3 best soft synths for ambient/ambient house music

[alphadelphi]

yes. Huuuuuuuuuuge spaces, organic layers and a bunch of fxs. That is where OP should put his focus on, more than looking for a particular synth.

[AdamWysokinski]

Thank you for all replies, I'm really surprise with all the feedback
Regarding effects - I'm aware of their importance. I will experiment with samplers (I have TX16Wx, will try the TAL).

Now, back to synths. I wasn't able to test: Halion 6 (no demo yet), Falcon - looks very promising, but expensive (no demo), Padshop Pro (demo not working), WusikStation (Windows only).

I have tested:
1. Aalto (*)
2. Bazille (****)
3. Blue2 (***)
4. Curve 2 (***)
5. Cyclop (**)
6. DiscoveryPro (*)
7. Diva (***)
8. Diversion (***)
9. Dune 2 (***)
10. Electra2 (**)
11. Hive (**)
12. Icarus (***)
13. impOSCar2 (**)
14. Massive (**)
15. Octopus (*)
16. Oddity2 (**)
17. Olga (*)
18. Phonec (*)
19. Phonem (**)
20. RayBlaster (***)
21. Rhino (*)
22. Serum (****)
23. Spectral (**)
24. Spire (***)
25. Sylenth (**)
26. SymptOhm (*)
27. Synplant (*)
28. SynthMaster (***)
29. Z3TA+2 (**)
30. Zebra (***)
(legend: * bleh, ** nothing special, *** interesting, sometimes unique features, **** outstanding)

I'm still experimenting with the Absynth (nice sounds, awful interface).

I have also tested three granular synths (Kaivo, Granite, Mangle) but found all of them to be inferior compared with Alchemy in terms of general complexity.

I found two very special synths: Serum and Bazille. They are quite distinctive in terms of sound characteristics, interface, workflow, but I find them most unique and together with Alchemy I think they will fit my needs.

Again, thank you for your help, I really appreciate it

[chaosWyrM]

you have gotten a lot of very good suggestions so far...but ill throw in my $0.02 anyway.

as someone who makes ambient music...well dark ambient to be exact, id say the 2 most used and best suited vsts are:

reaktor.....this is simply a no brainer. the sheer amount of drone/soundscape/atmospheric producing ensembles available is staggering. not to mention that they are some of the best sounding around. i personally find dron-e using my own custom sample maps to be the single best ambient tool ive ever seen. and then theres all the other things like grain cube, skrewell and space drone.....AND then everything else it does.

in my opinion reaktor is a MUST have.

next one is (and im not trying to sound like a ni fanboy here) is kontakt...obviously loaded up with some ambient specific libraries. of those i suggest xosphere, geosonics, things from hollow sun, stuff like that....theres a lot to choose from.

i suggest those two vsts because of the sheer volume of sounds and flexibility they provide. you really wouldnt need anything else to make ambient. but since you asked for 3....

it would depend on the kind of ambient you make. some people are very strict when it comes to the term "ambient" im not that strict...and i often put percussion/drums in my ambient. if you are the same...you kinda cant go wrong with microtonic. it may not be the "best" drum synth around (or maybe a better term is "most modern") but the kinds of drum sounds it produces coupled with the vast repository of patterns available from the patternarium make it super quick and easy to get something sounding good out of it.

if you dont need or want drums then i would go with omnisphere. again, mostly because of the sheer volume of sounds and flexibility it offers.

as you see....since you asked for 3 i kind of went with the ones i feel give you best bang for your buck. vts like dune2, or largo, or serum are all great....but very limited (in comparison). reaktor, kontakt, and even omnisphere all have a lot more things that are specifically targeted at ambient production.

like i said...this is all my own personal opinion....but i think the reaktor/kontakt combo is just about the best ambient set up one can get. everything else you might use is just gravy.

::edit::

just to comment on bazille and serum...i have both of those and they are both excellent synths. i find myself reaching for bazille for ambient stuff way WAY WAAAYYYYY more than serum. again...i really think serum is great...its just not the right tool for the job when it comes to ambient imo.

[goleat]

* Omnisphere 2
* Zebra 2
* VPS Avenger / Dune 2

[Slaapstadseun]

You only need one synth - Omnisphere2 . It can play 8 parts. Find someone who owns Omnisphere and listen to it.
It is expensive, but it has thousands of sound sources and creating your OWN sounds is not difficult in Omnisphere.

[ghettosynth]

you have gotten a lot of very good suggestions so far...but ill throw in my $0.02 anyway.

as someone who makes ambient music...
...
reaktor.....this is simply a no brainer.
...
in my opinion reaktor is a MUST have.
...
next one is (and im not trying to sound like a ni fanboy here) is kontakt...obviously loaded up with some ambient specific libraries.
...

Yep. Personally, I wouldn't add Omnisphere to that list, it depends on your tastes. I'd pick either Diva or Bazille, or something off the beaten path.

Re:Effects, I guess it depends on what you're doing, but, I feel that they are hugely important for ambient and atmospheric techno/house.

In any case, in terms of value, I still think that Komplete is a great place to start, then fill out from there as you identify specific needs. I'm also not trying to sound like an NI fanboi here, I just agree that Reaktor + Kontakt are rather essential and with Komplete you get a lot more that's genuinely useful.

[Daimonicon]

Never heard of Bazille before so I will demo it tomorrow. I use old Alchemy, since I'm on PC, and it's great for dark ambient too. Oh, at least a couple of great reverbs for ambient stuff. Paulstretch and it's free or Ircam Lab. You can take e.g a rack or floortom and stretch it too sound like a thunder sound or stretch it more and it will sound more like a voice. The possibilites are endless with a couple of synhts, samples, reverbs and stretch tool. And lets not forget throwing a sample in a convolution reverb to a sound will make it different.

[sin night]

I know nothing about ambient music, but I think Crystal by Green Oak may be useful, especially for pad sounds...
http://www.greenoak.com/crystal/indexDesktop3.html

Anyway, I'd probably look into fx rather than synths (unless I really want a certain synth), for example those by SoundToys and Eventide. I don't have anything by VallhallaDSP so I can't comment on those, but they have a lot of fans. Something like BlackHole can make a big soundscape out of any sound...
Logic has so much to offer that it's hard to suggest anything. Maybe Reaktor to add a modular environment to create complex/strange stuffs... maybe it would be easier if you were looking for something specific (aka "I'm not satisfied with this kind of sound because of these things, so which are my alternatives to improve it")

[Numanoid]

I found two very special synths: Serum and Bazille. They are quite distinctive in terms of sound characteristics, interface, workflow

Interesting choices, I understand you prefer the dry ambience of Geir Jenssen

[ghettosynth]

Never heard of Bazille before so I will demo it tomorrow. I use old Alchemy, since I'm on PC, and it's great for dark ambient too. Oh, at least a couple of great reverbs for ambient stuff. Paulstretch and it's free or Ircam Lab. You can take e.g a rack or floortom and stretch it too sound like a thunder sound or stretch it more and it will sound more like a voice. The possibilites are endless with a couple of synhts, samples, reverbs and stretch tool. And lets not forget throwing a sample in a convolution reverb to a sound will make it different.

I've used PaulStretch quite a bit. Recently I've been doing a lot of stretched stuff and I've just been using Reaper's built in algorithms. The trick is though that you have to process them further with other granular effects.

[Kinh]

Omnisphere for soundscapes/pads. Falcon for granular synthesis.

[annode]

I would recommend buying some of the classic synth emulations and also use well designed effects to go where no man has gone before.
- GForce Minimonsta
- Arturia Jupiter-8V
- Arturia CS80V
- Korg Polysix
- NI FM7 (FM8)

Free - with my highest ratings!
- U-He Tyrell Nexus 6 (Roland Juno)
http://www.kvraudio.com/product/tyrell- ... he/details
- Synth1 (Clavia Nord Lead 2 Red Synth)
http://www.kvraudio.com/product/synth1- ... da/details
- Green Oak Software Crystal
http://www.kvraudio.com/product/crystal-by-green-oak
- PG-8X (Roland JX-8P)
http://www.vst4free.com/free_vst.php?pl ... 8X&id=2517

[Ridan]

- NI FM7 (FM8)

FM8 is surprisingly efficient at being able to create ambient related sounds for just about any ambient related genre. I mostly use it for dark, somewhat metallic atmospheres, but it is capable of smooth sounds/scapes as well. Using FM8 in conjunction with Absynth 5 as an effect can bring about hours of discovery.

<-- Probably a NI fanboi

[ZeePok]

 
I would suggest:

- Xils PolyKB III !
- ArtVera Art Pyrite (The Kontakt version was suggested, but it's also a VSTi plugin)

[benjamind]

Omnisphere
Absynth
Arturia V5 Collection
Pianoteq
FM8
TERA
CUBE

Are the ones that come to mind.

Combine that with B2 reverb, and you could pull off almost anything. I always listen to Brian Eno most days, his work has really captured the attention of my ears lately