Last Updated on November 27, 2020 by
Indian instrument VSTs are quite hard to come by, especially the free ones…
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This is why I put together this list of the 8 best free ones I could find.
Let’s get straight to it…
Acoustic Indian Dhol Lite by RDG Audio
Available for Windows and Mac.
Acoustic Dhol is a sample based Indian Dhol Instrument.
It has been sampled from 3 types of real Indian Leather DholInstruments; Wooden Dhol, Steel Dhol, and Fiber Dhol.
It is the first VST and AU plugins that can play real IndianDhol inside any Digital Audio Workstation.
Indian, Punjabi, Bollywood, and Bhangra styles are availablein Acoustic Dhol.
Over 100 articulation and 22 presets are also available.
If you are tired of playing boring Indian Dhol loops and areconstantly looking for new ones, just try the Acoustic Dhol VST and AU plugins.
You can also purchase the full version, should you want to.
Related: Here’s a huge list of the best free VST plugins in the world.
Features
- Sampled from 3 types of Indian Dhols
- Over 100 different articulations
- 22 presets
- Style : Indian,Punjabi,Bollywood,Bhangra
- MPC style GUI
- Velocity sensitive
- Round Robin sampling : YES
- Attack Realease Rotary Knob
- Tune Volume Pan Rotary Knob
- Algorithmic Reverb
- Level meter
You can download it here.
Related: List of the best Sitar VST Plugins.
Indian DreamZ by DSK
Available for Windows only.
DSK is well known for creating loads of free and prettycool-sounding plugins.
Indian Dreamz is no different…
It features a couple different typical Indian instrumentswhich work pretty damn well!
These instruments are; Sitar, Sarod, veena, Tar, tampura& Tabla.
All in all, it’s a great plugin, absolutely give it a shot!
Features
- 6 Indian Instruments: Sitar, Sarod, veena, Tar,tampura & Tabla.
- Velocity response.
- Amp. envelope and micro-detuner.
- HP/LP Filter.
- Midi automation.
You can download it here.
Related: Here’s a list of the best free Piano VST Plugins.
Crypto Cipher Free Sample Pack
Electronic Tanpura Software Free Full Version 2010
Available for Windows and Mac.
It’s a Free Tryout Pack of Indian Kontakt Instrument andwave/Rex Samples.
The pack was created out of Products available at CryptoCipher and Some other Rare Indian Instruments.
Here’s the list of instruments;
- Double Sided Hand Drum
- ThingamaKit –SFX Instrument.
- Pambai – Rare South Indian Percussion.
- Tabla Mouth Percussion / Thunderous Raga VoiceSamples.
- Mouth Shots (Tabla Mouth Percussion).
- Indian Harmonium Scripted.
- Tabla Loops.
- A patch from Voices of Ragas Vol-1.
- Sound Design Instruments.
- Violin Raga Phrases Instrument.
You can download it here.
Syntar by Syntar
Available for Windows only.
Syntar is a VST instrument designed to fulfill yourevery sitar sound requirement.
For best results play with droning continuous bass notes and a higher melodyline.
Built in soft distortion, delay and flanger effects make iteasy to tweak the Syntar to fit your style of music perfectly.
You can download it here.
If you’re looking to record quality music at home, then here’s a list of the essential home studio components which you might find useful.
Real Sitar Player by RDGAudio
Available for Windows and Mac.
Real Sitar is a sample-based Instrument.
It has been sampled from Asian and many types of real SitarInstruments.
Sampled with 4 Mic Position, it is velocity sensitiveinstrument with built in Round Robin Presets.
It comes with Win 32-64 bit VST, VST3, AU and Mac VSTplugins.
Real Sitar is free but you can purchase the expansion pack forabout $50.
You can download it here.
Iowa Alto
Available for Windows and Mac.
Iowa Alto Flute is a sampled alto flute from theUniversity of Iowa Electronic Music Studios.
The sound quality is pretty impressive, especially for afree plugin…
So, give it a shot.
You can download it here.
VSCO2 Flute
Available for Windows and Mac
Versilian Studios Chamber Orchestra 2 Flute, also known asVSCO2 Flute, is an incredible free plugin that samples a real Flute.
All of the VSCO2 plugins are fantastic and I absolutelyrecommend them to anyone who is in need of some free ones.
You can download it here.
SwarPlug 4
Box Tanpura
Available for Windows and Mac
SwarPlug is a VST, Audio Units and AAX plugin that will workon most DAWs.
It features an ever increasing number of instruments (over80 so far), each with a large quantity of MIDI loops that you can audition andsimply drag & drop on your tracks, to achieve something genuinely soundingin instants.
The full version sells for quite a lot, but you can downloada demo version.
Features
- over 80 perfectly sampled Indian instruments
- customisable mapping of playing areas withspecific parameters settings
- multi-mic fader (for ML instruments)
- MPE support
- Cross-Legato mode for seamless cross-fadingpitch bendings
- scales customisation with semitone tuning
- modulations panel with large array of modulationpossibilities
- time-stretching
- buses and effect
- and much more…
You can download it here.
HandPan Tribalized
While not being strictly Indian, this HandPan sample library could certainly add some flavor to your productions.
It usually sells for $35, but it’s now free for a while, so make sure to get it while you can!
You can download it here.
You’ll need a MIDI Controller
In order to be able to use these plugins properly, you will need some sort of MIDI Controller.
While you can use your mouse to map the MIDI in your DAW, it’s a lot faster and easier to do it with a keyboard/controller.
My recommendation here is for you to get something like the M-Audio Oxygen 25 MK IV MIDI Controller which you can find at Amazon at a very affordable price, plus it comes with some extra software like Pro Tools First.
Conclusion
It was actually hard to find good-sounding Indian VST that were actually free, but here are the ones I found.
Some of them allow you to purchase the premium version, which you could definitely do if you find yourself using them a lot.
I hope this information was useful…
Have a great day!