Some news hits your inbox and you barely skim it. Then there are the rare messages that make you stop whatever you’re doing and read every line twice. That’s exactly what happened when SampleScience dropped a note that felt more like a confession than a promo blast – and the punchline is wild: over 30 of their VST instruments are free again.
Peter, the mind behind SampleScience, didn’t sugarcoat anything. He owned up to a tough call he made last year – turning his entire free catalog into paid products – and admitted it never sat right with him. No excuses, no dramatic backstory, just a straight, human moment from a developer who clearly cares about the people using his tools.
And then he did something you almost never see: he reversed the decision completely.
As of today, the whole lineup – the dusty romplers, the quirky sound modules, the ambient soundscape machines, the experimental oddballs – is back on the free shelf. If you’ve ever dug through the SampleScience catalog, you know this isn’t just a handful of throwaway freebies. This is a full‑blown treasure chest reopening.
Best SampleScience Instruments: What to Get From the Catalog
SampleScience has been grinding since 2015, quietly building one of the most unique collections of plugin instruments on the indie scene.
If you’re diving into the catalog, I especially recommend their more organic‑leaning instruments – Zither Renaissance and Sitar Renaissance in particular. Those two have a warmth and character you don’t usually get from lightweight VSTs, and they sit in a mix with almost no effort. They’re the kind of plugins you load “just to test something” and end up building an entire track around.
Another standout in the lineup is their Virtual Handpan, which has a tone you don’t really find anywhere else – earthy, resonant and perfect for adding a human touch to electronic arrangements. The Bells is also worth a spin if you’re into tonal percussion; it packs a surprisingly wide range of bell samples that sit beautifully in ambient, cinematic or experimental mixes. And if you’re working in the new‑age or meditative space, Singing Bowl Renaissance and Crystal Harp are gems. Both capture that calming, shimmering sustain that instantly shifts a track into a more spiritual or introspective zone.
There are also a few pianos in the lineup worth grabbing, including the recently released Cozy Piano and the Beskhu Upright Piano. Both lean toward the softer, more intimate side of the spectrum – the kind of gentle, felt‑like tones that slide effortlessly into ambient, downtempo and cinematic tracks. If you’re after pianos that don’t fight for space but still carry emotion, these two can fill the gap.
Another decent option is The Total Composure Orchestra that’s available for the full version of Kontakt, which I highlighted in my free orchestral VST compilation. It’s a decent all‑in‑one option – not the most detailed symphonic library out there, but pretty solid for sketching ideas, layering behind bigger ensembles, or building lightweight arrangements without crushing your CPU. It earns its place in the lineup, especially considering the price tag is now zero.
Also available is a wide range of percussion and drum instruments – from acoustic kits and hand‑played percussion to electronic drums and classic drum‑machine‑style sounds. On top of that, you’ll find some guitars, a solid selection of analog synths, and plenty of lo‑fi focused instruments and samples that lean into texture, grit, atmosphere and character. It’s a surprisingly deep catalog, and now that everything’s free again, it’s absolutely worth exploring.
Most SampleScience plugins are compatible with a wide range of formats, giving you plenty of flexibility no matter what setup you’re running. Plugins are offered as 64‑bit VST, VST3 and AU instruments for Windows and macOS, with additional versions available in Decent Sampler, Kontakt (full version), Soundbox for AAX users, Reason Combinator for Reason 12 and Reason+, and even a GUI‑less SFZ format for maximum portability across systems.
