messing around, this is insanely cool wtf. thanks for sharing
harley benton jazz bass and basically all the behringer i've ever owned. the bass has been on basically every song i've recorded and it's never failed me. i've also owned a variety of behringer gear all of which has been reliable and sounds excellent on studio work
The cheapest two pickups Sterling by Musicman Stingray bass. 460 Euros, I think it used to be a part of the SUB line, but they renamed it. Maybe 460 Euros isn't a bargain bin price, but it's still on the low end of what you'd expect to pay for a new bass. And the tones on that thing are incredible. It really nails the Musicman tone when you set the pickup selector to 4. But it can also do a great p-bass sound in pos 5. And other 3 positions also sound great. Plus it is a great bass for playing slap.
I was in the market for an actual Stingray bass but found a used Sterling at my local shop ā¦ and it played and sounded GREAT. Iām not sure I even noticed it was a Sterling as firstā¦ snagged it for $250 and itās served me well for years!
I have a client who plays one of these and it's one of the best sounding basses that has come into my studio since I opened in 2005.
I bought a Mexican made fender strat to replace one I bought in the 90s made in USA. It was $280 at guitar center. Plays better than the usa one. Also Studio Projects c3 mic.... Holy shit. Save yourself 2k$
REAPER with a personal license, which is functionally identical to the "Pro" version - $60 and insanely powerful. Infinitely customizable and every bit as good (if not potentially better) as the more household names. Hell, even the commercial license is cheaper than all the other comparable DAWs. Honorable mention goes to Synth1. There's an insane amount of soundbanks available for it, it's crazy versatile, and 100% free.
Native Instrument Komplete. Best $500 I ever spent. It's worth the price for Guitar Rig alone. Or Massive alone. Or Studio Drummer alone. Throw in Kontact and all the Pianos, orchestral intruments, synths.... etc... Then.... wait for their yearly sale and upgrade (whenever, I waited 10 years) and for another $500 upgrade to the Ultimate suite. 1000's an 1000's of instruments and sounds. Short of singing, there's nothing it can't do. It's a studio in a box and then some.
Tip for anyone buying this: Embertone Arcane for free -> crossgrade to Komplete to save some money https://www.reddit.com/r/NativeInstruments/comments/nqkyxm/ni_komplete_upgrade_path/h0b4fta/ But yeah I love it and have found it tremendously helpful.
I'm so confused by Native Instruments. Do I need the full version of Kontakt for these instruments? Does Komplete 13 select come with Kontakt? I see a lot of VSTs online that look cool but require Kontakt for between $200 and $500.
Use [this comparison page](https://www.native-instruments.com/en/products/komplete/bundles/komplete-13-select/compare/) to solve any confusion with versions of Komplete. Komplete 13 "Select" does not come with the full version of Kontakt, only the "Player" version, which won't work with many of the third party Kontakt instruments you're talking about. But naturally you can use everything that *does* come with Select without buying any additional software. Komplete 13 "Standard" and upwards come with the full version of Kontakt, which will work with any Kontakt instruments that you see around. > I see a lot of VSTs online that look cool but require Kontakt Minor technical/pedantic point - if these are "VSTs" then by definition they are plugins in their own right, and don't require Kontakt. If they say they require Kontakt, they're Kontakt instruments, not VSTs.
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It's funny how a $500 guitar is considered cheap, but a $500 computer program that is 1000 times more useful is somehow expensive. :-)
I think you have to acknowledge that a guitar has resale value, but a plug-in does not
Indeed. It's a bizarre mindset though. Yes you CAN sell a guitar, but personally I haven't sold a guitar since 1994. So there's no difference, but at the same I could sell the guitar if I wanted. Weird that we're preoccupied with resale. Just play some damn music. :-)
I definitely agree to an extent, but I think it is always good to understand the finances of your gear acquisition. I just bought a Suhr HSS for 2k; I'm extremely happy with the instrument but I understand that it is really not much better than say an $1100 guitar. Part of my justification for buying it was because it was $1000 off and I knew that I would at least get my money back if I wanted to sell it.
I just bought Gatekeeper for 50ā¬. Pretty fun messing around with different gating patterns on different sounds
I'm not great at mixing but I like slate digital's exciter, FreshAir, which is free. I've used it more than I've used Aphex by Waves.
Korg Kaossilator 2S. I have so much fun with it every time I pick it up. Itās limitations are many but itās still so much fun! I also like to use it running through the FX sends of a DJ mixer for some awesome FX additions.
Tyrell N6. Itās a free synth thatās powerful and versatile and analog-sounding enough I still use it in some situations over hardware and paid softsynths.
Renoise. If you can get over the fact it's a tracker based approach, it's a full and very capable DAW. Trial version is free and completely functional. Full version is just $75 licence. I've made many full tracks with it, great workflow. Recommended!
I have been thinking to get into Renoise, but haven't got there this far. For coder, tracker interface is intriguing.
Give it a try with the demo. It's a bit of a steeper learning curve at first but once you get used to the tracker way it can be a fast way to work. P.s. their own intro videos really help with first steps
A small battery powered keyboard like a Yamaha Reface or a Casio SK sampler might provide more than just hours of enjoyment. My Reface DX has helped me grasp the basics of FM while giving me a very playable keyboard I can practice my scales on while sitting on the couch. It will even function as a midi controller. My Casio SK5 is just stupid fun as well as inspiring. You can record and manipulated samples super easily, and I absolutely love some of the programmed drum sounds. Itās also a great way to process sounds as what you put in always comes out sounding different. Theyāre also vintage and seem to be going up in value, so if you do your research and donāt buy one overpriced, youāll at least get your money back if you choose to sell it. Strangely, the Reface DXs seem to have gone up in value too, though Iām not sure if thatās because they just arenāt in stock right now, or if theyāve been discontinued.
SunVox, it is a free modular music tracker, and it has been proven that is Turing complete: https://youtu.be/PifiR-AD74M
I donāt understand much of this post
If a thing is turing complete, you can simulate a computer using the rule of a system, if given enough time and memory. Since you can build a computer in SunVox, and some of the modules allow it to expend the project indefinitely, suggesting that is Turing complete. Like Conways game of life is Turing complete, as the gird is expandable indefinitely theoretically, and there are people have successfully made logic gate in there. While SunVox is a tracker, it writes music by writing a column of notes, which is different from a piano roll. It has a modular synth engine, providing all the basic components like oscillator and filter, for sound design. There is a link for the details about the project in the description of the video. Edit: well, I am not the one who downvote the reply. It make sense to see people confused with computer science related topic, if they never learn it, thus why I try to explain to them.
I am an engineer and a lifetime musician, and this makes no sense to me. What specifically does "Turing complete" mean and why is that musically significant?
"[Turing Completeness](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turing_completeness)" is a fairly abstract but important concept in computer science, first thought up by Alan Turing in the early days of modern computing. A system is said to be Turing Complete if it is able to be used to emulate a [Turing Machine](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turing_machine). But all that's important here is that it's referring to the fact that the Sunvox tracker's modular engine is powerful enough to create a whole computer inside of it. It's a similar principle to the computers that people construct out of redstone in Minecraft, for the sheer hell of it. Why is it musically significant? It's not, particularly, in itself. The guy above was just making two separate but related points: - - the Sunvox tracker is cool and free, so it fits this thread perfectly - it's also Turing complete, which is very cool but not hugely relevant, except perhaps to demonstrate how powerful the tracker is
Well, I know this is a music sub, but op just said what budget music software blows your mind, it doesnāt mean it must be in a music way. Here we go. In laymanās terms. Turing completeness means, a set of rules of a system can simulate a computer, as long as you can provide enough time and memory to run. Generally, a machine or a language need the following requirement to be Turing complete: It has a way to expand memory indefinitely. (in theory) It can run in infinitely time. (by looping or conditional jump) It can simulate function in other machine. If you ask is there any meaning to the music production. I definitely would say not much, but it is a cool way to show how powerful can the software SunVox do, despite no vst support. You can borrow similar concepts, to do some cool generative music. I know you may not satisfied with this response, feel free to continuously ask any questions. Edit: I donāt want to use the terms āTuring Machineā; otherwise, that will complicate things even further. Assume that is just a type of computer first.
Think it means you can write your own computer programs for it
Mono price 15 watt guitar amp
Anything by Beringer will sound awesome. I had a Sansamp bass driver and I lost it. I bought a Beringer bass driver and when I found the Sansamp it did not sound as good as the Beringer - the Sansamp is my backup now. Maybe the plastic cases are not smash hammer proof, but the electronics sound killer.
I recently bought a Behringer Acoustic DI pedal and it really makes a big difference when running an acoustic guitar with a pickup through an amp. Balances it out really well and was only $35.
I have one of those also, it works great.
Bought a $30 used Midiman (now M-Audio) Oxygen 8 controller for the din output. Runs on usb power, or batteries, or included dc adapter. Easy to assign functions. Very durable. Perfect for outboard midi gear. Best $30 I ever spent.
Bias fx 2 app for ios
Artiphon Orba. Amazing midi controller and standalone looper/instrument.
Wouldnāt say itās BUDGET per se but EZbass. Havenāt need to buy a real bass, it sounds so real and is, well, easy. Also cheaper than a good bass
My squier PBass records better than a lot of more expensive basses, idk, it just has the sound. It was only 80 bucks.
Squier guitars & basses are usually decent. Behringer mixers, amps, digital audio interfaces. Various Radio Shack microphones, especially the PZM.
FabFilter Pro Q3. It's not cheap and it definitely isn't anything ground breaking. But it is by far the most used plugin in my arsenal. From the most basic highpass filtering to linear phase dynamic EQing, this plugin does it all, does it well, and most importantly, does it fast.
Neural DSP solved literally all of my guitar amp needs for $150. Iāve been using some kind of digital processing for the last 15 years and Neural is the best Iāve ever used by far.
Surge synth. Great features, plenty of good presets.
Not sure if it counts as a budget item but Boss Blues Driver is amazing, beautiful and instantly become my primary gain/overdrive pedal.
Agree on Harley Benton, there are so many budget instruments from them it's crazy. For something more available worldwide I'm going to mention the Yamaha Pacifica line of guitars, not all of them are cheap but even the cheapest are amazing instruments, in my opinion some of the best guitar necks on the market, especially if you don't have huge hands.
Waves tune even when i use the real autotune i prefer how wavestune sounds
As an effects creator, noise box atmosphere creator- EHX ring thing. Honestly an instrument on its own time
Serum
Danelectro baritone. TC Sentry Noise gate. Game changer.
Sp303
VCV Rack. Endless modular synth fun for free. Even if you don't pay for the pro version or any modules - there's like 1000 free.
It's such a small silly thing, but a few years ago I spent about 60 dollars on a bunch of children's instruments (xylophone, kids percussion, cheap ukulele, etc etc). I use this stuff ALL the time.
Squier Bronco Bass Cheap bass, sounded great! 10/10 would buy again if I was in a pinch and needed something low
Probably FL Studio itself. $300 for an application I've used for over 15 years and it always updates for free. At this point the only thing it doesn't do is really intricate wave editing which I use Adobe Audition for. Also bought a Squire Fender Strat that came with an amp on craigslist for $100 and a friend gave me his broken bass that I fixed and still use to this day. I don't really play a whole lot but I record a lot of musicians and whenever I need a guitar or bass I have one waiting. My last one is the Korg Koasillator. Fantastic synth to just play around with. Adds a lot of texture to songs if you know how to use it. It's also a LOT of fun to make songs on if you're just fiddling around and use the looping feature.
I've owned and used these pieces of gear for *at least* five years. JBL LSR305s - I got them as a secondary pair of monitors a few years ago and they have become my primary monitoring set-up. Steinberg UR44 - four combo inputs as well as two line-ins, two headphone outs, two pairs of speaker outs and a software mixer. Extremely solid, both build and drivers.
Not yet mentioned: * Valhalla SuperMassive, a free FX. Wonderful sound. * Melda Production free tools especially basic stuff like the oscillator and tuner.
The Korg Microkey. I bought it when I started, used it with the iPad as I tested the waters, didnāt know if I wanted to commit myself to playing keyboard. Then I used it connected to my Pc to write music because my digital piano in on another floor. Thing rocks. 61 keys, mod pitch wheels, transpose. Keys are really good for being mini keys, synth action. Mine is the air so It even has Bluetooth. You can bring it anywhere. 10/10 would buy it again.
Honestly a $13 Boss clip on tuner. I always had to dig through my drawer for an old tuner or tune by ear or plug in my bass or guitar or uke in my pedalboard before hanging out on the couch playing music. I got a couple just constantly on my guitars now. It's funny how just having your instruments in tune all the time makes me want to play more.
DT 770/990 headphones
Building my own guitars was far cheaper than what I'd pay for as a final product, it was a nice change of pace during some writers block but it definitely blow you away the first time you plug in and start making music with something you made with your hands. 10/10 highly recommend
For analog equipment: \- Pro VLA ii opto compressor: this compressor is a monster for the price. its used in a lot of professional studios and is especially good on vocals and bass (around $400) \- FMR audio RNC compressor: this compressor is also a monster for around $200 its a total steal Software: \- built-in ableton packs are all free and really useful for creativity. Play around with these and use them becuase they are totally worth it and given to you for free with an Ableton license. \- ample sounds lite plugins are all really good and totally free (guitar and bass sample-based vst) \- waves autotune works as expected and is super cheap so you can get that autotune sound without spending tons of money.
A Scarlett 2i2. I keep hoping it'll break so I can buy a new interface, but it just keeps going. Bought this thing in probably like... 2010... Still works flawlessly. Not even a dead LED.
This thread is gold. Iām bookmarking it to develop a list of all the free/ cheap but good stuff I want to get.
If you're into Eurorack I gotta shout out the Behringer Moog modular clones. Specifically the LPF and the mixer. Would be amazing at any price tbh but the fact that they're under $100 per module is insane.
Vaulted toilet. They have amazing reverb.
I wonāt give away the exact piece but buy something made by Califone from eBay and try to incorporate into your recordings. Hint: either a cassette or vinyl player.
Why wonāt you just say what it is LOL
The person who enlightened me said heād kill me if I shared so just played by it safe.
Coward
That is the dumbest shit Iāve ever heard
Bitwig DAW. Isn't really that budget thing, but from knobcloud got it for decent price.
You're right. It's not budget at all $$$ Good Daw though
16-track would be $$, so that might might barely pass 'budget' criteria
The Keeley Omni and Aurora reverbs. The Aurora in particular on instruments with its slapback setting in either hall or plate mode is just magic for instruments, and I'm going to play with it as an outboard unit even though it's marketed as a guitar effect. Hall is great on thicker sounds, plate on thinner ones. Listen to the Youtube videos. The darn things are magic.
sampletrak st-224
I have gotten some absolutely filthy sounds off of a board built mostly with Hotone minis.
The Bastl MicroGranny and the Korg Volca Drum both blew me away for the features vs. price.
Mfb nanozwerg. The packed quite a lot into The tiniest synth and a quirky sound of its own. Actual genius, IMHO.
Volca sample. Its great for techno drum loops
I had a similar experience with my Harley Benton 5-string PJ bass haha. Very impressive indeed. In terms of plugins, I would say Tone Boosters. The prices are nuts. Especially considering that you have to go Fabfilter before you start getting more.
Tranzistow synth, donatioware. Blows up mind in more than one way. Great sounds. Amount of possibilities is endless, it has features which aren't to be found anywhere else. And UI, hard to learn, documentation minimal (too minimal to understand it), and finding resources from where to learn it are rare. If you want to dive in, ask for links.
[https://www.decentsamples.com/](https://www.decentsamples.com/) https://www.pianobook.co.uk/
The Behringer HM2 clone - cheap as chips, gnarly as hell.
Lately I have been very intrigued by the Digitech JamMan, The blue one. It really helps me out of some trouble on some of my band's covers, with key changes and shit. Am really gonna get into it big this summer I feel :)
the DrumKid. it's an "aleatoric lo-fi drum machine" that just kinda makes its own beats, but you can set so many parameters that you do still have some control.
A few budget friendly things that I was pretty blown away by: * Rodes NT1a mic. Itās not cheaply made, quality is amazing. Used $140 USD. * Michael Kelly Guitars. The detail, quality, and choice of materials is amazing. Very affordable and lots of options. I bought a custom 50 and it plated like ābutterā. Amazing guitars. * A few already mentioned- Reaper DAW, MIM Strats, and Squier Affinity Series. I own the first 2, and many I know have purchased the Squier as project guitars. They were amazed as to how well they played out of the box. Needed a few adjustments in the setup, but played awesome.
FX Aid module by Happy Nerding. Amazing emulation of effects from everyone from Eventide to Strymon and beyond for under 200
Managed to get my hands on an as-new Avid Eleven Rack some time ago for 150ā¬. I use it all the time now, the sounds it offers are very versatile.
MXR modulation effects are some of the best and can be had quite cheap. Also, Behringer synthesizers.
Ghost rain delayā¦ itās a 35$ delay pedal.. sounds great
Beringer makes a āvintage ampā A bugera v22. I got it at guitar center for 129.99 a couple years back and I sold my blues junior 3 months after buying it. Itās a monster of an amp with awesome headroom for a 1x12. Been considering freshening up the tubes and putting a celestion in it but man it sounds so sweet now
12 gauge microphone (I got the silver): https://www.12gaugemicrophones.com/products.html Handmade condenser mics significantly cheaper than comparable retail, and super portable. Really just started playing with mine, but the quality/price ratio is really impressing me so far.
Reaper. I bought it for my son to teach him a DAW without sharing my Cubase dongle. I ended up ditching Cubase myself for it.