As a newbie who has just joined the forum, I would appreciate if I could benefit from answers to the above. Thx!

Just dove into the MIDI world and feeling pretty excited yet overwhelmed. Like Mike, I'm also trying to navigate where to safely expand my plug-in library without the risk of downloading something sketchy. Being quite new to all this, any guidance on where to safely find plug-ins would be super helpful. I am keeping reading everything on this forum 😊 

Cheers for helping out a fellow newbie! 🤗 

Welcome to the wonderful world of MIDI.    Here are a few tips. 

There are lots of companies that offer free VSTs and softsynths, but of course you want make sure you are downloading something that is safe.

Look for well known brands and even better check out the list of MIDI Association members https://midi.org/partners/ .  If they are a MIDI Association member you know they are serious about doing MIDI and softsynths the right way. 

Here are a few of our members that have free downloads, but there are many many more.   We also included a list fo some reputabel websites like KVR Audio, Landr and more that have their own lists. 

It's amazing how much software you can get for free and it is own of the things that MIDI has made possible. 

https://www.native-instruments.com/en/specials/free-vst-plugins/

https://www.roland.com/global/products/rc_zenology/

https://www.arturia.com/products/software-instruments/analoglab/free

https://www.kvraudio.com/plugins/best-free-plugins

https://blog.landr.com/best-free-vst-plugins/