Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Cromulent

macrumors 604
Original poster
Oct 2, 2006
6,809
1,100
The Land of Hope and Glory
As the title, I downloaded Ardour, and I'm looking for some free or open source or cheap Audio Unit plugins to use with Ardour. I'm a beginner at making music, so I'd like to cover the basics.

Any help is appreciated.

Edit: I found out that Ardour also supports VST and LV2 plugins on the Mac as well.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: rm5

BrianBaughn

macrumors G3
Feb 13, 2011
9,751
2,475
Baltimore, Maryland
Unfortunately, the macOS architecture changes from 32 bit to 64 bit and then to Apple Silicon have rendered a lot of older free plugins non-functional.

Having said that…check out this website:

 
  • Like
Reactions: Cromulent and rm5

rm5

macrumors 68030
Mar 4, 2022
2,745
3,165
United States
As the title, I downloaded Ardour, and I'm looking for some free or open source or cheap Audio Unit plugins to use with Ardour. I'm a beginner at making music, so I'd like to cover the basics.

Any help is appreciated.

Edit: I found out that Ardour also supports VST and LV2 plugins on the Mac as well.
Hey, check out MeldaProduction, which has some awesome free plugins and instruments. I'm not familiar with Ardour, but as long as it supports VST/VST3, you should be good.

If you're also looking for instruments, MeldaProduction has some free instruments, but I'd really look into both SINEFactory and Spitfire LABS, which are pretty respectable for free instruments. The LABS felt piano is actually so good that I use it on some of my productions, but not all of them are equally good I've gotta be honest.

EDIT: Also, if you're looking to write orchestral music, Spitfire's BBC Symphony Orchestra Discover is a great place to start!

If you need anything else, let me know, I'm always here to help!
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: Cromulent

Cromulent

macrumors 604
Original poster
Oct 2, 2006
6,809
1,100
The Land of Hope and Glory
Unfortunately, the macOS architecture changes from 32 bit to 64 bit and then to Apple Silicon have rendered a lot of older free plugins non-functional.

Having said that…check out this website:


Hey, check out MeldaProduction, which has some awesome free plugins and instruments. I'm not familiar with Ardour, but as long as it supports VST/VST3, you should be good.

If you're also looking for instruments, MeldaProduction has some free instruments, but I'd really look into both SINEFactory and Spitfire LABS, which are pretty respectable for free instruments. The LABS felt piano is actually so good that I use it on some of my productions, but not all of them are equally good I've gotta be honest.

EDIT: Also, if you're looking to write orchestral music, Spitfire's BBC Symphony Orchestra Discover is a great place to start!

If you need anything else, let me know, I'm always here to help!
Thank you both! That is a lot of stuff to look through, but the stuff I did see looked awesome :D.

I guess the first task is to find out how to install them in Ardour.
 
  • Like
Reactions: rm5
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.