Equip Your Mission.

The gear, plugins, and tools we trust to keep creating. Curated for producers at every stage of the journey — some links are affiliate links that help support Embark Sounds at no cost to you.

Everything you need to start making music from home.

Ableton Live

We Use This

Our DAW of choice. Ableton's session view and clip-based workflow make it the go-to for beat making, live performance, and creative production.

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REAPER

#1 Budget Pick

Insanely capable DAW at a fraction of the cost. Unlimited features, a 60-day free trial, and used by hobbyists and pros alike.

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Focusrite Scarlett Solo

Best Value

The go-to USB audio interface for beginners. Plug in a mic or guitar and record studio-quality audio straight into your DAW.

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Audio-Technica ATH-M50x

Producer Standard

Studio reference headphones trusted by producers worldwide. Accurate sound, isolating design, built to last years of studio use.

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Akai MPK Mini

Best Starter Controller

The most popular MIDI controller for bedroom producers. 25 mini keys, 8 MPC pads, and a built-in arpeggiator — compact enough to fit anywhere.

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Akai MPC XL

Level Up

The new flagship standalone MPC. Massive 10.1" touchscreen, 16 pads, full standalone workflow with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth — built for serious producers.

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Arturia Astrolab 37

Our Favorite Synth

Our go-to keys. The Astrolab 37 packs a massive sound library into a lightweight, giggable instrument — incredible for studio work and live performance.

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Yamaha HS5 Studio Monitors

Mix Standard

The industry benchmark for studio monitors at this price point. Flat, accurate response so your mixes translate to every speaker and headphone.

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Audio-Technica AT2020

Best Budget Mic

The go-to condenser microphone for bedroom vocalists and podcasters. Pairs perfectly with the Scarlett Solo for clean, professional recordings.

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Splice

Editor's Choice

Access millions of royalty-free samples and loops. Pay per credit, keep your downloads forever. Essential for any producer's workflow.

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Vital Synth

Free

The most powerful free synthesizer available. Spectral warping wavetable synthesis, real-time visualization, and a massive preset library — zero cost.

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Komplete Start

Free Bundle

Native Instruments' free plugin bundle — 2,000+ sounds, samplers, synths, and effects. One of the best free downloads in music production, period.

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BandLab

Free

Browser-based DAW perfect for getting started. Record, mix, and share tracks from any device — no downloads, no cost.

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Top-rated free plugins our producers actually use.

Valhalla Supermassive

Fan Favorite

Legendary reverb and delay from Valhalla DSP. Massive, lush spaces that sound incredible on pads, vocals, and drums. A must-have in any chain.

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Vital Synth

Free

Professional wavetable synthesis at zero cost. Visualize your sound in real time and design patches from scratch or pull from a huge preset library.

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OB-Xd

Free

Classic Oberheim analog synthesizer emulation. Warm, fat, and characterful — perfect for vintage pads, leads, and retro-sounding chord stabs.

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Surge XT

Open Source

Massive open-source synth with 16 oscillator algorithms and thousands of presets. Regularly updated with new features — free forever.

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Graillon 2

Free

Pitch correction, pitch shifting, and creative vocal effects. The free tier covers most use cases — great for vocal tuning and lo-fi character.

Download Free →

Kilohearts Essentials

Free Bundle

A complete bundle of essential audio effects — EQ, compression, reverb, delay, and more. All free, all excellent, and all snapin-compatible.

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Paid plugins worth every dollar — affiliate links help support Embark Sounds at no extra cost to you.

RC-20 Retro Color — XLN Audio

Lo-Fi Essential

One of the most-used lo-fi plugins in production. RC-20 adds vinyl noise, wobble, saturation, bit-crushing, and magnetic degradation to give your beats that worn, character-rich texture. If you want warmth and grit without fuss, this is it.

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DigiCrush — SSL

Bit Crusher

SSL's take on digital destruction. DigiCrush delivers bit-crushing, sample-rate reduction, and digital distortion with SSL's signature control and clarity. Run your drums or synths through it and watch them hit harder and cut differently.

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MaxxBass — Waves

Bass Essential

Makes your low end hit on every speaker — including the ones that can't reproduce sub frequencies. MaxxBass generates harmonics from your bass so it stays audible on earbuds, laptops, and phone speakers. Essential for translation.

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Slower — E-instruments

Texture & Ambient

Drop any sample into Slower and it transforms into something cinematic and evolving. Time-stretching, pitch-shifting, and layered playback modes make it perfect for building pads, transitions, and ambient textures from sounds you already have.

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Decapitator — SoundToys

Saturation

The go-to saturation plugin for a reason. Decapitator models five different analog saturation styles — from subtle harmonic warmth to full-on distortion. Run anything through it: vocals, drums, synths, buses. It makes everything sound more alive.

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TAIP — Baby Audio

Tape Emulation

Tape emulation done right. TAIP recreates the compression, warmth, flutter, and harmonic saturation of real tape machines. It's the fastest way to take something digital and make it feel like it was recorded in a real room.

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Time — Lunacy Audio

Granular

Granular time-stretching that turns simple sounds into lush, moving textures. Feed it a chord stab, a vocal chop, or a drum hit and Time stretches it into something massive and evolving. Great for cinematic moments in your beats.

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M1 — Korg

Classic Synth

A legend. The Korg M1 is one of the best-selling synthesizers ever made — now a plugin. Known for its iconic piano, organ, strings, and atmospheric pads. If you've heard music from the late 80s through the 90s, you've heard this synth.

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Diva — U-he

All-Time Favorite

⭐ This one stays in the session permanently. Widely considered one of the most accurate analog synth emulations ever made. Diva models Moog, Roland, and ARP circuits — warmth and richness most virtual instruments can't touch.

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Finisher RETRO — UJAM

Multi-FX

Multi-effect processing with a single knob. Finisher RETRO applies vintage-inspired effect chains — chorus, reverb, saturation, filtering — to any sound instantly. The fastest way to add character without building a complex chain.

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HalfTime — Cableguys

Half-Speed FX

That dreamy, slowed-down half-speed effect you hear all over modern trap, lo-fi, and atmospheric production. Drop it on a channel, dial in the amount, and instantly create that thick, weighted feel.

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Amazon Storefront

Shop Our Curated Amazon Picks

Mics, interfaces, headphones, and more — handpicked by Embark Sounds.

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Where We Shop

Stores We Trust

When it comes to gear and equipment, these are the online stores we shop from and recommend to every producer in our community.

zZoundsReverb

Affiliate Disclosure: Some links on this page are affiliate links. If you purchase through them, Embark Sounds may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. We only recommend products we genuinely believe in.