MSVM FREE TOOLKIT
Berlin 21:32

The Free
Toolkit

Welcome to MSVM. To get you started, we've assembled 97 programs, plugins and libraries, curated by your teachers.

Stack
97 tools / 17 sections
Place
Catalyst · Berlin
Fields
music · sound · image · space
Blue centaur illustration

Full map / Sorting

01FIRST BOOT 02REAPER, TUNED 03SYNTHESIS 04SAMPLERS & INSTRUMENTS 05RAW MATERIAL 06TONE & COLOUR 07SPACE & MOTION 08PITCH & VOICE 09THE EXPERIMENTAL WING 10MACHINE LISTENING 11PATCHING & SYSTEMS 12GAME ENGINES 13SCORE & NOTATION 14METERING & TRUTH 15PICTURE & CAPTURE 16PLUMBING 17OBLIQUE INSPIRATION
01

First Boot

3 items

the three to install before week one.

001 Reaperget ↗ reaper.fm The DAW the programme runs on. Download and run it with no time limit and nothing crippled — a personal licence is €60 when you're ready to support it. Learn it · Kenny Gioia / REAPER Mania ↗ 002 DaVinci Resolveget ↗ blackmagicdesign.com A full editing, grading and finishing suite. The free version is genuinely free and does far more than most people will need. Learn it · Casey Faris ↗ 003 Audacityget ↗ audacityteam.org The reliable workbench for recording, trimming, batch jobs and quick spectral edits. Always good to have open.
02

Reaper, Tuned

5 items

reaper is bare on purpose. these turn it into yours.

004 SWS Extensionget ↗ sws-extension.org The essential first add-on — hundreds of actions and tools the stock app leaves out. Install it the same day as Reaper. 005 ReaPackget ↗ reapack.com A package manager inside Reaper. Subscribe to repositories and pull in scripts, themes and effects without hunting forums. 006 mpl Scriptsget ↗ reapack.com Advanced workflow scripts (ships through ReaPack, switched on in the repository list). Heavy-duty editing shortcuts. 007 Lokasenna Scriptsget ↗ reapack.com Custom GUI and workflow tools, also via ReaPack. The library behind a lot of clever Reaper setups. 008 80greyget ↗ jameswalker55.gumroad.com A calm, elegant Reaper theme. Your eyes will thank you after a long session.
03

Synthesis

10 items

sound built from nothing — gentle to bottomless.

009 Vitalget ↗ vital.audio A modern wavetable synth with a vivid, animated interface. The best free starting point for learning synthesis. 010 Surge XTget ↗ surge-synthesizer.github.io Open-source and enormous — FM, wavetable and subtractive engines under one hood. Endless, and free forever. 011 Dexedget ↗ asb2m10.github.io A faithful clone of the Yamaha DX7. The sound of the 1980s, and a proper way into FM synthesis. 012 Tyrell N6get ↗ u-he.com A warm analogue-style synth from u-he, built with a magazine community. Punches well above 'free'. 013 Zebralette 3get ↗ u-he.com A single oscillator from u-he's Zebra, with new spline and additive drawing. Surprisingly deep for one oscillator. 014 Massive X Playerget ↗ native-instruments.com The Massive X engine with a limited preset set, available through the free Komplete Start bundle. 015 Thump Oneget ↗ toyboxaudio.com A small, charming synth with a friendly face. Quick, playful, good for sketching. 016 Lira8get ↗ mikemorenodsp.gumroad.com A Max for Live take on the SOMA Lyra-8 — drones, organ-like FM and additive textures that drift and breathe. Needs Ableton Live + Max for Live 017 DSP56300get ↗ dsp56300.wordpress.com Bit-perfect recreations of classic hardware (Access Virus TI, Nord Lead, JP-8000). For the digital purists. 018 VCV Rackget ↗ vcvrack.com A free modular synth environment, basically a Eurorack on your screen. State of the art and a community to match.
04

Samplers & Instruments

12 items

players for your own recordings, plus ready-made libraries.

019 Decent Samplerget ↗ decentsampler.com A free sample player that opens a whole world of community-built instruments (see Pianobook below). 020 Sitalaget ↗ decomposer.de A clean, drag-and-drop drum sampler. Sixteen pads, no fuss, surprisingly satisfying. 021 TX16WXget ↗ tx16wx.com A free multisampler — a strong alternative to Kontakt for building and playing your own libraries. 022 Spitfire LABSget ↗ labs.spitfireaudio.com Beautifully recorded, characterful sampled instruments given away one at a time. The collection keeps growing. 023 Komplete Startget ↗ native-instruments.com A generous free bundle of Native Instruments instruments and effects. A serious starter kit. 024 Orchestral Tools Freeget ↗ orchestraltools.com Quality free orchestral instruments from a respected Berlin sample house. 025 Berlin Free Orchestraget ↗ orchestraltools.com A free virtual orchestra recorded in the Teldex scoring stage. Genuinely usable for cues. 026 Layersget ↗ orchestraltools.com Free orchestral chords and short articulations — instant texture and stabs. 027 SINE Factoryget ↗ orchestraltools.com A rotating collection of free instruments delivered through the SINE player. 028 VSL Free Bundleget ↗ vsl.co.at Free orchestral instruments from the Vienna Symphonic Library, a long-standing scoring standard. 029 Heavyocity Freeget ↗ heavyocity.com Cinematic free instruments from a studio known for trailer-sized sound design. 030 Pianobookget ↗ pianobook.co.uk A huge, often gorgeous community library of free instruments, many built for Decent Sampler. A rabbit hole worth falling into.
05

Raw Material

4 items

recorded sound to cut up and treat.

031 BBC Sound Effectsget ↗ sound-effects.bbcrewind.co.uk Over 30,000 sounds from the BBC archive, free for personal and educational use. An extraordinary resource. 032 Freesoundget ↗ freesound.org An enormous library of Creative Commons sounds uploaded by people everywhere. Check the licence on each file. 033 Sampleradarget ↗ musicradar.com Years of royalty-free sample packs from Future Music magazine, free to download. 034 Ableton Packs (free)get ↗ ableton.com Free sample packs, instruments and devices from Ableton — useful even if you don't run Live. Needs Ableton Live
06

Tone & Colour

17 items

shape and dirty a sound.

035 TDR Novaget ↗ tokyodawn.net A dynamic EQ with a far clearer interface than the stock options. A daily driver. 036 TDR Kotelnikovget ↗ tokyodawn.net A transparent mastering compressor. Quietly excellent on a mix bus. 037 TDR SlickEQget ↗ tokyodawn.net A musical tone-shaping EQ that makes broad moves sound good fast. 038 ZL Equalizer 2 & Compressorget ↗ zl-audio.github.io Open-source dynamic EQ and compressor — a credible free answer to the expensive Pro-Q. 039 Klanghelm MJUC jr.get ↗ klanghelm.com A vintage-flavoured compressor with real character. The free junior of a beloved plugin. 040 Melda Free Suiteget ↗ meldaproduction.com A whole bundle at once — EQ, compression, pitch, modulation, reverb and waveshaping in one install. 041 Kilohearts Essentialsget ↗ kilohearts.com A tidy bundle of clean, modular effects you'll reach for constantly. 042 Airwindowsget ↗ airwindows.com Hundreds of small, opinionated, analogue-flavoured processors. Strange names, lovely sound. 043 Analog Obsessionget ↗ analogobsession.com Excellently made emulations of classic vintage hardware, given away freely. 044 Softube Saturation Knobget ↗ softube.com One knob, instant analogue grit. The simplest way to add warmth. 045 iZotope Vinylget ↗ izotope.com Turn anything into a worn record — dust, wear, mechanical noise and age. 046 Kiss of Shameget ↗ audiodev.blog Tape saturation with a backstory and a sense of humour. Hum, hiss and lovely degradation. 047 ThrillseekerXTCget ↗ varietyofsound.wordpress.com Variety of Sound — an analogue-style exciter and harmonic enhancer that opens a mix up. 048 FerricTDSget ↗ varietyofsound.wordpress.com Variety of Sound — tape-style compression and saturation in one glued-together box. 049 ThrillseekerLAget ↗ varietyofsound.wordpress.com Variety of Sound — a smooth loudness enhancer and leveller. 050 NastyVCSget ↗ varietyofsound.wordpress.com Variety of Sound — vintage console colour and saturation across a whole channel. 051 Xfer OTTget ↗ xferrecords.com The over-the-top multiband compressor that defines a certain electronic sound. A staple, free.
07

Space & Motion

7 items

depth, distance and movement.

052 Valhalla Supermassiveget ↗ valhalladsp.com Lush, enormous reverb and delay that goes from subtle to outer space. A modern classic, and free. 053 Dragonfly Reverb Bundleget ↗ michaelwillis.github.io Open-source hall, room and plate reverbs. Clean, flexible, dependable. 054 Convology XTget ↗ impulserecord.com Convolution reverb with real spaces and vintage gear sampled. (It asks you to register a little too eagerly.) 055 Valhalla Space Modulatorget ↗ valhalladsp.com Free flanging and doubling with a sci-fi streak. 056 TAL Chorusget ↗ tal-software.com The built-in chorus from the Juno, on its own. Put it on everything — especially vocals. 057 Lunacy Audio Hazeget ↗ lunacy.audio Creative modulation FX — chorus, phaser, reverb and spectral dispersion that smear sound beautifully. 058 Strangemodget ↗ dillonbastan.com A modulator driven by strange attractors. Motion that never quite repeats. Needs Ableton Live + Max for Live
08

Pitch & Voice

3 items

for the voice, and for pitch itself.

059 Graillon 2get ↗ auburnsounds.com Pitch and formant shifting, hard tune and robot effects. Free and genuinely fun. 060 TAL Vocoderget ↗ tal-software.com A warm, vintage-style vocoder. Robots, choirs and talking synths. 061 UVRget ↗ ultimatevocalremover.com Ultimate Vocal Remover — AI stem separation that pulls vocals, drums and more out of finished tracks.
09

The Experimental Wing

8 items

spectral, granular, gleefully broken.

062 PaulXStretchget ↗ sonosaurus.com Extreme time-stretching. Turn a second into ten minutes of slow, glassy texture. 063 Spectral Suiteget ↗ andrewreeman.com Spectral effects in the spirit of the legendary GRM Tools. Freeze, blur and reshape the frequency domain. 064 Soundmagic Spectralget ↗ michaelnorris.info A deep, free suite of spectral processors from Michael Norris. A genuine banger. 065 Spindriftget ↗ michaelnorris.info Granular synthesis playground, also from Michael Norris. Clouds of grains from any sound. 066 Emergenceget ↗ kvraudio.com Live granulation for building grain clouds — a superb free answer to Ableton's Granular Delay and Grains. 067 Hysteresisget ↗ glitchmachines.com A mutant, glitchy granulated delay. Feeds back into strange, decaying places. 068 Glitchmachines Fractureget ↗ glitchmachines.com Rhythmic glitch delay that chops and stutters. Instant malfunction, on purpose. 069 Dumpster Fireget ↗ freakshowindustries.com An experimental multi-FX chaos unit, pay-what-you-want (including nothing). Destroys things beautifully.
10

Machine Listening

3 items

neural tools that learn a sound and transform it.

070 Neutone Morphoget ↗ neutone.ai Beginner-friendly neural timbre transfer — play one sound, hear it become another. 071 RAVE (IRCAM)get ↗ forum.ircam.fr IRCAM's real-time neural model for texture and timbre transfer. The research frontier, runnable at home. 072 NeuralNoteget ↗ github.com Audio-to-MIDI that actually works, polyphonic and even on vocals. Hum it, get notes.
11

Patching & Systems

6 items

build devices, or leave the daw behind.

073 Dillon Bastan's M4L Bundleget ↗ dillonbastan.com Unconventional Max for Live devices with a playful, geometric approach to sound. Needs Ableton Live + Max for Live 074 elphnt Max for Liveget ↗ elphnt.io A curated set of free Max for Live devices — MIDI tools, synths and effects. Needs Ableton Live + Max for Live 075 Norman Chord Generatorget ↗ maxforlive.com A Max for Live device for generating and varying chords. Good for getting unstuck. Needs Ableton Live + Max for Live 076 notepadget ↗ maxforlive.com A tiny Max for Live device that lets you keep notes right inside your set. Obvious in hindsight. Needs Ableton Live + Max for Live 077 Plug Dataget ↗ plugdata.org Pure Data in a plugin — visual patching anywhere a VST runs. Build instruments and effects from scratch. 078 SuperCollider Tutorialsget ↗ composerprogrammer.com Nick Collins' clear introduction to SuperCollider, the free code-based synthesis environment. (Grab SuperCollider itself to follow along.)
12

Game Engines

3 items

game engines as a medium for sound and image.

079 Godotget ↗ godotengine.org Open-source and the standard starting point for interactive sound and image. No royalties, ever. 080 Summer Engineget ↗ summerengine.com An AI-native engine built on Godot 4: describe a scene in plain language and it writes the GDScript and builds it. Free to download and use, with a paid tier for heavier AI work. 081 Zivaget ↗ ziva.sh An AI agent that lives inside the Godot editor — generate scenes, nodes and GDScript, and debug from plain language. Free tier; AI usage is metered.
13

Score & Notation

2 items

when the music needs to be written down.

082 MuseScoreget ↗ musescore.org The most popular free notation software. Polished, capable and friendly to beginners. 083 Dorico SEget ↗ steinberg.net The free tier of an industry-standard scoring app. Engraving that looks properly published.
14

Metering & Truth

4 items

what's really going on in your mix.

084 Youlean Loudness Meter 2get ↗ youlean.co Clear LUFS and streaming-loudness metering. The free version covers almost everything you need. 085 SPANget ↗ voxengo.com A flexible, configurable spectrum analyser from Voxengo. A standard for seeing your mix. 086 TDR Prismget ↗ tokyodawn.net Like a spectrum analyser, but far easier to read and act on. A guide for balancing a mix. 087 Loudness Penaltyget ↗ loudnesspenalty.com A quick web check of how loud your master will be turned down on each streaming platform.
15

Picture & Capture

2 items

the picture side — here when a project needs it.

088 Blenderget ↗ blender.org 3D, VFX and motion graphics in one open-source package. Your route to title sequences, generative imagery and camera moves. 089 OBS Studioget ↗ obsproject.com Screen recording and live streaming. Capture a session, document a patch, or route anything on your screen into a file.
16

Plumbing

5 items

unglamorous tools that make the day work.

090 BlackHoleget ↗ github.com A loopback audio driver for macOS — route audio between apps with zero latency. 091 Media Human Audio Converterget ↗ mediahuman.com Simple, dependable audio conversion. Great for prepping tracks for a DJ set or delivery. 092 Headphone Labget ↗ europe.beyerdynamic.com Free correction software for beyerdynamic headphones — flattens the response for mixing. 093 FFABget ↗ disuye.com A GUI for batch-processing with FFmpeg, normal or 'spicy' (feedback loops), no coding required. 094 IRCAM Forumget ↗ forum.ircam.fr IRCAM's collection of free research tools and technologies. Worth browsing for the unexpected.
17

Oblique Inspiration

3 items

for the moment you are stuck.

095 Oblique Strategiesget ↗ web.archive.org Brian Eno and Peter Schmidt's deck of lateral prompts, online. Draw a card when the work fights you. 096 Eadie Audio Enoget ↗ eadieaudio.netlify.app An Oblique Strategies-style prompt generator for when you need a nudge sideways. 097 Cut Schoolget ↗ cut-school.com Editor Govert Janse's weekly collection of reflections on editing, and a deck of lateral prompts to match — ‘start with the end’, ‘make the weakest part the best’, ‘what would Kanye do’. Oblique Strategies for the cutting room.

Full map / Sorting

01FIRST BOOT 02REAPER, TUNED 03SYNTHESIS 04SAMPLERS & INSTRUMENTS 05RAW MATERIAL 06TONE & COLOUR 07SPACE & MOTION 08PITCH & VOICE 09THE EXPERIMENTAL WING 10MACHINE LISTENING 11PATCHING & SYSTEMS 12GAME ENGINES 13SCORE & NOTATION 14METERING & TRUTH 15PICTURE & CAPTURE 16PLUMBING 17OBLIQUE INSPIRATION
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