music

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I make music under the name "Digital Forrest". Even though I do try my hand at a lot of genres, most of it ends up being some variation of drum & bass. I mostly just do it for my own enjoyment; if you happen to like what I make, that's even better :-)

You can either follow me on Bandcamp or SoundCloud. All releases are available on the major streaming sites as well.

If you want music recommendations see the things I like.

the treasure trove

updated 2025-09-14

As a thank you to all of the people I've collaborated with and have helped me get to where I am with music, here’s a bunch of (mostly) free resources I use all the time as well as some personal tricks and tips.

P.S. if any of the links aren’t working feel free to poke me at my email: evergreen@[this domain name]

Here's a google doc put out by a windows user, so it includes some things I haven’t here (like Kontakt libraries): https://docs.google.com/document/d/1xfN8OtrE36yor6XcH7RtdIb92thqelDA-ss_3Uhh9l0

Yet another person’s website that has a great list of free plugins (some overlap with this doc but very much worth looking at): https://zetvue.github.io/freepluginslist

videos, tutorials and stuff

peeps:

https://tildesounds.carrd.co/ - Tilde has great videos that span from very fundamental things all the way to super in depth technical stuff. Generally broadly applicable, but they do use Bitwig (like me :o) and have some stuff that is exclusive to it. Their samples are great to (see later).
https://www.youtube.com/c/danworrall - Dan is absolutely top of the pile when it comes to technical and mixing information. Makes things extremely clear and dispells a lot of myths that have bee perpetuated endlessly.
https://www.youtube.com/@groovining - Absolute gold mine if you are into DnB. Very long videos but very much worth sitting through. Even if he's using a DAW you don't use, everything he talks about is universally applicable.
https://www.youtube.com/@sseb_music - Straight and to the point information. It's all short enough that you should just watch all of it; I just wish he'd make more :(

individual resources:

https://cmtext.com/toc.php - A really solid curriculum if you are totally new to music production or digital audio in general.
https://xiph.org/video/vid2.shtml - Just a dude explaining how digital audio actually works. Send this any time someone claims that analogue audio is more transparent or that digital is bad because it creates stair stepped waveforms when converting back to analogue (spoiler: it doesn't). The first video in the series is also a good primer on the subject.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ndG-6-vONNc - How to synthesize realistic kick drums. Pitch enveloped sine waves are well and good but this is what you want if you're going for realistic or raw drum sounds.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ra-mZivYchk - Au5 (still one of the most technically competent producers I know) teaches you how to synthesize less realistic (but still good) kicks and snares. His video on spectral compressor and other videos are great as well.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U33ejbo3ro4 - A fully ADHD video on how to abuse artifacts of digital audio to your benefit accompanied by a sample pack I have linked later. Even though this highlights a certain technique, I think it showcases the ethos of glitch really well, i.e. making things do things they aren't supposed to and making them sound good in the process.

sample packs

Glitchy sound-designy stuff (do not sleep on these if you don't care about glitch though, there's a lot of great atmospheres, textures, field recordings, drums, and more straightforward sounds in these as well)

Field recordings and other things that might be useful for film / video if you're into that. Of course still just as useful for production ;)

https://www.databroth.com/condensation-info
https://freesound.org/people/kyles/packs/3340/ (MASSIVE 20GB collection of all kinds of sounds from every day life that is in the public domain, go nuts)

Drumsss

https://ti-lde.bandcamp.com/album/tilde-drums-vol-1 (consider checking out tilde's paid sample packs as well: https://tildesounds.gumroad.com/
https://www.airwindows.com/wp-content/uploads/AirwindowsDimensional.zip
https://www.airwindows.com/wp-content/uploads/BeyondSnares.zip
https://www.mediafire.com/file/bh04hx84k9dfla0/breakcore_is_not_a_good_way_to_get_laid.zip/file
Jungle Jungle - 1989 to 1999 Samplepack.zip (more than just drums but yk)
All volumes of "The Crate" sample packs from r/Drumkits are amazing if you're looking for single hits sampled from various old records. This one you can find yourself, I believe in you!

Sample packs by Reizoko CJ AKA xo:re who was a breakcore / IDM producer active from 2011 last seen around 2017. At the time they lived in Donetsk Ukraine, which was heavily affected by the war around 2014. No one has heard from them since as far as I know.

Other random stuff

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1MeAuJWxh2UFKjLo8RhN7ARryQMItTT_v/view (SS Rave Generator samples)
My personal samples and/or free samples that you can no longer download anywhere can be found here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/16-Z7zGbWR6yH8WflBsKvaPktQomQHg8w/view?usp=drive_link. Since google drive chokes on previewing the zip contents, it has some drum break samples from Audio Animals that they don't offer anymore for some reason, samples from every old drum machine under the sun, a large collection of classic drum break loops, foley I recorded on my phone, beatbox oneshots, and various other things.

Also here are some Vital presets/wavetables I made: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1XC0Qh-_TWqdIvbcIxuRbpjxFb2c5wx4G/view?usp=sharing

plugins

Note: asterisks (*) indicates it is a plugin I use a lot

Synths

* Vital. One of the best free (or even paid) synths: https://vital.audio/
Surge XT. https://surge-synthesizer.github.io/
Odin2. https://thewavewarden.com/pages/odin-2
Dexed. https://github.com/asb2m10/dexed/releases/
Nakst’s free synths: https://nakst.gitlab.io/audio/
U-he’s free synths (Podolski, Zebralette, Triple Cheese): https://u-he.com/products/

* Airwindows

https://github.com/baconpaul/airwin2rack/releases/tag/DAWPlugin

This is a large collection of small plugins. There are so many that it’s kind of overwhelming, so here are some of the ones I actually use:

Hard Vacuum - Very nice distortion
Distortion - More distortion
ADClip7 - Very nice clipper, the “Clips Only” mode is very useful
Distance/Distance2 - Easy way to put things farther back in the mix
Galactic - Very large reverb
Glitchshifter - Glitchy pitch shifter
Mackity - Mackie mixer distortion
Monitoring2 - Mimic different playback scenarios when mixing
PocketVerbs - Nice mono reverbs
PurestAir - High end shelf
Reverb - take a wild guess
ToTape6/TapeDelay2 - Lofi tape emulation
uLawEncode/uLawDecode - Very weird nonlinear distortion, can be used individually but can get really interesting results if you put effects between an instance of the encoder and decoder
... And probably many more I’m forgetting

* Nih-plug

https://github.com/robbert-vdh/nih-plug/

See here for a download: https://nightly.link/robbert-vdh/nih-plug/workflows/build/master

The README describes the plugins better than I can, though I think the most useful one is the spectral compressor. Essentially think of it like a multiband compressor with a ton of bands. You can use it in sidechaining mode to help deal with clashing sounds in the mix or you can make everything sound like pink noise, up to you.

Diopser is also a pretty nice clone of disperser

* GVST

Just a nice bread-and-butter collection of basic plugins (I tend to use the clipper the most): https://www.gvst.co.uk/packages.htm

* All of Valhalla’s Free Plugins

I use supermassive the most. It’s technically a delay plugin but it has the controls to turn it into a MASSIVE reverb.

* Dear Reality

https://assets.sennheiser.com/software/Dear_Reality_plugins_complete.zip

A great bundle of plugins that contains plugins for binaural mixing (think 360 degree panning), simulating listening in various spaces, reverb (ExoVerb is a genuinely excellent reverb), and a weird distortion plugin (MIYA). Some of these are designed to work with specific hardware / headphones that are designed for immersive audio (mainly dearVR Ambi Micro, dearVR Mix SE, and SpatialConnect), which probably isn't that useful for most people.

* Pitchproof

https://aegeanmusic.com/pitchproof-specs

Nice pitch shifter for guitar that I also use for tuning

* Hamburger

https://github.com/Davit-G/Hamburger

Truly excellent open source distortion plugin

Anarchy Effects

https://web.archive.org/web/20150306041044/http://www.anarchy-rhythms.com/

A very eclectic set of plugins, mess with them and do weird things. I particularly like the harmonic adder.

Audio Damage

I haven’t really used Grind but it looks like a nice distortion. RoughRider is a nice characterful compressor.

ReaPlugs

https://www.reaper.fm/reaplugs/

Plugins from reaper. Reajs is very interesting and contains a large number of effects on its own.

DtBlkFX

https://rekkerd.org/dtblkfx/

The OG spectral plugin. Extremely jank UI but can do some very interesting things

* Freakshow Industries

https://freakshowindustries.com/

Technically paid, but they give you official means to “steal” licenses. Lots of very weird plugins.
* MISHBY is my favorite (especially the glitch box)

PsyScope

https://fx23.net/psyscope/

Simple oscilloscope useful for checking phase alignment and other things

* Granular Stuff

Emergence and argotlunar are the easiest to use and are FX. Ribs is very powerful synthesizer but a little tricky to learn how to use. Haven’t given Oi-Grandad too much of a try yet but it also looks like a cool synth

Wider

https://polyversemusic.com/products/wider/

Useful for making things wide, simple. Should not affect the mono mix but it might if you put effects after it, so use with caution

* Tokyo Dawn

https://www.tokyodawn.net/vladg-limiter-n6/

Precursor to tokyo dawn’s limiter, very useful as a last stage for mastering

https://www.tokyodawn.net/tokyo-dawn-labs/

Also, all of the non-GE versions of their plugins are very nice as well. There’s compressors, dynamic EQs, and most importantly
* SlickEQ which is a wonderful wide-band EQ that I use a lot

* Loudness Meters

Come on down, get yer LUFs

TLS Limiters

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/it08to9l07mvx1k/AACZMrAmo3PlGx19TtOzIfCja?dl=0

Free limiters. The only one that is not linux specific is the one marked WIN

Graillon

https://www.auburnsounds.com/products/Graillon.html

Nice free pitch correction/vocal effects

Bertom Audio

https://www.bertomaudio.com/

Air shelf is useful for controlling high frequencies and EQ analyzer is just cool to mess with

* CHOW

https://chowdsp.com/products.html

Very interesting delay plugin (ChowMatrix), guitar distortion, chorus, and most importantly CHOWTape for your lofi tape needs.

* DecentSampler

https://www.decentsamples.com/product/decent-sampler-plugin/

Kontakt competitor, best paired with https://www.pianobook.co.uk/. It's alright.

* OrilRiver

https://www.kvraudio.com/product/orilriver-by-denis-tihanov/downloads

Just a very nice reverb

fircomp

https://jonvaudio.com/fircomp/

Limiter/compressor. Haven’t used it too much since I got limitless but it seems very nice

Kilohearts Essentials

https://kilohearts.com/products/kilohearts_essentials

A bunch of basic but very useful utility plugins. Especially useful if your DAW doesn’t come with a lot of stuff (like GVST)

Venn Audio Free Suite

https://www.vennaudio.com/free-suite/

Another really solid set of utility plugins, similar to the Kilohearts Essentials. Their Free Clip 2 plugin is one of the best free clipper plugins out there.

* PeakEater

https://github.com/vvvar/PeakEater

My clipper plugin of choice. It has a really nice UI and is open source, what more could you ask for.

* Paid but incredibly useful

https://www.birdsthings.com/ (rolling sampler)

Possibly the most convenient way you could possibly do resampling. Throw it on your master and grab audio retrospectively when cool things happen

Klanghelm

https://klanghelm.com/contents/freeware.html

Character compressors and distortion

* Codec

https://lese.io/plugin/codec/

Makes your stuff sound like crap in a good way

Melda Audio

https://www.meldaproduction.com/MFreeFxBundle

Large collection of useful basic-ish plugins. Don’t use this quite as much but it has a lot of useful stuff

GSatPlus

https://www.tbproaudio.de/products/gsatplus

Nice little saturator

* Unplugred

https://vst.unplug.red/ (all free but have paid versions to support the creator)

Prisma is a very nice multiband distortion plugin, and Pisstortion is a very unique sine folding distortion plugin I use too much

Voxengo

https://www.voxengo.com/group/free-vst-plugin-download/

SPAN is a great spectrum analyzer, but there are also a lot of other effects and utilities to try out (such as a stereo correlation meter, tube distortion, delay, and more)

* STFU

https://zeeks.app/

My most used ducking/sidechain plugin. Might be a little tricky to set up in some daws since you have to give it a MIDI input to sidechain with. There’s also this plugdata plugin if you want another option: https://borrasca.gumroad.com/l/borrascasidechainer

LoudMax

https://loudmax.blogspot.com/

Very simple limiter/loudness maximizer

Hornet Magnus Lite

https://www.hornetplugins.com/plugins/hornet-magnus-lite/

Brickwall limiter/clipper

Valentine Compressor

https://github.com/tote-bag-labs/valentine

Character compressor (i.e. intended to impart distortion / saturation)

CTAGDRC

https://github.com/BillyDM/CTAGDRC

A really good open source transparent utility compressor

Squeezer Compressor

https://github.com/mzuther/Squeezer

Plugdata Plugins (some paid)

https://demanddystopia.su/plugdata/plugdir/

TODO: which of these are good. Ewan Bristow is goated https://ewanbristow.gumroad.com/

Socalabs Synths

https://socalabs.com/synths/

Ardura Plugins

https://github.com/ardura

Neat handful of plugins written in rust

Audio Assault (paid)

https://audioassault.mx

Really good guitar / bass / effects plugins for way too cheap. I use Klank and AHM5050 all the time.

Uhhyou Plugins

https://github.com/ryukau/VSTPlugins

Nice collection of open source plugins with some particularly unique synthesizers and effects. I have yet to really dive into it but they all look very solid.

ZL Audio Plugins

https://github.com/ZL-Audio

Yet another set of open source plugins, but I particularly want to highlight https://github.com/ZL-Audio/ZLEqualizer which is a really good alternative to Pro-Q from Fabfilter. It has more or less all of the features I care about from Pro-Q (EQ curve matching and phase modes) and is open source. Win-win!

Non-plugins

https://audiostellar.xyz/lang/en/index.html Very cool sample explorer (similar to XLN XO, though unfortunately no sample drag and drop which makes it not that useful)

https://github.com/bespokesynth/bespokesynth Full on modular DAW that is very fun to play with

tips & tricks

record everything

While messing around with a plugin or a sound design session, make sure to have an audio track set up or use a plugin like Rolling Sampler (highly recommended). This makes it easy to capture happy accidents

infinite delay

Set a delay’s feedback to 100% and mess with the delay amount knob while recording to another track (see previous tip). This creates some really interesting glitchy effects that are great for fills. Valhalla Supermassive works particularly well for this

LIMITER

Use some kind of delay based plugin (such as reverbs, choruses, etc.) and a bunch of limiters with the input gain cranked. This will bring out the normally inaudible tail end of the reverb/chorus/whatever plugin and results in some very interesting distortion as well

drum layering (or layering in general)

When layering drums, it is generally better to not just stack samples on top of each other with no regard as it can sound messy. For instance, snares consist of a transient (initial hit), body (the pitched part of the snare), and tail (usually noise trailing off). Kicks typically just have a transient and body. Use volume envelopes on the samples you are combining so you don’t have overlap on one of those parts (i.e. use one sample for the transient and one body + tail).

This is not a hard and fast rule especially for things that aren’t percussion/drums. However, adding a layer whose only purpose is the transient can be a very useful way to add punch to things

precise sidechaining

This is specific to STFU, but sidechain compression generally lags a bit behind the audio that is triggering it (by design). If you want much more precise ducking, set up a MIDI track with notes at every point you want to duck and place STFU on whatever tracks you want to sidechain. How to set up STFU for receiving MIDI varies a lot from DAW to DAW, so I won’t list how to do that here.

field recording

I record audio samples on my phone all the time and I use them in my songs extremely frequently. I personally have an android phone and use https://f-droid.org/en/packages/com.github.axet.audiorecorder/ to record stuff, but I’m sure there is something equivalent on iOS.

Get creative. Even the sounds of the phone rubbing in your pocket can be useful.

soundcloud is dumb

If you’re exporting for Soundcloud, make sure you export at a sample rate of 44.1khz. For some reason Soundcloud will make your track sound slightly quieter if you export at 48khz. Don’t ask, I don’t know.