What's your favorite software synth to program, and why?

[tapiodmitriyevich]

Serum - Bread and butter
Strobe 2. Pads and Drones
Geist 2 - Drums and fun

[Phorous]

Omnisphere 2, mainly because of the modulation system. While it may not be as powerful some some super complicated modular, you can easily get what you need done between the 4 MSEGs, 6 LFOs, and The Orb. Right click modulation assignment provides for super fast workflow. The MSEG "chaos" feature makes self transforming step sequencer style envelopes a breeze. Of course you can modulate the LFOs, MSEGs, and even the feature packed arpeggiator as well.

Each individual thing within Omnisphere can be saved as a preset, so I can easily recall my rhythmic MSEGs, individual effects racks, arpeggiator, filter presets, etc.

Omnisphere 2 added alot of great effects modules as well, like the Resonator and Interspace which both add awesome tonal and special dimensions to your sounds. The "bread and butter" effects had quite a few high quality additions in v2 as well.

Its no wonder I spend the majority of my sound design time working within Omnisphere, rather than tinkering with external effects or even DAW automation. It all can be done within Omnisphere faster

[Stopani]

I've been using Strobe 2 a lot recently and it's fast becoming my favourite synth to program. In fact its fast becoming my favourite soft synth altogether.

There are tons of modulation options, you can change the unit displays of various controls like Filter Cut Off etc and it can all be done in one page ( unless you a using the effects and ARP which have their own page ).

[hivkorn]

softube modular

[Armagibbon]

Wow, I never gave this any thought before. Cool thread!

I guess I like Absynth 5 the most, all the good stuff is real easy to edit.
After that, probably Omnisphere? Sometimes I don't know how to make what I want from scratch, so that tagged preset browser combined with all the exposed controls has been a godsend.

[D N A]

I liked to program Tone2 Gladiator mainly because it was very different than the other synths, yet it's was easy and fun. Other non-subtractive synths always felt to me like a little bit too complicated, too many knobs needed to be tweaked in order to find something musically interesting. I really liked programming long, evolving pads even if normally I prefer lead / synth sounds

Also, as far as I remember, there was a very nice randomize button.

[mcnoone]

The U-he Hive synth.
I like the set up and the way I can experiment with it using various negative and positive settings.
There's a wider selection of parameters to modulate that are more directly available.
The sounds I can do with it are much better sounding to me than any other synth.
edit: The drag to target thing is also very convenient.

[fgimian]

If I only had to choose one, I think it would be Serum and here are the reasons:

* Beautiful and clear interface
* Amazing sound!!!!
* Ability to draw and import my own wavetables
* Awesome unison engine
* Awesome effects
* Drag & drop modulation
* FM (probably the best FM I've ever heard too)

But due to its high CPU, I would likely add Spire as a companion.

Of course in reality, I use and love Spire, Sylenth1, HIVE, Serum, Massive, DUNE 2 and Zebra 2

[liv]

Currently for me it's Bazille.
Everytime I dive deep into it (as I'm am currently) there are new discoveries, and characters and colors I find extremely rewarding.
The oscillator section alone is like a pandora box of treasures and UI for me just makes sense.

[phreaque]

Top 5 for me:
1. Reveal Sound Spire
2. Sches Diversion
3. Parawave Rapid
4. U-He Hive
5. Image-Line Sytrus
The reason is: GUI is straight forward, all parameters are in front of user & lots of matrices.

[liv]

Absynth's envelopes together with the filters waveshaper feedback needs to be mentioned here as well. So a big vote for Absynth, together with mentioned Bazille.

[KBSoundSmith]

Cool Question

Serum

• Lightning-fast to program, whether making complex or simple patches -- Wavetable editors, modulation, etc are all really easy
• Beautiful, informative GUI. Just pleasurable to use (tabs don't bother me, btw. YMMV)
• Excellent sound quality -- very clean
• Diversity of sound -- there's very little it can't do

Diva

• Instant gratification, lol. Very quick to make sounds (noticing a trend...)
• Excellent sound quality
• Pairs wonderfully with Serum -- complementary sounds/function

Honorable mention...

Spectral
This is fun to program in the mad-scientist way. It's slower to program than I usually care for (outside of rudimentary patches), but it makes up for that by producing very unique results.

[Bodhisan]

Rediscovering Octopus, now that I'm getting more educated on "what's what" in Synthland. The idea of using envelopes for all the modulations is pretty interesting. I sometimes have a hard time figuring out how to get rid of "clicks," which I think I remember reading about as being a complaint in the past, but it seems to be with the release...or something around that end of the envelope. Yes, there are limitations due to the "age" and being dropped from the line, but...gee, when you listen to the patches, it's doing some crazy ass shit, and if I can learn how to do some of it, I'll be pretty happy. Plus, to my ears, it sounds really, really good - with low cpu. Dropping in samples, though limited, can add that extra something when you're lazy or even when you're not.

[pdxindy]

My favorites change over time

These 3 are my current favorites cause there is just nothing else like them...
Bazille - fantastic sound quality in a flexible audio-rate playground...
Sculpture and Phonem are a pleasure to program... refreshing and unusual paradigms

RePro-1 when I just want to dial in a lovely sound and play...

[Halonmusic]

VirtualCZ. Sexy 80s sounds. Very easy to program.

Beatzille (Bazille magware). Just love to program this baby. Anything from classic analog basses to FM bells and what not.