The note range now spans E1 C5, and the plug-in now works as a standalone instrument.

There is a staggering range of virtual instruments available nowadays, covering multi-timbral rompler modules to dedicated emulations of guitars, basses, drums, keyboards, and more.

So in this article well take a look at some of the best free virtual instruments you can download today.

Find more great gear here: Professional Plugins Music Production Laptops Music Production Desktops Studio Monitors Studio Headphones Bass Traps Intro: About Virtual Instruments The benefits of virtual instruments are fairly obvious.

They take up much less space than their hardware equivalents, they dont overheat, and many of them have virtually unlimited polyphony.

They are also much easier to edit and they almost never break down.

Here we run down some of the most intriguing virtual instruments currently available.

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Although some purists may scoff at the idea of these replacing their well-loved guitars or keyboards, there is no denying that they provide a surprising range of great sounds at a price that even professional musicians will appreciate.

Best Free VSTi Plugins The List Native Instruments Kontakt Player Native Instruments Reaktor Player Ample Sound Ample Guitar M Lite Ample Sound Ample Bass P Lite Manda Audio MT Power Drum Kit Togu Audio Line NoiseMaker DistroCore DC Bazz::Murda The Roundup Native Instruments Kontakt Player is arguably the Don of all free virtual instrument plug-ins.

Based on the companys own hugely successful Kontakt sampler, Kontakt Player effectively hosts all sample-based instruments developed for its more fully-featured big brother.

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All free instruments developed specifically for Kontakt Player will load up and play in the full version of Kontakt.

Between the two, there is a staggering assortment of free and paid instruments, all boasting of the trademark Native Instrument quality.

To get budget-savvy musicians and producers started, NI offers a free Kontakt Factory Selection consisting of 50 premium instruments.

While Kontakt Player focuses mainly on standard instrument libraries, Native Instruments Reaktor Player is geared more towards the synthesis side of things.

Demonstration Reaktor is of course the full-blown modular synthesis environment that gives users unparalleled and unlimited opportunity to design virtually any type of synthesizer, sequencer, or signal processor they could think of from scratch.

With Reaktor Player, users are able to play back a wide variety of instruments and effects developed in and for Reaktor, with a more modest set of editing capabilities.

As with Kontakt Player, there is a huge range of ready-made instruments available for use in Reaktor Player.

NI even offers two free devices to get you started: the Blocks Wired pre-patched modular synth and the Mikro Prism synthesizer.

Nevertheless, it is a good introduction to modular synthesis.

Ample Guitar M Lite is the free version of Ample Sounds popular AGM guitar simulator.

Emulating the warm, rich tones of the Martin D-41 acoustic guitar, Ample Guitar M Lite is now on its second version.

For the price of a free download, you get an enhanced set of features that now match the capabilities of the full version.

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