The Weirdest and Most Obscure VST Plugins (All Real)
Updated: Sep 25
The weirdest VST plugins that actually exist include Delay Lama, a free plugin from the early 2000s that turns MIDI into a chanting animated monk; MeowSynth, a free synth that meows; Goodhertz Lossy, which makes audio sound like a broken MP3 or a bad phone call; AudioThing Wires, which imitates an old wire recorder; Output Portal, which chops sound into granular fragments; and Zynaptiq Wormhole and Polyverse Manipulator, which bend pitch and voices into something alien. This guide covers the strangest plugins we know of that you can really download, what each one does, and how to use a weird plugin on a band record without turning the song into a novelty.
One promise before the list: every plugin here is real, made by a named developer, and we have written about most of them in more detail. Why that promise matters is at the bottom of the page.
The weirdest VST plugins at a glance
Delay Lama (AudioNerdz): a free vocal synth that sings your MIDI notes as a monk, with an animated 3D face.
MeowSynth (Knobster): a free synthesizer, released in 2009, whose oscillator is a cat.
Goodhertz Lossy: recreates low-bitrate MP3s, dropped calls and skipping streams.
AudioThing Wires: imitates an old Soviet wire recorder, with all its wobble and noise.
Aberrant DSP SketchCassette II: a cassette deck that sounds like it has lived in a car.
Klevgrand Degrader: bit crushing and sample-rate reduction for deliberately cheap digital sound.
CamelCrusher (Camel Audio): a free distortion and filter plugin that became a cult classic after it was discontinued.
Output Portal: granular effects, steered from one XY control.
Zynaptiq Wormhole: pitch and frequency shifting, spectral warping and reverb for sounds that do not sound like they came from Earth.
Polyverse Manipulator: a vocal mangler from the company Infected Mushroom co-founded.
Unfiltered Audio Fault and Sugar Bytes Looperator: pitch, time and rhythm mangling.
Stochas: a free, open-source MIDI sequencer that uses probability to decide which notes play.
mda SubSynth: a tiny free plugin by Paul Kellett that invents sub bass under whatever you feed it.
Plugins that sing, chant or meow
Delay Lama is the plugin most people mean when they talk about weird VSTs. AudioNerdz released it in the early 2000s: you play MIDI notes and an animated monk sings them, with a vowel control that changes the shape of his mouth. It is old, so check that your system can still run it before you plan a song around it.
MeowSynth does the same thing with a cat. It is a real synthesizer rather than a sample player, released by the Ukrainian developer Knobster in 2009 and modelled on his own cat. It went viral years later, and it is still more useful than it has any right to be as a strange lead sound buried in a mix.
Plugins that damage sound on purpose
For band music this is the most useful category by far. Damage puts distance and memory into a sound, which is often exactly what an indie or lo-fi record is about.
Goodhertz Lossy makes audio sound like it was squeezed through a bad codec. On a vocal it can sound like a voice message from someone you have not spoken to in years.
AudioThing Wires imitates a wire recorder, the format before tape. The result is thin, wobbly and haunted.
SketchCassette II gives you warble, hiss and dropouts in the style of a tired cassette.
Klevgrand Degrader is cheap digital damage: fewer bits, lower sample rates, grit that sounds like an old game console.
CamelCrusher was a free distortion and filter plugin from Camel Audio. Apple bought the company in 2015 and the standalone plugins were discontinued, which is part of why it now has a cult following.
If you want the longer argument for keeping the rough edges, why perfect is the enemy of a great indie record goes into it properly.
Plugins that bend time, pitch and voices
Output Portal breaks audio into tiny grains and rebuilds them with new pitch, direction and texture. On a guitar tail or a vocal line it can turn one moment into something that sounds like it is dissolving.
Zynaptiq Wormhole combines pitch and frequency shifting, spectral warping and reverb. It is the fastest route we know to a sound nobody can place.
Polyverse Manipulator twists vocals through pitch, formant and harmonic changes. Polyverse was co-founded by Infected Mushroom, and it shows.
Unfiltered Audio Fault is a pitch and time mangler built around frequency shifting and delay.
Sugar Bytes Looperator slices, loops and stutters audio from a step sequencer.
Plugins that write parts for you
Stochas is a free, open-source MIDI sequencer where each step has a probability of playing. Run it on a synth or a drum machine and the pattern never quite repeats. It is not a replacement for writing parts, but it is a good way to find one you would not have played.
Tiny free classics
mda SubSynth is part of the old free mda collection by Paul Kellett. It listens to your bass or kick and generates sub bass underneath it. It looks like nothing, and it still works.
Our take: one weird moment beats a weird song
Weird plugins are at their best when they happen once. A vocal that turns into a lossy phone call for one line of the bridge. A guitar that dissolves into grains at the end of the last chorus. A Delay Lama drone under the intro that nobody can quite identify. Used on everything, the same plugin stops being strange and starts being a gimmick, and the song is suddenly about the plugin.
For band music, the damage plugins earn their place far more often than the pitch toys. Bands make records about memory, distance and things falling apart, and a well-placed bit of codec smear or tape warble says that without a word. The alien pitch effects are harder to use without the song turning into a demo of the plugin.
The rule we use: if you can remove the weird plugin and the song loses meaning, keep it. If you remove it and the song only loses novelty, it was never needed.
What an earlier version of this article got wrong
The earlier version of this page described plugins like "The Alien Space Weaver" and a generic "Granulator" that we cannot find anywhere, alongside generic effect types presented as if they were products. Worse, this blog also carried a series of posts from 2023 about supposedly rare plugins, including "Sonic Alchemist", "Sonikor", "Echolunar", "Spectral Disruptor" and "Harmonic Kaleidoscope", none of which appear to exist. They were written without being checked, and they should never have been published. Those posts now point here.
It is worth saying plainly because the internet is full of the same thing. If you read about a mysterious plugin and cannot find a developer, a website or a download page, assume it does not exist.
Weird VST plugins FAQ
What is the weirdest VST plugin?
Delay Lama is the usual answer: a free plugin that sings your MIDI notes as an animated chanting monk. MeowSynth, a free synthesizer that meows, is a close second.
Are there free weird VST plugins?
Yes. Delay Lama, MeowSynth, Stochas and mda SubSynth are all free, and CamelCrusher was free before it was discontinued. Several of them are old, so check they still run on your system.
How do you use weird plugins in band music?
Use them for one moment rather than a whole song: a line of vocal, a guitar tail, an intro. Damage effects like Lossy, Wires or a cassette emulation usually fit band records better than extreme pitch effects.
How can I tell if a plugin I read about is real?
Look for a named developer, an official website and a download or purchase page. If none of those exist, the plugin probably does not either, however detailed the article about it is.
What plugin makes vocals sound like a phone call?
Goodhertz Lossy is built for exactly that, with modes that imitate low-bitrate codecs and broken calls. A band-pass filter and some distortion will get you part of the way for free.
Keep reading
Ready for a mix where the strange parts mean something? We mix indie rock, post-punk and shoegaze for artists everywhere, and we are happy to argue for the one weird moment that makes a song. Send us the rough mix.
