A free plugin kit for every job in a mix
Answer in brief
Use TDR Nova for EQ and TDR Kotelnikov for bus compression. Valhalla Supermassive covers reverb and echo and Klanghelm IVGI covers saturation. Youlean Loudness Meter and Voxengo SPAN do the metering, while Splice INSTRUMENT, Vital and Surge XT supply the sounds.
EQ
TDR Nova works as a plain parametric EQ until you need more. Each of its four bands can also react to level, so a harsh band in a vocal dips only when the singer pushes. Make your static cuts first, then add dynamics to one band at a time.
Compression
On a mix bus or a drum bus, TDR Kotelnikov aims to hold level steady while leaving tone and punch alone. Turn up its sidechain high-pass filter so the kick does not drive the whole bus. Kilohearts Essentials includes a simple compressor for single tracks, and Best Compressor Plugin goes much further into compressors.
Reverb
Valhalla Supermassive has 22 modes. Valhalla calls Gemini its most conventional one and describes Pleiades and Sirius as clean and realistic. The long modes are made for washes that hang in the air far longer than a room would. Put it on a send so one copy serves several tracks.
Delay
Supermassive doubles as a delay. Aquarius and Pisces are echo modes that turn into reverb as you raise the density, and Triangulum repeats its echoes long enough to act like a looper. For a plain tempo-synced echo, Kilohearts Essentials has a delay and a dual delay.
Saturation
Klanghelm IVGI goes from soft warmth on a mix bus to dense distortion on a single track. Klanghelm calibrates it so that 0 VU sits at -18 dBFS, so feed it around that level for the gentlest result and push harder for dirt.
Metering
The free Youlean Loudness Meter shows integrated loudness, true peak and loudness range. Its streaming presets are a Pro feature, so with the free version you compare the reading with the target your platform publishes. Voxengo SPAN draws the spectrum and a stereo correlation meter, which helps you catch a bass that disappears when the mix is folded to mono.
Instruments
Splice INSTRUMENT is now the home of Spitfire Audio’s LABS and offers free presets such as Glass Piano, Tape Piano and Autograph Grand. Vital and Surge XT are free synths with deep engines. For a free synth matched to each kind of sound, go to Best Free Synth VST.
Sources for this page
- Studio 56: Studio 56’s official website, the publisher of this reference.
- Splice INSTRUMENT: Splice INSTRUMENT’s official page, the source of its description here.
- Vital: Vital’s official page, the source of its description here.
- Surge XT: Surge XT’s official page, the source of its description here.
- Valhalla Supermassive: Valhalla Supermassive’s official page, the source of its description here.
- TDR Nova: TDR Nova’s official page, the source of its description here.
- TDR Kotelnikov: TDR Kotelnikov’s official page, the source of its description here.
- Klanghelm IVGI: Klanghelm IVGI’s official page, the source of its description here.
- Kilohearts Essentials: Kilohearts Essentials’s official page, the source of its description here.
- Youlean Loudness Meter: Youlean Loudness Meter’s official page, the source of its description here.
- Voxengo SPAN: Voxengo SPAN’s official page, the source of its description here.
The practical advice here is our own. A maker's description of its product is not a test of how it performs.
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Best Free VST Plugins. “A free plugin kit for every job in a mix.” Studio 56 Reference. Content reviewed November 8, 2026.
https://bestfreevstplugins.com/free-plugin-kit-by-job/