Free Trap Beats VST Plugins; The 15 best ones!

Last updated on December 31st, 2023 at 08:39 pm

If you’re looking for free plugins to create some amazing Trap Beats, you’ve come to the right place.

In this article, I will give you a list of the 15 best plugins -both instrument and effects VSTs- that you can use to create the most mind-blowing trap beats!

To get things started, here’s a table with the 5 ones that I like the most, but you should definitely check them all out.

Now, without any further ado, let’s get into the list itself!

Free Alpha

The alpha of the pack indeed. Designed by Linplug, this is the first soft synth you should reach for when you’re trying to hatch a ratchet beat. Free Alpha is capable of silky leads, wavy pads and bumping basslines, perfect for those who like to add a sprinkle of G-funk into their mix.

Its interface isn’t much to look at, but its sounds are powerful and professional.

Free Alpha uses subtractive synthesis to offer 32 note polyphonic capabilities. It features 2 oscillators, a filter, 2 envelopes, and a LFO with 3 waveforms to choose from. It also includes a built-in glide control and chorus effect.

Free Alpha is available as a 32/64-VST for Windows and Mac.

You can download Free Alpha here.

Iota Mini

This plug-in was made by trap producers for trap producers. Don’t let the name fool you, the Iota Mini offers plentiful possibilities. When it comes to choosing instrumentation for your beats It will be your essential swiss army knife trap tool.

It’s as if AngelicVibes have cut a slice out of Omnisphere and left it to cool on their windowsill to tease you with a whiff.

It features 50 instruments such as bass, keys, bells, pads, and plucks.

It comes with 10 drum kits, encompassing a total of 60 percussion samples. Its interface is simple to use with just 2 windows: One view offers you control over reverb, a high-cut filter, and an envelope generator, and the 2nd allows you to tweak the levels and panning positions of your individual drum samples.

You can find Iota Mini on angelicvibes.com as a 32/64-bit VST2/VST3 for Mac and Windows.

You can download Iota Mini here.

TyrellN6

This next synthesizer was born out of the forums of German audio website Amazona. It was originally planned to be a hardware emulation of the Roland Juno-60, but lucky for you the synth gods up above have decided these sounds are just a double-click away.

TyrellN6 comes with 2 oscillators, 2 LFOs, as well as noise and ring modulators. It offers you a built-in mixer as well as a powerful matrix system. It comes jam packed with 580 pre-sets to get you up and running. Sporty is the vibe its designers say they were going for with TyrellN6, and with one earful of these sounds you will be know it was a slam dunk on their end.

You can download TyrellN6 at Amazona.de as a 32/64-bit VST2 for Windows, Mac, and Linux.

If you want a more premium feel, then check out Diva also by U-He, another spectacular and well-rounded synth.

You can download TyrellN6 here.

Ozone Imager

Effects plug-ins are crucial to add some flavour to the fresh batch of beats you’re cooking up on your soundwave stove. This first one is iZotope’s stereo imaging plug-in Ozone Imager. Lauded by Alan Meyerson (The Dark Knight, Gladiator), Its perfect for both dramatic cinematic stretching as well as subtle spreading of a stagnant 16 bars.

It features a beautiful looking interface which gives a clear visualization of the picture you are painting.  As well as widening, it offers you the ability to narrow sounds in the mix, which is perfect for precision placement of your low-end. When you need the keys to be as wide as a whale but the strings as thin as a dime, Imager should be the first to receive the call of duty.

 iZotope have made this plug-in available on their website as a 64-bit VST2/VST3 for Windows and Mac.

You can download Ozone Imager here.

Fracture

Fracture is a glitch effect plugin that is perfect for those looking to add some flashy skilfully placed skips and stutters to their songs. Adding a bit of glitch to your groove can shake up your repetitive rhythms and intoxicate your listeners eardrums. Fracture can teleport your beats out of east Atlanta and straight into the matrix.

It includes buffer, delay, and filter effects, as well as 3 LFOS and an effects chain. For those who don’t have time to dip their toes in sound design, don’t worry, Fracture comes with 110 pre-sets for you to poke and prod at your productions.

Glitchmachines have made their plug-in available to download on their website as a 32/64-bit plug-in for Mac and Windows.

You can download Fracture here.

Dexed

Based on the classic Yamaha DX7 synth, its software significant other has plenty of horsepower and highly adjustable parameters. Dexed offers up some of the plushest pads and iciest electric piano sounds you will find. Even when the MC is spitting straight fire in the booth you will still be able to keep the beat as cold as an ice cream van in Antarctica.

It uses FM synthesis to create its sounds and contains 144 parameters which are automatable in your DAW. It includes 6 flexible oscillators with intricate modulating, detuning, and coarsening capabilities. An enormous number of pre-sets are available to download online and place in its cartridge system, which allows you to store up to 32 patches of your fancy.

You can find Dexed on github.io as a 32/64-bit VST/VST3 for Mac and Windows.

An even better alternative to Dexed would be Massive by Native Instruments. This is a paid synth but it’s probably one of the absolute best ones available.

You can download Dexed here.

Vital

Our next contender is new on the scene, and although it has only been out a few months, Vital is a waveform synth which is making a splash in the industry and could be vital to keeping your beat game on point.

Its interface has glossy visualizations which are GPU optimized, taking an unnecessary load off your CPU. It features 3 oscillators, 4 LFOs, and 2 filters. It includes tons of pre-sets, a noise generator, and adjustable envelopes. Its strong point is its combination of quality sounds and ease of use, you can keep the trap beats banging without getting trapped in a beat-block rut.

This soft-synth is available to download on Vital Audio’s website as a 64-bit VST/VST3 for Windows and Mac.

You can download Vital here.

BPB Cassette Drums

Next up we have a bundle of 3 plug-ins emulating the classic Roland 606, 808, and 909 drum machines. Trap gods need to keep the bass drum booming and the cymbals sizzling while they’re counting stacks in the bando, and these vintage sounds will make sure that can happen.

These are sample based plug-ins which contain recordings of Roland’s crème de la crème. It comes with 3 modes: clean gives you the unprocessed sounds, warm and hot give you the sounds resampled through a cassette player to give you some nice analog saturation. Its interface is tidy and gives you volume and release controls over all your percussive elements.

These plug-ins can be found on Bedroom Producers Blog and are offered to you as 32/64-bit VSTs available for Windows and Mac.

You can download BPB Cassette Drums here.

Labs

Spitfire Audio’s Labs is so impressive you will have to pinch yourself to make sure you’re not dreaming that this is a free plug-in. A vast collection of masterfully recorded samples, those in need of crisp keys and solid strings to spruce up their track need not look further. At first you may think these sounds are more suited for classical composition; you will soon realise that Labs is as much Zaytoven as it is Beethoven.

It contains a whopping 34 instruments including scary strings, synth pads, moon guitar, and soft piano. Its GUI is bright and minimalistic, offering control over expression, dynamics, attack, release, and reverb. Its main stand-out feature are the sounds themselves; you will be hard pressed to find samples this good anywhere else for free.

Spitfire Audio have made Labs available as a 32/64-bit VST2/VST3 for Mac and Windows. You will first need to install the Spitfire Audio App, which also comes for free.

You can check out LABS here.

Backmask

Next up we have Freakshow Industries offering us their reverser plug-in Backmask. They prove to be more than just a posse of insane/inane clowns, with an utterly unique and innovative effect. Backmask is perfect for adding some spookiness to your menacing minor key southern fried Three 6-esque synths.

The first thing you will notice with this plug-in is its disturbing interface, but it soon reveals itself as more than just a gimmick. It contains different triggering methods and styles of reversing audio, including level dependent triggering, random reversing, and note-value dependent triggering.

Freakshow Industries give you the option on their webpage to either buy this plug-in for $20 or to steal it, the choice is yours! It operates as a 64-bit VST/VST3 on Windows and Mac.

You can download Backmask here.

Drum Pro

For those who are still looking for more punch from their percussion section, Studiolinked provide you with Drum Pro. It’s a rompler containing samples from 9 classic drum machines, such as the TR-808 and TR-909. Though some of its kits would be more suited for a boom-bap style, there’s plenty on offer that will activate your trap card.

It comes with 20 drum kit pre-sets encompassing a wide variety of styles. Its interface has an MPC vibe with 12 virtual pads for you to bash. It features an ADSR envelope and bult-in reverb, as well as volume and panning controls for each individual element.

This virtual drum machine is available to download from studiolinked.com as a 32/64-bit VST and AU formats for Windows and Mac.

Another fairly similar plugin to Drum Pro is Beat Machine by DopeSONIX, however, this one offers a couple extra features.

You can download Drum Pro here.

Surge

Surge is a versatile synth that will give you access to some of the most pristine pads and loveliest leads you will find today. It’s gotten the stamp of approval from Roger Linn (inventor of LM-1, MPC), who even designed some of the pre-set patches himself. Surge’s brass sounds are perfect for those looking to recreate those grimy 06 Gucci Mane vibes.

It uses a hybrid subtractive form of synthesis to create its sounds. A unique feature Surge offers is that all patches are split into two scenes, which allows you to develop a layered or an independent two-part patch. Each scene allows for three oscillators and each oscillator contains 8 algorithms including sine, wavetable, FM, and noise.

You can find Surge on github.io as a 32/64-bit VST3 for Windows or as a 64-bit VST3 for Mac and Linux.

You can Download Surge here.

Graillon 2

Auto-tuned vocals have become synonymous with trap, so it’s crucial to have this superpower good to go in your plug-in folder. Graillon 2 is a live pitch correction effect which will add some melodic spice to the monotone drone of an MC who’s boring your beats half to sleep. This is ideal for people who are trying to go for that Future and Travis Scott style, or maybe some repair work that’s best kept secret from a “talented” singer.

Graillon works in real time and locks your vocals to the key of your choice, you can also limit the notes in the key you want your voice to latch to. It features a mighty pitch shifter which can give you everything from over-the-top chipmunk squeaks to a double cupped DJ Screw sound.

Auburn Sounds have made this plug-in available to download from their webpage in VST, AAX, AU, LV2 formats which operates on Windows, Mac, and Linux 32/64-bit.

Of course, Graillon2 is a bit limited, but if you really need a vocal tuning Plugin, then check out the famous Auto-Tune (link to the Pro version) which is much more powerful and can be used live.

You can download Graillon 2 here.

Xsub

Created by Hexloops and SimplySounds, Xsub’s 808s sound as deep as the ocean and as aggressive as a pit bull. This is for those who need the sub to sound like it’s about to jump out of the speaker and slap the spit out of your mouth. Perfect for your next ignorant trunk thumping anthem.

Its interface is simplified: giving you control over gain, balance, reverb, ADSR, as well as the depth and rate of its LFO. This beast of a bass comes with 36 pre-sets that will lively up your low end with little to no tweaking.

Xsub can be found on hexloops.com and operates on Windows and Mac as a 32/64-bit VST plug-in.

You can download Xsub here.

Vinyl

Last but certainly not least, we have Vinyl, which was created by those audio eggheads over at iZotope. It’s a lo-fi effect, so you might think it’s just for people trying to capture chill Dilla/Nujabes vibes; but next time you’re up in the lab with a pluck and a pad give Vinyl a try, I promise it won’t disappoint.

Its interface is a polished looking turntable emulation, which gives 6 pre-set eras of fidelity modes: ranging from the 1930s to the 2000s.

It also allows you to choose the RPM the record is spinning at, which gives nice variations in the flavor of your sounds. It features dust and scratch faders which help you achieve that weathered and worn-down vibe, but its warp fader is what trap producers should really take note of though.

It’s designed to emulate the warping of a vinyl record, but when placed on sounds like hi-hats and leads it gives a de-tuning effect which you have heard in everyone’s production, from Migos to Miley Cyrus.

iZotope have made Vinyl available to download from their site for Mac and Windows as a 64-bit VST2/VST3 plug-in.

You can download Vinyl here.

Conclusion

If you don’t want to try out every single one of the plugins on this list, then I’d recommend sticking to the ones I listed on the table right at the beginning. However, those are the ones that I liked the best and this doesn’t necessarily mean that they are going to suit your needs.

If you have the time, download all of them, have fun and just save the ones you like.

I hope this information was useful.

Have a great day!