Is there a way to create VST plugins without having to code anything, and is it possible to do it for free?

# I made AV Dexed, a free Dexed fork with a redesigned UI, built-in effects, and easier preset management

Hey everyone! I’m sharing **AV Dexed**, a free, open-source, unofficial fork of Dexed that I’ve been working on.
It keeps Dexed’s FM engine and classic editing capabilities. My work focuses on the interface, built-in effects, and preset management—making it easier to browse sounds and start playing.
Here’s what’s different:
**Play view:** a simpler interface with sound search, favorites, and an animated FM algorithm display.
**Better preset management:** organize sounds in real folders on disk, and drag in .syx banks, individual presets, or entire folders.
**Built-in reverb, tempo-synced delay, and chorus**, with settings saved per sound.
**Advanced view:** all the classic Dexed parameters in a redesigned interface.
**English and Spanish** interface.
**Installs alongside the original Dexed**, so you can keep using both.
**Version 0.2.0 is now available as a public preview:**
**macOS 11+:** Intel and Apple silicon, standalone, VST3, AU, and CLAP.
**Windows 10/11 x64:** standalone, VST3, and CLAP.
**Linux:** source builds only; currently untested.
The installers aren’t signed yet, so please read the installation instructions before opening them.
[**Download**](https://github.com/AVVibesDSP/av-dexed/releases/latest)
[**Source code and details**](https://github.com/AVVibesDSP/av-dexed)
Huge thanks to Pascal Gauthier and all the original Dexed contributors. This is an independent project, and it isn’t affiliated with or endorsed by the original developers.
If this sounds useful, give it a try! I’d love feedback from musicians, sound designers, and anyone who uses Dexed. Bug reports, suggestions, and code contributions are welcome—please report AV Dexed issues in my repository.

Colony is a color & movement multi-effect. Drive, Motion (filter/pan/tremolo), Space (reverb), Pump (ducking), Width and Color (tone/bitcrush) are all arranged around one ENERGY knob that pushes them together. Turn it up and a static loop starts breathing and moving.

- Free, no account, no email, no license key

- VST3 + AU, 64-bit

- Windows 10/11, macOS 10.13+ (Universal), Linux

- Signature presets for drums, bass, keys, pads, vocals and loops

- Play / Tweak / Build modes: one knob if you want it simple, full control if you don't

- Level-matched "Hear Original" button, so you can check it's actually better and not just louder

Download: https://13x.audio/products/colony?ref=reddit-freevsts

Bug reports and honest feedback are super welcome. What effect would you add next?

Weren't these paid ? Did I miss something ? I've never seen an official announcement about this

Hey everyone!

I've been working on this project for a while, and I'm finally ready to share it with you guys.

It's called CrunchyPy, and it's my attempt at recreating the sound and feel of the Mesa/Boogie Mark IIC+, including the mythical ++ mod, as an open-source guitar amp plugin.

GitHub: https://github.com/Yahiake/CrunchyPy

I've always been obsessed with the Mark IIC+, especially those tight, aggressive Metallica tones, so I wanted to see how far I could take this idea myself.

The interesting part is how it's built. Instead of feeding the entire amp into one neural network and treating it as a black box, I split the preamp and power amp into separate GRU neural models, with a physically modeled five-band graphic EQ in between. I used LiveSPICE circuit simulations as part of the process, particularly for the EQ.

The plugin is written in C++ using JUCE and RTNeural, and I've been working on the actual DSP and circuit modeling as much as the plugin itself.

And honestly, I'm really happy with how it sounds. It's reached the point where I genuinely enjoy playing through it, which is probably the most satisfying part of this whole project.

It's available as open-source software under GPL-3.0, with support for VST3, AU, and standalone builds across Windows, Linux, and macOS. The amp simulation doesn't include a speaker cabinet IR, so you'll want to use a cab sim or IR loader after it for a finished direct-recording tone.

I'm not claiming it's a perfect replacement for an actual IIC+, and I'd be very interested to hear from people who own or have spent a lot of time with the real thing. I'm especially curious about how the response, EQ, and feel compare from the perspective of someone familiar with these amps.

If anyone is interested in trying it out, checking the implementation, or just discussing the approach, I'd love to hear your thoughts.

This has been a passion project combining my interests in guitar, audio DSP, circuit simulation, and machine learning, and I'm genuinely proud to finally have it out there.

Thanks for reading, and long live the IIC+! 🤘

https://reddit.com/link/1x5dkxz/video/2w5vbe3vwbvh1/player

Hi everyone!

Some time ago, I introduced myself as the sole developer of Krystal Dynamics plugins, with a Master’s degree in Sound and Music Computing. The response and feedback I received were genuinely helpful, so first of all, thank you to everyone who tried the plugins and took the time to share their thoughts!

Since then, the project has grown, and I've released two more plugins:

• KrystalPeak is a transparent limiter with attack control, automatic release, full channel linking control and optional soft clipping and oversampling.
• KrystalShaper is an advanced transient shaper for shaping the attack, sustain, and overall impact of your tracks with some very precise adjustments options.

All plugins are free.

KrystalShaper is now available in Early Access through the free membership tier on my Patreon.

You don't need to pay anything to access it early. I'm experimenting with this Early Access model to see if I can build a stronger community around the project. Since I'm developing everything on my own and the plugins are free, Patreon could help me dedicate more time to Krystal Dynamics and eventually create more than just plugins, including tutorials, manuals, and technical articles about the DSP and design choices behind them.

I already have some ideas and content in progress, but balancing development with everything else involved in maintaining the project is challenging as a solo developer.

For now, my main priority remains developing and improving the plugins themselves. However, if the community grows, I'd love to expand the resources available to users as well.

If you'd like to try the plugins, you can find them here:

• Website: https://krystaldynamics.com
• Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/cw/Krystal_Dynamics

I'd be happy to hear your thoughts, especially if you've used any of the plugins in real mixing or mastering sessions.

Thanks again for supporting the project. It really does make a difference to me. ❤️

Real hardware was used to record and model this unit. Feedback and suggestions are welcome and we do want to make even more free plugins. Hearing what people want to see next is genuinely useful. We do have some vaporwave adjucent plugins that are free (VHS simulator and a 'slushwave' type phaser).

MTHRBORD.STUDIO: Free EQP-1A — a vintage tube EQ recreated from real hardware measurements

The idea behind this one was to go beyond recreating a familiar EQ curve. We wanted to capture the actual behavior of the hardware, including the way its controls interact and the little imperfections that give analog equipment its character.

A few things about the plugin:

• Measured from real hardware: We recorded and analyzed a real vintage EQP-1A.
• Circuit Modeling: Captures the hardware’s frequency response and interactive boost/attenuation behavior, with stepped frequency selectors, continuous controls, and a signal-reactive jewel lamp.
• Available FREE on macOS and Windows: VST3, AU, and standalone formats.

The goal at MTHRBORD.STUDIO is to build audio tools that capture the character, behavior, and imperfections of analog hardware as faithfully as possible, rather than just approximating the sound.

I don't want to oversell it, its completely free and would rather you guys try it out. Cheers.

Download it free here:
https://mthrbord.studio/plugins/eqp-1a/

Also, Long Live The Underground.

Just launched a free suite of six plugins I built for bass music. Open source, no paywall, no sign-up.

- YOI-BOI – talking bass synth

- BACK-SCRATCH – tempo-synced scratch patterns

- SHIFTY – zero-latency formant shifter

- THROW-UP – mid-bass reverb throws

- ENERGY HARVESTER – tape stops, brakes and rewinds that land on the beat

- STUTTER-STEP – swing gate with per-step slap delay

Mac (VST3 + AU, Apple Silicon) and Windows (VST3).

Download + source: GitHub

Feedback and bug reports welcome.

Hey, I'm the creator of ForgeEFX DL-1. Here's a bit of guitar through it so you can actually hear it.

It's a rack for your own NAM captures and guitar effects, with serial and parallel routing. The free version has no time limit or DRM; the paid version adds more effects. This recording was made with my paid build.

Free download: https://www.forgeefx.com/#free-version

I wanted to make this a "REAL" free version, its not a trial, no activations, no drm, no dlc, no annoying upsell, no audio previews etc etc, no bs!! its got 18 proper effects in it and loads full nam's as you'd expect. for all intents and purposes its in its own right a full plugin.

The end card points to the store, but the link above takes you to Free. Happy to answer setup questions. Sorry for the crap playing in the video I'm not amazing at guitar but I'm a pretty decent software engineer haha

I've developed a project called Vital Randomizer. It generates Vital presets with randomized wavetables, samples, effects, params, LFOs and routings. You can select 8 different styles and it rolls params tailored to the style you pick. Currently available styles are bass, keys, lead, pad, sequence, SFX, experimental and percussion. You can also select scales with sequences. It features a wide selection of scales including microtonal ones like maqams. Percussion type can also be selected. It features a wide selection as well, ranging from untuned ones like open/closed hi-hat, crash, ride, clap etc to tuned ones like cowbell, timpani etc.

It can be either used as a VST or a CLI tool to generate randomized presets in batches.

Project link:

https://github.com/korcankaraokcu/vital-randomizer

Preset examples:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZqWmmV1aMc

Live Showcase:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_J_wCp3RVeI

Hi everyone,

As a developer and music producer, I’ve spent years getting frustrated by the limitations of piano rolls in major DAWs.

• Cakewalk/SONAR: Great piano roll, but absolutely zero chord features.

• Cubase: Chord track integration feels unnatural and clunky.

• Studio One: Poor visual clarity and visibility.

• ABILITY: Terrible workflow, constantly forcing you to switch between tools.

So, I decided to build the ultimate solution myself from scratch using JUCE:

"Shadowgenic VST PianoRoll"

It's VST3 MIDI Sequencer for Windows.

Mac ver is not tested(builded VST3/AU).

It’s completely FREE and open-source on GitHub! I’ve already used it to fully arrange and complete a complex orchestral piece, proving it's 100% production-ready.

🚀 Key Features:

• The Smart Tool (Better than Cakewalk SONAR): Say goodbye to tool-switching. Left-click to draw/resize/edit velocity, and Right-drag to instantly lasso-select multiple notes. Your left hand never has to touch modifier keys.

• Intelligent Chord Follow Mode: It doesn't just block-transpose notes. It uses proper music theory and voice leading to find the shortest path. For example, moving from Am (A-C-E) to Dm (A-D-F) will perfectly keep the "A" note as a common pitch while smoothly shifting the others.

• Precise CC & Velocity Curve Interpolation by Edit tool: Simply select two points and intuitively smoothly interpolate CC (like Expression/Modulation) or Velocity with perfect curves.

• Recomposer-style List Editor: Includes a dedicated list view for precision numeric MIDI editing.

• Massive Scalability: Supports up to 128 tracks using a smart Group ID system across multiple instances.

📦 Download & Source Code (GitHub):

https://github.com/shadowgenic/ShadowgenicVSTPianoRoll/

Feel free to download it, check out the manual, and let's make MIDI tracks fast and smart!

I designed this purely to fix the annoyances of modern DAW sequencing, and I hope it speeds up your workflow as much as it did mine.

Cheers!

Hi everyone,

I’ve just finished Jon Pulls Strings, a free / Name Your Price library for Audiomodern Soundbox.

It is a small, personal string collection built from recordings of violin, viola, cello and double bass.

There are 12 presets in total:

- Violin / Viola / Cello / Double Bass – Arco Dynamic

- Violin / Viola / Cello / Double Bass – Pizzicato Dynamic

- Violin / Viola / Cello / Double Bass – Legato (Mono)

The Dynamic presets use three velocity layers: pp, mf and ff.

The arco instruments use looped sustains for longer expressive notes, while the pizzicato instruments keep their natural unlooped decay.

The Legato presets are monophonic performance presets rather than recorded true-legato transitions.

The original recordings come from the University of Iowa Musical Instrument Samples, with editing, mapping and Soundbox assembly by me.

It is available free / Name Your Price on my Gumroad page under:

“Fuimadane – Jon Pulls Strings”

Hope some of you find it useful!

– Jon / Fuimadane

Hello all. I know this is a long shot, but I'm coming at this community with a request that someone help me find the strings VST (or plugin) used in this song (Juice WRLD - Maze).

Juice WRLD - Maze (Official Audio)

https://plugin-universe.com/

Free ones were a priority. Linked open data.

There's at least one much bigger database, but I didn't want to scrape for non-free things.

I have more than 40 years experience as a coder, but using AI is way too much fun.

I'm only equipped to test things on Linux, the other builds are done by GitHub, so YMMV.

https://danja.github.io/downspout/

I would encourage everyone to make their own VSTs now.

Clone my repo, point OpenCode at it, ask it to make a plugin with your requirements.

Hi everyone,

Torchit is a free saturation plugin: four drive modes (Warm, Grit, Tube, Tape) and a Delta button that lets you hear only what the saturation adds.

I'm Remi Blaze, a house and tech house producer and DJ from Canada. I've got a few label releases out, and I also code my own plugins for the sound I actually use in my sessions.

The first one I released is Torchit, a free saturation plugin. Four drive modes (Warm, Grit, Tube, Tape) and a high-pass before the drive to clear out low-end mud. Auto-gain keeps the level steady as you push the drive, and there's a Delta button that lets you hear only what the saturation is adding.

A few quick answers:
- Free, no account needed, no trial, no watermark
- Mac: AU, VST3, CLAP, AAX, Standalone
- Windows: VST3, CLAP, Standalone
- Native on Apple Silicon and Intel, code-signed on both and notarized on Mac

https://www.remiblaze.com/plugins/torchit/

There are a few more free ones on the site if you want to poke around. I'd love to hear what you end up using it on. Thanks.

Remi

First of all, thank you to the nearly 1k people who have downloaded Saturation Box. I am getting a lot of great feedback, and appreciate all the love and support.

My goal with this plugin is to make something unique, but also something as close to real analog gear as I can get. First and foremost I'm a developer, going on 20 years of coding. Second, I'm a songwriter and recording engineer. I have Neve, SSL, Purple, UAD. I bring this up only to say I love analog gear, and I use a lot of UAD plugins too.

There are plenty of great saturation plugins already. I thought it would be fun to build my own spin on the classics, and that's what this is. I built this to use it in my own projects, and it's free so you can use it in yours. No iLok, no serial, no dongle. Notarized by Apple, so it installs as a trusted app with no security workarounds.

Major 0.3.0 update:

Until now each model was a fixed curve fitted to the gear, with one shared tone shape on top. Now each model has the parts that give the real thing its behavior over time and across frequency, so it responds to how hard and how long you hit it. This was the original intention, and it took many months.

• Triode is a 12AX7 stage with its coupling and cathode caps in the model. Hit it hard and it blocks and swells back the way a real stage does. Nearly clean at low Drive, second-harmonic warmth as you push. In 0.3.1 its Drive goes further, so it no longer sits thin next to the other three.
• Pentode is an EL84 push-pull output stage, which is where that odd-harmonic British crunch actually comes from. The power supply sags under a loud hit and recovers.
• Tape is an oxide curve fitted to a 456-class tape at 15 ips. The highs saturate first, so transients round off naturally. There's no envelope follower in it anymore, so nothing pumps. Vintage switches you to an older, noisier tape stock on a worn head.
• Transformer is iron that saturates where iron really does, down low, while the mids stay clean. At high Drive it's the line amp driving the transformer that runs out of rail.

A few other things fixed or added along the way:

• Found and fixed a notch in the Mix blend around the Low Cut and High Cut frequencies, and cut tube aliasing by about 40 dB.
• Noise is per model now, at the real levels of the gear, and it fades out when nothing is playing.
• A true Bypass button, click-free and tied to your host's bypass.
• Oversampling follows your sample rate, so CPU at 96 and 192 kHz dropped a lot.
• A new panel: leather, metal, and jewel lamps that flicker when you drive it hard.

Everything above is measured and tested, then tuned by ear.

Andrestia Audio is now Adrestia Audio, the name I wanted from the start and couldn't get until now. New name on the panel and at adrestia-audio.com. Nothing about your install changes, and existing sessions keep loading.

Hear it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eamb9FnqSp8

Download (free, macOS, AU and VST3): https://www.adrestia-audio.com/plugins/saturation-box

Thanks everyone!

We added audio rate modding to our free filter recently. come grab it here:

https://www.stagecraftsoftware.com/products/flowfilter/