Best orchestral VST plugins & sample libraries you can download for free Auditory Repository

A curated list of free orchestral VST plugin instruments, including stand-alone applications, Kontakt Player sample libraries, soundfonts and more.

The Orchestra Elements (Sonuscore)

The first, which is also the newest free orchestral VST plugin in this list, is The Orchestra Elements by Sonuscore. Released in July 2024, the free edition to the commercial series The Orchestra presents a Kontakt Player compatible sample library.

The Orchestra Elements provides the user with a rather big, quality variety of symphonic samples that are represented in a 30-preset series of (mostly) rhythm-based, sequenced ensemble patches.

The free Orchestra Elements supplies the composer with pretty much all of the very basic, fundamental sections and articulations of the orchestra – that includes strings, brass and of course woodwinds – with available long and short articulations, as well as solo instruments. Some patches also feature a choir, while others a concert harp.

The first ten presets provide you with the core articulations of the different sections, while others present the animated and rhythmic ensemble combinations. The basic presets include:

• Strings – Full Sustain, Full Tremolo, Marcato, Staccato
• Woodwinds – Full Sustain, Full Staccato
• Brass – Full Sustain, Full Staccato
• Orchestra (ensemble) – High Sustain, High Staccato *

* The High labeled patches represent the limited-range presets.

A great library for sketching, Sonuscore’s The Orchestra Elements has some of the most playable orchestral patches that you could get for free, and is considered a top choice among a wide spectrum of musicians – from hobbyist beginners to industry-working professionals.

As stated, Elements is commonly used to lay out and express fresh thoughts and rough musical ideas – but of course is much more than just a sketching tool.

The Orchestra Elements does not feature any percussion instruments.

The Free Orchestra 1 (ProjectSAM)

The Free Orchestra by ProjectSAM is one of the most exciting sampling projects to look out for in recent years. Initiating in 2019, the free Native Instruments Kontakt Player-supported series of instruments will provide this diverse selection of high quality sounds and presets that are used frequently in modern film scoring and orchestral productions.

An undoubtedly impressive, quality symphonic collection, The Free Orchestra has all the way from classical sounding brass and strings, orchestral woodwinds and percussion instruments to some more abstract and cinematic kind of sounds.

Judging by the overall sound of this series, The Free Orchestra is very film-orientated in nature, and the sounds are generally more “production ready” than others, when compared – which means that they may also sound a little too “wet” or “baked” to one’s music making philosophy. So, if you are looking for orchestral sounds that are more raw and untouched, there are probably more suitable options (keep reading).

My most recommended (playable) patches from The Free Orchestra 1:

• Heroic Horns – 8-player French horn section with two available articulations: staccato shorts and marcato longs. Playable range is a little over 1.5 octaves
• Short Strings – 5 octave string ensemble featuring articulated staccatos
• Sordino Violins – muted sordino violin sustains with an additional ambient texture layered on top (mixable)
• Bombastic Basses – cellos and contrabasses playing staccatos with accented brass shorts, timpani hits and piano notes at louder velocities
• Pandora Bursts – brass stabs mixed with a layer of orchestral drums
• Luminous Choir – evolving choir ensemble (altos, tenors and basses singing crescendo)
• Power Strike – orchestral percussion kit
• Tongue in Cheek – keyboard split patch featuring a solo “wah” trumpet (staccato) on the right and a layered orchestra on the left
• Wretched Risers – tempo based film-style cinematic string risers
• Organ Mystique – a church pipe organ with a mixable crescendo pedal (sub bass)

It is worth noting that at least a small portion of the sounds featured in ProjectSAM The Free Orchestra 1 are phrase-based, meaning that not all instruments are actually playable. It is a rather different story with its ongoing sequel, with much more playable instruments available on there.

BBC Symphony Orchestra Discover (Spitfire Audio)

Next up is BBC Symphony Orchestra Discover. The free VST plugin-based library that was initially released in 2022 is a whole lot different today than it once used to be. Instruments are much more lively and dynamic and the functionality of the library as a whole has improved quite a lot thanks to numerous, efficient updates.

Also, not too while ago an additional instrument was added to the already impressive orchestral collection through this quite major update, and introduced this very quality sounding Steinway D grand piano.

BBCSO Discover by Spitfire Audio has pretty much everything that a producer may (or may not) need to arrange and compose orchestral music, film scores and beyond.

It will provide a fully-featured section of strings (with multiple articulations), brass, winds and some quality percussion as well (tuned and untuned, including a decent concert harp VST that I mentioned in a recent post, and a celeste).

The varying sections are as follows:

• Strings – Violins 1 & 2, Violas, Celli, Basses (Articulations: long/sustains, spiccato shorts, pizzicato, tremolo)
• Brass – Horns, Trumpets, Tenor Trombones, Bass Trombones, Tuba (long/sustain, staccatissimo shorts)
• Woodwinds – Flutes, Piccolo, Oboes, Clarinets, Bassoons (long, staccatissimo)
• Percussion – Harp & Celeste, Percussion – Timpani Hits, Untuned Percussion, Tuned Percussion – Tubular Bells, Marimba, Xylophone, Glockenspiel
• Piano – Steinway Model D concert grand

The Spitfire Audio BBC Symphony Orchestra Discover is really one of the best options out there as far as free orchestral VST plugins are concerned. The sounds are of pristine quality, the variety is wide and impressive, and the only “downside” is the relatively wet sound (which is mostly and can be considered a matter of personal preference, hence the quotation marks) and possibly the lack of round robin variations/mixable microphone positions.

Palette Primary Colors (Impact Soundworks)

If you are a Kontakt Full owner, this one’s a must have. The Palette Primary Colors orchestral sample library from Impact Soundworks (formerly a Red Room Audio title) is one of the best free symphonic toolkits available for sketching.

Originally released in 2018 as a free, comprehensive section-based sample library for the Native Instruments popular sampler, it offers many unique articulations and dynamic possibilities that we don’t quite see anywhere else when it comes to freebies – like true dynamic vibrato and tremolo/flutter modes.

The only real drawback of Palette is the Full Kontakt requirement – yet it is still possible to run it if you only own the free version, Kontakt Player (in demo mode).

At the core, the Palette Primary Colors library offers you with the three fundamental symphonic ensemble sections – which are of course strings, brass and woodwinds.

Each section comes with two base articulations – shorts (staccatos) and sustains. The sustains are dynamic and expressively evolve from a ‘very quiet’ pp (pianissimo) to a ‘very loud’ ff (fortissimo).

Additional expressive parameters, as already mentioned, allow you to gradually change and transform the sound of each section in the performance level – as from non-vibrato to full dynamic vibrato and from zero tremolo to “flutter”.

The Free Orchestra 2 (ProjectSAM)

Although still considered “work in progress” since the library is not quite yet completed, the second installment to ProjectSAM’s original and successful orchestral project keeps on growing and expanding as we speak, providing quality fresh instruments and sounds on a monthly basis with the now TFO sequel. So far and as of July 2024, we’ve been presented with 12 Kontakt Player compatible libraries.

And of course, there are already some instruments that are worth to be mentioned in the context of this very post – these are Sul Tasto Strings, Bold Legato Brass, Accenting Winds, Tutti Crescendo, December’s Concert Harp, the Lineage Percussion Orchestral Kit and the accompanying Lineage Melodic Ensemble library which consists of tuned/playable mallet percussion instruments. Last but not least is the ninth installment in the series: A harp/piano/vibraphone ensemble titled Luminous Trio – which is also usable in orchestral contexts.

Other worthwhile freebies from The Free Orchestra 2 are the Warm Ensemble (strings+choir), cinematic jazz-orientated Film Noir instrument collection and the Haunting Horns (french horns+trombones) libraries.

Layers (Orchestral Tools)

At the very beginning of 2020, a new sample library was presented by Orchestral Tools.

Layers was released as a free orchestral VST instrument collection, compatible with the developer’s free SINE Player – a dedicated sampler that comes in both standalone as well as varying VST plugin, DAW-compatible forms.

Differing from the others mentioned so far, the vast majority of the Orchestral Tools Layers is actually based on pre-orchestrated chords, harmonies and phrases – yet it’s not the only focus of this particular library, as it also manages to supply some playable (yet limited ranged) patches as well – in the bass sections.

The provided orchestral sections are brass, strings and woodwinds – with an additional ensemble patch featuring the whole symphonic orchestra. Like Palette and The Orchestra Elements, it doesn’t offer any percussion instruments.

The harmonic modes available in Layers are Major, Minor and Suspended 4th – and they come in sustain and shorts (staccato) articulations.

To my impression, the highlight of this particular library is actually the Low Unison patches. The Low Unison string sustains in particular are among my go-to sounds whenever I need some deep, expressive dynamic strings.

A similar library concept-wise is the Sonuscore Free Orchestra Chords sample pack that requires the full retail version of Kontakt.

Other phrase-based libraries include Sonokinetic Tutti Free and the already mentioned TFO 2 Tutti Crescendo (both work in the free Kontakt Player).

SINEfactory (Orchestral Tools)

Now, although this one is not exactly a dedicated sample library specifically for the purpose of orchestral scoring like the aforementioned, the free plugin section presented (also) by Orchestral Tools – made exclusively for their freely available SINE Player – has also quite a few gems to offer, and it’s called SINEfactory.

Starting with the amazing string ensemble, Helix – a sustain/spiccato based section of strings that offers some very beautiful, evolving dynamics with an overall great sound. On a more personal note, Helix is actually one of my favorite string patches to work with when it comes to freebies, and is (arguably) better sounding than some commercial libraries.

Moving on from the strings part of SINEfactory, Rotary is yet another quality option. What it will provide is a rather small brass ensemble involving these varying solo trumpets, trombones and saxophones. Provided articulations and modes are staccatissimo, marcato and accented sustains along with other modes and effects like falls, scoops and shakes. Not very “symphonic” in nature (and more of a jazz-oriented collection), but much useful in wider contexts.

Now, as a side note, you should also take a look at these other worthwhile Orchestral Tools freeware plugins and virtual instruments like the Mistral and Lucent solo flute libraries, as well as the free acoustic guitar pack Strand, the Crucible church organ and the Manifold vocal sample pack. The percussive section offers Gearbox and Dynamo which are both very good – providing this quite big selection of drums and percussion (orchestral-style and beyond).

LABS and LABS+ (Spitfire Audio)

Spitfire Audio LABS is another free catalog of sounds that also happens to offer a bunch of quality, orchestral-orientated sample material.

Now LABS – for the majority of it – is actually a more of an ambient focused sound collection, yet it does have some more natural (and all-around neutral) sounding instruments and patches that you can of course utilize in your orchestral productions and scores.

As far as the more “general” sounding orchestral soundsets, I can recommend the Strings (1) & Strings 2 titles for more classic, symphonic strings. For abstract-ish/experimental/textural instruments you may want to check out the also good Scary Strings, Arctic Swells, Frozen Strings and also Cello Moods.

When it comes to brass, there are not a whole lot of options, but you’ve got the LABS Trumpet Fields which is part experimental/FX based and part conventional/regular.

For woodwinds, there is no dedicated library in the collection unfortunately (at least for now) – but there is the lofi style LABS Tape Orchestra which has a few textural wind patches along with brass and strings textures.

In the vocal section you have LABS Choir which is not purely natural and more synth-oriented I’d say (it features a processed choir layered with some additional glued sounds). More acoustic/neutral options are the great Gaelic Voices and Micah’s Choir libraries.

As far as percussion, they offer this general selection of auxiliary instruments in LABS Percussion. When it comes to tuned percussion or playable percussion from the metallophone family of instruments, you have the Bell Swarm library and LABS Christmas – which offer a bunch of glockenspiels, vibraphones, hand bells * , sleigh bells as well as an interesting set of tubular bells.

* There is an additional dedicated library titled LABS Hand Bells.

For drums, you have a couple of drum kits you can download – like the LABS Drums library and the LABS Vintage Drums.

Now, we are basically left with keyboards. For pianos, on top of my recommendations is the wonderful LABS Soft Piano. Other decent options include Glass Piano, Tape Piano and the LABS Autograph Grand.

More broadly, there is also a pipe organ VST that you may want to look at (LABS Pipe Organ), and a countless more free instruments, orchestral and non-orchestral, that you could download as well – like a bunch of guitars and basses, folk instruments, synths and the list goes on and on.

The new LABS+

Mid-2024, Spitfire Audio launched a new subscription-based service called LABS+ (LABS Plus).

A continuation to LABS, it features some additional usable libraries that you may want to look at as well. I can especially recommend the free LABS Expressive Strings.

Pianobook

Another sound platform and an archival library that will supply some good free orchestral instruments and VST plugins is Pianobook. The Pianobook community has been around for quite some time, and every now and then we are being presented with some quality submissions that are worth to be mentioned.

On top of my Pianobook orchestral sample pack recommendations are three libraries which are based on the Northern Film Orchestra collection. The first is called NFO: Orchestral Swells by Dan Keen while the second and the third are Marco Iannello’s NFO Alternative Chamber Strings Longs & NFO ACS Shorts (these libraries are compatible with the free Decent Sampler and Kontakt).

There is also the Venus Theory Organic Orchestra (free version), also for Decent Sampler (a library which I tend to believe was part of PB at some point in the past) that is available through the Decidedly Decent Samples official store.

These are pretty much the more generalized orchestral-themed collections in the form of Pianobook sample packs that are worth your time and disk space, but there are of course plenty more instrument-specific collections that you can get if you want to dig in a little deeper – like various solo instruments, symphonic, section-based samples and drum/percussion libraries. I intend to make a dedicated list for those sometime in the future, so stay tuned.

Foundations (Heavyocity)

Foundations is a free selection of sample libraries provided by Heavyocity for the Native Instruments free Kontakt Player.

It offers some quality cinematic orchestral instruments and patches, with a couple of exceptionally good short-articulated libraries to highlight: Staccato Strings and Staccato Brass.

Both the Foundations Staccato Strings and the Foundations Staccato Brass libraries will provide a genuinely decent, quality cinematic sound that is very lively and dynamic thanks to several round robins and multiple velocity layers implemented.

Creatively speaking, most of the libraries in the free Foundations line also include some sort of a generated ambient soundscape that you can mix and blend with the natural sounding layer if you want to get a more of an ethereal sound.

Now, the core sound of these two libraries seems pretty balanced tone-wise. It’s only a bit wet however dry enough to be workable in many production contexts.

Other interesting Kontakt Player-compatible libs which Heavyocity provide on their website include this vocal ensemble patch called Emotive Choir – which stylistically leans more towards the ambient realms of genres. There’s also this quite decent sounding concert grand Foundations Piano, as well as a sampled nylon guitar.

The Strezov Sampling Free Catalog

Another developer that goes on to offer some quality free orchestral stuff for the non-paid version of the Native Instruments player is Strezov Sampling.

On top of my Strezov recommendations is the Minimalist Violins Legato Freebie – last summer’s highly impressive sample library that features a Kontakt Player compatible violin section with supported polyphonic true legato. It is a real quality instrument and a rare find in the freebie plugin market.

Other freebies offered by this developer are not very orchestral-oriented per se (well, some are to an extent), but you should also check out their Steinway grand piano (part of The Creative ToolboX), as well as their Drums & Percussion library, the Diamond Jazz Trio pack (incl. piano, alto saxophone and double bass), Felt Seiler piano, Xiao flute (from the JADE Ethnic Orchestra), Duduk (BALKAN Ethnic Orchestra) and THUNDER X3M (taiko drum).

Sketching Chamber Orchestra

The Sketching Chamber Orchestra is a very pliable, raw sounding orchestral collection made for the full version of Native Instruments Kontakt. It is based on the open-source, public domain Versilian Studios Chamber Orchestra 2 Community Edition, shortly known as VSCO 2 CE.

Most of the instruments and patches featured in this roughly 1GB Kontakt library offer pretty much all of the very basic and fundamental articulations in the orchestra, like sustain (arco vibrato) and shorts (spiccato/pizzicato) as well as tremolo. There are solo instruments as well as full symphony sections, with some unique programmable features such as artificial round robins, scripted legato, modwheel controlled dynamics and more.

This particular Kontakt library was compiled and developed by indie creator Bigcat Instruments. Unlike the original raw release, the latter actually went on and incorporated a bunch of Kontakt sampler scripts in order to further optimize user experience and playability. As already mentioned, such scripts and programs include artificially generated RR’s, synthetic legato, mod-wheel controlled dynamics (aka x-fade/crossfade), ensemble generative patches and more.

Thanks to Bigcat’s modifications, the Sketching Chamber Orchestra makes for a highly flexible orchestral collection with performance-enhanced dynamics and maximized playability.

The provided instruments and sections (Kontakt patches):

• Strings – String Section (ensemble), Cello Section, Viola Section, Violin Section, Solo Contrabass, Solo Violin, Harp
• Brass – Brass First Chairs, Trumpet, Trombone, Old Trombone, French Horn, Tuba
• Woodwinds – Piccolo, Flute, Clarinet, Oboe, Bassoon
• Percussion – Xylophone, Glockenspiel, Marimba, Percussion (various), Timpani
• Keys – Piano (grand), Upright 1, Organ, Organ Pedal
• An Orchestra (symphonic ensemble patches/Kontakt Multis)

At least some of the patches provided in the Sketching Chamber Orchestra have also a few extra articulations that are more FX-orientated. Although most provide varying sustain modes – like soft and loud for example – there are other, more special modes like the “Fall” and “Buzz” articulations in the Old Trombone.

Now, in case you don’t own the full, retail edition of Kontakt, you can either use this library in the time-limited demo mode (using the free Kontakt Player) or download the original release in VST or SFZ (which is compatible with the free Sforzando by Plogue) from the Versilian Studios website. You also have the option to download the original lossless Wav audio files in sample pack form (this would be around 3GB).

Vienna Symphonic Library

The Vienna Symphonic Library, also known as VSL, is another quality resource for anything orchestral related.

The company’s generous free catalog has all the way from mixed cinematic ensemble patches to multi-articulated and dynamic string sections, phrase-based patches and even a dedicated orchestral percussion soundset.

The free VSL selection of sounds offers the Big Bang Orchestra which is a layered strings-brass-winds symphonic ensemble featuring 6 dynamic articulations. The provided patches are Short Notes, Long Notes, Marcato, Fast Swells, Swells Marcato and Fast Runs.

Celestial Strings is another one of their freebies, and another quality one for sure. This dynamic, sustain-based instrument will provide a rather mellow sounding section of ensemble strings.

There is also the very usable Violin Runs library which offers harmonic-mode-based orchestral runs – like runs in Major and Minor modes, Phrygian, Dorian, Locrian etc.

Another recommended VSL freebie is the Harp Glissandos release which I also mentioned in my free harp VST compilation.

All of the Vienna Symphonic Library free instruments work in a dedicated, openly available Vienna Synchron Player sampler that you can download and obtain from the developer’s website.

More free orchestral-related libraries: Blueprint, ROOTS and some forgotten hidden gems

The Blueprint Kontakt Player series by Fracture Sounds

The Fracture Sounds Blueprint lineup of free sample libraries has quite a few orchestral-orientated resources to offer.

Blueprint is an ongoing series of free Kontakt Player instruments run by developer Fracture Sounds.

Since late 2023, this lineup has supplied some very quality sample libraries – all compatible with the free Native Instruments player.

Recommended orchestral Blueprint patches are the tubular bells (Greenhead Chimes), the Gentle Winds collection, their percussion soundset, the solo texture violin and the two chamber-sized string libraries: Gentle Strings (longs) and Short Strings (staccato articulated).

The full Blueprint collection is available through this link

ROOTS Kontakt Player series by Westwood Instruments

Similar to Blueprint, ROOTS is yet another new lineup of free Kontakt Player libraries that’s still evolving.

A bit more experimental, this lineup offers the great Untold Strings library which is based on sampled violas, and also provides a similar styled solo-wind-based sampleset titled Drifting Winds.

Download ROOTS

Some good-old orchestral VST plugins & legacy sample packs (with some more brief mentions)

• Sonatina Symphonic Orchestra – a good-old orchestral sound collection featuring symphonic virtual instruments that vary. It is available in VST through Bigcat Instruments and in SFZ via the official GitHub. A 2024 update was issued on the month of April, providing some additional, extra instruments such as an alternate piano and a solo concert flute (based on existing libraries).
• The Total Composure Orchestra – another usable option, compatible with Native Instruments Kontakt (retail). Now, I wouldn’t particularly recommend the TTCO library as a whole, but there are some gems in it – like for example the short articulations in the solo violin patch which are very good, offering multiple RR’s and this very bright and crisp sound. Other than that, the collection provides the usual, standard orchestral sections all with differing articulations and varying dynamics (download via SampleScience).
• The Alpine Project – a very pliable, dry sounding library made for the full version of NI Kontakt. Alpine offers some particularly crisp sounding brass and woodwind instruments that can cut through any mix quite nicely, along with other usable sections of the orchestra (download via Wix).
• Virtual Playing Orchestra – An SFZ soundfont library that is based off of several older free orchestral libraries. It combines them into a single sound resource by utilizing editor-picked samples from already mentioned libraries and sample archives like the Sonatina Symphonic Orchestra, VSCO 2 CE as well as other known (and less known) free sample archives like the University of Iowa orchestral recordings, the No Budget Orchestra samples, the UK Philharmonia Orchestra sessions, among other resources (download via the Virtual Playing webpage).
• DSK Overture & DSK Virtuoso – A couple of free orchestral VST plugins provided by long-time indie developer DSK Music. They tend to sound a bit synthetic and retro-ish, but they’re quite charming and I find them usable in certain projects (download via the DSK website).