Sitar Plugin Pro Tools

Last Updated on January 4, 2021.

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Indian instrument VSTs are quite hard to come by, especially the free ones…

This is why I put together this list of the 8 best free ones I could find.

Let’s get straight to it…

  1. Syntar is a VST instrument designed to fulfill your every sitar sound requirement. For best results play with droning continous bass notes and a higher melody line. Built in soft distortion, delay and flanger effects make it easy to tweak the Syntar to fit your style of music perfectly.
  2. Sitargen is designed to emulate the acoustic Indian Sitar as well as the Electric Sitar. Additionally it includes the Tanpura, a continuous harmonic drone in support of a melody. Available as plugin in VST 32 bit and 64 bit and VST3 64 bit versions for Windows as well as in Audio Unit, VST and VST3 for macOS.

Acoustic Indian Dhol Lite by RDG Audio

Sitar Plugin Pro Tools Windows 10

Available for Windows and Mac.

Acoustic Dhol is a sample based Indian Dhol Instrument.

It has been sampled from 3 types of real Indian Leather DholInstruments; Wooden Dhol, Steel Dhol, and Fiber Dhol.

It is the first VST and AU plugins that can play real IndianDhol inside any Digital Audio Workstation.

Indian, Punjabi, Bollywood, and Bhangra styles are availablein Acoustic Dhol.

Over 100 articulation and 22 presets are also available.

If you are tired of playing boring Indian Dhol loops and areconstantly looking for new ones, just try the Acoustic Dhol VST and AU plugins.

You can also purchase the full version, should you want to.

Related: Here’s a huge list of the best free VST plugins in the world.

Features

  • Sampled from 3 types of Indian Dhols
  • Over 100 different articulations
  • 22 presets
  • Style : Indian,Punjabi,Bollywood,Bhangra
  • MPC style GUI
  • Velocity sensitive
  • Round Robin sampling : YES
  • Attack Realease Rotary Knob
  • Tune Volume Pan Rotary Knob
  • Algorithmic Reverb
  • Level meter

You can download it here.

Related: List of the best Sitar VST Plugins.

Indian DreamZ by DSK

Available for Windows only.

DSK is well known for creating loads of free and prettycool-sounding plugins.

Indian Dreamz is no different…

It features a couple different typical Indian instrumentswhich work pretty damn well!

These instruments are; Sitar, Sarod, veena, Tar, tampura& Tabla.

All in all, it’s a great plugin, absolutely give it a shot!

Features

  • 6 Indian Instruments: Sitar, Sarod, veena, Tar,tampura & Tabla.
  • Velocity response.
  • Amp. envelope and micro-detuner.
  • HP/LP Filter.
  • Midi automation.

You can download it here.

Related: Here’s a list of the best free Piano VST Plugins.

Crypto Cipher Free Sample Pack

Available for Windows and Mac.

It’s a Free Tryout Pack of Indian Kontakt Instrument andwave/Rex Samples.

The pack was created out of Products available at CryptoCipher and Some other Rare Indian Instruments.

Here’s the list of instruments;

  • Double Sided Hand Drum
  • ThingamaKit –SFX Instrument.
  • Pambai – Rare South Indian Percussion.
  • Tabla Mouth Percussion / Thunderous Raga VoiceSamples.
  • Mouth Shots (Tabla Mouth Percussion).
  • Indian Harmonium Scripted.
  • Tabla Loops.
  • A patch from Voices of Ragas Vol-1.
  • Sound Design Instruments.
  • Violin Raga Phrases Instrument.

You can download it here.

Syntar by Syntar

Available for Windows only.

Syntar is a VST instrument designed to fulfill yourevery sitar sound requirement.
For best results play with droning continuous bass notes and a higher melodyline.

Built in soft distortion, delay and flanger effects make iteasy to tweak the Syntar to fit your style of music perfectly.

You can download it here.

If you’re looking to record quality music at home, then here’s a list of the essential home studio components which you might find useful.

Real Sitar Player by RDGAudio

Available for Windows and Mac.

Real Sitar is a sample-based Instrument.

It has been sampled from Asian and many types of real SitarInstruments.

Sampled with 4 Mic Position, it is velocity sensitiveinstrument with built in Round Robin Presets.

It comes with Win 32-64 bit VST, VST3, AU and Mac VSTplugins.

Real Sitar is free but you can purchase the expansion pack forabout $50.

You can download it here.

Iowa Alto

Available for Windows and Mac.

Iowa Alto Flute is a sampled alto flute from theUniversity of Iowa Electronic Music Studios.

The sound quality is pretty impressive, especially for afree plugin…

So, give it a shot.

You can download it here.

VSCO2 Flute

Available for Windows and Mac

Versilian Studios Chamber Orchestra 2 Flute, also known asVSCO2 Flute, is an incredible free plugin that samples a real Flute.

All of the VSCO2 plugins are fantastic and I absolutelyrecommend them to anyone who is in need of some free ones.

You can download it here.

SwarPlug 4

Available for Windows and Mac

SwarPlug is a VST, Audio Units and AAX plugin that will workon most DAWs.

It features an ever increasing number of instruments (over80 so far), each with a large quantity of MIDI loops that you can audition andsimply drag & drop on your tracks, to achieve something genuinely soundingin instants.

The full version sells for quite a lot, but you can downloada demo version.

Features

  • over 80 perfectly sampled Indian instruments
  • customisable mapping of playing areas withspecific parameters settings
  • multi-mic fader (for ML instruments)
  • MPE support
  • Cross-Legato mode for seamless cross-fadingpitch bendings
  • scales customisation with semitone tuning
  • modulations panel with large array of modulationpossibilities
  • time-stretching
  • buses and effect
  • and much more…

You can download it here.

HandPan Tribalized

While not being strictly Indian, this HandPan sample library could certainly add some flavor to your productions.

It usually sells for $35, but it’s now free for a while, so make sure to get it while you can!

You can download it here.

Virtual Harmonium by SamCycle Audio

Available for Windows

A Harmonium is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when wind is sent by foot-operated bellows through a pressure-equalizing air reservoir causes metal reeds screwed over slots in metal frames to vibrate.

This Free Harmonium VST features;

  • 4 Drawbars for control of reeds including octave select
  • Attack Decay Sustain Release
  • 3 intuitive tone controls + reed control
  • And more!

You can download it free here.

You’ll need a MIDI Controller

In order to be able to use these plugins properly, you will need some sort of MIDI Controller.

While you can use your mouse to map the MIDI in your DAW, it’s a lot faster and easier to do it with a keyboard/controller.

My recommendation here is for you to get something like the M-Audio Oxygen 25 MK IV MIDI Controller which you can find at Amazon at a very affordable price, plus it comes with some extra software like Pro Tools First.

Conclusion

It was actually hard to find good-sounding Indian VST that were actually free, but here are the ones I found.

Some of them allow you to purchase the premium version, which you could definitely do if you find yourself using them a lot.

I hope this information was useful…

Have a great day!

Last Updated on December 15, 2020.

Finding Sitar plugins is already pretty hard, but finding good-soundingones is even harder, especially if they are free!

In this post I’ll list the handful I could find that areworth using!

Let’s get started!

Free Sitar VST Plugins

Indian DreamZ by DSK (Windows Only)

DSK is well known for creating loadsof free and pretty cool-sounding plugins.

Indian Dreamz is no different…

It features a couple differenttypical Indian instruments which work pretty damn well!

These instruments are; Sitar, Sarod,veena, Tar, tampura & Tabla.

All in all, it’s a great plugin,absolutely give it a shot!

Features

  • 6 Indian Instruments: Sitar, Sarod, veena, Tar, tampura& Tabla.
  • Velocity response.
  • Amp. envelope and micro-detuner.
  • HP/LP Filter.
  • Midi automation.

You can download it here.

Related: Here’s a list of the best free PianoVST Plugins.

Syntar by Syntar (Windows only)

Syntar is a VST instrument designedto fulfill your every sitar sound requirement.
For best results play with droning continuous bass notes and a higher melodyline.

Built in soft distortion, delay andflanger effects make it easy to tweak the Syntar to fit your style of musicperfectly.

You can download it here.

Related: I wrote a list about the best Indian Instruments VSTs out there. (Some of the ones on this list are on there as well, but check it out!)

Real Sitar Player by RDGAudio (Windows, Mac)

Real Sitar isa sample-based Instrument.

It has been sampled from Asian andmany types of real Sitar Instruments.

Sampled with 4 Mic Position, it isvelocity sensitive instrument with built in Round Robin Presets.

It comes with Win 32-64 bit VST,VST3, AU and Mac VST plugins.

Real Sitar is free but you canpurchase the expansion pack for about $50.

You can download it here.

Free Sitar Samples and Loops

One way of getting cool sitar sounds is by directlydownloading the samples/loops that other people recorded.

You can find some pretty cool-sounding ones on Looperman as well as SampleFocus.

Check those websites out and see what awesome samples youcan find!

Now, if you truly want great sounding Sitar plugins, thencheck out the next ones…

Premium Sitar VST Plugins

Bizarre Sitar by Soundiron (Windows, Mac)

Note: Bizarre Sitar only works with the full versionof Kontakt 5.5 or later.

Bizarre Sitar may not seem so strange at first glance.

It has most of the elements found on any other sitar, withits traditional gourd body, both main playable strings and sympatheticresonating strings, parda, kunti, dandi, ghoraj, all complete with orangehand-painted accents.

It’s barely half the size of a regular sitar, that’s wherethe name comes from; not because it being smaller is bizarre, but it’s bizarrethat the tone is as full as the one of a normal sized sitar.

The Bizarre Sitar includes chromatic plucks as well asstrumming articulations. Two main strumming tunings include a fifth andoctave/unison.

Features

  • Bowed (staccato, tremolo and sustains)
  • Plucked (10x rr, 5-6 velocities)
  • Strummed (10x rr, 4-8 velocities)
  • FX (includes mutes, scrapes and other specialeffects)
  • Ambiences created from the source material
Sitar Plugin Pro Tools

Find out more about Bizarre Sitar here.

Sitar Plugin Pro Tools Pro

Classical Indian Sitar by Indian Loops (Windows, Mac)

This is not a VST plugin, but rather a collection of royalty-freesitar samples that you can use in your own commercial projects.

It features over 500MB of genuine Sitar melodic lines andphrases, with loops spanning over a range of keys, tempos and playing styles toguarantee you’ve got the sounds you need.

Additionally, an array of glissandos have been includedto help add interest to your transitions and breakdowns.

Find out more about the Classical Indian Sitar here.

You’ll need a MIDI Controller

In order to be able to use these plugins properly, you will need some sort of MIDI Controller.

Sitar Plugin Pro Tools Download

While you can use your mouse to map the MIDI in your DAW, it’s a lot faster and easier to do it with a keyboard/controller.

My recommendation here is for you to get something like the M-Audio Oxygen 25 MK IV MIDI Controller which you can find at Amazon at a very affordable price, plus it comes with some extra software like Pro Tools First.

Conclusion

I know this is a very short list, especially when comparedto all the other articles I wrote about VST plugins, but there simply aren’t asmany good Sitar plugins out there.

Start with the free ones and see how you like them, if youdon’t then simply move on to a premium one.

I hope this information was useful.

Have a wonderful day!