What you think is missing on the today soft-synth market?

[robotmonkey]

The best synth of 2018. Still looking for it.

[Acknowledgement]

Near-perfect (such as Legend or U-NO-LX) Moog Voyager (XL) soft synth. Everyone is focused on the boring MiniMoog...

[izonin]

Andromeda A6 emu
Prophet '08 emu
Prophet 12 emu
JD-990 emu
V Synth emu...

[dune_rave]

I Think NI is missing. they only do Reaktor.

[Straight2Vinyl]

There needs to be a physically modeled electric and acoustic guitar. I imagine IK will be working on this now that MODO is available.
Personally, I could use a drum plug in almost identical to Polyplex, but with multi-core support so I can actually use it on a regular basis. There must be something similar available already though.

Lastly, more support for MPE controllers would be great for those of us who plan on picking one up some day.

[SciFiArtMan]

I don't know that I'd say this area of design exploration is "missing", but I see more growth potential in the formant arena.

I fiddled with a softsynth a few years back (probably freeware - can't remember the name or dev) that had a neat little joystick with 8 or so different vowel points around the perimeter that was very interesting to explore. I couldn't control the joystick effectively in real-time (maybe you could with a touch screen), but I could control it beautifully through an automation control track (probably the wrong expression). And through these points of vowel settings you could get some impressive formant effects. The problem was I couldn't get a decent sound from the base synth sounds (can't remember why!?), but the formant effect was impressive.

This is just an example of some under-explored areas of formant control, that I feel would be wonderful to see further developed. The same little joystick (or other similar easy formanting control) coupled with a great and versatile-sounding synth engine would be very cool - not necessarily for "talking synth" type of realism, but for general formant flavoring of unique and quality sounds, including sample-based patches.

Maybe this idea is already explored in some of the larger battleship plugins of the day, but I can't seem to keep up on all the latest and greatest, and still get things done.

Anyway, just my 2!

[Maykie]

I think emulating one of those "affordable analogs" would be a thing. Something like Microbrute/BassStation2/Monologue/Miniloge in vst version with all its limitations.

Ive enjoyed using repro1 by uhe - its kind of vst with minimum controls and possiblities but lots of charater.

[Lotuzia]

Just take a look at 5 years ago, and you'll know.

A lot of-new- things can be done, and a lot of things will be done. Some things are currently in the pipelines, and for some units the people who will create them dont even know yet they will do it.

The same question could have been asked 5 years ago btw. And will be asked in 5 years again.

[recursive one]

I don't know that I'd say this area of design exploration is "missing", but I see more growth potential in the formant arena.

I fiddled with a softsynth a few years back (probably freeware - can't remember the name or dev) that had a neat little joystick with 8 or so different vowel points around the perimeter that was very interesting to explore. I couldn't control the joystick effectively in real-time (maybe you could with a touch screen), but I could control it beautifully through an automation control track (probably the wrong expression). And through these points of vowel settings you could get some impressive formant effects. The problem was I couldn't get a decent sound from the base synth sounds (can't remember why!?), but the formant effect was impressive.

This is just an example of some under-explored areas of formant control, that I feel would be wonderful to see further developed. The same little joystick (or other similar easy formanting control) coupled with a great and versatile-sounding synth engine would be very cool - not necessarily for "talking synth" type of realism, but for general formant flavoring of unique and quality sounds, including sample-based patches.

Maybe this idea is already explored in some of the larger battleship plugins of the day, but I can't seem to keep up on all the latest and greatest, and still get things done.

Anyway, just my 2!

+ 100, I have soft spot for formant synth sounds.

Spire got a nice sounding formant oscillator with the latest update. Also there is Phonem but for what I know it is more focused on getting more or less realistic vocal sounds (TBH, listening to its demos gives me full-blown "uncanny valley" feeling), while I prefer something more "sci-fi" sounding.

Anyway more synths doing formant in various ways are always welcome

Could you try to remember what synth it was?

[chk071]

For me, it's now all about sound. I tried the demos of Avenger, Rapid, ANA 2, and Viper, to name the more recent ones, and couldn't find anything in those which would make me shell out 100 € or more, over what i already got (Spire, Largo, Sylenth1, Monark, Diversion, Thorn, Bazille CM, and others). I guess i kind of hit the saturation point, which is of course good for my wallet too. Also mainly a matter of taste as well, i guess.

I actually think you need to give Viper a second run. Like its hardware prototype it heavily relies on effects. It's equalizer may seem very simplistic but this is what may actually bring the sound to life (same thing with Spire actually). Another thing to try is the LFO section with its preassigned modulations.

The other day I was trying to port my Virus TI patches to Viper and I noted that while it does the VA patches quite well, most of my own Virus sounds which I made over the time I owned it heavily rely on wavetable oscillators. I tried to recreate these in Serum with Virus wavetables but the Serum filter and effects are very different, I'd call them very precise and clinical sounding. Virus was never known as a proper analogue emulation, but it's filters act in quite non-linear, sometimes unpredictable way and have nice saturation, so they smoothen the digital sound of the wavetables and give nice overall character. To the extent I'm familiar with current wavetable synths (Serum, Massive, Rapid which I own, Icarus which I don't own but demoed many times) none of them has such filters - I don't mean exact copy of the Virus filters, but rather filters with overall analog-like behaviour.

That's an issue with most of our beloved "regular" VA synths as well. The only ones i know with proper analog modelled filters are Diversion and Dune 2 (even though i don't happen to like the filters in Dune 2 very much...). As much as i like the general character of the filters in Spire, for example, they really lack a bit when you crank up the resonance. It gets all whistle-y then. Still hope that they up their game with some new filters at some point, or introduce those in Spire 2.

About Viper: I will give it another go when it goes 64-bit. It's not that i particularly disliked it, it's just that i found Spire has a similar vibe, while making it easier (for me) to get some sweet sounds out of it. Viper seemed more "dry" and neutral. Probably needs more fx, as you stated. About the Virus wavetables: When Adam implements wavetable oscillators with import ability, and it supports the Serum wavetables, those are to be found on the net. Not sure about the DC filter stuff Adam mentioned though, so they might sound a bit different.

[SciFiArtMan]

...The same question could have been asked 5 years ago btw. And will be asked in 5 years again.

It was asked 5 and 10 years ago, and my response about formant exploration was the same both times. Hopefully, 5 years into the future the question will be irrelevant (fun to imagine!).

[rod_zero]

A granular with a nice UI, well supported and a good library of samples included.

PAdshop Pro UI is not very confortable to work with.

The mangle is unsupported.

There is other one which is more limited in options.

[K82]

One thing I judge a softsynth now is the preset system, and the only one who understands this is U-he. Easy browsing , saving , loading .
Sorry but the rest of the developers have really something to learn here.

And I do not know about the rest of you guys but I skip everything that even smells like synthedit or flowstone.

[SciFiArtMan]

...Could you try to remember what synth it was?

Sorry recursive one, I've tried, but I've fiddle with so many freebie synths through the years, the names just become a wash. I've recently tried to remember, because I wanted to see what about the base synth kept me from getting any decent sounds from it. I just remember the base sounds were cheap, thin, and plasiticy (no offense to the dev!), and therefore made the formant effect useless for my music. But if I knew the name I'd give it another chance, just for the effect.

[fluffy_little_something]

That's an issue with most of our beloved "regular" VA synths as well. The only ones i know with proper analog modelled filters are Diversion and Dune 2 (even though i don't happen to like the filters in Dune 2 very much...). As much as i like the general character of the filters in Spire, for example, they really lack a bit when you crank up the resonance. It gets all whistle-y then. Still hope that they up their game with some new filters at some point, or introduce those in Spire 2.

What's the point of cranking up resonance, anyway? There is hardly any musical value in my view.
Nor do I know what it is supposed to sound like. Hardware synths did not sound all the same, either...