The best VST Synth?

[Alperian]

Thank you for that. It's always the usual suspects for good reason.

Well, apart from Omnisphere, the heavy hitters (probably better from a sound design point of view) are:

UVI Falcon 2
Vengeance Software's VPS Avenger
Kilohearts PhasePlant

These are so big and fulsome that they each come with their own mixers/miniDAWs, - grouped these three together. I don't know which one I would pick out of these. Probably the Avenger.

Wavetable Synths:
Xfer Serum
Massive X (you know that NI will keep working on it until it headlines).

[TheLegit]

I also love Omnishpere, although I'm finding myself using it less nowadays.

Eric Persing has an uncanny skill of being able to make sounds 'larger than life', and they can dominate a mix, which is great if this is a featured sound, but if not I find myself having to thin it out with EQ and so on.

Martin

Very true and this goes for Stylus Loops as well at times !

[jazzpick]

Hi, my first post in SOS.

Great thread!

[forumuser918214]

Pigments 3 has granular, additive, subtractive, sampling, fm, wavetables and multiples of all with super effects and filters and clear modulation routing, sequencing and arpeggiation - and over 1000 presets that show all that off.

[Alperian]

Image Line Harmor

Harmor is the only synth, (hardware or Software) that I have seen that totally runs with a *useable*additive vibe using 516 partials controlled with intuitive knobs that make it appear as though it is some mysterious subtractive machine. Did aliens give it to us?

SeamlessR is probably the greatest true believer of Harmor and his enthusiasm can be seen here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0ds8Jo1RZc

Not available for Macs though which might be why it doesn't get the adoration that it should.

I nominate this as the greatest synth that most ignored.

[alexlimbert]

I like Serum, Razor and Sylenth1 for songs and Omnisphere for sounds, many of them are based on samples though.

[Zukan]

I think this topic is a two parter, one that deals with vstis that sound good and others that offer deep sound design potential.

Alchemy, Falcon, Papen and FXPansion synths reign supreme when it comes down to sound design. For sound I'd opt for UHE and Eric's shit.

[BJG145]

Alchemy, Falcon, Papen and FXPansion synths reign supreme when it comes down to sound design.

Useful thread, +1 for Papen, Blue 2 has been a long-term favourite.

[Alperian]

I think this topic is a two parter, one that deals with vstis that sound good and others that offer deep sound design potential.

Probably a multi-parter:
1/ It was a trick question (which I have inadvertently learned from this thread, because there is no one uberalles solution) although perhaps Omnisphere is the most complete killer synth out of the box, but if you are a sound designer there are better products there depending on your type of music.

2/ The more that I learn about IL Harmor, the better it is as a work in progress at the greatest solution to unify the different synth modes (FM, Subtractive, granular etc.). The one synth to rule them all.

3/ There are dozens of VST synths out there that have 4 oscillators or more. Many of them the equal of Pigments, if not better. But of course it depends on your needs. Can you name them any?

4/ The more processing (CPU power) that has appeared & becomes available, then the better the modelling. Modartt has proven that sample technology will become a thing of the past in a few years. soon anything will be able to be modelled with such supreme accuracy that actual discrete transistors and capacitors in anything but power supplies and bus regulators will be long gone.

5/ Oh yeah! if these analogue things are built in China, then all this must be a good thing right?

[randomgrace]

Hi, look at some products of AIR Music Tech (Hybrid & Vaccum). Also wooble form Sonivox is good too.

[Arpangel]

In this order,

Synth One
Streetly Mellotron
Animoog
ThumbJam

[The Elf]

Not sure any of these are available as VST instruments, Arpy? I think they are all iPad/iPhone only.

(Good though they are)

[Arpangel]

Not sure any of these are available as VST instruments, Arpy? I think they are all iPad/iPhone only.

(Good though they are)

"Oh damn"

OK, in this order.

FM8
Guagear
Reason NNXT
Ginger Drum Machine.

[MarkOne]

Looking through my projects from 2021, there is a lot of Alchemy featured, Massive and Reaktor (although the latter almost exclusively for the fantastic Monark) I’ve found myself messing with Slate’s ANA2 quite a bit too

[Martin Walker]

Yep, I still use Alchemy a lot, for obvious reasons

[Alperian]

Alchemy must be one of the best pound for pound value synths that is semi-available.

That makes me think that many people use what comes with their DAW.

What is it with these French? What have they put in the water over there? Yes there is Pigments, but there is also UVI Falcon which is an absolute powerhouse.

[Kosmische]

Omnisphere
Kontakt (not a 'synth' , as such, but it becomes many things the way I use it)
Padshop (bundled with Cubase)
Fabfilter Twin
Synapse Legend
Roli Equator

HI Elf

I'd be really interested to hear more from you about what you do with Kontakt? As an amateur and newbie, I've barely scratched the surface of it.

[The Elf]

I'd be really interested to hear more from you about what you do with Kontakt? As an amateur and newbie, I've barely scratched the surface of it.

Huge subject...

I use Kontakt's scripting language, which lets me add and expose many elements of my custom instruments, such as poly aftertouch, effects control, pitch bend range, note ranges, envelope controls, sample start-position... and lots more besides (I have even been able to create a pseudo 'tape-grab' pitch mod for my Mellotron library). I expose many of these elements of an instrument in a 'control panel' in Kontakt, so I can quickly, for example, adjust attack/release, upper/lower key range, transposition, 'tape-grab' amount, velocity sensitivity, delay mix, etc.

I also developed a method of sampling, such that I can record one sample of many notes, and have Kontakt be able to replay every note in the sample separately to create a multi-sampled instrument. This has been particularly important for my Mellotron library, where I can sample a tape bank in one pass, then level and tune each note separately.

Then there is making a polysynth from a monosynth, which is a basic use of a sampler, but needs a few tricks to make it more convincing, such as randomising multiple samples. With a monosynth it is also important to allow legato notes to cut off the attack portion - I have a few scripting tricks to handle these elements.

I'm guessing that this will, indeed, be beyond you in all senses at this point. Suffice it to say that Kontakt is a hugely flexible and powerful instrument - not just a slavish sample player. There's no need to get involved with the kind of stuff I've outlined above. When you are ready all of that awaits you, if you have the will to get your hands dirty!

[Kosmische]

Thanks, Elf, for taking the time to reply. As you say. mostly beyond me but still very interesting.

Thanks again.

[MaestroMikeT]

In no particular order:

uHe Diva
UHe Repro 1
FM8
Zero G Modern Scoring Synth (Kontakt)
Absynth
Korg Legacy Collection
Rob Papen Albino3

Never made myself take the plunge and buy Omnisphere: whenever I was about to there was always this feeling of it overlapping much of what I already had, or just being weary of spending all that money and become a lazy preset shooter, not even trying to sculpt needed sounds anymore with readily available tools. Curiously, that feeling didn’t kick in when I invested in those uHe synths, and that Diva is a precious precious thing.
For years I’ve been a fan of Albino, Absynth and FM8 for textures, pads. I’m now entertaining the thought of buying UVI Falcon, but that “work hard with the tools you already have and stop spending money!” familiar feeling is eery close once again…

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