When I first started producing synthwave I struggled to nail the sound. I had difficulty finding free synthwave VST plugins. I tested many options, sometimes buying things I didn't need. To help others avoid this I have created a free synthwave VST plugin guide.
To help out further I have produced two preset packs. I created 80s Bubblegum - 37 Free 80s Vital Presets, which helps you to recreate 4 famous 80s hits. I also created Synthwave Lite - 120 Synthwave Presets, which I offer at a very reasonable price. The first part of this guide concentrates on Synths, the next part will concentrate on effects, the final part focuses on drum sounds.
Selecting the best free synthwave VST plugins for your song
There are many ways to approach creating synthpop and synthwave. One method is to master a single wavetable VST and use it for all your sounds. This is a solid approach—I personally prefer knowing one synth inside out. For me, that’s Vital, but I can also use Serum or any other wavetable synth. The reason I can quickly adapt to any wavetable synth is that Vital is similar to most wavetable synths, and it’s powerful enough to emulate almost any other synth.
Learning a wavetable synth can be time-consuming, so simpler options like subtractive synths are great alternatives. You can master subtractive synthesis in just a few days, and it remains one of the most popular forms due to its ease of use and iconic sound. This guide primarily focuses on those, as they’re also less taxing on your computer, making them ideal if you're starting with limited resources.
That said, you don't have to learn any at all, using presets and tweaking them is perfectly fine—you’re a musician, not a programmer, this is why I created Synthwave Light - 120 Synthwave presets for vital.
Now, onto the guide for free synthwave VST plugins. I'm going to start by listing two really powerful synths, Vital VST and Surge XT. I will then move onto the more traditional subtractive and FM synths.
Vital, the best free synthwave VST by Matt Tytel
Vital VST is a highly versatile and free wavetable synthesizer that stands out for its powerful sound design capabilities and user-friendly interface. It's my personal goto free VST plugin for most sound design, in some respects, it's not as easy to use as serum, but it's the most capable freebie out there. Vital offers a range of features typically found in premium synths, including spectral warping, drag-and-drop modulation, and extensive control over oscillators.
Above, you can see Vital featuring my custom synthwave skin, which comes with my preset pack, Synthwave Light
If you were to use just one free soft synth, vital would be my choice.
Download my favourite free VSTi Vital, available for both Mac OS and Windows
Surge XT free VSTi by Claes Johanson
Before there was Vital, the best free soft synth was Surge IMHO, it's still incredibly versatile and comes with a lot more presets that vital, these presets are particularly useful for synthwave and 80s music.
Surge XT does pretty much everything Vital can, with maybe a few exceptions. It's open source, great news for the synth nerds out there,and it covers all the bases: subtractive synthesis, wavetable, FM, you name it. It's been around for a while, so you won’t struggle to find loads of free presets to download. it's a lot less processor intensive than vital, so it's going to be a better choice for people with less powerful computers.
Download Surge XT free VST plugin, available for both Mac OS and Windows
kHs ONE free subtractive synth by Kilohearts
In February 2023, the writers of Phaseplant, the most powerful soft synth I know, discontinued Khs ONE, but they made it free to download.
KHS ONE is a subtractive soft synth, designed to deliver warm, analog-style sounds with a streamlined, user-friendly interface. Its simplicity makes it perfect for those who want to dive into sound design without being overwhelmed by complexity. It's still more complicated than some of the other offerings on here but it's really ideal for synthwave.
KHS ONE gives you dual oscillators, sub-oscillators, a bucketload of filters, and plenty of modulation options. It feels a bit like an Oberheim in design but with more modern features and options. It also comes with built in effects, like distortion, which makes it sound great.
Download kHs ONE free subtractive synth plugin, available for both Mac OS and Windows
OB-Xd free subtractive synth by DiscoDSP
This VST will make you want to jump. The OB-Xd VST emulates the classic Oberheim OB-X, known for its analog growl. It sounds like the original hardware with rich, warm tones, and versatile modulation options, making it a favourite among musicians for creating vintage-style pads, leads, and basses. It doesn’t have any onboard effects, so you’ll probably want to run it through Tal-Chorus-LX (see Tat-Chorus-LX (see Free Synthwave VST Plugins - Part 2: Effects). The Oberheim OB-X iconic growl can be heard on Jump By Van Halen. If you want to use it commercially, it can be licensed, but it's free for bedroom producers.
Tyrell-N6 free JUNO based VSTi by U-he
The Tyrell N6 plugin is a virtual analog synth inspired by the classic Roland Juno series. It offers a rich, warm sound characteristic of vintage hardware, with powerful oscillators, filters, and versatile modulation capabilities. Designed to deliver a high-quality near analog sound.
It really has that 80s feel and a number of presets are available to download from third party preset developers. You may want to run it through the Tal Chorus effect instead of the one provided, but the chorus provided is still pretty decent.
Download Tyrell N6 free JUNO inspired synth, available for both Mac OS and Windows
Podolski free synthwave VST plugin by U-he
Podolski is a very modern virtual analog analog synth, but it really sounds incredibly 80s. I don’t know why, but it does, it’s not really modelled on any old synth that I recognise and it’s quite quirky, the presets that come with it are fantastic. It also features an excellent arpeggiator / sequencer.
Download Podoslki Free synthwave VST, available for both Mac OS and Windows
Zebralette free VSTi by U-he
Zebralette is a free plugin that serves as a streamlined, one-oscillator version of the renowned Zebra2 synthesizer. Despite its simplified design, Zebralette offers a range of powerful sound-shaping capabilities, making it a versatile tool for creating unique and intricate sounds. Its intuitive interface and high-quality audio make it a great choice for both beginners and experienced producers looking to explore the Zebra2 sound palette without the full-featured version.
What sets zebralette apart from other free synths is it's really powerful oscillator morphing with geomorph, spectromorph, geoblend and spectroblend modes. If you don't know what this means then you aren't the only one, but there's a good explanation on the U-he website.
Download Zebralette plugin for free, available for both Mac OS and Windows
Dexed by Digital Suburban
Dexed VST is a soft synth that faithfully emulates the iconic Yamaha DX7, a legendary digital FM synth known for its distinctive, crystalline sounds. Dexed offers a precise recreation of the original's complex FM synthesis engine, making it a favourite for producing bright, metallic tones, electric pianos, and evolving pads. With full compatibility with original DX7 patches, Dexed is a powerful tool for musicians seeking the classic DX7 sound in a modern, free VST format.
Download Dexed free Yamaha DX7 clone, available for both Mac OS and Windows
PG-8X free JX-8P clone by Martin Luders
The PG-8X VST is a software synthesizer that emulates the classic Roland JX-8P, known for its warm, analog sounds. It offers rich pads, lush strings, and punchy basses, capturing the essence of vintage hardware in a modern plugin. Loading presets and installation is a bit tricky but it’s one of my favourite free synths. It just really sounds like a vintage analog synth.
It's worth noting, that PG-8x doesn't work on all newer macs, so if you have a Silicon based mac, it may not work for you straight out of the box, so to speak
Download PG-8X free 80s VST, available for both Mac OS and Windows
VK-1 Viking free minimoog inspired Synth by Blamsoft
The VK-1 VST offers a fresh take on a classic synth, delivering an impressively accurate emulation of the Minimoog. Renowned for shaping the sound of countless records, from Stevie Wonder to Michael Jackson, the Minimoog has been a staple from the 70s through the modern era. Its iconic ladder filter produces rich, deep basses and soaring leads, all with a warm, vintage tone. While the original Minimoog is strictly monophonic, the VK-1 enhances it with polyphonic capabilities, making this classic more versatile than ever.
Download VK-1 free moog clone VST, available for both Mac OS and Windows
Mono/Fury free VSTi by Full Bucket Music
Based on the Korg Mono Poly, this is a great little freebie.
It’s as close as you can get to a free version of the Polysix, which is synonymous with synthwave bass. If you put this baby through Tal-Chorus-LX you can get a very similar sound to the Fat Back Bass Preset from the Korg Polysix VST, if you know what you’re doing. Alternatively there are several basses based on the Fat Back Bass in my Synthwave Light Preset pack which is very reasonably priced. BUY, CONSUME, OBEY.
Download Mono/Fury, available for both Mac OS and Windows
Fury-800 free Poly-800 clone by Full Bucket Music
The Fury-800 VST is a software emulation of the Korg Poly-800 synthesizer, known for its distinctive 80s sound. The Korg Poly-800 was the first synth to be priced under $1,000, yet still it delivers rich, layered tones with analog warmth.
Download Fury 800, available for both Mac OS and Windows
Tricent by Full Bucket Music
Tricent is an emulation of the Korg Trident synth, The Korg Trident is a vintage analog synth from the early 1980s, known for its lush, layered sounds. It combines three sections, synth, brass, and strings, each with its own controls. This allowed multiple voices by splitting the keyboard into sections.
Tricent reminds me of John Carpenter’s early music, though I don’t know if he ever used one. It’s really great for cinematic synthwave, it even sounds a bit like Goblin, who are one of my favourite bands.
Download Tricent, available for both Mac OS and Windows
Synthesizer Expansion Module by Cherry Audio
The Cherry Audio Synthesizer Expander Module (SEM) is a powerful module that expands the capabilities of any modular setup. Inspired by the Oberheim SEM, it offers rich, warm tones and a wide range of sonic possibilities. The SEM module features dual oscillators, a multi-mode filter, and extensive modulation options, making it ideal for both vintage and modern sound design.
Download Synthesizer Expansion Module, available for both Mac OS and Windows
Magical 8bit Plug by YMCK
It’s fun to stay at the YMCK….Sorry, couldn’t resist. Magic 8-bit Plug is actually a bit different to the other plugins, it’s an 80s emulation of chip tunes from a computer rather than 80s pop music. That said, you often hear these kind of sounds in synthwave tunes, like Daytona by The Midnight
Download the Magical 8bit plugin for free, available for both Mac OS and Windows
Synth1 free VST plugin by Daichi Laboratory
This is an easily overlooked free synth VST, in fact, I nearly overlooked it myself. A user on one of my favourite free VST groups on Facebook recommended it. I'd thought of it as a free 90s VST because it's based on the Clavia Nord 2, but he showed me a few videos of The Yellow Magic Orchestra, recreated on this very synth.
It looks like this synth still has a bit of life left in it, it's an oldie but a goodie.
Download Synth1 plugin for free, available for both Mac OS and Windows
Nils‘ K1v – Free Rompler by Nils Schneider
Nils‘ K1v is a rompler that emulates a Kawai K1, a famous japanese classic from 1988. It has over 1000 presets and it's pretty good for recreating the tacky sounds of the 80s, some people like it smooth, some people like it rough, and this is an 8-bit synth, so it tends to be a bit rough, sometimes this is exactly the sound you want for synthwave.
Download Nils Klv Rompler plugin for free, available for both Mac OS and Windows
Tal-Noisemaker, free easy to use plugin by Tal
Tal Noisemaker is probably the easiest synth to learn out there. It's not really an 80s VST plugin, but it can definitely sound that way. If you were to try and learn any single synth with limited time, this would be the one.
It's pretty powerful too. It has everything in a tiny compact package, you can see everything on offer in a few minutes it's effect section is great too, offering a juno like chorus, a bit crusher, reverb and delay, the built in bit crusher really adds to the overall sound, it's pretty similar to any of the synths available in the 80s, and the interface makes it the perfect starter synth.
Download Tal-Noisemaker, the easy to use VST plugin for free, available for both Mac OS and Windows
Odin 2 free subtractive synth by TheWaveWarden
ODIN 2 is a free VST synth that stands out for its rich, versatile sound, but its filters are the real highlight. Equipped with both ladder filters and Korg-35 Sallen key filter, which is based on the Korg MS-20, ODIN 2 offers a variety of filtering options that give users incredible precision and creative flexibility.
The ladder filter delivers that iconic warmth and richness, perfect for fat basslines and smooth leads, while the Korg filters provide a punchy, resonant edge, that I believe was used in Daft Punk's tune Da-Funk. Though this seems to be the topic of much debate.
Download Odin 2, free synthwave VST plugin, available for both Mac OS and Windows
Hercules V3 free synth VST by Fruitymasterz
While creating this guide, I asked a few people for their recommendations on free synths and VSTs, including my friend Russel Nash, who produced "Vital Signs," one of the demo tracks for Synthwave Light.
He really likes this synth because it's one of the synths he learned on, and he's pretty good at making synthwave. Hercules V3 is a donationware VST. So if you have some cash, drop some for the developer, but it's possible to donate nothing if you aren't that wealthy. Developers need beer too though.
Download Hercules V3, free synthwave VST plugin, available for both Mac OS and Windows
Unstable Polyphonic Synthesiser Free CS-80 VST by Morphoise
A bit of a latecomer this one, this appeared after I started writing this article, I think. But it’s so good, I’d be an idiot not to include it.
No synthwave plugin guide is complete without a CS-80 clone, and this one truly stands out. The iconic CS-80 sound has profoundly shaped synthwave music, largely thanks to the legendary Vangelis. His groundbreaking work on the Blade Runner soundtrack remains one of the most emulated scores in music history, arguably the most famous showcase of this coveted synthesiser's capabilities.
If you want to get the sounds of Vangellis, or even if you prefer McCartney’s Wonderful Christmas time (though I’m not sure why you would), then this is the synth for you.
Synthwave Light - 120 Vital VST Presets
This isn't a VST and it's not free, but if you’re still having trouble nailing that synthwave sound, you could always purchase my preset pack, Synthwave Light.
Synthwave Light contains 120 presets especially designed to create synthwave. Unlike some preset packs I’ve tried, this really does allow great layering of presets to create your own unique sound. I listen to synthwave a lot and you’ll find most synthwave sounds in the pack. It also contains a lot of sequences to inspire you if you aren’t too familiar with the genre.
Buy my preset pack, Synthwave Light - 120 Synthwave Presets for Vital