Open Mic: What’s the Best Software Synth?

Open Mic: What’s the Best Software Synth?

on Jun 15th 2011 with 32 comments

Each week we open our mic to readers and lurkers alike to come out of the woodwork and tell us your thoughts and opinion, your experiences and mistakes, what you love and what you hate. We want to hear from you, and here’s your chance.

I first played with synthesizers in the 80s. They were expensive machines with only a few notes of polyphony. It’s great we can do all that and more in software today. What do you think is the best software synth, and why?

 
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Adrian is writer and editor for Audiotuts+ and Envato Notes. He has been playing keys and acoustic guitar for three decades, and has six kids. Follow him on Twitter at @envatoaudio.  

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  • http://soundcloud.com/psyanidemp Pierce Guderski

    Native Instruments Massive. You can make virtually any sound imaginable. The unique and odd waveforms supplied help create ridiculously complex sounds, but you can also do so much with just a saw wave. Anything from guitar sounds to 808 kicks are very easy to make with Massive’s easy-on-the-eyes set up. It’s a great synth to learn synthesis on, but also, in my opinion the most powerful out there now.

  • http://www.danlueders.com Dan Lueders

    I really like and use the Arturia products. Mostly Mini Moog VI. It has very authentic sound that sounds great. NI Absynth 5 has some great sounds too.

  • http://www.afrodjmac.com AfroDJMac

    I really like Plogue ChipSounds and Ableton’s Sampler

  • http://soundcloud.com/ayso Andrew

    I havn’t really tried many but I do like Sylenth alot

  • VicDiesel

    Zebra. I mean……

    http://youtu.be/NmdEREBtTH0

    Seriously…..

    Victor.

    • Andy

      To say it it internet language:

      +1

  • http://miner.pdj.ru Vadim Miner

    Only ZEBRA2!!!

    My favorite synth for all!

    Fat bass, strong lead, sweet pads & crazy FX!

  • http://nachbelichtet.com Markus

    +1 for u-he Zebra. It’s a complex yet extreme flexible beast

  • Niggles

    I love Zebra too – so many great sounds – organic to totally twisted – still learning how to program it properly, but there’s so many great patches available to play with anyway!

  • stevo

    Propellerhead’s Reason. It’s about as comprehensive as you can get for a synth. A very deep application with infinite combinations. A large support community supplying a lot of free sound refills.

  • m4rt3z

    I have to say Sylenth, its my most used synth then Sytrus.

  • Karl

    I have to give a vote to Zebra as well. Incredibly powerful modular synthesis, super-cool oscillator effects, slick user interface, and a healthy community of patch makers. In the free instrument world, you gotta give credit to Synth1 for its solid programming, CPU friendliness, and wide range of classic sounds.

  • http://www.therealmusician.com Andrew

    I’m a big fan of Massive or anything really in the NI Komplete Collection.

  • http://twitter.com/#!/legendarymusic1 Dub tha Prodigy

    Can’t get enough of Nexus 2

  • Sam

    i find, for me, when it comes to synths, it’s a bit like microphones – you cant really say one is the best because they are all different in their own ways…

    if i had a favourite i’d probably say the korg MS2000 or the MFB Synth 2

  • http://totallykeyboard.net Matt

    I am a huge fan of the Reason soft synths. Malstrom and Thor are extremely powerful, and I use them for most things. The other package I use is the Korg Legacy Collection. They’re getting older now, but they’re still very useful.

  • http://pkemusic.com AnDrew

    I’ve pseronaly become very found of the Lennar Digital Sylenth. Great sound, very dynamic, and has tons of great presets to get you stated off with. Just match it with a decent compressor (the compressor in the plugin kind of sucks) and you’ll have sweet synth sex in w/ DAW you’re using. I use it on Logic and Ableton on my PC.

    http://www.lennardigital.com/modules/sylenth1

  • Andrew Olton

    Reason 5′s Thor. The sound crafting abilities are amazing!

  • pfff

    The Best Software Synth is a synth that has hardware synth’s quality of sound, it’s hands-on use and overall fun of using it.

  • Toni

    That one you know well!

    For me its “Synth 1″ and Rob Papens “Albino”

  • http://www.sleepparalysis.me George Mitropapas

    It would have to be Sylenth for me for its quality analogue sound, great filters even in high frequencies and easy of use.

  • http://bustede.com 0=0

    I like Vember Audio SURGE.. and NI’s FM7.

  • Aaron Pecker

    My best soft synth is Waldorf’s “Largo”!!

  • Phil

    #1 Is by far the PolyKB II from XILS-lab, an incredible recreation of the french classic RSF Polykobol. Sonically nothing gets closer to the real analog thing than this.

    They also made a superb recreation of the VCS3 and are planning to release the legendary ELKA Synthex as a plugin soon!

    The plugins are usually quite demanding in hardware terms, so a muscular computer is mandatory.

  • Martin Holmberg

    My favourite(s) are Fxpansions DCam suite. Brilliant and versatile :-)

  • Serge

    Linplug Albino 3. It can be used almost for everything.

  • Hartzet

    Native Instruments Massive and Absynth

  • http://audiojungle.net/user/ARSound/profile ARSound

    Reason and Omnysphere, I think

  • jakubt

    Do not know if it is “the best”, but my favourite one is AAS UltraAnalog. Powerful but relatively simple and intuitive.

  • Another Michael

    As a guitarist and relative synth noob, I find I can get the organic kinda sounds I like most quickly with the Novation V-Station.

  • dje

    I have most of these. So far my favourites are Albino3 and FM8.

  • browndwarf

    Current favorites are G-Force Imposcar II and Korg Mono/Poly. Happy 2012 :)