Soft Synths with their own individual character?

[Sound Mechanics]

I've been trying a few of the classic hardware synth emulations by Arturia and Geforce. I have Monark and the Korg Legacy collection. All of these synths are modelled after great hardware synths and sound very close if not identical in some cases (that's another debate, not for here
So I thought about original software synths, not modelled on any classic synth in particular, that would have its own individual character that could even be copied in hardware. Maybe most soft synths are so complex and can cover so much sonic ground that an individual character is lost?

I'm just looking for a short list of the best software synths that, in hardware form, could site along side Moogs, Oberheims, Arps,... etc.

[recursive one]

NI Massive, NI Razor, IL Harmor - synths with strong "digital" character, not modelled after anything hardware (however it is hard to imagine them put into hardware boxes - it would be not that easy to replicate their GUIs with knobs, sliders and maybe even touchscreens).

Good old Sylenth also has very recognizable sound, especially its filter drive is often praised. It also has much simpler GUI that could be easily implemented in hardware form.

[4damind]

There are not so many with a own sound... most of them (unfortunately) sharing too much similarities.

Anyway, 2 synth coming to my mind where I would say they are unique in the sound and not modelled after some hardware.

Imageline Harmor - not this typical digital sound but there is some "Hifi" or "analogue" touch
Synapse Dune2 - remembers a bit to Roland synth but is not an emulation after similar hardware

[Sound Mechanics]

Thanks for the comments.

Yes it could be down to the complexity of many synths. The korg MS-20 software has such a distinct sound and is so different from other soft synths. I am no programmer but it must be possible to create something new in the character of the filter - unless every possible filter character has been made?

I wonder if it's not so much the ability of a software synth to cover every sound now, but to build something very simple that sounds completely different... think Moog vs Arp vs Oberheim - easy to use a controller keyboard with too!

Just some thoughts.

[firepile]

I've been trying a few of the classic hardware synth emulations by Arturia and Geforce. I have Monark and the Korg Legacy collection. All of these synths are modelled after great hardware synths and sound very close if not identical in some cases (that's another debate, not for here
So I thought about original software synths, not modelled on any classic synth in particular, that would have its own individual character that could even be copied in hardware. Maybe most soft synths are so complex and can cover so much sonic ground that an individual character is lost?

I'm just looking for a short list of the best software synths that, in hardware form, could site along side Moogs, Oberheims, Arps,... etc.

Absynth.

[chroma]

are you looking specifically for subtractive (analog) style synths? obviously there are quite a few other kinds - FM, PD, additive, wavetable, etc. that have very different characters from what you are talking about.

[recursive one]

There are not so many with a own sound... most of them (unfortunately) sharing too much similarities.

Anyway, 2 synth coming to my mind where I would say they are unique in the sound and not modelled after some hardware.

Imageline Harmor - not this typical digital sound but there is some "Hifi" or "analogue" touch
Synapse Dune2 - remembers a bit to Roland synth but is not an emulation after similar hardware

Isn't Dune2 modelled after a Virus? I mean not exact modelling, like SH101 and TAL Bassline 101, but it is often mentioned as a software substitute to Access synths.

[bulvanskägg]

I've been trying a few of the classic hardware synth emulations by Arturia and Geforce. I have Monark and the Korg Legacy collection. All of these synths are modelled after great hardware synths and sound very close if not identical in some cases (that's another debate, not for here
So I thought about original software synths, not modelled on any classic synth in particular, that would have its own individual character that could even be copied in hardware. Maybe most soft synths are so complex and can cover so much sonic ground that an individual character is lost?

I'm just looking for a short list of the best software synths that, in hardware form, could site along side Moogs, Oberheims, Arps,... etc.

Absynth.

+1

[V0RT3X]

Tone 2 Saurus is full of character.
https://soundcloud.com/tone2-1/synth-legends-for-saurus

Another good Tone2 synthesizer that compliments Saurus well is their Nemesis synthesizer.
https://soundcloud.com/tone2-1/neofm-for-nemesis


Both are full of character and use very little CPU. I suppose if someone took the time they could recreate hardware controllers for these!

[Synchanter]

Here are some soft synths I find have their own distinct sonic character:

NI Absynth like Firepile said. It has some features like Aetherizer that give some of its patches a very unique sound.

Image-line Harmor. Like 4damind said it has a sound in between digital and analog.

Fabfilter Twin 2 has a very distinctive smooth sound to it. Must be the fab(ulous) filters.

AAS synths like Tassman 4 and String Studio 2, being physically modeled, have a very different and natural sound.

There are many other synths with their own sound character, I mention those above because I think they could be played alongside analog stuff and not clash too much with it.

[bpblog]

I'm a big fan of Charlatan and its raw character http://www.blaukraut.info/

[Synchanter]

For VA, I am impressed by DCAM: Synth Squad, AIR Vacuum Pro, AAS Ultra Analog 2, Fabfilter Twin 2 and U-He DIVA. Not sure which are unique and which are emulations though.

[xalama qo]

Microtonic (drumsynth)

AAS UltraAnalog 1 - has a 'ceramic' quality to its high end, really good clear bass

IL Sawer (a 'botched' emu of something I can't remember) - noisy oscillators and 12db LP and BP filters which are incredibly impolite

ABL Pro - my favourite grumpy old modular synth with distinctive 'shape' parameter.

Fabfilter One/Twin - FabOne filter is very distinctive. Twin's osc's are raw and forceful. It can be really aggro or smooth, but seems to retain its 'sound'.

Zebra 2 - very warm and midrange-y, high end is quite plasticky IMO

Then of course the ubiquitous Sylenth and Massive aren't hard to identify either.


I think I could pick these all out in a mix with a fair amount of certainty, but it really depends on what they're doing.

I love the filter on Saurus, really screamy, but, as the demo above illustrates very well it seems to be a "best of" collection...which IMO makes it sound quite generic as it goes in so many directions so well. But I would recognize that screaming filter sweep, I think it's the 12db LP which is so aggressive. Long time since I demoed it. One of the best bread and butter synths available IMO.

[Sound Mechanics]

Thanks for the suggestions.
One that comes to mind is Olga. Very raw sounding. It seems to have a distinct character because of the oscillators and filter.

[aciddose]

The method used to apply filter saturation in Xhip is unique, and I have not yet heard it anywhere else.

http://xhip.net/temp/xhip_saturation.mp3
(btw, this demo was from before I added even-harmonic, so the current version of Xhip sounds slightly different.)

The technique is focused on:

• Preventing any aliasing to eliminate the need for oversampling or anti-aliasing filters
• Reducing CPU requirements to minimum
• Ease of computation for both coefficients and processing the filter
• Generic, minimalist functions such as parabola x(2-|x|) are used in place of more complex functions such as tanh

It is absolutely not designed to model any analog filter, not even approximate similar behaviors.

The consequence of this is that it sounds rather unique and would be extremely difficult to do with an electronic circuit, while it is extremely easy to do in software.

Whether or not it sounds "good" is another question...