This guide is designed to help you achieve an authentic 80s sound using free VST plugins and samples. In Part 1, I focused on synths, and in Free Synthwave VST Plugins - Part 2, I’ve turned the spotlight on effects.
Not only does this guide provide valuable insights into the mechanics of synthwave, but it also offers general tips for capturing the essence of 80s music, while incorporating subtle modern elements to create a retrofuturistic vibe. The included VSTs are versatile and suitable for a range of genres related to synthwave, like synth-pop, or for any music that aims to evoke an authentic 80s feel.
EQ (Equalisation)
These days, most producers rely on modern dynamic EQs with built-in spectrum analyzers, offering precision and control that would have been unimaginable in the 80s.
A dynamic EQ combines the features of a traditional equalizer with a compressor. Unlike static EQs, which apply fixed gain to specific frequency bands, dynamic EQs adjust the gain only when the audio signal in a selected frequency range crosses a set threshold. This makes them more flexible and responsive, especially when dealing with frequencies that only cause issues in certain situations.
On the other hand, channel strip EQs are prized for their simplicity and accessibility, making them ideal for quick, broad adjustments in the early stages of mixing, or when you want to rely more on your ears than on visual cues. Integrated into consoles or DAWs, these EQs streamline the workflow, enabling producers to shape sound efficiently without straining system resources. Using vintage EQs also introduces coloration through saturation, adding character to your sound.
In my production process, I use both types. I start by fine-tuning and removing unwanted frequencies with a dynamic EQ, relying on the spectrum analyzer for accuracy. Then, I switch to a traditional EQ for broader boosts, like painting with a broad brush, adjusting frequencies by ear without being influenced by the visual display. As they say, "Just use your ears, bro."
I tend to use both during my production. I like to fine tune and remove unwanted frequencies, first using a dynamic EQ with spectrum analyzer, then using a more traditional EQ to boost frequencies, which is like using a broad brush stroke to get boost and lower frequencies without my eyes influencing my actions. As they say, "Just use your ears, bro".
NOVA by Tokyo Dawn Records
For my dynamic EQ I tend to favour either Fabfilter Pro-Q3 or TDR Nova, Fabfilter is not free, but NOVA is so similar that you'll barely notice the difference. NOVA is a parallel dynamic equaliser that combines the familiar layout of a parametric EQ with a comprehensive dynamics section in each band. This allows NOVA to handle a wide variety of tasks, whether you need to add density to a master, enhance the crispiness of a drum bus, or address sibilance in a vocal take.
Download NOVA, available for both Mac OS and Windows
SlickEQ by Tokyo Dawn Records
If you like NOVA, which I’m sure you will, there is also a more traditional EQ from TDR called VOS SlickEQ. SlickEQ by TDR is a highly regarded equaliser plugin known for its intuitive interface and high-quality sound. It offers three distinct EQ models and a flexible saturation stage, so you can add colour to your mix. More importantly, it will make you use your ears, because it's just a set of dials.
Download SlickEQ, available for both Mac OS and Windows
Strip Channel Based EQ via SSQ by Analog Obsession
A recreation of the EQ section of an 80s SSL 4000 console with 4x oversampling and many more features. This will be useful when trying to recreate that classic 80s sound, it’s a little on the noisy side, but that’s the 80s for you. It’s going to add some subtle saturation to your drum sound so give it a go.
The SSL 4000 console was the console that led to the 80s gated rerverb sound, popularised by Phil Collins. You can watch a video all about this sound here.
I'm a big fan of the SSL consoles, the same cannot be said about Phil Collins, in fact, I run a Facebook page called "Lies About Phil Collins". Just so you know.
"If you play the record Black Sabbath, by Black Sabbath backwards it has a satanic message, if you play No Jackets Required backwards, Phil Collins will appear like a genie and give you a four hour lecture on the correct maintenance of a stylus." - A lie about Phil Collins
Download SSQ, available for both Mac OS and Windows
All in one Channel Strips
A channel strip VST in a DAW combines multiple audio processing tools—like EQ, compression, gating, and sometimes saturation, into a single plugin. This offers the advantage of streamlined workflow, allowing you to manage all essential mixing tasks within one interface, saving CPU resources and reducing the need to load multiple plugins.
With everything in one place, you can make adjustments more efficiently, leading to a faster and more intuitive mixing process. Additionally, channel strip VSTs often emulate the sound and character of classic analog consoles, giving your mix a warmer, more polished feel. They provide a consistent sonic signature across all tracks, which can help create a more unified and professional-sounding mix.
Channev Channel Strip By Analog Obsession
Channev is a great channel-strip with Mic Preamp, De-Esser, Line-Amp, 4 band equalizer, Compressor, Limiter and Tape Saturation. It's based on analog NEVE consoles, so it'll add a bit of 80s mojo to your tunes.
Download Channev, available for both Mac OS and Windows
Free Reverb Plugins
If any effect contributed to the sound of the 80s it’s reverb. Different types of reverbs are used in music production to create specific spatial effects and atmospheres. Using the right reverbs in synthwave is crucial because they play a key role in shaping the genre's signature sound, evoking the nostalgic, cinematic atmosphere that defines it. Reverbs help to create the expansive, dreamy spaces reminiscent of 1980s production techniques, making the synths, drums, and other elements feel larger-than-life and drenched in a sense of nostalgia. Just don’t go to Phil Collins with it.
"Phil Collins installed a panic room in his house for intruders. There are 7 of them in there at the moment, terrified and hiding from Phil Collins." - Another lie about Phil Collins
OrilRiver by Denis Tihanov
OrilRiver by Denis Tihanov is a highly versatile and free reverb plugin, praised for its ability to create rich and natural-sounding hall and room reverbs. It offers a wide range of controls and presets, making it an excellent choice for achieving professional-quality spatial effects in any mix.
Download OrilRiver, available for both Mac OS and Windows
Dragonfly Reverb by Michael Willis
Dragonfly Reverb is a free, open-source reverb plugin bundle, developed by Michael Willis. The bundle includes four distinct reverb plugins: Dragonfly Hall Reverb, which excels at creating spacious, atmospheric hall effects; Dragonfly Room Reverb, ideal for adding depth and realism to smaller, more intimate spaces; Dragonfly Plate Reverb, which emulates the classic sound of plate reverb with a smooth, dense reflection; and Dragonfly Early Reflections, focused on the initial reflections that define the space before the reverb tail.
The installation process is a little tricky, but this asides, Dragonfly Reverb is incredibly versatile. It can be a little bit processor intensive but it’s incredibly good for a free reverb, it’s one that I use on a lot of different projects. Not only synthwave.
Download Dragonfly Reverb, available for both Mac OS and Windows
Giant Verb by Digital Systemic Emulations
Giant Verb VST is a reverb plugin that looks and sounds like it's from the 80s. It features total feedback control, allowing for up to 100% feedback to achieve infinite decay times, great for pads and atmospherics. The plugin also includes an analog input behavior with a pre-warmth factor, adding warmth and character to the signal. Additionally, it offers reverb modulation, enabling a subtle chorusing effect. Giant Verb is remarkably efficient, with minimal CPU and memory usage.
Download Giant Verb, available for both Mac OS and Windows
Deelay by Sixth Sample
Of course, you’re going to want a delay with all these reverbs, and this is my absolute favourite free delay, possibly my favourite delay, period. It’s incredibly similar to Valhalla Delay, which is also a great plugin (but not free), Deelay offers a lot more fine control over the sound.
Deelay VST is a multifunctional delay plugin offers five distinct delay modes: Normal, Ping-Pong, Reverse, Stretch, and Granular, it lets users compare settings quickly. With 100 factory presets, Deelay VST offers a wide array of starting points for shaping your sound.
Download Deelay, available for both Mac OS and Windows
Saturation
Saturation in music refers to the process of adding harmonic distortion to an audio signal, which enhances its warmth, character, and richness. This effect is often achieved by overdriving analog equipment, such as tape machines, tube amplifiers, or certain types of hardware, which naturally introduce subtle distortion as the signal's level increases. Of course, there are a lot of free saturation plugins to emulate this effect.
Key Characteristics of Saturation:
- Harmonic Enhancement:Saturation introduces additional harmonics (overtones) to the original signal, making the sound fuller and more complex. This can be very helpful when you want your mix to work on mobile, as mobile phones and laptop speakers don’t have very good low end response.
- Warmth: It softens the audio, reducing harshness and adding a sense of warmth, often associated with vintage recordings.
- Dynamic Control:Saturation can also compress the signal slightly, smoothing out peaks and adding a cohesive, glued-together quality to a mix.
In modern digital production, saturation is often used intentionally to replicate the desirable qualities of analog equipment, adding color and depth to instruments, vocals, or entire mixes. It’s a subtle yet powerful tool that can transform a clean, sterile sound into something richer and more engaging.
Fresh Air by Slate Digital
The Fresh Air saturation plugin is a dynamic high-frequency exciter designed to add clarity, brightness, and presence to your audio without harshness. It works by enhancing the high-end frequencies, giving your mix or individual tracks a polished, airy quality that cuts through the mix. It really makes everything sound bright and wooshy, that is obviously a highly technical term.
This plugin is particularly useful for vocals, or for instruments that need a lift in the upper frequencies. Fresh Air is incredibly user-friendly, featuring a minimalist interface with simple controls that allow you to dial in the desired amount of enhancement quickly. I almost always use this on my snare to bring out the snare wire.
Download Fresh Air, my goto saturator, available for both Mac OS and WindowsIVGI by Klanghelm Audio
The IVGI saturation plugin is an analog-style saturation tool that adds warmth, character, and subtle harmonic distortion to your audio. It simulates the effect of pushing analog gear, offering everything from gentle coloration to more pronounced saturation, depending on the input and settings. It works wonder on a master bus or drum bus.
Download IVGI saturation plugin, available for both Mac OS and Windows
Chorus Effects
The chorus effect was a defining element of 80s music, giving the era its distinctive lush and shimmering sound. By subtly detuning and delaying the original audio signal, the chorus effect creates the illusion of multiple instruments or voices playing together, adding depth and richness to the mix. This effect was widely used on everything from guitars and keyboards to vocals, helping to shape the expansive and dreamy soundscapes characteristic of 80s pop, rock, and new wave. Iconic tracks from bands like The Police and artists like Prince utilized chorus extensively, making it an essential ingredient in the sonic palette of the decade.
Tal-Chorus-LX By Tal
TAL-Chorus-LX is my go to chorus for adding phasing to any synth, It’s a standalone version of the Chorus from a Roland JUNO 6 or JUNO 106 synth. Without the chorus, a JUNO is still a good synth but it lacks the depth of more recent synthesisers. The JUNO had six DCOs per voice with a sub oscillator to create the illusion of an extra octave, but what really made it sound big was the addition of a bucket brigade analog chorus. The JUNO chorus is quite a unique chorus because it also contains a 6Db High Pass filter, which stops it from causing phasing issues on low notes. I spent a lot of time analysing this chorus using an oscilloscope when creating my preset pack, Synthwave Lite for Vital. I managed to come incredibly close.
TAL-Chorus-LX captures that essence of the JUNO chorus with just two straightforward buttons, making it incredibly easy to dial in a classic, expansive chorus effect that instantly enhances any synth sound without losing the low end. It's my top pick for chorusing.
Download TAL-Chorus-LX, available for both Mac OS and Windows
Valhalla Space Modulator by Valhalla
In contrast to the simplicity of TAL-Chorus-LX, Valhalla Space Modulator offers a far more versatile and expansive approach to modulation effects. With a range of controls that allow for deep customisation, this plugin can produce everything from subtle chorus effects to wild, otherworldly sounds. It comes packed with a variety of presets, making it easy to explore its potential right out of the box.
Unlike simpler plugins, Valhalla Space Modulator gives you the flexibility to craft unique textures, whether you're adding gentle movement to a synth pad or creating experimental, modulated soundscapes.
It’s technically a flanger, but used subtly it works in a similar way to a chorus.
Download Valhalla Space Modulator, available for both Mac OS and Windows
Sidechain Ducking
In synthwave, sidechain ducking is a popular technique used on the bass to make the kick drum more prominent in the mix. This is achieved by using the kick drum as a trigger for a compressor applied to the bass track. When the kick hits, the compressor temporarily reduces the volume of the bass, creating a "ducking" effect. This allows the kick to punch through the mix without being masked by the low frequencies of the bass.
Of course, you don’t really have to go through all that effort. An alternative to sidechain ducking is using an envelope filter or volume shaper to create a similar rhythmic pulsing effect. With this method, you can manually shape the volume of the bass and synths using an envelope that mimics the ducking effect triggered by the kick drum. To do this, you would apply an envelope filter or volume shaper plugin to the track and set it to automatically lower the volume in sync with the kick drum pattern.
Tal-Filter-2 Free Envelope Shaper By Tal
TAL-Filter-2 is a versatile filter plugin that applies rhythmic effects to audio signals. It functions as a filter and volume modulator, allowing you to create dynamic patterns by shaping the amplitude or filtering frequencies over time. With this plugin you can design custom modulation curves to achieve effects like tremolo, gating, or rhythmic filtering, making it ideal for adding movement and interest to synths, basslines, and other audio elements.
In the case of getting that synthwave bass sound you’re going to want to set it similar to the screenshot, so it ducks the volume of the bass on the first beat of every half bar. Tal Filter 2 is like a free version of the Duck plugin, which is very popular with synthwave artists.
Download Tal Filter 2, available for both Mac OS and Windows
Compressors
A compressor in audio engineering reduces the dynamic range of an audio signal by automatically lowering the volume of louder parts and boosting quieter parts. It works by detecting when the signal exceeds a set threshold and then compressing the signal according to the ratio you set.
This results in a more balanced and controlled sound, making the audio smoother and more consistent, of course, this can also be useful in increasing the overall volume of a track to make it louder.
Fetish FET Bundle by Analog Obsession
The 1176 Peak Limiter (FET compressor), introduced by UREI in 1967, is a dynamic range compressor developed by American engineer Bill Putnam. Building on the earlier 175 and 176 tube compressors, the 1176 represented a significant shift from vacuum tube technology to solid-state design.
The thing that made the FET compressor so popular at the time was that the attack and release were much quicker than previous tube based compressors. In the realm of modern digital compressors, these release times are actually a lot longer than modern digital compressors with look ahead technology, but to get that colour and saturation, a FET is truly unique in its sound.
Analog Obsession created a slightly more featured FET, for additional versatility. It’s great for adding glue to your tracks, especially when applied to drums or percussion buses.
Download The FET Bundle, available for both Mac OS and Windows
KOTELNIKOV By TDR
TDR Kotelnikov is a highly regarded digital compressor plugin known for its transparent sound and precise dynamic control. It offers a wide range of features, including advanced side-chain filtering, parallel compression, and a unique "Delta" mode that allows users to listen to the difference between the compressed and uncompressed signals.
Unlike many compressors that impart a noticeable character or colour to the audio (see Analog Obsession’s freebies, above), Kotelnikov is praised for its ability to maintain the integrity of the original signal, making it ideal for mixing and mastering.
Download Kotelnikov, available for both Mac OS and Windows
OTT by Xfer
OTT is a popular multiband dynamics plugin used in music production, especially in EDM. It’s a form of upward/downward compression, it’s similar to the compression effect in Serum, also written by Xfer. I tend to use this a lot on individual tracks, usually, not on basses or kicks though, it will really make your track loud, it’s not subtle, it’s kind of OTT.
Download OTT, available for both Mac OS and Windows
Renegate Noise Gate by Auburn Sounds
Renegate is a versatile gate plugin offered by Auburn Sounds, designed to provide users with precise control over audio gating. The free version of Renegate offers a range of features that make it a powerful tool for music producers and audio engineers. It allows users to control the gate's threshold, attack, release, and hold times, making it useful for tasks like noise reduction, drum tightening, and creative sound shaping.
While the free version is somewhat limited compared to the full version, it still provides high-quality gating with a straightforward interface.
A gate is a must-have tool for synthwave, it's used to create that gated snare sound of 80s drums. Just don't go full Phil Collins, never go full Phil.
"On his rider, Phil Collins has one stipulation, Brown M&Ms with the shells sucked off so he can enjoy the soft insides." - Yet another lie about Phil Collins
Download Renegate, available for both Mac OS and Windows
Frohmager Filter plugin by Ohm Force
The Frohmager VST is a unique filter plugin which stands out due to its characterful resonant filter. It can add almost analog warmth to any audio signal. It offers a range of modulation options, including LFOs and envelope followers, allowing producers to create everything from subtle tone shaping to extreme, dynamic filtering effects.
A good filter is really useful in synthwave as you'll often need to filter heavily reverbed arpeggios during the build up of a track by fading the arp is using the filter cutoff. You hear this a lot in the songs by Timecop1983. Timecop uses u-he runciter, but this is the closest thing out there, except for maybe, the ladder filter in the kilohearts essentials bundle (More about this later).
Download Frohmager, available for both Mac OS and Windows
Vinyl by Izotope
Vinyl by iZotope is a popular audio plugin that emulates the nostalgic sound of vintage vinyl records, adding warmth, character, and lo-fi charm to digital audio. With adjustable settings for dust, scratches, warp, and mechanical noise, Vinyl allows producers to recreate the imperfections of old records, bringing a retro vibe to their mixes.
Download Vinyl, available for both Mac OS and Windows
Tape Cassette 2 by Caelum Audio
Cassette Tape 2 is a free audio plugin that captures the nostalgic warmth and warble of analog cassette tapes. It offers adjustable parameters like tape hiss, wow, flutter, and saturation, allowing users to infuse their tracks with the lo-fi charm of classic tape recordings. This is a great effect to capture the feel of a VHS audio track from an 80s movie, or add some nostalgia.
Download Cassette Tape 2, available for both Mac OS and Windows
Krush Bit Crusher by Tritik
Krush is a bit crusher with bit crushing and downsampling algorithms, it's really useful for getting a lo-fi or retro feel, it’s also very useful on percussion where it can really make your drums stand out in the mix, it makes them sound a lot crisper. Great for chillwave tracks
Download Krush 2, available for both Mac OS and Windows
Origin by Cymatics
Cymatics Origin is a great free VST for dirtying up your sound and making things sound lofi. It really works well for Chillwave pads. It's also great for retro tape effects and making pads sound like they were recorded onto a VHS tape.
Download Origin, free lofi VST plugin, available for both Mac OS and Windows
Kilohearts Essentials by Kilohearts
I'm finishing off this section of the guide with an entire bundle of products. There are some great free plugins here, the Kilohearts bundle contains a haas and a ladder filter, both these things are incredibly useful in synthwave.
The Kilohearts Essentials bundle includes 30 small plugins that function as "snapins" within Kilohearts' modular tools, such as Snap Heap and Phase Plant.
That said, you aren’t restricted to using them exclusively with Kilohearts' larger plugins. These snapins can also operate as standalone VST plugins in any DAW.
Download Kilohearts Essentials, available for both Mac OS and Windows
Synthwave Light - 120 Presets for Vital
While this isn’t a VST or an effect, if you're still struggling to achieve that perfect synthwave sound, you might want to check out my preset pack, Synthwave Light.
Synthwave Light offers 120 expertly crafted presets tailored for producing genuine synthwave music. What sets this pack apart is its ease of layering—making it simple to create lush, distinctive sounds straight away. It minimizes the need for heavy post-processing, so you can dive right into the creative flow. As someone who listens to a lot of synthwave, I can say this pack covers all the core sounds you'd expect, plus inspiring sequences that are great even for those just starting out in the genre.
Buy my preset pack, Synthwave Light - 120 Synthwave Presets for Vital