your "super-synth" ?

[recursive one]

I think it's just a general change of producers' mindset. 10 years ago it was like "you need Virus to get these hypersaws and plucks, you need Nordlead to get these ripping FM sounds, you need JP8000 to get these huge pads, otherwise it won't sound right", now it's more about sound design and production techniques where the basic character of the synth is not that important as it is going to be layered, processed, resampled and whatnot.

Good point. Even though i'd still say that, the least you need to process the hell out of your plugins, the more beneficial it is, and the more it says about the base quality of the plugin itself. At least i have a lot of more fun with synths which have a big sweet spot, and sound good for more or less everything, than plugins you need to force to sound good for certain sounds. Or, having to have a load of them in your plugin folder, for all the small little things they really do well.

Well, I'm still learning production, mixing and all that stuff but I believe there is no right and wrong way here. I do prefer synths which have strong and pleasant character without any extra processing (well, like Access Virus, you know I'm a diehard fan of this machine) but eventually any sound, no matter how awesome it is on its own, is just a part of a mix and it is still going to be processed to fit its role in your track. Sometimes a bland, weak sound just fits the bill, while huge and fat patches often need heavy equalization to sit well together with the other sounds. Basically in my case it all starts with the inspiration which I get from playing these huge sounds from Virus, Viper or Spire, but then it all comes down to purely technical things, and sometimes the synths which I don't like on their own, perfectly fit the mix. Like Dune2, I find its clean and neutral sound is not very inspiring but when I need a "secondary" synth line or something Dune does the job, and then there are all kinds of saturators, character compressors etc which can add a little extra here and there.

[Ingonator]

You abandoned Saurus?!

Of course i still use it but it is not in my CURRENT (!!) Top 5 go-to synths that i listed here.

FWIW in the last 12 months (or more) and especially during this year i had a job that left very few time for doing music, sound design and/or beta testing like i did in the past but now that this job is over i started re-checking and updating my synths (which might end in sorting some of them out and selling them, including some hardware). Also again started doing a bit of sound design, so far mostly with Icarus.

[Teksonik]

Again, all I am saying is that after observing this whole VSTi scene for a couple of years, each synth has its deficits,

Nothing is perfect. If you spend your life looking for perfection in synths or anything else you've simply wasted your life.

Hundreds of thousands perhaps millions of musicians are making music with those plugins you find imperfect because they have learned to work with what is instead of spending their time complaining about what isn't......

[fluffy_little_something]

Again, all I am saying is that after observing this whole VSTi scene for a couple of years, each synth has its deficits,

Nothing is perfect. If you spend your life looking for perfection in synths or anything else you've simply wasted your life.

Hundreds of thousands perhaps millions of musicians are making music with those plugins you find imperfect because they have learned to work with what is instead of spending their time complaining about what isn't......

I am not waiting or looking for anything new. If it comes along, fine, if not, also fine, I am not using many synth sounds anymore.

[chk071]

Hundreds of thousands perhaps millions of musicians are making music with those plugins you find imperfect

Plugins rather sell in the thousands, and the really well selling plugins in the low ten thousands.

Apart from that, i'm pretty sure every plugin developer strives for perfection. Whether or not he accomplishes that task is another thing. And, of course the demand differs from person to person as well. Usually, the really good guys have a lot of good gear as well, though.

Anyway, that's irrelevant for me. I just like good sounding stuff, that's all.

[rlared]

Falcon

[Teksonik]

Hundreds of thousands perhaps millions of musicians are making music with those plugins you find imperfect
Plugins rather sell in the thousands, and the really well selling plugins in the low ten thousands.

The number of available plugins times 1000's or 10 of Thousands yields what number ? Then factor in the number of people who use cracks.......

I just like good sounding stuff, that's all.

I like good sounding stuff too. That's why I bought the plugins I own. But then I don't pick apart every synth looking for every minuscule flaw. That is a fool's endeavor.

I simply use and enjoy the synths I own. But then I know how to use them so that makes a big difference......

[Teksonik]

Anyway on topic I think Avenger certainly qualifies as a "Super Synth".

[EnGee]

Actually I don't have the one and only one super synth! I usually use combination of synths, so this combination is my real "Super Synth"

Yes, essentially the same here. I once decided to learn one synth (Spire) inside out and so I started using it for all sounds in all my tracks, but later I found that when I'm using a combination of different synths somehow I'm getting richer, fuller sound of the whole mix. For example, I may put essentially similar VA patches from Spire, Sylenth and Repro into the same track and get more "textured" sound.

Spire is an excellent synth to invest time into, but it can't be the only synth I want to use, so I think your logic is similar to mine even though we are talking about different genres.

Recently I re-purchased NI Razor and Prism. I simply realised that it is really difficult to have similar results with other synths! I also like the excellent design and sound in them. I also did the same before that with Tone2 Nemesis and RayBlaster. I found them unique and easy to get those (modulated) sounds while playing.

I believe that the more you compose and make music the more you know what's usable for you and what's not! It doesn't matter if that synth old or new, big or small, subtractive or additive. This also applies on the kind of sounds being used in the music. It doesn't matter if it is fat or thin, analogue or digital, but it matters what fits there and make you satisfied with the result. Like painting, we should feel free to use what colours to use and where we want to use contrast to highlight another item. Soft weak sounds have their place in music as well, not only fat sharp sounds, at least in the kind of music I like to make

[low_low]

We should celebrate every day that there are so many choices ... honest truth is, all of the soft synths listed are amazing, and certainly back in the 1980's and 90's folks only dreamed of having such amazing vst instruments on such functional DAWs as we have today. It's the same as it has every been ... people who want to make music are going to make it, even if they have to stretch some deer hide over a box, pluck a bit of deer tendon, and blow sound through an antler ... if you can't make music with all the &^%$ we have today, you're just not trying.

[Julien Unison]

Oh, and speaking of the new generation of softsynths... Here is a simple audio clip from RePro-5. It is not clean or tame...

https://draigathar.org/sounds/RePro5-3.mp3

Seriously, can you share this as a preset here ? Or explain how you proceeded to end with this amazing sound ? Is it only Repro5 or have you added some other plugs for distortion etc ?
And what did you used to perform it ? A classic master keybord controller ? Something as a ruban or a different expressive tool ?

[Benjamin923]

We should celebrate every day that there are so many choices ... honest truth is, all of the soft synths listed are amazing, and certainly back in the 1980's and 90's folks only dreamed of having such amazing vst instruments on such functional DAWs as we have today. It's the same as it has every been ... people who want to make music are going to make it, even if they have to stretch some deer hide over a box, pluck a bit of deer tendon, and blow sound through an antler ... if you can't make music with all the &^%$ we have today, you're just not trying.

There’s a lot of truth in this. We are living in what may easily be the golden age of software synths. The market is intensely diverse and populated with high quality consumer choices. Maybe it will always be this good, but we should make the most of it in case it’s not.

[chk071]

I like good sounding stuff too. That's why I bought the plugins I own. But then I don't pick apart every synth looking for every minuscule flaw.

Well, me neither, so i'm not sure what we are discussing here.

[toine6]

I spent the last 25 years collecting gear and have an out of control pile of stuff... Not to mention 5,000 zillion VST's. But at some point it became... The shit kiddie piano the neighbor kid threw in the sandbox can get the job done fine, my latest vintage phattt analog Neve transformered multi-optional DSP proprietary integrated and hack enhanced rewritten burned OS chip with 1 terrabyte circuit bent butt prober.... ain't really all that. The $3.26 thrift store clinky thing will get 90% of my time today, with laptop mic, neighborhood train, birds, and A/C fans, blaring away in the background. If it sounds good, it is good. Granted, it you're aiming to be the next Yanni or Classical composer your mileage may vary, you probably need a proper set-up. But I'm not tied to any certain standard, genre, or artistic box.

I usually find it more productive to go into things with a NOT GIVING A f**k attitude. Don't second guess it. Frankly, lots of noise and background foobar and cheap gear can add a lot of little exciting gremlins. That's not to say I don't have my moments of gearlust and appreciate my higher-end gear, but it doesn't stop me from seizing the moment and using whatever is at hand, without second guessing. I don't need to wait until I'm in a sterilized environment before I can put a dash of noise on a blank slate.

I honestly don't have a supersynth. Hell, I dispmissed Synth1 for YEARS AND YEARS because it was free, basic, didn't look pretty, and because I have everything already. I finally gave it a go a couple years ago because it had a pile of presets that people had made over the years. It quickly became a loved synth because it's so light on resources, there are many decent presets to get you started, and it's quick to work with, it's simple but you can still get pretty crafty. Recently, I've read people saying Synth1 was good in it's day, but it's time has passed. Listen, I've got the latest 8x oversampled and finely tuned analog modeled blah blah synths and I barely touch them, they are resource hogs and clog up too many frequencies that you have to EQ out anyway. They will give you auditory coronary disease. Frankly, I'd rather have 10 Synth1's running smooth and being used at full capacity with chords and arps and pads that lack a TAD BIT of clarity or harmonics... Sure beats the "SEIZE YOUR WHOLE SYSTEM AND BLOW THE CIRCUIT BREAKER IN THE HOUSE AFTER 1 NOTE" P.O.S..

So Synth1 is kind of my current supersynth, but I'd also say that a nice Sampletank kind of synth that give you a wide pallet quickly and easily, in a Swiss Army knife kinda way, is more my Desert Island synth.

Okay, so that wasn't sexy enough for those of your reading to quench your severe gear lust titilations. So if we just want to get greasy hardcore about it... My Korg Monologue can bounce PHAT fury balls of lube BANGING bASS, all over my bedroom. To my ears, it's the analog sound I've been lusting after for all these years. I've had plenty of other analog synths, but quickly learned that often analog is not what you envisioned it to be. The added overdrive is a game changer, rude and nice character filter, I like how mean and lean everything is, while still including some well chosen special features like microtuning and micro-sequencer. It's not for everyone, but it sure sounds good to me. It's hard to get excited about a small monosynth, but it's a ton of fun and the sound is top notch.

[sjm]

Harmor. Not much it can't do with some OOTB thinking.

Also probably the world's worst synth if you don't know how sound works and have no idea what you are doing.