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This post is for the Mac users.
When it comes to Mac OS X, the number of freeware plugins is very low, compared to the Windows world.
The popular “Save as VST” softwares (Synthedit and Synthmaker) are Windows only.
The “upgrade” politic of Apple is a sort of nightmare for developers (and sometimes users!), so many old free plugins don’t work anymore…

Syntronik Free is a fully functional FREE version of Syntronik, the paid for flagship vintage synth VI from IK Multimedia. The best way to think about Syntronik Free is a tasting menu of the full version, sporting 50 presets, 38 effects, parts, layers and arpeggiators that you can play and edit with sounds taken from the massive Syntronik. Monique virtual synthesizer is available starting with 2020 for free and comes in VST, VST3, and AU plugin formats for PC and Mac. Exakt Lite is a FREE intuitive and user-friendly FM SOFTWARE synthesizer plugin. Capable of creating a wide range of sounds, from harsh digital and cold sounds known from the FM era to warm and organic.

• When it comes to free VSTs no one beats TAL. All their free plugins work great and are super useful. I’m a huge fan of their plugins and you should be too. The Elek7ro is no exception to their history of producing high quality tools.
• These free VST work for Mac OS X, they don’t have UI, you’ll have to use the default interface supplied by your host. – Piano & ePiano are sample based synth, the ePiano is very good, it’s a kind of Rhodes emulation. – DX10 is a FM Synth.

I have searched for free MAC plugins over the web and then tested !
– only free synth (not effects), in VST and or AudioUnit (AU) format
– the OS used is Mac OS X 10.8 (Mountain Lion)
– i tested the plugins in Ableton Live 9 / Renoise / some free VST & AudioUnit host softwares (Pedalboard, the JUCE open source plugin host, VSTLord, AULab, Ugly VSTi Interface…)

It’s a selection with free virtual analog synths, organ emulations, epiano emulations, drum synth, bass synth, FM synth, emulation of Oberheim / NordLead / DX 7 synth, chip synth, guitar emulation…

and here a list of 25 free synth plugins for Mac OS X :

Vocal Synth Vst Free Download

1. Synth1 AU/ VST

The must-have free synth plugin is available for Mac since one or two years, it is in beta state, it still have some minor bugs with the UI, but it’s usable and you can benefit from the incredible amount of presets created for Synth1, including these 😀
=>
https://blog.wavosaur.com/synth1-presets-chris-bank-volume-2/ &
https://blog.wavosaur.com/chris-bank-synth1-reup/
I had some problems for saving preset in Ableton Live.
Synth1 can do an incredible variety of sounds.
The most versatile Synth in this list

2. OBXD AU / VST

OBXD AU

The free Oberheim OB-X OB-Xa OB-8 emulation !
work without any problem in my AudioUnit / VST hosts on Mac.

3. Tyrell N6 AU / VST

http://www.u-he.com/cms/tyrelln6
DL here : http://www.amazona.de/amazona-de-freeware-synthesizer-tyrell-n6-v3/

U-He loves the Mac, don’t hesitate to have a look at the other freeware on the Website, all are working without problems in VST or AudioUnit format. I have also selected Triple Cheeze and Zebralette from the same developer. These plugins are good and full featured.

TyrellN6 plugin comes with a big amount of presets, and a deep variety of sounds. It’s powerful and easy to program. It’s rock solid stable and have a nice UI too!

4. FreeAlpha AU / VST

FreeAlpha AU

This freeware from LinPlug sounds very good, it has punch and is easy to tweak. It can do punchy bass, but also nice pads and clean leads. Despite its simple look, it’s powerful and funky!

5. Crystal AU / VST

The old Crystal Synth is still top, and one of the best synth for complex / evolving PADS, with its multipoint envelopes, and the complete modulation matrix.
One of the best virtual synth, for more than 10 years!

6. TAL NoiseMaker AU / VST

TAL Noisemaker

Like U-He, TAL has many freebees for Mac OS X.
I have selected Noize M4k3r and Elek7tro but you also have other interesting plugins.
The “Noise Maker” plugin has two osc + sub, a good filter and the famous Chorus “a la Roland”, so you have all you need for your fat bass/lead. Certainly more agressive than Crystal, it completes well the sonic arsenal.

7. Dexed FM VST

The famous free Yamaha DX7 emulation ! It’s VST only (no AU for the moment).
Use the cart / load / save button to browse or import presets.
It can read / write sysex files for and from the DX7.
Now all your FM needs are fullfilled: you can do pop ballad or Detroit techno, vive la FM !

8. MiniSpillage AU (Drum Synth)

MiniSpillage AU

Now that we have the FM synth, the Pad synth, the Bass synth and Lead capable synths, we need a DRUM synth. The Minispillage plugin has three dedicated algo for bass drum, wood drum and hihat.
I tend to prefer “Drumatic” but Drumatic is Windows only.

9. ComboF organ AU / VST

After all these synths, we now need an emulation of our prefered organ : the Farfisa combo organ!
ComboF gives you the sound of the Italian electric organ we all love. Available for Mac and windows, in AudioUnit and VST!

10. MrTramp 2 e-piano AU / VST

MrTramp2

After the organ emulation, we need the electric piano! MrTramp 2 is the best (free or not) emulation of the Wurlitzer electric piano. It’s raining again ! Now you can sound like Supertramp ! Breakfast in America !! There are not so much controls but you don’t need more, and the sound is excellent.

11. Cheeze Machine AU

A dedicated string synth plugin for Mac ! The Cheeze machine from Big Tick is a kind of Arp Solina emulation. It has this phaser / chorus creamy sound.
it’s AU only and should work with your favorite Mac host software.

12. TripleCheese AU / VST

TripleCheeze plugin

Cheese again !
The U-He contribution to the first KVR Developer Challenge. It’s an original synth with unusual sound generation. Nice for plucked sounds. Works well on my Mac OS X Mountain Lion. Thanks to the comb filter, you can generate very original sounds.

13. Zr3 organ VST

We have ComboF for the Farfisa emulation, and for the Hammond B3 organ lovers, there’s Zr3.
It’s VST only and works nice in Ableton Live 9.
The only good free Hammond B3 emulation for Mac OS X.

14. TAL Elek7ro AU / VST

TAL Elektro

A perfect free synth for bass and perc sounds.
Don’t forget to check the other TAL plugins !

15. VST Speek AU / VST

Coming from here ! the funkiest text to speech in plugin format !
The best C64 Sam oldskool text to speech emulator, for all your techno voices.
Available in 32 & 64 bit, VST & AU

16. Zebralette AU / VST

Zebralette plugin

Coming with the demo of Zebra, the famous synth by u-He, Zebralette is a nice synth, with unusual sound, and powerful possibilities and plenty of special waveforms to play with.

17. Model – E VST

The antic VST from Steinberg, now free, and now available in VST format for Mac OSX.
It has been surpassed in all domain by many other synth (freeware included). But it can be useful and you can get some nice sounds out of it if you tweak it with love.

18. VB-1 virtual bass VST

VB1 bass

Another prehistoric virtual synth from Steinberg, this virtual bass plugin is free and available with Model E in the same package (see link above). Very simple sound, can be useful.
Freeware for Mac are rare so we take it!

19. MDA Piano ePiano DX10 & JX10 VST

NO GUI

These free VST work for Mac OS X, they don’t have UI, you’ll have to use the default interface supplied by your host.
– Piano & ePiano are sample based synth, the ePiano is very good, it’s a kind of Rhodes emulation.
– DX10 is a FM Synth, it has only two operators, but you can still get nice bell sounds out of it.
– JX10 is a very nice virtual analog synth, despite some bugs (the Windows version has the same), it can do some very nice leads.

20. 4Front R-Piano AU / VST

Another free electric piano emulation for your Mac!
It’s simple and has a nice clean sound. Perfect for deep house chords.

21. Chip32 AU

Chip 32 AU

This is the URL where you can also find the Cheeze Machine VST, and also the very good Clavinet emulation by Big Tick (TickyClav). Chip32 is a very simple plugin, perfect for your chip tune needs.

22. Spicy Guitar AU / VST

A free Audio Unit / VST emulation of an acoustic guitar ! It’s use a physical modelled synthesis, and is a great emulation. Here are coming the ukulele / banjo / Flamenco guitar !

23. Scythe VST

Scythe VST

A very simple VA Synth (VST only), with two oscillators, a filter, modulation envelope & some embedded effects : bitcrusher / phaser / chorus / delay.
It’s simple but efficient.
You can also generate random presets!

24. Automat AU

A virtual substractive synth with 3 osc, and filter for each osc, + many effects and modulations.
It’s audiounit only, and like Scythe, it has a random preset generator.

25. VOPM VST

VOPM VST synth

A VST emulation of the Yamaha YM2151 Chip that was used in many arcade games, and is similar to the chip in the Sega Megadrive. It’s a 4 operator FM synth, with 8 algorithm.
here’s a lot of preset for VOPM : http://truechiptilldeath.com/blog/2010/05/04/opm-patches-out-of-most-genesis-games/

26. Bonus tracks ?

1) there’s also kickmaker, a free kick drum synthesizer in VST and AU format : http://teragonaudio.com/KickMaker.html

and C700, that can load sample in aiff and wav format :
http://picopicose.com/software.html

2) I also tried other free VST plugins for MAC , but with no luck (no one working in any host on my Mac OS X Mountain Lion), i think these are too old plugins, or maybe ppc plugins (even if they were said to work on Mac OS X).
For example :
the Delay Lama ! http://www.audionerdz.nl/download.htm
AU303 & AirySynth : http://airy.andre.online.fr/AU/index.html#au303

3) I’m working on a port of Rave Generator VST for MAC, here you can find a beta (x64 only, VST only) :
https://www.facebook.com/groups/149376535107031/835302689847742/

3) I’m also working on a port of CreakBox (the TB303 plugin) for MAC OS X (i already have converted it to VST2.4 then to 64 bit), see link ( @ 6. and in the comments) :
https://blog.wavosaur.com/best-free-tb-303-emulation-sotware-vst-plugins-standalone/

4) i’ll do another posts with the free effect plugins for MAC ! It seems there are more effects available for free than synths.

Leads are great. They are the sugary surface of any good track. They get you in the door and perk you up.

But we all know what that one special ingredient is… The most important part of arranging and writing songs. It’s the soul of any good track:

The BASS.

But there’s thousands of free VSTs out there. Which ones are good for bass? No sweat. We found all the best ones so you don’t have to dig.

Here’s our 10 favourite free bass VST plugins that will give you bigger, better bass.

Steinberg – Model E

The Model E is a useful 3 oscillator bass station capable of pumping out some nice lines.

The super simple controls make all your options easy to see and tweak. Plus the lower CPU usage means easy breezy basslines in no time.

TAL – Elek7ro

When it comes to free VSTs no one beats TAL. All their free plugins work great and are super useful. I’m a huge fan of their plugins and you should be too.

Free Synth Plugins Logic Pro X

The Elek7ro is no exception to their history of producing high quality tools. This synth-plug is good for pretty much everything. Including making some nice full basses for your tracks.

It even comes with a super helpful user guide for getting the most out of Elek7ro.

Plogue – Sforzando TableWarp2

The TableWarp2 is part of Plogue’s Sforzando bundle. It’s a versatile synth that gives you tons of classic sounds…

Including some superb mid-low range basses perfect for beefing up your tracks.

NUsofting – Sinnah

The Sinnah is great. It can create cool noisy tones with its 3 channel delay matrix and feedback sculpting.

It also has a pretty solid onboard EQ which really helps bring out the magic in each tone. So you can get tons of control over the bass sounds you create.

TAL – Bassline

I’ve already talked about the TAL-Bassline in an older Free Plugins article. But I had to put it on this list because it’s so good. The Bassline is basically built for better bass.

This plug has a warm analog sound and ‘robust core‘ for all your bass and acid needs. Plus, the TAL Bassline user guide will have your walls rattling in no time.

u-he – TyrellN6

U-he is another major source for some very superb free plugins. The TyrellN6 is a powerful overall plugin that will give you all varieties of nice analog synth sounds.

That means wicked basses too. It also has some nice triggering features that are super fun to play around with and a nice, clean interface for easy tweakage.

The download page is in german. So if you don’t speak German just scroll down to find the download link!

Ample Sound – Ample Bass P Lite II

The Ample Bass P Lite II is a nice electric bass plug perfect for some groovier and more rock-centric bass sounds.

Ample Bass also comes with some nice ‘articulations’ including palm mute, slap and legato slide for those little accents that makes bass pop.

LinPlug – FreeAlpha

This plugin is the free version of LinPlug’s Alpha. But just because it’s the free version doesn’t mean it’s not good. In fact, it’s great!

FreeAlpha‘s 2 oscillators are perfect for all sorts of nice basses and the built-in presets are superb starting points for all types of bass and more.

Bruce Sutherland – JUCEoplvsti

If you ever dreamed of making all those incredible sounds that lived on old DOS games then this plugin is your hot ticket.

JuceOPLVSTI is modelled on the Yamaha OPL sound chip found in some old PC computers.

Juce’s interface is a lot like a video game and is super easy to use to get some superb basses, leads and pretty much any other sound you need from an FM synth.

Synister – Synister

Synister is one of the best looking and easiest to use synth plugins I’ve ever seen. This 3 oscillator synth is perfect for making all types of basslines.

The interface is simple, organized and easy to follow. The effects, envelopes, oscillators, LFOs and filters all have their own drop down menus for an easy workflow. And it even has a built in step sequencer!

The bassline bottomline

A good bassline can make or break a track. Finding the best one for your track can be tricky.

These bass VSTs will give you everything you need to find the right one (Hot tip: Turn your monitors way up while you’re experimenting if you wanna meet the neighbours).

Put these in your DAW, start experimenting and take a trip to the international bass station.

If you’re already set for bass check out our other Free VST Plugin Favourites: