Reverb plugins can recreate the feeling of being inside a specific space, whether or not that space actually exists somewhere on earth. Compressors will listen for any moments where the volume of a sound passes the threshold that you set, and bring the volume down by a variable amount, decreasing the total dynamic range of the signal.ĭistortion plugins are fun, as they emulate what happens when a signal overloads the circuits of analog gear, by making the sound brighter, fuzzier, grittier, and overall nasty. With EQ, you can selectively boost or cut the volume of specific frequencies of a sound. Unlike VST instruments, effects plugins don’t create their own sound, which means that if a compressor plugin is by itself in a forest and no one is around to hear it, you can rest assured it won’t make a sound anyway. Popular ones include EQs, compressors, phasers, flangers, reverbs, delays, distortions, filters, and even the infamous Auto-Tune, a pitch-correcting VST plugin from Antares. EffectsĮffects, FX, or sometimes plugins, are used for changing, mangling, correcting, or subtly tweaking a sound. Since the user puts their own sounds into a sampler, there’s not as much variation in sound, but more focus on the user interface or ways to tweak sounds afterwards with built-in effects.įor more information, check out our article on the best VST synths. Similarly, samplers might try to recreate old Roland drum machines, or just strive to be easy for the beginner to pick up and use right away. The result is a whole array of unique synth VSTs with sound possibilities all their own.
Juno-60 polyphonic analog synthesizer / Image credit: Roland Some synths try to recreate classic analog synths, like the Roland Juno-60 (pictured below), or the Minimoog, while some are better fitted for modern electronic dance music, or EDM.
These types of VSTs generate a sound, whether that be a new sound created by a virtual oscillator coded in the software (a synthesizer), or a recreation of a sound obtained as an audio file (a sampler).ĭifferent VST instruments have different sounds, and can have different features to alter sounds too, for example most synths have a filter of some sort already as part of the synth. Virtual instruments, synthesizers, and samplers.You may have heard VSTs called plugins before, and they can be used interchangeably, but it’s important to note that while both a plugin and a virtual synthesizer can be VSTs, a synthesizer is not the same as a plugin. VSTs are used in just about every piece of music made with a computer (Macs have their own version of VSTs, called Audio Units or AUs, which are basically the same, but formatted for Apple operating systems). To be specific, a VST is a piece of software that can either create or alter a sound signal virtually, without the need for a physical piece of equipment. Virtual Studio Technology is a game changer, and has become a staple for music-makers everywhere, replacing heavy and inconvenient analog gear with downloadable software. No one wants to get caught up in trivial logistics when the creativity is flowing!Įnter the modern computer: fast and compact, it allows us to walk across the mixing room and turn dials with a simple click-and-drag. It was a complicated process!Īs you can surely imagine, doing all of this by hand was tedious, and could distract from the music making process. To tweak the settings, you had to go over to the neat stack of boxes and turn some dials or twist some knobs.
If you wanted to switch the order of the hardware processing, for example to go from equalizer (EQ) -> compressor to compressor -> EQ, you had to unplug some cables from the patch bay, flip the order around, and plug them back in. A sound would be routed through a cable from a source at a microphone, to a preamplifier (or preamp), then to those pieces of hardware, and finally landing and the mixing console, where it would join the signal of all the other instruments and microphones and be played back via speakers.