What was the first "must-have" VST instrument?

[Ayavaron]

At some point, way back, more than ten years ago, software synthesizers were new and had been barely put to the test. I know some of the earlier ones such as Neon and Model-E aren't used much anymore but I'm curious: What was the first VST instrument to make people go "I need to have VST instruments in my setup" even if they'd been traditionally been using hardware synths? My interest in this is mostly historic curiosity.

[vurt]

for me crystal.

for actual hardware zealots, diva.

[declassified]

make people go "I need to have VST instruments in my setup"

I guess one of the first to do that was Reaktor.

[Numanoid]

Oddity, Minimonsta, Absynth, z3ta+, Zebra, Pro-5, B4

Many of those synths got their first release over 10 years ago, but are still held in high regard (even though some have been discontinued), so I guess they must have given a big wow-must-have feeling when they was released

[AstralExistence]

way back in 2002ish i remember being amazed my sonic syndicate (now synapse) junglist and scorpion. before that, there was no vsti and i used 3osc and ts404 haha i remember fl studio users would get mad when somebody made an awesome ts404 or 3osc sound and refused to tell how they made it

[Ingonator]

My interest about softsynths strted around 2004/2004 so i have no idea about older ones.
Anyway at the time i mentioned my first softsynths were Albino 2, AAS Tassman 4 and Korg Legacy Collection (first one, sold MS-20 controller some time later).

Alibino v1 is more than 10 years old, tassman 3 should be 10 years old (v1 even more) na dKorg Legacy Collection was released 2004.

Except Tassman which i sold some months ago i still use the Legacy Collection (update to newer version + Digital edition) and Albino 3 (upgraded from v2).


AFAIK Waldorf PPG Wave 2.V is also more than 10 years old. Today PG wave 3.V is one of my favorite synths (and i use 2.V from the Waldorf Edition sometimes too).

There is an article from SOS about PPG Wave 2.V from the year 2000:
http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/sep00/a ... aldorf.htm


Ingo

[awol9000]

i remember fl studio users would get mad when somebody made an awesome ts404 or 3osc sound and refused to tell how they made it

[emef]

FM7 and Junglist

still use both

[aMUSEd]

Pro 5 - came out just after Model E so one of the first commercial plugins and the first one that actually sounded good.

[Halma]

Perhaps the RB-338...well at least for me . Damn, that thing has been hyped back in the days. Not quite sure when but must have been late 90s / early 2ks.

Was it a VST or a Standalone product?

[mellotronaut]

Reaktor, M-Tron and Crystal

[danbroad]

Atmosphere.

[AstralExistence]

remember those tc plugs? mercury? i know its a joke today, but back then, wow. i wonder how well those tc fx would stand up to todays fx? lets not forget the sc101 vsti, but, ces plugs omfg that was a travesty even back then. but pentagon? that was an amazing synth back then but everybody said it was too damn loud. which it was.

[toine6]

Pro 5 - came out just after Model E so one of the first commercial plugins and the first one that actually sounded good.

This. For those that don't know, Native-Instruments Pro 5 turned into Pro-53. Still sounds good today too.

[Numanoid]

For those that don't know, Native-Instruments Pro 5 turned into Pro-53.

Thanks for the heads up, but think I already had heard a rumour about that