What are your top 5 soft synths

[TheLegit]

I only use 3 at the moment and would rank them:

1. Alchemy
2 . Omnisphere
3. Sylenth

I'm looking to expand my 'portfolio' so was wondering what would be other users top 5 soft synths in this day and age.

[muzines]

These threads always degenerate into everyone just listing every plugin there is..!

What sort of music do you make? Some instruments are more suited to styles of music than others.

I personally like all the Gforce stuff, all the Spectrasonics stuff, u-he, Roland & Korg stuff, and for EDM Spire and Serum are great too - but there are plenty of other great plugins and developers around too.

I never liked Sylenth at all, btw, but it seems to be a staple synth for EDM, along with Massive...

[Folderol]

I use Yoshimi
Why would I want another four?

[Dave B]

If I'm using plugins, then I'll basically use :

* Korg M1 / Wavestation - choirs on the M1 and the rest from the Wavey. I've had wavestations for so long that I just know what I want from it

* Arturia Oberheim Sem - I got it as part of a collection and basically haven't used any other others. This is simple and sounds good.

oh ... and I have Modartt Pianoteq for any piano / ep needs.

But I'm a happy mix'n'match type of guy who uses both plugins and hardware. So, I'm just as likely to get something from my Kronos or beloved old JD990 which are always to hand. Plus whatever analogue is currently in play at the moment.

[Freelance Subversive]

I find AAS's 'Lounge Lizard' to be generally excellent for electric piano sounds. They also offer a pared-down version in their 'Session Bundle'.

[garrettendi]

For me I only really use Air's "Vacuum Pro" and u-he's "Beatzille" and "Tyrell N6".

For piano, "Pianoteq" is by far the best for me.

[Martin Walker]

For me Alchemy is still top dog, (even though I'm on a PC and on that platform it's now a legacy item), largely because I created over 300 patches for Camel Audio across its various libraries, so I effectively have a wide range of 'signature sounds' at my disposal

AAS Chromaphone & String Studio (for similar reasons to Alchemy ) Oh, and AAS Lounge lizard for electric piano.

Diva is a go-to for traditional synth sounds, as it just sounds so realistic.

Kontakt gets used for all sample-based sounds (particularly with the weirder libraries from Twisted Tools)

Omnisphere is used occasionally, and Trilogy for bass sounds (although they do tend to overpower a mix if you're not very careful).

Martin

[Andy McBain]

Synthmaster and Synthmaster One get a lot of use here - very good value for money, and a rich, deep sound that just seems to sit nicely in the mix to my ears!

[Guest]

I don't normally do this sort of thing, and have to split in into 2:

1: best at the moment, in no order

Omnisphere/keyscape (counting as one as keyscape runs in Omnisphere)
Cypher II (a treat in waiting)
Bazille (as they say a monster of a synth)
Buchla Easel V (If only I could have a real one)
Aalto (Just wonderful)

2: classics of all time

Omnisphere (Showing content is king)
Absynth (What had sounded like this, a wow moment)
Reaktor (glitch and percussion perfection, leading to "zero" delay filters over time, amazing)
FM8 (Great interface, good sounds)
Plogue Bidule (released soon...)

Which just goes to show, its all in the mind if the beholder.

[Zukan]

Falcon and Synthronik. Don't need anything else.

[Dave B]

I do wonder if Zukan will change his mind if he gets hold of AudioDamage's Quanta (granular synth)? I'm tempted myself..

[resistorman]

I want to put a plug in (ahem) for all the great iOS synths out there... everything from Moog, Yonack, and Waldorf. Layr. There are are so many, and if you have an iPad pro2 and an iConnectivity interface, they are really useful and a lot of fun.