Yamaha DX7 classic 80s Electric Piano free instrument

It's just a free, oldschool, lovely, digital, 80s Yamaha DX7 Electric Piano instrument recorded by Izonin :) It's available only in SampleTank format.



Download: Yamaha DX7 Electric Piano patch
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IK Multimedia Sample Tank Free

IK Multimedia Sample Tank Free is a full-featured version of commercial sample workstation - SampleTank 2.5, with limited, 500 MB sample library. It opens all SampleTank format sounds (so for example you can use the sounds from Sonik Synth 2, Sample Moog which were available on promotion for pretty much insane low price :) ). It also imports Wav, Aiff, SDII, Akai S-1000/3000, SampleCell formats. I like that SampleTank is 16 part multitimbral so it's easy to layer/mix different parts (also it's possible to set all layers to Midi channel 1 and play them, as far as I remember Image-Line DirectWave couldn't do it, which sucked a bit). The built-in DSP effects sound nice and are low CPU hungry. These are the pros. And cons ? Hmm, it's shame it doesn't import SF2 or SFZ, also the product registration is too complicated and GUI seems too crowdy. But somehow, I'm starting to like it.

Download: IK Multimedia Sample Tank Free
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Kairatune - free monophonic synth

I have a feeling that 2011 year is, when it comes to freeware virtual synths, more about quality than quantity. U-He Zebralette, U-He Tyrell N6, Ugo Rez 3, Martin Lüders Pg8x, the Scroo - these are some quality synths released this year. Not much ? Well, here's another quite interesting and different than the others synth. Kairatune is a free monophonic synth designed to produce crisp and tight electric sounds for electronic music production. Which means strong lead sounds, basses and SFX. I guess the audio demo speaks for itself:



Factory soundbank (76 presets) contains some really unique and interesting sounds especially if you're into evolving (but not pads), psychodelic stuff :) I would say that the synth sounds nice, has interesting architecture and definitely has it's own flavour. The CPU reaches about 12 % in my Computer (some pretty old Core 2 Duo) so I guess it's pretty ok. Sure, Synth1 takes like 2-8 % CPU but the truth is that 99 % of freeware synths would lose vs Synth1 :)

Download: Kairatune
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Wavesfactory 1850 Pipe Organ Free

Wavesfactory sampled a Pipe Organ built in the year 1850 in Artà's church (a little village on the island of Mallorca, Spain). Organ pipes are made from either wood or metal and produce sound when air under pressure (“wind”) is directed through them. Pipes are arranged by timbre and pitch into ranks. A rank is a row of pipes mounted vertically onto a windchest. An organ contains two actions, or systems of moving parts. When a key is depressed, the key action admits wind into a pipe. The stop action allows the organist to control which ranks are engaged.

1850 Pipe Organ is available as a sample library suited for NI Kontakt 4.2.3 and as a virtual instrument available both in AU and VST format (so Mac and Windows 32bit, 64bit are covered). Free version compared to commercial one (yes, there is commercial version) offers lesser flexibility but still it's a nice freebie.

1850 Pipe Organ by Wavesfactory

Download: Wavesfactory 1850 Pipe Organ
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Sounds of Revolution Free Samples

In my personal chart, Sounds of Revolution is one of the best sample packs developer. If you visit testimonials, you can see tons of producers (mostly related with Electronic Dance Music scene) praising their stuff, ie: Tiesto, Blank & Jones, Timo Maas, BT, Thrillseekers.
So if you need quality samples, then feel free to visit Sounds of Revolution Free Samples section which offers small snippets from their commercial libraries. Good stuff.

Download: Sounds of Revolution Free Samples
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Roland TR-808 Tape Drum Samples

Roland TR-808 is one of the most important and famous drum machines in the music history. Tons of artist used it, ie. The Prodigy, Faithless, BT, Richie Hawtin, Beastie Boys, Jean Michel Jarre, Duran Duran, Puff Daddy, Ice Cube, Phil Collins, Kraftwerk...
Wave Alchemy - UK based sound design company - released over 300 free drum samples from TR-808. All drums have been recorded directly to 1/4” analogue tape via a Studer A80 Mk1 tape machine with each sound boasting multiple saturation settings.

Download: Wave Alchemy 808 Tape Drum Samples
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NI Massive - that Party Rock Anthem LMFAO sound

An attempt to create similar main lead sound to LMFAO - Party Rock Anthem track. I think that it still lacks something but I kinda like it.
I would add a tiny portion of portamento, maybe some noise (tried to recreate that sound in Cakewalk Z3TA+ 2 :) ).


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Synth1 is available on Mac

I know that quite often Mac Osx users complain about small amount of freeware plugins available for Mac (at least compared to PC) but this info should, I believe, make them happy :)
Synth1 - legendary and free virtual synth with more than ... 9000 presets is now available on Mac platform too. Note that it's a beta version, so it may introduce some bugs but still, I think that is a great news. Some soundbanks are really tasty. My personal favourite is Gecko soundbank which offers some old 80s leads :)



Download: Synth 1 Beta for Mac
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Rolling Bassline - Classic Uplifting Trance 138-140 Bpm

If you're into classic, uplifting, fast (138-140 bpm) trance then this tutorial might be very useful :) It shows how to create so called rolling bassline but at the same time you can learn a little bit more from it. For example how to create "groovy" hi-hats, how to make bassline using layers (and how to save "space" by EQing) and, I would say, entire build-up.

It's just a quality tutorial, one of the best when it comes to classic trance :) Cubase DAW is used but honestly, if you're not a complete beginner then you should understand everything and use this knowledge in other DAW, without problems.
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400 Followers on Facebook

Ok. Vst Cafe has just reached 400 followers which proves me that third year of blogging here wasn't a totally waste of time ;)

What can I say more - I hope that we'll get even more followers. When we reach 500, I'll drink a lot of good beer and who knows, maybe I'll do something actually useful for the followers (competition or something) :)

So visit Vst Cafe facebook profile (let's face it - there's not much going on there but one day I'll change it), spread the word about it and "Like it".

Links: VstCafe - Facebook | VstCafe - Soundcloud
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Synth Britannia Documentary

Another interesting documentary :) OMD, Gary Numan, Depeche Mode, Pet Shop Boys - a generation of musicians who took their synthesizers to the center of (Synth)Pop music. Damn, this music had "something" :)


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Clever Wobbly Dubstep Bassline in NI Massive

This is, I believe, one of the best tutorials coming from nzmusic101 - useful for some dubstep producers I guess (nope, it's not another YOI sound). It's just a good wobble :)
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Tiesto - Work Hard Play Hard Remix Competition - lesson learnt

Just wanted to share with you some of my thoughts I had when remixing Tiesto's 'Work Hard Play Hard' tune, for Tiesto Remix Competition. Ok, I didn't win and some of you would probably say that it's another pop, Guetta, Avicii-like crap :) But still I wanted to create such crap and for the first time (when it comes to music) I actually felt like a winner. I managed to create the full track which for some reason is always a pretty tough task to me - about 99,9 % of my musical ideas are never finished.

Looks like I'm not as creative as I thought ;) My general advice is - if you have problem with finishing your own songs then it might be not a bad idea trying some remix competitions. I don't know why but strict deadline works for me. Also some ready to go remix stems help to quickly find some inspiration. For example in this remix competition I only required vocal to find some inspiration - the rest is a "total" remix.

I also learnt (seems obvious) that the more tracks I complete, the better I am when it comes to arrangement, optimizing my workflow, choosing "good" plugins and eventually creating some kind of a base template / framework.

So, what's the basic template of a guy who praise free, cheap plugins, samples on Vst Cafe ? :) Well, I think that there are some things we really need to pay for, and I believe that a good DAW is one of these things. Free DAW can just hurt our workflow too much. After all, it should be all about having some good time and fighting with GUI, bad workflow is not a good time ;) So, I use Ableton Live (second hand copy :) ).

As effects I mostly use Ableton effect plugins but there are some freebies too. ADT - Artifical Double Tracking plugin was used to quickly make the vocal stereo / wide and Sonic Faction Whoosh Machine (it's actually more like an instrument rather than FX) was used for rising noise effect (nice tool if you want to have rise and falls FX fast).

For the main lead part I used commercial plugins only. That piano flavour comes from second-hand Truepianos copy - it's not the most realistic souding piano plugin but for some reason it works nicely when using layered sounds. Then there is one instance of Cakewalk Z3TA+ which was available for quite a long time for 20 $ and two instances of Toxic Biohazard which was available, during some promotion, for 49 $. The bassline is 100 % Cakewalk Z3TA+ (two instances). Presets come from my own soundbanks available at www.designasound.com so it's a freebie ... for me ;) For you it's more like 2x 13 $.

Drum samples come from some commercial sample libraries (I don't remember names - it's like from time to time I try to buy some sample libraries and I'm slowly building my "drum resources library") and that's pretty much it.

So what's the point of this blog entry ? I don't know ;) Maybe it's: the more you compose, the more you learn. Or: while good DAW is really preferred, the other piece of software (plugins) can be free, cheap, expensive and it really doesn't affect you too much - we can live without the "expensive" option ;) Ok, I didn't use Synth1 for example but I can easily imagine doing it. But first I would need to scroll through 9000 presets to create my own, custom, favourite bank. It's a real time saver - when completed you won't need to scroll through 9000 presets, but through ie. 200-300 presets suited for your needs. I have such favourite banks in Z3TA+ 2, Toxic Biohazard, Novation V-Station and that's probably the reason why I use these synths the most.



So, just listen to the track - I'm curious how many views it will have. Not that I care too much but I do like experiments ;)
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Iliadis Euthymia Electronic (Hammond-like) Organ Vsti

Vst Cafe resources bring some valuable organ instrument freebies (both samples and vst instruments) on the table but it's still not enough :) The Euthymia Electronic Organ, by Iliadis, is a Hammond Clone Simulation instruments which offers clean Sine Drawbars for 2 Manuals and Bass Pedals, 2 Percussion Oscs with the 9 "Standard" Harmonics, a Key Click Imitation for both Manuals, Vibrato/Chorus.

It does look nice, sound nice and the CPU consumption is low. Feel free to test it or visit Iliadis website for another organ instruments :)

Download: Iliadis Euthymia Electronic Organ V2
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How to make an Afrojack style Dutch synth sound using NI Massive

There's not much to add here :) If you're into Afrojack style Dutch sounds then this video (check nzmusic101 youTube channel for more) should encourage you to experiment more with synthesis and NI Massive synth.
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The sound of Soviet Science Fiction

Another interesting article about creating sounds for the movie industry, which means Soviet Science Fiction movies like Solaris (1972), Stalker (1979).

I'm sure that you know these "sci-fi" sounds - most sci-fi movies from 60', 70' had them - I mean all these blips, glitches. And of course nice futuristic soundtracks :) In Solaris, ANS synthesizer was used a lot, while Stalker is mostly about British EMS Synthi 100



Article: The sound of Soviet Science Fiction
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Interesting Soft Synths released in 2011

Quite often I read forum threads where people ask for some latest, good soft synth recommendations. So here it is - short article which introduces commercial synths released in 2011. Remember that my opinion is totally subjective. I don't have all synths, some even don't offer demo version so this article shares hmm my first impressions rather than fully detailed reviews.

Feel free to post your own thoughts about presented plugins too :)

Dmitry Sches Diversion - website



Dmitry Sches Diversion is, I believe, one of the biggest surprises this year. It came out of nowhere and just sounds great. I mean, it doesn't try to replicate some old analogue, hardware synth, it's not another sine / square / saw subtractive synth (do we need more of such synths ?) - it's a pure digital sounding synth. It does sound very clean, bright. The GUI and overall workflow is very nice. I also love Osc Morph windows and Main morph which quickly offer lots of variation to existing presets.

I would say that if you're looking for some modern synth, if you liked for example Sylenth, then you'll definitely like Diversion. But don't get me wrong. It's not another trance machine - it's more like a digital monster synth :).

One thing that people won't be happy about is serious CPU consumption but it's like with U-He ACE for example. Do you like the synth ? Then deal with CPU consumption :) There is a demo so everyone can test it and decide if CPU usage is acceptable or not. Or you can just learn how to freeze track(s) in your DAW :)

This plugin costs 150 $ and it's an introductory price.

Audio Damage Phosphor - website



Honestly, I don't know anything about this synth (except some official informations of course). There is no demo, the synth is modeled on the alphaSyntauri - vintage digital additive synth which required an Apple to operate. Judging by forum, blog posts it's not the most popular / hyped synth. On the other hand Audio Damage guys are well known from designing great, creative effects so Phosphor can't be that bad ;) The price set to 59 $ seems ok.

Cakewalk Z3TA+ 2 - website



I wasn't happy with the announcement of Cakewalk Z3TA+ 2 release. Why ? Because 2-3 days earlier I released new soundbank for Z3TA+ 1.5.3 and it took me quite a lot of time :) Then I heard that the "old" presets will work with new version too. I quickly realised that Z3TA+ 2 will be more like an update, rather than new synth. And indeed - it's an old, legendary Z3TA+ 1 synthesis updated, with totally changed GUI, workflow.

So, what's new ? In terms of synthesis - not much. The most noticeable changes are 2-3 new waveshaping options, more modulation destinations, 4 new filter types (I don't know which one, to be honest :) ) and that's pretty much it. The biggest changes are when it comes to GUI and workflow. Z3TA+ 2 is just much more user friendly and controls (sliders, knobs) are where supposed to be :)

Z3TA+ 2 offers 2000 presets: 1000 "old" presets, and 1000 "new" presets. To be honest I like the old factory presets more.

Overall, it's very tough to judge such synth. One will say that there are not enough changes (for example, I would like to see some additional waveforms introduced as well as improved unison because "multi mode" known from old Z3TA is just old and it sucks), others will say that current version has too many bugs. Yes, Cakewalk is working on it but indeed, there are too many bugs (on the other hand, I can use it so it's not that bad ;) ). The third group are people who loved old Z3TA+ and are just satisfied with workflow, GUI and patch management (I like it) changes... I'm in the third group.

Image-Line Harmor - website



Harmor is a bigger (much bigger) brother of Image-Line Harmless synth, which means that it, to create some interesting sounds, uses additive synthesis. One thing Harmor really stands out is audio resynthesis. The reproduction, if precision set to high, is really faithful - very often better than in bigger, more expensive products (guess which ;p). It also offers image synthesis - simply load just some 2d image and you'll have a new sound :)

Overall, it's a very deep and interesting synth. The introductory price is 99 $ and will change into 149 $. Definitely, this synth is on my "i want to have it" list. It's just easy, fun to tweak and not as bloated as other synths. Also I like the factory presets which introduce many, modern sounding presets. It worth mentioning that CPU consumption seems to be pretty low.

discoDSP Corona - website



When I first loaded Corona demo (plus for the author that there aren't any stupid 60sec noises :) ) I was a little bit surprised. I mean, the general trend is that the synths are getting more advanced, more complicated and overall require more knowledge - both from designers and users. Four ElectraX layers, Harmor resynthesis, Diversion Osc morphing possibilities. It's all great, creative and fun but requires time to program.

What if I want to go back to something hmm let's say typical 3x Osc architecture (Novation V-Station anyone? ), where you can program new sound in almost seconds without tweaking hundreds of parameters, without going through tabs, screens ? Well, then you have Corona synth :) It's a 3xOsc synth which offers very typical architecture - three oscillators, 2x LFO (+ Vibrato unit), 3x Envelopes (Amp, Filter, Modulation), Filter, Unison unit, Mod Matrix and that's pretty much it. Boring / Old ? Sure ... until you realise that each oscillator has about 300 timbres (classic VA timbres + single cycle waveforms + wave (piano, choir etc.)) and you can combine oscillators using 14 operators (Add, Sub, Or, And etc.). Then the real fun starts :)

What I really like about Corona is that the overall architecture, interface allow me to create new sounds quick, without losing the inspiration. It's totally opposite compared to other 2011 synths where creating the sound is more like a crafting something complicated :) There are some really nice tweaks, such as selecting timbres by mousewheel, or randomize them :) It's a very nice synth, especially if you like to program your own sounds fast.

G-Force ImpOSCar 2 - website



For some reason, I couldn't install the demo (just had some weird "Japanese" letters), so there's really not much to say here other than some official infos. ImpOSCar2 is the successor to impOSCar software synthesizer. While the original impOSCar was a component emulation of the rare and classic OSCar synthesizer with a few added bells and whistles, such as polyphony and on-board effects, impOSCar2 soars to new sonic heights via new features and enhancements, each designed around the wishes of those musicians, programmers and producers who loved the original.

Since the original impOSCar release G-Force carefully compiled user feedback and over the course of eighteen months, in another true labour of love, they incorporated the best of these within impOSCar2 creating a synth that positively oozes more character, more playability, more expression and more detailed sound sculpting opportunities than could have been imagined a few years ago.

All in all, it's a recreation of old, classic synth. If you're into such stuff - try it.

XILS-lab Synthix - website



Synthix is inspired by (which means that it's not a strict emulation - it's more like an emulation + additional features) classic Elka Synthex analogue synth. I don't know if it sounds similar to original but by reading some forums, blogs I heard that this classic VA is just best analogue sounding virtual synth along with other XILS-lab synths such as Poly KB II. Of course I couldn't compare it to impOSCar 2 but I guess it's fully safe to say that indeed it's one of top three classic virtual analogue sounding synths.

It also offers some unique features. For example Synthix supports key splits with individual patching and MIDI on both upper and lower sections of the keyboard. So for example you can play some bassline presets with left hand, and some arpeggios with right hand. And there is "multi-layering" which let's you stack up to 8 patches into one voice.

It's a really deep VA synth which has an amazing sound but also requires a lot of "power". It's actually pretty funny that in XXI century, to have some old analogue sounding synth, you need to make sure first that your digital computer can handle it :D

If I would have to criticize something, I would say that a top class synths support scrolling through next / previous preset via computer keyboard (ie. U-He Zebra) - not some arrows you need to contantly click on :) After 100 mouse clicks I usually have enough of such synths :) Yes, that is a request. I don't like that developers create their own preset browsers (ok, that's good) and cripple (that's not good) the functionality of default patch browser which supported (ie. in Ableton Live) scrolling through the next preset just by hitting "cursor down" on keyboard. Ok, maybe it is possible to make a patch change by sending midi CC but and not sure (demo didn't allow it) and still it's worse than a simple keyboard button hit :P

Adam Szabo JP6K - website



Compared to other synths from the list, this is a pretty small and very limiting synth. But it offers probably the best supersaw-like oscillator known from the legendary Roland JP-8x series. It's actually pretty amazing, how many sounds you can create just by using two "supersaw" oscillators (there aren't classic VA waveforms like Sine, Square etc.).

If you're into smooth, trancy sounding pads or leads, you should definitely get this synth. It's really worth - the price is pretty low 25 EUR.

Tone2 ElectraX - website



Technically, Tone2 ElectraX was released on 5th December 2010 (so not 2011) but I decided to just bend the rules a little bit :). Maybe one day I'll go back to 2010 and wrote similar article so I could move ElectraX there. Anyway, ElectraX is third Tone2 synth, after Firebird and Gladiator. I own all these synths and actually can't decide which one is the best. Firebird is tiny, little beast which was not enough for me (just bought it too late) so I quickly decided to get the bigger brother (or sister ;) ) Tone2 Gladiator which was mainly about unique HCM (Harmonic Content Morphing) synthesis which naturally set this synth as perfect for all kind of pads, evolving sounds, atmospheres etc. ElectraX, on the other hand, is totally different story (but definitely you can feel there Tone2 flavour too). I see ElectraX more like a very deep lead / bass / synth machine.

The oscillators support custom single cycle waveforms, "real" wavetables (you know, similar to Waldorf products), typical virtual analog synthesis, some supersaw-like synthesis, FM and others. So it's a very versatile synth. It's also low CPU hungry which was quite a surprise to me (judging by the sound quality I expected bigger consumption). In this case CPU usage matters a lot because each patch / preset can use up to 4 layers / synthesizers ! Honestly, ElectraX offers so many options that quite often I just don't know where to go - should I use some real wavetables, or maybe Ultrasaw, or maybe just load some waveform ? Or better just turn on another layer ?

I like synths that offer strong, modern sound and ElectraX is definitely there. If I would have to choose the "best" synth from this list I would pick Tone2 product. But the truth is that it's a personal thing. It's just fits my needs, my style etc. Other people, who like for example virtual analog synths, should pick something like XILS-lab Synthix for example.

Native Instruments Razor - website



It's totally unknown synth to me. It's based on additive synthesis, it requires NI Reaktor 5.5 or NI Reaktor Free, it costs 69 EUR and that's pretty much all I know about it.

Hamburg-Audio Nuklear - website



Nuklear is the first virtual instrument based on pulse train synthesis. What does it mean ? According to the manual, it's the form of granular synthesis named after spinning neutron stars that emit periodic signals in the range of 0.25 Hz to 642 Hz. Basic pulsar synthesis as desribed by Curtis Roads generates a monophonic periodic pulsar train controlled by the two parameters: fundamental frequency (pulsar frequency) and duty cycle frequency (formant frequency). The pulsaret is characterised by the pulsaret waveform and the pulsaret envelope.

I only had a short demo with this synth so it'll be a totally first impression or something like that. First of all pulsar train generators (it's an "oscillator") require learning or at least reading the manual :) I don't read manuals so for the first time I really felt hmmm weird - I didn't understand most parameters. It's not that this synth is overcomplicated or something, it's just a new synthesis which requires some learning curve.

Judging by the presets, the synth really brings some new, interesting sounds on the table. Some distorted (but in a good, musical way) presets sound very nice, modern. On the other hand, there are also interesting pads.

Well, my overall impression is: Nuklear is an intersting synth which requires some learning first :) One thing I don't like is the GUI or maybe I just should say: knob labels. In 1900x1200 resolution they're small and blurry. Also dark grey (almost black BUT not black) color is not helping. Some bigger GUI for bigger resolutions (like in U-He Zebra) would be great, or at least some sharper and darker fonts.

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How To Make Crispy Electro Bassline in Sylenth

How to make crispy electro bassline in Sylenth soft synth ? Just watch this video. The sound is really nice, especially if you're into Electro, Electro-House genres...


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The Sound of Rise of the Planet of the Apes

Just another interesting video introducing the sound designers work in movie industry. This time it's about the "Rise of the Planet of the Apes" movie.


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How to make a Dubstep/Wobble synth

Another wobble bass/synth tutorial ? No, not this again ;)

But it's for Lennar Digital Sylenth, not NI Massive "dubstep synth". Maybe somebody who is not into dubstep genre will find this sound useful for something hmm different :)
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10 Remixing Tips By Eelke Kleijn

There are tons of remix competitions available almost everywhere. Eelke Kleijn, Dutch (electronic) music producer and DJ, shares his 10 tips that will help you to create interesting remixes. I like it :)

Article: 10 Remixing Tips By Eelke Kleijn
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ARTFX - Sound Effects Volume 1

ARTFX - Sound Effects Volume 1 is a free sample library which contains (surprise ;) ) sound effects, created / recorded / designed by Kaj van den Oord from ARTFX. The package offers 480 audio samples which translates into 1 GB size.

I've been spending the last two days working on a subject called sound design. The first day was used for recording al kinds of sounds like zippers, pieces of metal slamming into each other, skateboard wheels, beatbox sounds and a lot more. The second day has been the slicing and processing of the recorded sounds.After two days of work I ended up with 1 Gb of samples and loops, ready for further processing.

Now normally I would end up having this samples lying around for a while, but instead I'm releasing this sample pack for free download. No usual samples like drum hits in here, all unusual sound effects.

Download: ARTFX - Sound Effects Volume 1
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The New Sound of Music (1979)

The New Sound of Music is a BBC historical documentary from the year 1979. It charts the development of recorded music from the first barrel organs, pianolas, the phonograph, the magnetic tape recorder and onto the concepts of musique concrete and electronic music development with voltage controlled oscillators making up the analogue synthesizers of the day. EMS Synthesizers and equipment are a heavily featured technology resource in this film, with the show's host, Michael Rodd, demonstrating the EMS VCS3 synthesizer and it's waveform output. Other EMS products include the incredible Synthi 100 modular console system, the EMS AKS, the Poly Synthi and the EMS Vocoder.

Interesting documentary :)









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In The Studio with Thomas Gold

One of the best video from "In The Studio" series. Those who like the track above: Delerium - Silence (Thomas Gold Remix) should be satisfied with these videos because Thomas shows the plugins he used to make chords, to make bass etc.
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Freddie Mercury 65th Birthday

Freddie's 65th birthday.

When I'm dead, who cares. I don't

I was eleven years old when Freddie died but for me he is a legend and legends never die :) Below Queen - Live at Wembley 86, over 1,5h material



Damn, I have an impression that concerts in 80s were epic compared to current :(

Freddie For A Day
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reFX Vanguard: Soundbanks round-up 02

It's time for the another Soundbanks round-up - focused on requested reFX Vanguard virtual synth. The list contains 12 soundbanks distributed via official reFX website + additional 20 soundbanks / resources. Overall it translates into around 1500 official expansion presets + additional, damn I need a calculator ;), 2801.

If you know reFX Vanguard bank not listed here, post comments and I'll add it to the list. Also, feel free to read previous round-up: 01 dedicated to Lennar Digital Sylenth synth.

Commercial soundbanks:

Official Vanguard Expansions
Keywords: Wide Range
Presets: around 1500 (!)

DMS reFX Vanguard Sounds Bundle
Keywords: Wide Range, EDM, Dance, Club, Bass, Lead
Presets: 380

Vengeance Vanguard Reloaded Vol. 1, 2
Keywords: Electro, Dirty, Dutch, House, Bass, Lead, Pad, FX
Presets: 2x 128

Deeper Love
Keywords: Pad, Arp, Lead, Funky, Deep
Presets: 128

Synthation Vanguard-Essentials
Keywords: Club, Trance, Lead, Pad, EDM
Presets: 128

Vanguard AvantGarde FX
Keywords: FX
Presets: 128

Vanguard Legacy
Keywords: Bread & Butter, Classic Synths
Presets: 128

Vanguard Xtra Moods
Keywords: Electronica, Chillout, Lounge, IDM
Presets: 128

Stallion Sounds Lead Expressions
Keywords: Lead, Screaming, Distorted
Presets: 128

Stallion Sounds Arps Fire
Keywords: Arp
Presets: 197

Stallion Sounds Gater Loves Arp
Keywords: Gate, Arp, Acid
Presets: 256

Stallion Sounds Sync Inside
Keywords: Sync, Rough, Lead
Presets: 64

Stallion Sounds Acid Salt
Keywords: Acid, Lead
Presets: 64

Pro-Sounds Genusis
Keywords: Arp, Lead, Pad, Atmosphere, Bass, Techno
Presets: 128

Xenos Soundworks No Trance
Keywords: Pop, Hip Hop, Lead, Bass
Presets: 128

Xenos Soundworks Quantum Consiousness
Keywords: Wide Range
Presets: 140

Monomade House Vanguard Presets
Keywords: EDM, Bass, Lead, Pad, Pluck
Presets: 64

Culture Electronic Trance World
Keywords: Old Trance
Presets: 158

Vanguard Electro Bass
Keywords: Bass, Club, EDM
Presets: 70

Waveformless Phoenix
Keywords: Vintage Synths, Bass, EBM
Presets: 128

Freeware soundbanks:
KvR Audio (Requires Registration)

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2 Uses for Ableton Redux Device

2 uses for Ableton Redux Device - distorted basslines and overused talking bass. Nice, quick tutorial.
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Mr. Soundman - Free Ear Training Game

Mr. Soundman is a bit like an arcade game with an intuitive GUI, and rapidly increasing difficulty. You start the game with three lives. Mr. Soundman will play an audio source with a noticeable boost somewhere across the frequency range. Your mission is to identify the boosted frequency. The closer you are to the boosted frequency the more points you gain.
While Mr. Soundman is free, there is also premium version which costs 29 EUR. Almost forgot - the application is standalone, PC only.

Download: Mr. Soundman - Ear Training Game
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