Best synth $50-100

[jsp1979]

Cakewalk Z3ta+2 $99 (I forgot I have v1, so could upgrade to v2)

Z3ta+2 is great. The upgrade for $49 is a good deal. The new GUI is much better than the old. You also get tons of new presets (plus it loads the tons and tons of old presets). The Museum collection has been updated for v. 2. It's quite versatile for that upgrade price.

I'm a big fan of Dune if you can get it in a sale (or get a 2nd hand copy).

[JoeCat]

FAW Circle. Tonnes of fun, $69.

As much as I, in theory, love this synth, I couldn't recommend it without a serious doubt. There is a serious bug in my DAW (Studio One), where you can't adjust modulations once the sequencer is running. You will remove the dot instead. Stop sequencer, close and reopen the GUI to make it work again - workflow killer in a synth that is aimed on ease of workflow. In another DAW, most of the bottom tabs are not showing up at all.

I also just installed it on my machine again. Took about 5 days until I could reactivate it, including support taking 3 days to even react with "you got it working yet?", like I could magically activate it by some miracle, after getting errors before, followed by "just tell me your e-mail" - "dude, I'm using it the whole time, it's also connected to your bug tracking system".

I love the sound of circle and the price but the demo won't validate in logic on mountain lion. I remember it from snow leopard though:) dev seems a bit strange in multiple things I've read but the product is good but the bugs need to be fixed !!

OffT but:
TheoM - have you tried validating it on the demo of another DAW? It does validate on mountain lion as far as I know - I think it will validate in Renoise (I validated in Live). Who knows, you may like the demo of Renoise enough to buy it (it's an awesome change-of-pace for relatively cheap)

Back OnT: There's the Waldorf Edition Suite - "vintage" but you get the drum machine bonus.

[fluffy_little_something]

This is what happens with the demo version of Harmor when I click the menu for articulation/mapping/shaping and pick something from it. This screenshot is from a few months ago actually:

Funny, something similar happens on my computer sometimes. For instance the smileys from my messenger window in the background sometimes shine through to the Word or browser window in the forefront Nothing else of the messenger, though.
Maybe it is a graphics card issue...

[Examigan]

This is what happens with the demo version of Harmor when I click the menu for articulation/mapping/shaping and pick something from it. This screenshot is from a few months ago actually:

Funny, something similar happens on my computer sometimes. For instance the smileys from my messenger window in the background sometimes shine through to the Word or browser window in the forefront Nothing else of the messenger, though.
Maybe it is a graphics card issue...

I liked the demo of Harmor, nice sound and all that, but this is the only synth plugin that does this on my PC. I checked my video driver for the videocard at the Nvidia site and it's the latest one. The card is a GeForce 7800 GT.

[sjm]

Re: Harmor: I seem to remember gol saying it's to do with how certain DAWs handle plugin windows, particularly ones that resize (as with Harmor's view of the partials on the right). In other words, he knows it's borked but "it's the DAW developers fault" that his plugin has issues, therefore he ain't gonna fix it because it's SEP.

Not very helpful I know. You can always try trawling the search function for more info, as I'm pretty sure it was on KVR that he posted that.

It works fine in FL of course.

[Examigan]

.. he knows it's borked but "it's the DAW developers fault" that his plugin has issues, therefore he ain't gonna fix it because it's SEP.

It's just that no other plugin I have does this, or anything remotely similar. So I highly doubt it's the DAW dev's fault.

However, thanks for the info

[fedexnman]

Im surprised Mutools Mux hasnt got mentioned yet , it is pretty cool and it comes with a lot of cool presets as well as samplers, effects and also has a modular thing going on where you can make your own synths by hosting different VST synths and effects into Mux . For 49 euros or 63 usd it seems like a good Birthday Present .

[sjm]

.. he knows it's borked but "it's the DAW developers fault" that his plugin has issues, therefore he ain't gonna fix it because it's SEP.

It's just that no other plugin I have does this, or anything remotely similar. So I highly doubt it's the DAW dev's fault.

However, thanks for the info

Well it's their "fault" in the sense that most plugins don't resize so most of the time you won't notice the issue. I don't really think the DAW developer is going to be that bothered and I do think gol should fix it if he want users of other DAWs to use Harmor.

[Examigan]

I narrowed it down a lot better:

Korg M1 + Valhalla Room (or some other Valhalla reverb)

Korg Polysix + Mono/Poly, or TAL U-NO-LX and Z3ta+ 2 upgrade

Surge

..or, if I can get the dino upgrade for Zebra2 for $150...

[tibah]

I just picked up DCAM Synth Squad for $99 and heartily recommend it.

[Robmobius]

I just picked up DCAM Synth Squad for $99 and heartily recommend it.

That's a very good price for DCAM I love strobe.

[Examigan]

I just picked up DCAM Synth Squad for $99 and heartily recommend it.

That's a very good price for DCAM I love strobe.

I had tried the demo version of it a year ago (or so) and wasn't really into for some reason. Maybe I should check it out again

I had more interest in Surge than that one, but it deserves one more check to see if I like it.

[ObsoleteAcc99]

[DELETED]

[Examigan]

TheoM:

Have you tried Surge? Just wondered what you thought of it.

[ObsoleteAcc99]

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