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8 Kontakt Developers you Need to Check Out Today

These instrument creators represent a world of sample-based sound generation that’s also available on Plugin Boutique On the Plugin Boutique website you’ll find far more than just plugins – alongside synth presets and sample packs, you’ll also find Kontakt instruments. Kontakt gives you the power of any physical instrument right in your DAW. From expertly recorded and curated orchestral libraries to more experimental and unorthodox offerings. In this article, we’ve gathered together eig

Universal Audio Buyer’s Guide: Which Classic is Which?

Don’t know your 2500 from your 1176? Read on to find out about 11 classic pieces of production hardware, now available as a native UAD plugin. Earlier this year, the team over at Universal Audio decided it was time to give the people what they’d been asking for. Seemingly out of the blue, they made some of their most renowned and cutting-edge digital plugins native-compatible, meaning they can run without the need of UA’s DSP-powered hardware interfaces and satellites. This release gives an a

8 Kontakt Developers you Need to Check Out Today

These instrument creators represent a world of sample-based sound generation that’s also available on Plugin Boutique On the Plugin Boutique website you’ll find far more than just plugins – alongside synth presets and sample packs, you’ll also find Kontakt instruments. Kontakt gives you the power of any physical instrument right in your DAW. From expertly recorded and curated orchestral libraries to more experimental and unorthodox offerings. In this article, we’ve gathered together eig

Mastering: What Plugins Do I Need?

The “dark art of mastering” is a practice that takes years to perfect. Even the most seasoned of mastering engineers are still honing their skills, in what is often regarded to be the final stage of quality control during a song’s conception. If the mastering process isn’t discombobulating enough as it is, there are a torrent of new mastering tools released every week that promise to make the process quicker and easier than ever before. In this article, we identify some of the core tools you’

Buyer’s Guide: Which Synth is Right for You?

In this buyer’s guide, we’ve collected some of our favourite software synthesisers across a variety of categories. We’ve looked for synths for modular nuts, those on a budget, producers looking for an authentic analogue sound, and much more. Of course, what’s classed as the “best” in any given category is subjective, so in a lot of categories we’ve provided alternative options so you can try out a few different options and work out which is best for you. Read on to learn about a wide range

The Best EQ Plugins For Every Budget

Command your frequency spectrum with whatever your wallet will allow – here are the best options in every budget category   EQ plugins are essential in modern music production, and luckily for you, you’ve almost certainly got at least one in your DAW. But there’s only so much that many ‘stock’ plugins can achieve beyond simple frequency sculpting. When you’re ready to trade up, there are many options to consider in the world of EQ plugins. In this guide, we’ll outline some solid choic

What Are VST Plugins and What Are They Used for?

Learn what a VST is with Plugin Boutique including what VST stands for, the different types of VST plugins, their different uses, benefits, and more   Maybe you’re new to music production and are trying to make head or tails of the tools you need and how to use them, or maybe you’ve used a few VST plugins in your time but are shooting in the dark when it comes to understanding the tech behind them. Either way, this article will help you to understand what a VST plugin is and what they’re u

Best Chorus Plugins Guide: Create Sounds That Resonate

Discover the tools you should use to create big, sweeping chorus sounds In hardware form, the chorus effect has been around since the 1970s, with one of the first commercially available chorus devices being the Boss CE-1 Pedal, which was based on the chorus effect in the JC-120 Jazz Amplifier. The following decade, the first digital choruses made it onto the market. Now, there is a chorus effect for every scenario, whether that’s analogue, digital or in plugin form. Choruses can be cat

6 of the Best Sampler Plugins for Music Production

Uncover six of the most powerful and capable sampler plugins available today   Sampling is arguably one of the most important and widely used music production processes in contemporary music. Since its initial conception around 60 years ago, sampling has had and continues to have one of the most profound influences on a wide range of musical styles. While the foundation of sampling is grounded in hardware samplers such as the Mellotron, the software sampler market continues to grow. A

Introducing Beatport Studio – everything you need to make music 

Beatport Studio is a new membership from Beatport. Packed with everything you need to make music, Beatport Studio comes with a DAW, 300,000+ samples, and 10 free plugins a month Beatport have just dropped Beatport Studio, a new membership designed to give you everything you need to make music. Providing a DAW, plugins, and samples to help you in your music production journey, Beatport Studio is a one stop shop for up and coming artists to take their creativity up a level. Not only i

Ultimate Vocal Remover Plugin Guide: Separate Music Like a Pro

Learn about the tricks and tools required to perform pristine vocal separation in music Finished music tends to contain a number of elements, all mixed together and baked into a single stereo file. The individual vocals, drums, bass, instruments and effects are all fused into one cohesive whole. That’s fine as a common music consumer, but for us creatives, sometimes we want to isolate or extract certain elements from a track so that we can use them in new and unique ways. The vocals are of

The Best MPE Instrument Plugins to Expand your Musical Horizons

Discover the go-to tools for MIDI expression in this round-up of the best MPE-capable instrument plugins   The Musical Instrument Digital Interface, or MIDI protocol has been around since the early eighties, but until relatively recently, MIDI has only supported limited expression parameters on a per-channel basis.  In 2017 though, that all changed with the introduction of MIDI Polyphonic Expression, or MPE for short. This essentially gave each note its own MIDI channel and opened up a new

Best Guitar Amp Simulator Plugin Guide

Equip yourself with the tools to add amped-up bass guitar and electric guitar to your productions. Guitar amp simulator plugins have always occupied a unique space in the production community. Reviled in the past for being nowhere near capable of emulating the sounds of the amps they sought to imitate, the quality has steadily grown over the years to the point where they absolutely merit a place in the modern day producer’s plugin library.  These days, aside from being able to output reali

The Best Orchestral VST Plugins on Plugin Boutique (2024)

See the best plugins and instruments for scoring films and games – all available here on Plugin Boutique. When we think of electronic music production, our minds tend to gravitate toward digital synths and robust FX plugins. However, sometimes it’s important to slow down and revisit the roots of music composition. Traditional orchestral instruments still make powerful and emotive additions to many productions, and creating ensembles of orchestral instruments can add texture and humanity to yo

Best Mastering Plugins for 2025

Discover new tools for more mastering music at all levels, from do-it-all processors to precision engineering tools, with this guide. Mastering is a strange part of the music-making process. It’s a technical activity at heart, but it’s also abstract enough to be thought of as an art. While mixing is a stage that leaves room for creative choice, mastering is about ensuring those choices come through and fit on all playback systems and formats – as well as making music sound more balanced and

The Best Vocoder Plugins Out There in 2025

Discover the best options for vocoder plugins, including both analogue-style tone-generating synths and digital filter banks to connect any two sources Do the robot! The vocoder sound is a classic music production technique, and the tool used to get it is a classic in its own right. Modern software vocoders go further than their old-school analogue counterparts thanks to the benefits and flexibility of digital technology. But that doesn’t mean you have to sound newfangled – today’s vocoder