There are many types of plugins. Sometimes they are built into music software and other times they are installed afterwards. VST plugins are the most popular type of plugins.
Plugins, plugin tutorials, and plugin articles are listed below.
This is an excellent free VST gate that supports sidechaining. The SSS Gate provides easy ducking and keying effects. Ducking and keying are some of the hottest effects in electronic music production today. Stay tuned for a ducking and keying tutorial from SonicTransfer.com. In the meantime, click the link below to download the SSS Side Chain Gate/Expander.
There are very few free compressors that support sidechaining. The SSS Side Chain Compressor makes it extremely easy to get the ducking sound made famous by french house producers like Daft Punk. Click the link below to download the SSS Side Chain Compressor.
SSS Side Chain Compressor – Free Windows VST
NEW OS X Version! SSS Side Chain Compressor – Free Mac OS X VST & AU (The download link is in middle of the page).
How to use VST Plugins in Ableton Live. VST plugins allow you to have unlimited variety in your sonic palette. They are little computer programs that run inside of a bigger music program like Cubase, Protools, or Ableton Live. These tiny programs can make a dramatic improvement on the quality of your sound.
There are two types of VST programs: VST instruments (a.k.a. VSTi) and VST effects. VST instruments produce sounds and VST effects change sounds. A synthesizer is a common example of a VST instrument. A reverb is a common VST effect.
Orange Vocoder Suggestions. After reading the tutorial on using Orange Vocoder with Ableton Live, SonicTransfer readers had some questions about how to improve the sound even more. Here are some tips for getting a better vocoder sound.
Really, i am a lot thankful to you for the tutorial you wrote about
vocoder! Now it works very fine for me!
I do admire ppl that believes knowledge should be passed ahead to others.
There is only one remaining issue for me: the raw vocal. Like, if i am
singing a C, but playing a Bm, than i’ll have some very tense chord,
right? =]
Is there a way to avoid listening to the raw vocal?
If you just want to dabble with vocoding and the Orange Vocoder is out of your price range, then you should definitely give MDA Vocoder a try! It is a very nice free vocoder with good control over the output. However, it lacks a user interface so it isn’t very pretty 
You can download it from MDA-VST in their plugin pack (Mac & Windows plugins available). Click here to visit MDA-VST’s website.
Orange Vocoder is an excellent commercial vocoder made by Prosoniq. It has been around for about eight years and is still one of the most popular vocoders in existence. As of January 2007, the price is 170.00 USD. Click here to visit Prosoniq’s web site.
Click here to read a tutorial on using Orange Vocoder with Ableton Live.
Synth1 is an excellent replication of the Clavia Nord Lead 2. The Nord Lead 2 is one of the best synthesizers on the planet. To quote Vintage Synth Explorer, “The Nord Lead 2 is the synthesizer of choice for many professionals including: The Crystal Method, Fatboy Slim, Nine Inch Nails, The Prodigy…”
The Nord Lead 2 is an electronic music standard, and for that reason alone Synth1 should be in your musical toolbox. And why not? It’s completely free. Also, it has some of the best patch presets of any synthesizer – commercial or gratis. Click the link below to get Synth1, a bunch of presets, and the manual all bundled by Sonic Transfer.
Click here to read a tutorial on using Synth1 to build a Kick Drum.