VST/VSTi Plugins For Linux

VST plugins compiled for native Linux. No WINE required, just a compliant host such as Ardour, Bitwig, Carla, energyXT2, QTractor, Renoise, Tracktion, and others. Updated 8 October 2020.

• abNinjam Antanas Bruzas has made a nice plugin client for the well-known Ninjam software for collective online performers. NB: Code only. And be sure to check out Antanas's abGate, also available from his github repo.
• Acid Box Very cool "303-like" synthesizer/sequencer from the fine folks at Audio Blast.
• ADLplug Excellent 4-op FM synthesizer frm JP Cimalando. (NB: Currently must be built from source code).
• Airwindows A large set of pro-audio-grade plugins (90 at current count, in a wide variety of primarily audio processors), now open-source and freely available from developer Chris Johnson. Like the original versions, these plugins are without GUIs, but are highly recommended. (I also recommend donating to Chris's Patreon account.)
• ambix Matthias Kronlachner's suite of plugins for Ambisonics control in appropriate hosts.
• amsynth Nick Dowell's great synth can be built now as a VSTi.
• Analog Magpha EQ High-quality mastering equalizer from Balance Mastering. $$
• Andes A synthesizer plugin based on Perlin noise.
• Apisonic Labs Home of the very cool and free Speedrum Lite plugin.
• Argotlunar Granulation effect processor by Michael Ourednic.
• Auburn Sounds Native Linux support is now available for their Panagement, Couture, Graillon, and other plugins. $$
• Audio Assault A large selection of inexpensive high-quality dynamics and effects processing plugins, now available for Linux. $$
• AudioDamage Makers of high-quality synthesizers (Continua, Quanta) and signal processors, including the free RoughRider3 compressor. $$
• AudioGridder is Andreas Pohl's "plugin host that allows you to offload the DSP processing of audio plugins to remote computers", which might be just what you're looking for.
• Blackface According to the developer it's a "simple yet peculiar VST3/AU synth". NB: JUCE-based, code only.
• Bom Shanka Machines Popular phaser, gate, filter (a freebie), and delay plugins now with "experimental" support for Linux. $$
• Cabbage Rory Walsh's wonderful project converts Csound-based instruments and processors to VST and LV2 plugins.
• Cadmium Very cool "vector phase-shaping synthesizer" from the fine folk at LHI Audio. $$
• Camomile Loads Pure Data patches for use in your DAW of choice. Fine work from Pierre Guillot.
• Carla Multiformat plugin host in a VST plugin. Supports LADSPA, DSSI, and LV2 plugins.
• Carve Distortion Very nice waveshaping distortion plugin from White Elephant Audio.
• CollaB3 "Free tonewheel B3 organ", HISE-based collaboratively-developed software from Sampleson
• Convergence Unique multiband compressor from Cut Through Recordings. $$ (A free version is also available with a reduced feature set.)
• Ctrlr Control external MIDI hardware from a VST plugin.
• CsoundVST Yes, the awesome Csound can run as a native VST plugin for Linux. Special thanks to Michael Gogins for his work on this project !
• Digits VSTi First-rate emulation of the Casio CZ synthesizers. Open-source as of April 2017.
• discoDSP Home of the new Bliss sampler and the superb Discovery and Discovery Pro synths from George Reales. And now Vertigo joins the list of Linux-supported synths from the company. $$
• DISTRHO FalkTX's great project, includes native Linux VST plugins from Arctican, dRowAudio, and TAL. Synths include excellent Linux versions of Dexed, Obxd, the TAL Noizemaker, and many others. An essential set.
• DPF-Plugins Another outstanding set from the tireless falkTX. Includes the Nekobi bass synth, a 3-band splitter and a 3-band EQ, two music visualizers, a set of plugins from Niall Moody's ndc Plugs, and more.
• Dragonfly Reverb Reverberation goodness from Michael Willis and friends.
• Drum Gizmo This excellent handy drum kit plugin can be built as a native Linux VSTi.
• Element A plugin/standalone utility to host other plugins. Includes support for VST, LADSPA, and LV2 native Linux plugin formats.
• ESX/EMX Plugins Control and edit your Korg Electribe from a Linux VST.
• faust-vst Dr. Albert Graef's cool project to convert Faust DSP code to VST/VSTi plugins.
• Flo's Audio Plugins Handy front-ends for sets of various IR (impulse response) files for guitar cabinet simulation.
• FM/Sample Tools From the labs of Stoev, plugins for controlling the Volca hardware.
• Foo-YC20 A nice combo organ plugin with standalone, LV2, and VST versions. No GUI for the plugins, but its parameters are forwarded to the native controls in Ardour, Bitwig, and presumably other supportive Linux DAWs.
• Glitch 2 Very cool effects sequencer plugin. $$
• GVST Plugins Another famous set, ported by the original author.
• Harrison AVA Plugin Suite High-quality VST plugins from the famous console manufacturer and creators of the fabulous Mixbus. Package includes the LegacyQ, De-esser, and Mastering EQ, all available separately. $$
• Helm Powerful multimodal synthesizer from Matt Tytel.
• HybridReverb2 Convolution-based reverb from Christian Borß.
• HyperCyclic Advanced MIDI arpeggiator from Mucoder.
• IEM Plugin Suite It's a "free and Open-Source audio plugin suite including Ambisonic plug-ins up to 7th order created by staff and students of the Institute of Electronic Music and Acoustics" in Graz (Austria).
• Inear Display Definitely unusual signal processors, like nothing else in this list. If you're looking for weird, this is the link for you.
• Inertia Sound Systems Makers of the excellent Instinct dynamics processor and Granulizer 2 synthesizer. $$
• InstaLooper is "...a simple looper with four integrated FX", from Audio Blast.
• JackAss Very useful plugin that provides JACK MIDI support for any VST host.
• JuceOPLVSTi Bruce Sutherland's OPL2 chip-synth plugin can be built for Linux. See my tutorial on building and installing it.
• june-21 An emulation of the Alpha Juno synthesizer, from Michel Rodriguez. Made with the Cabbage framework, requires the Csound shared library, aka libcsound64
• Kmeter/traKmeter Level/loudness meters according to Bob Katz, courtesy of Martin Zuther.
• KR-ReverbFS Free reverb plugin from KResearch.
• kVstSequencer A plugin MIDI sequencer for all DAWs, thanks to developer Martin Knappe.
• LameMP3 Unique plugin for previewing a track in MP3-format during playback. Source code only, no GUI for the Linux version.
• LibreWave High-quality HISE-based virtual instruments by David Healey. $$
• LinuxSampler Yes, the mighty LinuxSampler can be compiled as a native Linux VST instrument. Sweet.
• Loomer Commercially-available synthesizers (Aspect, String, Cumulus) and effects processors, all highly recommended. $$
• LSP Phase detection/delay compensation, frequency analysis, multichannel samplers, and more from the Linux Studio Plugins Project.
• mcfx A suite of multichannel effects processors, includes convolver, delay, filter, gain delay, and metering plugins. More multichannel goodness from Matthias Kronlachner.
• mda plugins Home for the source code for Paul Kellet's outstanding instruments and effects processors.
• Mr. Alias 2 Glitchy soundmaker from the author of the indispensable pizmidi plugins.
• Modern Metal Production Home of the Entropy II stereo delay, the M4 multiband compressor, and the POP Sound Shaper plugins. $$
• Monoplugs.com The developer has "closed" the business but has kindly made his Monique synthesizer and B-Step sequencer plugins freely available at least until mid-October 2020.
• MONSTR Cool multiband stereo imaging plugin.
• Monstrum Media Excellent cross-platform editors for Waldorf synthesizers. $$
• MVerb Martin Eastwood's unique reverb with UI by falkTX.
• Nils' K1v Home for Nils Schneider's great emulation of the popular Kawai K1 synthesizer.
• Odin2 Cool 12-voice "polyphonic beast" from The Wave Warden.
• OverTone DSP First-class signal processing from Mike Rawes, formerly known as linuxDSP. Highly recommended. $$
• OwlSim A simulator for the programmable effects pedal from Open Ware Laboratory.
• Oxe FM Synth Very nice FM synthesizer from Daniel Moura.
• Paraphrasis Unique spectral modeling synthesizer from Virtual Analogy, in a port from the tireless falkTX.
• PdPulp A very cool plugin to host Pure Data (Pd) patches in any VST-enabled DAW.
• Pianoteq Modartt's amazing instrument is also a VSTi plugin for Linux. Great software, highly recommended. $$
• pizmidi Valuable collection of MIDI processors from the mighty piz. An essential set.
• Protoplug Uses LuaJIT to provide plugin scripting to any VST host.
• Radium Compressor A VST plugin version of the compressor included with Kjetil Mattheussen's Radium DAW (and excellent VST host).
• RaveGenerator2 is "a funky rompler with 90s ravey sounds". (And very cool for lots of other music.)
• Redux High-powered sampler/sequencer from the makers of Renoise. $$
• Richter Tremolo Dual-LFO tremolo plugin, more goodness from the house of White Elephant Audio.
• SAFE Plugins Audio effect processors from the Semantic Audio group. See Downloads page for Linux versions.
• ScorchCrafter JykWrakker Very cool plugin for guitar FX madness. (NB: The link points to a zipfile.)
• SFZero Nice simple SFZ player plugin from AltaLogix (must be built from source code).
• SI-D1/D2 Innovative distortion plugins from Guy Sherman.
• Sitala Free-as-in-beer simple but cool drums plugin and standalone binary.
• SocaLabs Four 2-op and 4-op FM synth emulators (PAPU/SID/SN76489/RP2A03), a nice vocal-formant synth (Voc), and my favorite implementation of Martin Eastwood's MVerb. Source code is available for all plugins.
• Spaco Plugins An excellent suite of sound spatialization plugins from J. D. Sierra. NB: You need to contact the developer to download the plugins.
• SpectMorph "...allows to analyze samples of musical instruments, and to combine them (morphing)", from the makers of the BEAST/BSE project.
• Speek Nice Linux port of a popular plugin, from the author of the Wavosaur audio editor for Windows.
• Squeezer Excellent free compressor from Martin Zuther.
• Stochas An unusual MIDI sequencer, highly recommended for work with generative and randomization processes. Very unique software from the team that brought you Surge.
• SuperflyDSP Maker of the Flying series of effects plugins, including the FlyingPhaser, the FlyingChorus, and others.
• Surge Vember Audio's famous VST synthesizer can now be built for Linux but is still in development. Testers and coders are needed !
• Synister A cool new synthesizer from the students at Technische Universität Berlin. Linux version must be built from the Synister source code. (An alternative site for source and binaries can be found at https://github.com/osxmidi.)
• Synthesizer V Very cool voice synthesizer with standalone and VSTi versions. $$
• TeragonAudio Various useful plugins, including filters, a beat counter, and the very handy ExtraNotes VST plugin for adding comments to your tracks.
• The Great Escape Unique dynamic tremolo plugin, free for the download from Musical Entropy.
• Togu Audio Line (TAL) Many of TAL's excellent popular plugins - including Sampler and U-NO-LX - are now available in "experimental" native Linux versions.
• ToneSpace Chord/harmony generation plugin, one more from Mucoder.
• Tracktion The Micro Synth Pack, BioTek Synth, Master Mix, and DAW Essentials FX Pack plugins are available for Linux. $$
• Tunefish Unique synthesizers from the Brain Control group.
• u-he Yes, Urs Heckmann's entire catalog of famous synths and processors - including Zebra, ACE, Diva, Bazille, Satin, Uhbik and Hive - have come to Linux. See the discussion at KVR's u-he forum for current information. $$
• Uhhyou Plugins is where you can find the SevenDelay, SyncSawSynth, CollidingCombSynth, and other unique plugins. Binaries available here.
• VeeSeeVSTRack Yes, the awesome VCV Rack modular synthesizer is now available as a VST plugin for Linux. (source only)
• Venomode Dynamics and effects processing plugins now available for Linux ! $$
• VidPlayVST is "... a plug-in for producers composing music synchronised to video", and it's now available for Linux.
• Waverazor "Futuristic" synthesizer from the folks at MOK.
• Wolf Shaper A very nice waveshaper with graphic editor, from Patrick Desaulniers. (source only)
• Xhip/Xhip Effects Excellent subtractive/hybrid synthesizer, currently in alpha stage but already usable. Ditto for the effects plugin package.
• ZamAudio Plugins Dynamics and spectral processors, plus one synth. Good work from Damien Zammit.
• ZynAddSubFX Paul Nasca's great synthesizer is now available as a stable VSTi, thanks again to the work of falkTX. Note that this repo also builds a set of audio processors drawn from the original codebase, including the AlienWah, Chorus, Distortion, Dynamic Filter, Echo, Phaser, and Reverb effects.