KVR Audio

antic604 · Post by **antic604** » Thu Oct 19, 2017 10:08 am

So, yesterday's announcement of - incredibly sounding - Thorn by Dmitry Sches got me thinking what else is there that's worth buying for $100 or less.

I'm aware of those, sorted by price:
Waves' Codex ($59): https://www.waves.com/plugins/codex#cod ... h-tutorial
Waves' Element 2.0 ($59): https://www.waves.com/plugins/element
Sonic Academy's ANA ($66): https://www.sonicacademy.com/products/ana
Dmirty Sches' Thorn ($69): http://dmitrysches.com/products/thorn
U-He's Repro-1 ($99): https://www.u-he.com/cms/repro-1
Vamber Audio's Surge ($99): http://vemberaudio.se/surge.php
KV331's Synthmaster ($99): http://www.kv331audio.com/synthmaster.aspx

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What else is there? How'd you rate them for general purpose use: bass, synth, pads, leads, etc.

Kumi_27 · Post by **Kumi_27** » Thu Oct 19, 2017 10:33 am

Whole LinPlug line of products, the "old" ones for 20$ and "new" ones for 50$

recursive one · Post by **recursive one** » Thu Oct 19, 2017 10:33 am

Hi, Antic!

I think for your purposes (psytrance and similar i guess) Thorn is the best choice - despite it is fairly new, it seems to inherit a lot from Diversion, such as great filters and overall very clean, modern sound. It also has good FM (essential for psy).

Repro sounds great but is mono only atm, and it is more on "vintage" side.
ANA sounds not especially good. It is soon to be replaced by ANA2 with different sound engine coded from scratch and apparently much better sound, but it is not released yet.
Synthmaster sounds OK but the UI may be more complicated than you would like. You may consider Synthmaster One instead (a wavetable synth with classic architecture and simple UI)
No experience with the Waves synths or Surge but they seem to be not very popular.

Or you may add 30 bucks and buy Bazille then go bonkers with virtual cables pretending than you are Martian Arts or Eat Static

- RLoop

egbert101 · Post by **egbert101** » Thu Oct 19, 2017 10:37 am

lnikj · Post by **lnikj** » Thu Oct 19, 2017 10:43 am

4 'A's for you

Arcsyn, half price at the moment, can do your basics and the far out
Aalto, can do your west coast bleeps and bloops
ABL3, can do ... ermm ... bass
Ace, semi-modular audio heaven, can be coaxed into anything

Maybe I'll get to "B' later ...

Lotuzia · Post by **Lotuzia** » Thu Oct 19, 2017 10:44 am

Oxium is 99 €

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Csd8nFW5udU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vEWSnhWLegU

antic604 · Post by **antic604** » Thu Oct 19, 2017 10:56 am

@RLoop, hi

I share your view on Synthmaster's UI and I'm planning to wait until v3. Maybe they'll improve it. I got Bazille recently when it was -25% for Bitwig 2 owners and it's a.w.e.s.o.m.e although a bit overwhelming with nearly unlimited modulation possibilities. But it's great fun! Also I bought both synths from Waves when they were at $25 some time ago and they're fine: Codex is a good wavetable synth, Element is a good subtractive synth. Nothing fancy, but really solid and easy to use due to single page UI.

@egbert101, thanks for the extensive list, will definitely check those out!

@Inikj, thanks! How could I forget about Aalto! I have the free monophonic Aalto CM and it indeed is great!

@Lotuzia, thanks! I'll check Oxium out

EnGee · Post by **EnGee** » Thu Oct 19, 2017 11:03 am

Some that I have and like a lot:

The Legend $99 (Minimoog emulation) http://www.synapse-audio.com/thelegend.html
ACE 69 euro (Semi modular synth) https://www.u-he.com/cms/ace
NI Razor $99 (Additive synth) https://www.native-instruments.com/en/p ... ths/razor/
NI Prism $69 (Physical Modelling synth) https://www.native-instruments.com/en/p ... tor-prism/
All Korg synths $50 each (Analog emulations, M1 and Wavestation) http://www.korguser.net/shop/software/
Padshop Pro $79.99 (Granular synth) https://www.steinberg.net/en/products/v ... p_pro.html
Retrologue 2 $99.99 (Subtractive synth) https://www.steinberg.net/en/products/v ... start.html
VirtualCZ $99 (Casio CZ emulation) https://www.pluginboutique.com/product/ ... -VirtualCZ

antic604 · Post by **antic604** » Thu Oct 19, 2017 11:41 am

BTW, I stumbled upon Tangle and Mangle and both seem awesome, but the KVR thread says they're not developed anymore and there's no contact with the developer.

Still, for GBP20 each they're tempting.

lnikj · Post by **lnikj** » Thu Oct 19, 2017 11:43 am

antic604 wrote:BTW, I stumbled upon Tangle and Mangle and both seem awesome, but the KVR thread says they're not developed anymore and there's no contact with the developer.

Still, for GBP20 each they're tempting.

Not sure if they are definitely not developed. The dev appears to have some personal issues that affect his ability to communicate.

recursive one · Post by **recursive one** » Thu Oct 19, 2017 11:59 am

antic604 wrote:@RLoop, hi I share your view on Synthmaster's UI and I'm planning to wait until v3. Maybe they'll improve it. I got Bazille recently when it was -25% for Bitwig 2 owners and it's a.w.e.s.o.m.e although a bit overwhelming with nearly unlimited modulation possibilities. But it's great fun! Also I bought both synths from Waves when they were at $25 some time ago and they're fine: Codex is a good wavetable synth, Element is a good subtractive synth. Nothing fancy, but really solid and easy to use due to single page UI.

I somehow thought that you don't have anything of that your list.

TBH, instead of collecting various cheap stuff, I'd either save for something a bit more expensive but really great sounding and versatile, or focus on what you already have (which is already a lot - you have a subtractive synth, a wavetable synth, and a monstuous FM/PD hybrid).

antic604 · Post by **antic604** » Thu Oct 19, 2017 12:31 pm

recursive one wrote:TBH, instead of collecting various cheap stuff, I'd either save for something a bit more expensive but really great sounding and versatile, or focus on what you already have (which is already a lot - you have a subtractive synth, a wavetable synth, and a monstuous FM/PD hybrid).

Oh, I fully agree! But - as I said - yesterday's announcement of Thorn really got me thinking that there must be some other, equally great stuff <$100, hence the question! I'm not planning to go on a shopping spree anytime soon, but just want to be up-to-date with what's out there - as you know I only 'started' with this whole VST thing earlier this year

On the other hand, when I see the prices +/- $200 for Spire, Serum, Sylenth1, Diva, Avenger, etc. and compare them to the much cheaper stuff, then I don't really see the justification: they don't sound - to me - 2-3x better. Sure they're popular, complex and fully-featured, but for me that's not necessarily an advantage. So my policy for now is that the more expensive VSTs I buy either on sale, or 2nd hand (e.g. I got NI Reaktor 6 for $100).

wagtunes · Post by **wagtunes** » Thu Oct 19, 2017 12:45 pm

Sunrizer - $50

RPH · Post by **RPH** » Thu Oct 19, 2017 12:51 pm

Actively developed, lot of options, semi modular, great sound, cheapest VST in this thread based on what you can do with it.
Excellent for pads, synth leads, FX etc..

( $25 ) https://www.kvraudio.com/marketplace/fa ... weed-audio
( think even cheaper when you use the special KVRaudio entry on his site, see the thread on Fathom )

https://www.fathomsynth.com/

wagtunes · Post by **wagtunes** » Thu Oct 19, 2017 12:56 pm

RPH wrote:Actively developed, lot of options, semi modular, great sound, cheapest VST in this thread based on what you can do with it.
Excellent for pads, synth leads, FX etc..

( $25 ) https://www.kvraudio.com/marketplace/fa ... weed-audio
( think even cheaper when you use the special KVRaudio entry on his site, see the thread on Fathom )

https://www.fathomsynth.com/

Okay, I am an absolute modular synth junkie so there has to be a reason I passed on this. It's been so long since it came out I don't remember what it was. But there had to be a darn good reason that explains the regular $45 price tag.

If I can find the original thread here maybe I can figure out what it was.

Best 'bang-for-the-buck' VST synths up to $100