{"id":585095,"date":"2026-08-06T16:00:13","date_gmt":"2026-08-06T16:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/585095\/"},"modified":"2026-08-06T16:00:13","modified_gmt":"2026-08-06T16:00:13","slug":"the-90s-are-back-steinberg-celebrates-30-years-of-vst-with-the-classics-collection-a-new-free-plugin-bundle-that-includes-the-first-ever-vst-instrument","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/585095\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cThe \u201890s are back\u201d: Steinberg celebrates 30 years of VST with the Classics Collection, a new free plugin bundle that includes the first ever VST instrument"},"content":{"rendered":"

Steinberg is celebrating 30 years of its VST standard by telling us that “the ’90s are back” and releasing the Classics Collection. This is a new free bundle that features five fondly-remembered plugins<\/a> from the \u201890s and early \u201800s, one of which was the first VST instrument ever released.<\/p>\n

This was (and is) a simple two-oscillator synth known as Neon. We\u2019re old enough to remember when this arrived (in 1999 as part of the Cubase VST 3.7 DAW<\/a> update) and it did a fine job of proving that the \u2018software instrument\u2019 concept \u2013 which many still doubted \u2013 was credible.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Indeed, it set the tone for what was to come, both sonically and with its vintage-style \u2018wooden\u2019 end panels, which became ubiquitous as emulations of hardware synths flooded the market<\/p>\n

Latest Videos FromMusicRadar<\/p>\n

The VB-1, meanwhile, was one of the original virtual bass instruments, and made it clear that the VST market wasn\u2019t only going to be about synthetic sounds.<\/p>\n

Fast forward to the early 2000s and Steinberg released the CS-40 polysynth, and that\u2019s resurrected here, too. The sample-based LM7 drum machine also gets another airing, and the bundle is capped off by Karlette, a classic \u201890s tape delay plugin.<\/p>\n

You may like<\/p>\n

As you\u2019d expect, these plugins aren\u2019t as powerful or refined as many of their contemporary counterparts, but trying them again, they hold up surprisingly well, and it could be a fun creative exercise to go back and try and make a track with the same kind of software sounds that producers had access to 25 years ago.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s also worth saying that, while some of the plugins have been re-released before, these versions are compatible with the latest Mac and Windows operating and are VST 3 compatible, though there are no AU versions.<\/p>\n

Want all the hottest music and gear news, reviews, deals, features and more, direct to your inbox? Sign up here. <\/p>\n

You can download the Steinberg Classics Collection now from the Steinberg<\/a> website.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Steinberg is celebrating 30 years of its VST standard by telling us that “the ’90s are back” and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":585096,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[61,60,80],"class_list":["post-585095","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-technology","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/585095","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=585095"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/585095\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/585096"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=585095"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=585095"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=585095"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}