Blog

What's New in Scaler 3?

The world’s favourite music theory plugin is back and better than ever Scaler has long been a go-to tool for musicians, producers, and composers looking to bring interesting scales and chord progressions in their productions. With Scaler 3, the software takes a massive leap forward, transforming from a highly capable harmonic assistant into a fully fledged music composition and production powerhouse with some new features that any Scaler 2 users will love. From third-party plugin hosting t

The Best Songs That Used a 303

From Acid House to R&B – here are our picks of tunes that use the Roland TB-303 groovebox for its greatest strengths “I love Acid for the way it makes me move. I love Acid it's the sound you can't improve” – so go the lyrics to Luke Vibert’s 2003 track I Love Acid, and it's a message that has reverberated with many a raver over the past 40 years. The Roland TB-303 – or simply the “303” – is the synth that defines the sound of Acid. Designed by Tadao Kikumoto, the 303 was intended to se

Best Free VST Plugins To Start Making Music in 2025

Find awesome synth power, realistic instrument emulations and creative effects options among our hand-picked selection of free plugins In case you haven’t noticed, there is rather a lot of music software around these days. Here at Plugin Boutique, we host over 6000 plugins from nearly 200 developers, so we like to think we’re pretty clued in on how many options there are out there for aspiring music makers.  Choice is definitely a good thing, but it can also be overwhelming, especially if

The Best Sound Design Plugins You Need in 2025

Find the sonic key that will open the door to a whole new realm of creative potential in this list! Music production is a many-headed beast, with a variety of disciplines combining to make up one creative endeavour, namely: writing, recording, arranging, mixing and mastering. There’s another step on the production journey though, one which borrows from and overlaps with some of the skills mentioned above - sound design.  Originating from the world of film and television, where audio

Here’s Why Cubase Could Be Your Next DAW

Compare these top Cubase features to another DAW to see if you would benefit more from Steinberg’s special formula   Cubase has been part of the music production landscape for a long time. Archeologists have identified Steinberg’s DAW as having been used as early as far back as the neolithic period in central Europe, long before the invention of even plugins. If we had to describe Cubase as a ‘type’ of DAW, it would be as an advanced application for handling both mixing and creation. It

How to Install VST Plugins to Your DAW: a Step-by-Step Guide

As modern-day music producers, we rely primarily on virtual tools for our workflow. They’re more accessible and affordable, and save you from taking up physical space in your home –  perfect for bedroom producers with minimal resources. The main type of software you’ll need to produce music virtually is a DAW (Digital Audio Workstation). This is where all the recording, composing, mixing, and mastering will occur. Within the DAW architecture you can use software components called plugins to w

Blog

 Articles for music producers, sound designer, and audio enthusiasts looking to elevate their sound. Plugin Boutique is the go-to resource for everything related to music plugins, VSTs and other music software. Find expert advice, in-depth tutorials, and comprehensive reviews to discover how you can harness the power of plugins to enhance your productions.   Best Plugins Curated lists of the top plugins across various categories, handpicked to ensure you have the best options at your

The Best TB-303 Plugins on Plugin Boutique

Want to create that squelchy Acid sound without spending four figures? We’ve identified the best TB-303 plugins available today.   A brief history of the Roland TB-303 In the early 80s, Japanese instrument manufacturer Roland was coming up with ways to make it easier for musicians to play along to accompaniments at home, without needing to invite the whole band over. The CR-78 and TR-808 were designed to give instrumentalists the ability to play along to a drum track at home, but the

How to Get the Best Vocal Recordings at Home

In an ideal world, all creative people would have access to top-of-the-range equipment in state-of-the-art facilities. In reality, though, life as a creative often leaves us having to work within the confines of what we have immediate access to. When it comes to recording vocals at home, it can be challenging to compete with the professionals, whose dedicated studio spaces are acoustically designed for making optimised recordings. Thankfully, there are some things you can do in order to attai

Best Synth VST Plugins For Every Budget

We’re here to help you find the synth to suit your needs, whatever you’re willing to spend – starting from free. If you’re looking for a software synthesizer, you’re in luck! There are many options available to you, ranging from completely free to paid. Soft synths can offer incredible value for money and sounds that you can’t find in the hardware world. They can faithfully emulate iconic models, offer brave new sounds, and even present fresh ways to synthesize audio – all at prices that are

8 Top Delay VST Plugins for Hobbyists and Pros

Find the right flavour of delay to suit your needs in this hand-picked plugin roundup.   In this round-up article, you'll discover eight great delay plugins, and we'll discuss the wider points you should consider when choosing the type of delay plugin that's right for your needs. Elsewhere, don't miss our round-up of the 11 Best Reverb Plugins, as well as this read, covering the Best EQ Plugins on Planet Earth.   Contents What Is Delay? Types of Delay Plugin Karanyi Soun

12 Of The Best Vocal Processing Plugins

From pop to rock, jungle to house, vocals are a core component of contemporary music. Whether you’re recording your own vocalists, working with samples, or even Generating Your Own Vocals from Software, you’re likely going to want to process your vocals one way or another. In this article, we take a look at some of the best plugins to have at the ready when it comes to vocal processing. Once you've capped off your vocals, you'll need to make sure your track is mixed the best it can be. The

The Best Multi-Effects VST on Plugin Boutique

These creative effects each pack a host of options within a single plugin – which is the right one for your production style? Some effects plugins are shamelessly singular in their focus: the EQ, the distortion, the analogue character compressor, and so on. Others take a different approach, questioning why, in an age of computer-based production and almost limitless DSP audio power, can’t we arm every plugin with a whole arsenal of effects firepower from granular reverbs to trance gates? And

5 Plugin Bundle Deals Worth Every Penny

Make your money stretch even further with this curated assortment of plugin bundles. It’s no secret that music production can be an expensive pastime. With tons of new products being released week on week that promise to offer a new breakthrough in mixing techniques or virtual instrumentation, it can be hard to keep up with the current state of the market and know where to spend your hard earned dosh. Thankfully, Plugin Boutique is on hand with our Bundles+ range, which combines plugins th

Nine Of The Best AI-Inspired VST Plugins

Harness the power of artificial intelligence to supercharge your music production skills with these smart tools. Artificial intelligence is on the march, and starting to become more prevalent in our day to day lives. You can now Generate Vocals Using AI and Other Techniques, and Remove Vocals from Finished Stereo Tracks. Here at Plugin Boutique, we stock a variety of plugins with AI power, as music production has a breadth of applications for this type of technology.  Mixing is an obvious

VPS Avenger: 9 Ways To Get The Most Out Of It

  Ideas to up your game if you own it already; reasons to check it out if you don’t. Vengeance-Sound’s VPS Avenger is a synth of extremes. It’s got seemingly infinite potential to generate any sound you could imagine, it’s capable of practically anything you can dream up, and it’s even got a whole drum machine inside. Maybe even more notable is the fact that Avenger is now available as a rent-to-own plugin. You can get it right here on Plugin Boutique for £15.50 per month, stop your