Xtra raw starter pack

Free plugins for the harder, uglier side of hardstyle: distorted kicks and zaag screeches.

Covers the technique side: staged kick distortion, FM screech sources, OTT squash, and surgical EQ.

• VitalFreemium

  by Vital Audio

  Spectral warping wavetable synth with drag-and-drop modulation.

  Main screech and lead source; spectral warping gets the metallic edge.

  VST3 AU CLAP LV2 Standalone·Windows macOS Linux

• DexedFree

  by Digital Suburban (Pascal Gauthier)

  A free, open-source six-operator FM synth closely modeled on the Yamaha DX7 that also works as a patch librarian for the hardware.

  DX7-style FM, the classic screech starting point.

  VST3 AU CLAP Standalone·Windows macOS Linux

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  Surge XTFree

  by Surge Synth Team

  Deep open-source hybrid synth with two scenes and a huge mod matrix.

  Second synth voice with FM and wavetable oscillators plus heavy onboard effects.

  VST3 AU CLAP LV2 Standalone·Windows macOS Linux

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  Saturation KnobFree

  by Softube

  Free one-knob distortion from Softube with three saturation modes, useful anywhere from bass to drums to vocals.

  First distortion stage for kick tails.

  VST3 AU AAX·Windows macOS

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  CHOW Tape ModelFree

  by Chowdhury DSP

  Open-source reel-to-reel tape emulation from Chowdhury DSP with deep control over tape saturation, wow, flutter, and playhead loss.

  Tape drive and low-end weight on kicks.

  VST3 VST2 AU AAX CLAP LV2 Standalone·Windows macOS Linux

• OTTFree

  by Xfer Records

  The multiband upward/downward compressor behind half of modern EDM.

  The up-down squash that glues screeches together.

  VST3 VST2 AU AAX·Windows macOS

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  TDR NovaFree

  by Tokyo Dawn Records

  Dynamic parallel EQ that doubles as a multiband compressor.

  Dynamic EQ to carve kick punch and tame screech resonances.

  VST3 VST2 AU AAX·Windows macOS

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  LoudMaxFree

  by Thomas Mundt

  Free look-ahead brickwall limiter with just threshold and output sliders, still actively updated (v1.47, June 2026).

  Ceiling for the kick bus.

  VST3 VST2 AU·Windows macOS

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  SPANFree

  by Voxengo

  Free real-time FFT spectrum analyzer with RMS, true peak and EBU R128 loudness metering.

  Check the kick spectrum against references.

  VST3 VST2 AU AAX·Windows macOS