Poll: What are your favorite virtual synths?

Gregory Blakeborough said:

I just started my journey into soft synths quite recently, and I chose UAD PolyMAX for the simplicity and great sound. Also have been fiddling with Cherry Audio's SEM.

Which synth would be a next logical step up after I learn all the ins-and-outs of PolyMAX?

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One synth I wish I had discovered sooner is Tone2 Icarus 2 - I find it a very intuitive interface and capable of going to some very interesting places (especially using the resynthesis elements). Sadly, the trial is rather annoying in hitting one with frequent verbal reminders to buy.

If you wanted to try a very different type of synthesis, then Dawsome's Novum has a 90 day unlimited trial via the Tracktion website. Also on that site, one can get Hyperion (a very deep venture into modular style synthesis). Sadly, the demo on that is limited to 7 days.

One massive mistake I made in setting out was acquiring too many different synths too quickly (fortunately, always when they were at heavily discounted sale prices). My storage drive is a graveyard of unloved VIs.

avid_d said:

One massive mistake I made in setting out was acquiring too many different synths too quickly (fortunately, always when they were at heavily discounted sale prices). My storage drive is a graveyard of unloved VIs.

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I'm completely overloaded too. So I made a rule that I won't buy anything else until I've used each of them in a finished project at least once. Current count is 11 (not including free stuff) that have not been used yet, lol, and they're all great sounding synths...

This is a tough one I'll get to my selection ASAP but I have to say there's one synth missing that deserves to be in there purely because of its legacy. ALCHEMY!!

I know technically it's a Logic synth but it was my favourite for years, long before it was snapped up by Apple. It's still one of the best in my opinion although I haven't used it in a while since I've mostly been using Ableton Live & Cubase this past few years. IMO it deserves to be included separately on the list but of course this is your pole & obviously your decision.

EDIT: Jus noticed this is a bit of an oldy & I had already chosen
I still stand by what I said about Alchemy though.

biomuse said:

Got something against the newer PM synths, Pier?
I’ll second Plasmonic (which is brilliant) and also cite the Physical Audio synths (Modus, Preparation, Derailer) which are amazing if you want to bow metal sculpture ITB.

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Not at all!

It's just that I started this poll almost 4 years ago and then the thread kinda died after some time and remained dormant until someone necroed it.

It's impossible to add all synths in existence so I've been adding stuff as people requested it.

I will add Plasmonic and a single entry for the Physical Audio synths. The list is already quite overwhelming as it is

Thanks for the poll! It is very enlightening.

I was disappointed to see open source synths like Surge XT not getting much love, but it is what it is.

I did think that there was one awesome free synth other than Surge and Vital (Odin is also good) that was left off but at first I couldn't come up with it but I finally remembered: Cardinal! Surely that should be included, and for that matter VCV Rack probably deserves to be listed (although I don't have that one).

As you say it is an impossible task to make a comprehensive list but if it isn't too late I would respectfully suggest you think about adding Cardinal and VCV Rack.

Gregory Blakeborough said:

I just started my journey into soft synths quite recently, and I chose UAD PolyMAX for the simplicity and great sound. Also have been fiddling with Cherry Audio's SEM.

Which synth would be a next logical step up after I learn all the ins-and-outs of PolyMAX?

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I love Polymax also. Now that you have the “Roland Polysynth” sound I would think about what other colors you like to hear in your music. Analog Mono? Digital FM? Wavetable? Physical modeling? I’d stay away from modular/semi-modular for now. Bit of a time sink. With the other types you’ll get good presets. If your strategy with UAD is working why not continue? Opal would give you wavetable and Minimoog would give you a punchy mono. You would have covered a lot of the timbral waterfront. Good luck.

vitocorleone123 said:

Changes for me.

Missing now are 3 of my current favorite synths: Twin3 (my fav), UAD Opal, and the new and amazing Axxess.

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Do you mind sharing what it is you like about Twin3? I followed your advice into Repro and very glad I did!

These days it's Massive X.
Despite of all NI's efforts to cut corners (WTF NI???), this is one very flexible, powerful synth. Not quite as much as something like Avenger or some other monster synths but still manages to cover a LOT of ground and more important to me its somewhat mercurial sonic character resonates a lot more with my aging bones and keeps surprising me on a daily basis.
YMMV, as usual.

I have a couple ones:

All u-He synths are good. All of them. They are so cool, but we know that already. I think the usual suspects are covered enough, so let me chime in with some (lesser known) gems:

Knifonium I would pick because that thing generates subbass so loud and thick the plaster on my walls comes off...

Monark is such an underrated gem. It can scream like no other.

Generate because it's such a wonderful sound generator (not a sound design synth). Same as Kult. Love them for generating unpredictable surprises.

Razor doesn't get enough love. If you want razorsharp (pun intended) sounds that cut through anything, it will do it. And man, put a limiter on your output. That thing goes loud!

Another one without enough love is Massive X. It is capable of really beautiful, ethereal sounds that are much more organic sounding than almost any synth without using samples, but you wouldn't know that from the marketing. Say what you will about the workflow, but that thing's DSP is absolutely top tier. You can hear where the R&D went.

Crossroads said:

Another one without enough love

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We even have a thread for that

I think my favourite is probably RePro.

A couple of leftfield choices. I really like Dagger Synth from BeepStreet and also IceGear Synths, especially Lorentz.

Dagger and Lorentz are both iOS first and are now available on M1 Macs (AU only I think?).

They're really, really good and very inexpensive. Lorentz is £10, Dagger Synth is only $12.99. And that's when not on sale. And they work on my phone!

Crossroads said:

Another one without enough love is Massive X. It is capable of really beautiful, ethereal sounds that are much more organic sounding than almost any synth without using samples, but you wouldn't know that from the marketing. Say what you will about the workflow, but that thing's DSP is absolutely top tier. You can hear where the R&D went.

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As to 'organic' sounding, I spent some time comparing it to my other (ex-)favorite synths (creating similar patches, etc ...) and for lack of a better term the vibes coming out of Mx somehow sound more 'alive' than what I got from anything else I've tried, including re-creations of analogue synths. (Sometimes I had the strange impression that Mx is 'breathing' sounds, pretty trippy).

Tusker said:

Do you mind sharing what it is you like about Twin3? I followed your advice into Repro and very glad I did!

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It sounds amazing and the filters are very flexible.

It's a shame FF didn't add a couple more features to it. IMHO they missed a big opportunity to make a workhorse synth. I guess this is not a very important product for FF and they decided to not invest too much dev time into it.

Zim said:

As you say it is an impossible task to make a comprehensive list but if it isn't too late I would respectfully suggest you think about adding Cardinal and VCV Rack.

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I've added VCV Rack. Cardinal is a fork of VCV with more default modules so I don't think it's worth adding a new entry for it.

Tusker said:

Do you mind sharing what it is you like about Twin3? I followed your advice into Repro and very glad I did!

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Axxess is my new Repro (well, so is Repro as it's not going anywhere) - sounds different, has a similar "feel" to me. Loving it, and the intro price was 100% worth buying immediately.

As for Twin3, it's not an immediate synth like Axxess or Repro (at least not without making some default presets with, say, stereo panning available), so it and UAD Opal, and even Hive 2, are more a complexity level up from there, when I'm willing to spend some time building a sound. I don't want "kitchen sink" synths like Omnisphere or Zebra or anything modular, as those turn me off and end up making be bored and frustrated. Twin3, to me, IS a workhorse synth. If I want something it doesn't offer, I just use another horse!

Twin3 also sounds fantastic - it sounds more "analog" to me than most other softsynths, including synths like Diva, for example.

It is not a synth I'd immediately recommend a straight out purchase of, however. Definitely a long-term demo, though. It took me some time and exploration (in full-screen mode) to learn to love it, as it wasn't as immediate as something like Axxess.

I'm generally not looking for new synths anymore, in part due to Twin3, as it, plus Opal and Hive 2, cover a LOT of synth ground. And then I add in Axxess, Repro, Model 84, and a few other specific emulations. I'm also resolved to use my hardware synths more this year, espcially since I'm not upgrading my 9900K CPU until the next-gen Intel chips are out at the end of the year (tbd).

I sense another synth and fx culling coming for me in the coming couple months. It's hard to let go synths you like, though. But if they aren't synths you love, I figure why keep them installed. I just deleted Oddity 3, for example. Not ready to sell it, but I rarely use it even though I really like how it sounds. Axxess is much better for me.

Currently my fav are Surge, ModulAir and V-Station

vitocorleone123 said:

Axxess is my new Repro (well, so is Repro as it's not going anywhere) - sounds different, has a similar "feel" to me. Loving it, and the intro price was 100% worth buying immediately.

As for Twin3, it's not an immediate synth like Axxess or Repro (at least not without making some default presets with, say, stereo panning available), so it and UAD Opal, and even Hive 2, are more a complexity level up from there, when I'm willing to spend some time building a sound. I don't want "kitchen sink" synths like Omnisphere or Zebra or anything modular, as those turn me off and end up making be bored and frustrated. Twin3, to me, IS a workhorse synth. If I want something it doesn't offer, I just use another horse!

Twin3 also sounds fantastic - it sounds more "analog" to me than most other softsynths, including synths like Diva, for example.

It is not a synth I'd immediately recommend a straight out purchase of, however. Definitely a long-term demo, though. It took me some time and exploration (in full-screen mode) to learn to love it, as it wasn't as immediate as something like Axxess.

I'm generally not looking for new synths anymore, in part due to Twin3, as it, plus Opal and Hive 2, cover a LOT of synth ground. And then I add in Axxess, Repro, Model 84, and a few other specific emulations. I'm also resolved to use my hardware synths more this year, espcially since I'm not upgrading my 9900K CPU until the next-gen Intel chips are out at the end of the year (tbd).

I sense another synth and fx culling coming for me in the coming couple months. It's hard to let go synths you like, though. But if they aren't synths you love, I figure why keep them installed. I just deleted Oddity 3, for example. Not ready to sell it, but I rarely use it even though I really like how it sounds. Axxess is much better for me.

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Huh, so you like GeForce's ARP Axxess AXXE emulation more than their emulation of its "big brother" the ARP Odyssey. Wonder if it's because you like the synth it's modeling more or if the modeling is better (at least as of Oddity version 3). The ARP AXXE used to be £200 in 1996, according to Sound on Sound, though it seems to be going for about $700-800 now used, while Korg's keyboardless recreation of the Odyssey rev 1 can apparently be found used for about $550-650.

Current is quickly making its way onto my list of favorites. It's not the most powerful but it's powerful. It's kind of in that Serum/Vital/Pigments range in terms of flexibility and features, but the UI/UX is just super thoughtfully constructed and comfortable to use. It goes without saying the built in FX are fantastic. I'm sort of in the process of Current completely replacing the tools I generally use for quick drum design. The sub oscillator gives you the same kind of control over the envelope you'd get with something like PunchBox or Kick 2 (albeit you can do more with pitch envelopes in Kick 2) except you can do a lot more with the sound after building the bones of it.

That, and it has an option to turn on pop-up help tips. This might seem comical to many of you who are not from the ADHD generation, but I don't want to open the manual for every knob and button when I don't know what it does. I'm no pro but I've been doing this long enough that I can usually fill in the blanks from a brief explanation. Just being able to hover over a button and say, "oh, this little unlabeled icon does x and I can do y and z with it" is a huge QOL thing for me. This is a part of why I stuck with Ableton when I was first learning. The little help box in the bottom left tells you what a thing is, what the keyboard shortcut for it is, what its different modes represent, and so on. It allowed me to learn without constantly having to take breaks to satisfy my curiosity.

That said, I'm aware the botched launch of Current left a bad taste for a lot of you. Thankfully I was pretty oblivious to it. When Current first came out I thought, if I have Avenger/Phase Plant/Serum/Vital/Zebra, who cares. Which is totally fair, aside from some neat features with the sub osc it doesn't do much you couldn't cover with Avenger or Phase Plant with a similar level of effort. But as you guys know, sometimes the magic of an instrument is that its layout and design philosophy sort of guide you in directions you wouldn't necessarily go with other synths. By the time I thought Current might offer something worthwhile (largely as a consequence of me realizing their effect plugins are very cool sound design tools) it had already been available as a perpetual license for a while.

Added Current to the poll!

Razzia said:

Current is quickly making its way onto my list of favorites. It's not the most powerful but it's powerful. It's kind of in that Serum/Vital/Pigments range in terms of flexibility and features, but the UI/UX is just super thoughtfully constructed and comfortable to use. It goes without saying the built in FX are fantastic.

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I don't like the reverb. Of course I can use something else, and if most of the presets use it at or near the end of the chain (maybe with the Fuse compressor afterwards?), then it won't be hard to swap it out... but unfortunately I don't like the vast majority of the presets either going by the demos I've heard, though a decent number seem within tweaking range for me. I strongly dislike the frequency balance of many of them, but to be fair that might be the style they're going for. Their "lofi" presets have one of the least appealing intentional "lofi" effects I can remember ever having heard.

OTOH Minimal Audio claim the extreme business of most of the presets---which leaves very little room for playing melodies or including other tonal elements---can easily be turned down using the macros (... it's almost as if their name is ironic in this context, because the presets seem to tend to be maximalist).

Torn on whether to even bother demoing this until they come out with more presets I like, since I generally prefer tweaking presets over designing patches from scratch. They should commission presets from some other designers, especially for genres that aren't dubstep derivatives. Especially for "cinematic".

One potential major positive for me is the MPE integration---unlike many developers they've done the obvious thing and simply ported modwheel over to Slide/Y axis, which could save me a ton of time when tweaking presets (if only I actually liked them!). Though I don't think I've seen anyone confirm that that actually works well in Current, or that the MPE playability is particularly good.