Steinberg invented VST in 1996. This week, to mark 30 years of the format, they're giving away the original plugins that ran on it. Elsewhere: a microphone manufacturer keeps building the most technically interesting headphone mixing tool on the market, a hybrid synth gets deeper, and two smaller developers ship things worth trying.
Steinberg Classics, Steinberg
Free
VST launched in 1996 with Cubase 3.02 as an effects framework. Three years later, alongside Cubase 3.7, Steinberg released the first VSTi: Neon, a two-oscillator subtractive synth with ADSR, an LFO, and a resonant filter. It was modest by any standard, but the instrument plugin format it established runs everything in your current session.
The Steinberg Classics bundle pairs Neon with four other early plugins: CS-40 (a polyphonic synth with architecture similar to the Juno line), VB-1 (a virtual bass instrument), LM7 (a retro drum sampler from 1999), and Karlette (a tape delay). All five have been updated with VST3 support, meaning they work correctly with modern hosts' parameter automation, preset recall, and DAW integration.
None of these will replace current tools. But if you want to hear what software instruments sounded like when they were a new idea, this is historically accurate and costs nothing.
Download Steinberg Classics (Free) →
Space Replicator 2.0, LEWITT
$99
LEWITT makes microphones. Their headphone mixing plugin, Space Replicator, reached version 2.0 on August 5, and the update addresses the biggest limitation of the original: it now runs as a standalone app outside of any DAW.
The core concept is not reverb and not room impulse response convolution. Space Replicator uses HRTF (head-related transfer function) modeling to reconstruct the spatial and directional cues of mix playback through physical speakers in a specific space. The result is not the sound of the room; it's the experience of hearing speakers from a listening position. Profiles cover over 600 headphone models. A personalization step creates a custom binaural profile based on your head geometry and headphone model.
Version 2.0 adds per-room EQ control, adjustable ambience, a new EBU broadcast monitoring environment, and a clean analytic space for focused referencing. The standalone mode is the most practical addition: you can check a rendered mix in multiple listening contexts without opening your session.
Supported on Windows 10+ and macOS 12+, as VST3, AU, and AAX. 14-day trial available.
Electra 3.5, Tone2
$169 (free update for existing owners)
Tone2's Electra is a multilayer hybrid synthesizer combining subtractive, FM, wavetable, and physical modeling in a single engine, with over 120 filter types across four independently routable layers. Version 3.5, released August 7, is a free major update.
The headline addition is nine new filter types. More significant technically: the EQ and psychoacoustic processing, previously calculated at 32-bit precision, now run at 64-bit. FFT resampling used for waveform playback is also more accurate. These aren't user-facing settings; they're infrastructure changes that apply across all existing patches. Each of the four layers also gains an extra insert effect slot, selectable from 64 available types.
Electra doesn't get as much attention as Serum or Vital, but its per-layer routing depth and algorithm variety make it a different kind of tool for complex layered sound design. Existing owners get the 3.5 update at no cost.
Black Spire Tube Preamp, Parish Audio
$29.97 intro price (reg. $59.95)
Parish Audio is a new developer. Black Spire, released August 7, is their first plugin: a tube preamp emulation with enough parameter depth to work across signal types rather than serving only one use case.
Three voicings change the harmonic character of the circuit. Glass is the cleanest and brightest, Velvet is warmer and more rounded, Iron is forward and aggressive. Three intensity modes (Glow, Burn, Scorch) determine the saturation range and breakup behavior. Independent Input and Drive controls separate the level entering the processor from the amount of harmonic distortion applied. A Mix control handles parallel blending for when you want color without full wet processing.
Tone and Low Contour controls adjust brightness and low-frequency body. At half the regular price during launch, the set of controls is wide enough to justify trying it on multiple signal types before committing.
Available for Windows and macOS in VST3 and AU formats.
Indie Pick: Tether, Mercurial Tones
$39
Tether replaces the threshold with a single drawn line on a loudness display. Set the line; audio above it eases down, audio below it lifts. The line is the target level, not a gate knee. A Floor parameter stops the upward pull below a defined noise threshold, so room tone stays put.
Detection runs in Peak, RMS, or K-weighted mode (the same K-weighting behind LUFS measurement), and total correction is capped at 24 dB. An AI Assist function analyzes a short segment of your audio and suggests starting values for Target, Floor, and Pull, feeding the result through Tether's own engine rather than loading a preset.
For a vocal or dialog track that needs transparent leveling without heavy dynamic processing, the single-line interface keeps decisions fast. Seven-day trial available.
Available as VST3, AU, and Standalone on Windows and macOS.