yes, I know I'm more of a futurist person but I also have roots in the early synthesizer days. My first programming experience was on my keyboard player's minimoog and later, after the band a Moog Sattelite, way better than you might think - it had a nice warm sound, and another 2 osc synth by Moog for the life of me that I can't remember.

I also used my keyboardist's Oddessy and initially hated it for not sounding like a moog until I really learned about LFOs and s&h. Oh the wild noises it made! Which leads me to my list:

Best emulation:
Oddity - as Neo said, "woah!", not only does it sound great and on the money to it's hardware equivilent but it feels right providing you used one before. It may seem alien to some as it did to me but woah! it really sounds great

M-Tron - it looks like a seedy, old Mellotron and has some absolutely bitchin tape libraries. This is such a good emulation! Some people think the sax sounds or some lesser known sounds don't cut it but when in the proper arrangement and mixed well can produce results that just aren't anywhere similar to the clean, overproduced samples we are so used to.

But G-Media doesn't get a clean sweep because Waldorf did one incredible job with PPG Wave 2.v. You may hate the sound but owners of PPG Wave 2.3s were beta testers along with the developers at Waldorf. The PPG Wave 2.v nails the synth's sound although it's patch library doesn't always give you the best representation of what this VSTi can do. Also, it's one of, if not the first multitimbral VSTis.

Runner up:
Although never a big fan I think Pro 53 has gotten the essence of the Prophet sound. A lot of pros use it, and let's be honest, wouldn't you rather use 90% of the synth's sound than lug a classic on the road? Wouldn't you like to compose with soft synths on a laptop and a Oxygen 8 or similar controller? Native Instruments has kept up the model and added a few features not found on real Prohpets.

Last thing, when people complain about how this or that synth emulation isn't good they need to decide if they have foundation to back this up. Example, there is a review on the Oddity and a thread awhile back where a couple of people made a big stink over how other synths sounded better and weren't as expensive. Perhaps to these people that's a valid point, but if you know what the Oddity emulates you know it does a bang up good job. The same for PPG Wave 2.v, Pro 53 and M-Tron, another VSTi a reviewer hated because the samples didn't sound clean! lol, I don't mean to make fun of anyone but the charm of the Mellotron was it's evocative simulation, not it's exacting precision!

Ok, done rambling, anyone else have some favorites?

Mtron all the way ....

Some more:

Arturia's MMV: Tried out the public beta when we weren't supposed too, but damn did this thing sound nice. Havent bought it yet, and probably won't, but nonetheless I was floored by the sound.

Then there's the B4. Which I've spent only some time playing with as I don't own but I do need to buy it. For now DaOrgan will do.

Lounge Lizard: Best Rhodes and Wurly sounds around, nuff said.

Combosister: Kind of like Lounge Lizard in that it does more than one sound, but it sounds fantastic and does the Vox & Farfisa thing great. In fact I just bought a Farfisa VIP 255, and Combosister still holds up to the real thing, and is more flexible in it's sounds and easier to use.

So there's a few more for the list. I know e-magic has organs and EP sounds and whatnot, but this are my favorites based on experience.

Not tried it yet but surely the ultimate emulation has to be the V Station seeing as;

a) its made by the same company as the K Station and

b) it even loads its presets

The second best must be the Moog Modular V - as endorsed by Bob Moog himself - I have tried the demo of that (though it stuttered a lot on my Athlon 500) but having not used an original don't know how realistic it is but Bob should know

and the third...I think Emagic's EVB3 is amazingly close to the Hammond B3 - closer than NI's version in feel (if not look).

Pro-53, The Oddity and PPG Wave 2.v for sure, since I own an
original Prophet 5 and ARP Odyssey I should be able to have an opinion.
The PPG Wave 2.3 is owned by a musician I know so...

GMedia all the way.

I was always a hardware dude and only got into this VST game because I needed a software Odyssey clone for live use. I found it in the Oddity and never looked back. My top three emulations are:

1) GMedia Oddity - It nails that ARP Odyssey sound totally and still blows me away. Great live and awesome in the studio, I use this on everything.

2) GMedia M-Tron - Saves thousands of $ in repair bills. Some of the extra tapes are amazing and can add total vibe to a track. Essential for adding something different to a mix.

3) NI B4 - If the M-Tron saves repair $ the B4 saves chiropractor $. Used live and in the studio with a good controller its so close to the real deal.

Also ran - NI Pro53. Good all-rounder, especially with the HPF addition, but the Prophet 5 still hasn't been consigned to the cage just yet.

Up 'n coming - GMedia impOSCar. I never owned an OSCar but the website MP3s sound nice and dirty and its been a long time coming

i (over-?)use the Oddity on everything. With my ribbon controller doing the PPC-style pitch bends and a couple of faders assigned to the VCO's modulation, i'm as happy as a pig in shit. Very good VSTi. Also use M-Tron a heck of a lot too - looking forward to the Vol.3 Tape Bank and the MegaTron. GMedia may have the retro market sewn up at this rate.

Non-VSTis that i use are for my CreamWare system: Pro One, Prophet and Minimax, these really are the dog's. There's no VSTi that does Minimoog like MiniMax (MMV is an emulation of a different beast, so i won't go there). i can't believe CM still rate the Model-E. Pur-leaze.

Gosh, looking at that list i look like a right retro head. Can't wait to try out impOSCar against my real OSCar. There i go again (repeat after me, "Must try granular synthesis, must try granular synthesis...")

Mr A

Must become a Cubeist, must become a Reaktorian using Dash's daDa ensemble (very nice, playable granular synth - works great with your own samples too.

I've heard samples of the OSCar and the G-Media impOSCar and they sound like the same synth. G-Media has a track record with great emulations - and emulations that no one else has really concentrated on excepting Mellotrons.

Anyone have any idea how the DashSynthesis Combo Sister stacks up against the B4 Tonewheel collection. I'm looking to introduce some farfisa-esque/vox-ish organs into my collection and don't know which one of these I should go with.

Mr Arkadin wrote:

i (over-?)use the Oddity on everything. With my ribbon controller doing the PPC-style pitch bends and a couple of faders assigned to the VCO's modulation, i'm as happy as a pig in shit. Very good VSTi. Also use M-Tron a heck of a lot too - looking forward to the Vol.3 Tape Bank and the MegaTron. GMedia may have the retro market sewn up at this rate.

Mr A. What ribbon controller do you use? Sweetwater had a clearout on the Expressionmate recently and I can't find anything else except attached to a big keyboard.

I am probably going to be publicly whipped for this by some HW freak out there but....

To me the Oddity sounds a good deal BETTER than the ARP Oddyssey!!!!!!

It was a long time since i tried the ARP (and it might have been an Axxe) but the first thing that struck me when i tried the Oddity was, OMG the original never sounded this good!!!!!

I never quite liked the ARP. As x_bruce says, it does'nt sound like a Minimoog.

Puff Daddy

Quote:

Mr A. What ribbon controller do you use? Sweetwater had a clearout on the Expressionmate recently and I can't find anything else except attached to a big keyboard.

Yes i got the Kurzweil Expressionmate in the Sweetwater clearout. Bloody bargain. They're still £400 in the UK (blimey!), and they were blowing out those buggers for US$169, so even with delivery to the UK and Customs charges (gits!) it was ridiculously cheap. Maybe i should have got two because i don't think i could work without it now, it really has opened up my playing in terms of using expression controllers (obviously it can be assigned to any function - or split across three functions).

It also does arpeggios, MIDI rhythm loops and you can attach two expression pedals and assign them wherever, as well as two assignable front panel switches and a Yamaha breath controller can be plugged in too. It is so ruddy complicated/flexible though (usual Kurzweil incomprehensible manual and cryptic functions - the Japanese do better!)and i've barely got past using it as a pitch bender. Recommended at the low price.

Mr A.

The PPG Wave 2.V(in True PPG mode)and the Oddity-those are given.The Pro-53-could be.The real Prophets I've played varied quite a bit as far as sound goes-there's a lot of difference between Series 2 and Series 3 Prophets because of the different filter chips.
The one that hasn't been mentioned so far is FM7.Yeah,the panel isn't the same(thank God!),it's a lot easier to program,etc;but if you play around with the digital slider,you can nail that trashy 12 bit original DX sound on the head .In 32 bit mode,it's just TOO clean-like the PPG Wave 2.V in that respect.
There's also some amazing Reaktor replicas-I've got a CS80 clone with the same problems with key scaling as my hardware CS60 .
ew

The question is, which VSTi does a better emulation of the Commodore 64 SID chip? Is it the ReFx QuadraSID 6581, or the Steinberg Model-E? I think it's a tight race.

There is a great article in the June Electronic Musician. It refers to emulation of popular vintage synths and does a physical comparison with virtual synths.

They applied the Rat's Ass test. They concluded that if a VSTi sounded great and came close to the sound of the original, who gave a rat's ass if they sound identical to the hardware. Few projects require perfect emulations and if a soft synth captures the essence of the the hardware, this would be sufficient if not more than sufficient.

I tend to agree. For me FM7 is a great emulation of the DX7. I don't regret selling my DX7 many years ago thanks to this great VSTi.

dano

Rat's ass test! Thanks for that phrase, it's worth a tatoo at least!!

Gmedia Oddity gets it, but what do we all think is still missing? I think it's the Mini. Maybe Gmedia can nail the mini as well as they nailed the Odyssey. I'm not sure what Megatron is, but I'm looking forward to an authenic Oscar emulation.

electro wrote:

what do we all think is still missing?

I was just saying in another thread that I miss my Oberheim Matrix 1000.

Mr Arkadin wrote:

It also does arpeggios, MIDI rhythm loops and you can attach two expression pedals and assign them wherever, as well as two assignable front panel switches and a Yamaha breath controller can be plugged in too. It is so ruddy complicated/flexible though (usual Kurzweil incomprehensible manual and cryptic functions - the Japanese do better!)and i've barely got past using it as a pitch bender. Recommended at the low price. Mr A.

I should have got it when I had the chance

Mr Arkadin wrote:

None VSTis that i use are for my CreamWare system: Pro One, Prophet and Minimax, these really are the dog's. There's no VSTi that does Minimoog like MiniMax (MMV is an emulation of a different beast, so i won't go there). i can't believe CM still rate the Model-E. Pur-leaze. Mr A

minimax?where can i find this?

vurt wrote:

minimax?where can i find this?

www.creamware.de/en/Products/software/creamware/minimax/defaultpics.as p

It's not a VSTi, it's a Creamware plugin (or device as CW calls them). You need one of the CW dsp cards (Pulsar or Luna) to run it.

Edit: You can also run it on Creamware's new standalone synth Noah:

www.creamware.de/en/Products/Noah/default.asp

/Yoss

After reading the Creamware thread I'll just say this. I'm happy with my inferior VST instruments and have been a firm believer in the Rat's Ass theory for a long, long time.

FM7 indeed emulates the DX7 although I'm more interested in it for it's expansion of the DX7's technology.