Best Audio and MIDI Software - 2024 KVR Readers' Choice Awards Winners

I just picked this up a week or so ago, and i agree with the sentiment here that this at the top of the list of synths I've researched (dozens - but for music tech research more so [unfortunately] than spending time to master them creatively), and I couldn't be happier. It has a certain quality about it that transcends the divide between the more digital and more analog synths, with a pleasing warmth but at the same time potentially having a cutting edge precision.

Kudos to the people who came up with its signal flows and interfacing and filters and algos. (There should be a documentary about its development really. I'm not clear on whether They really knew what they were doing.

Really the only thing I can find about the history of its development comes from this article:

https://www.attackmagazine.com/features/long-read/u-hes-urs-heckmann-on-synths-celebrity-endorsements-hardware/

I personally own over 20 softsynths, and have been toying with some lesser-known ones because innovation always fascinates me.

But nothing in the Zebra package would be particularly obvious to me as a programmer. I'm sure there synths with bits of brilliance that could be mentioned as excelling in one element or area or another, but Zebra is particularly unique in that it never loses the high standard of musicality from the beginning of its signal flow to the end. I know recently musicians have begun to be impressed by more organic and analog processes, while being also spoiled by some very good well-crafted digital softsynths. Exploring the confluence of these two evolutions in taste and creativity seems to be at the heart of our current electronic music scene. At the time I made my purchase of Zebra I was considering purchasing Diva first. This was because I had watched some of the few Zebra tutorials out there, and the synth didn't really look "familiar" or directly compare with the common and basic synth flows I had worked with. I've experimented with ANA 2 (very good), Serum and Massive (and a few of the other Komplete synths) and the Image Line product line, Dune 3, Phase Plant (as a demo for 14 days - really loved it), Omnisphere (somewhat of a hybrid rompler synth but some well-worth-it features IMHO despite its price tag), Spire, Adam Szabo's Viper (a phenomena and over-looked synth really), Cycle (Amaranth - an orphaned synth unfortunately), Quik Quak's Glass Viper, Auddict's Hexeract (a disappointment since it seems to have been abandoned, along with Fxpansion's Geist 2, lol), AIR and KV331's synths, the Madrona Labs stuff (very good for "unexpected and artsy"), IK Multimedia's Syntronik (nice), etc. So much variety, and a lot of interesting specific features in here for most of these, that I can't go into for lack of time.

But frankly I wish I had tried and learned Zebra long ago.

Zebra actually seems worthy to focus on more so than any of these, because I literally can not make it sound bad or uninviting. I can make it sound dangerous, ugly, menacing, and so on, but it creates such a steady illusion that I'm playing with organic electric juice, that it, more than any other synth, reminds me of playing with high end electric guitar gear. Expressive. Musical. Often stunning.

So I was just going to write a short review to go along with what's already here. This is not a new product - but I had to add my two cents and I hope the developer knows how much I appreciate the fine thought process and heroic standards, and I most definitely look forward to Zebra 3. Good work U-he.

As an aside, Plugmon Neumann (as more than a skin really) looks incredible and I'm checking it out - to make understanding and working with Zebra easier. $35 at the moment. Interesting.

https://plugmon.jp/product/neumann/

This is a wonderful music creation tool, great sounding harmonies and very playable! It is constantly under development, adding new features. Great software.

I really didn't want to invest in another notation program. After trying the free version for a short time I realised just how quickly I could enter and compose scores. Elements does restrict some of the layout functions and the number of instruments. I am using the downloaded version which doesn't allow use on more than one computer. The electronic licensing felt a bit complicated but so far it has worked ok.

With any comprehensive program there is a learning curve but the logical design makes this fairly painless. I'm still learning but really enjoying the process. Somehow the controls seem to encourage experimentation during composition. Halion and the provided instruments produce a reasonable sound but it is easy to use alternative VST libraries.

I feel a further investment in the pro version, maybe to celebrate the lifting of lockdown.

Definitely worth the purchase. My favorite is the denoiser, which they've broken out the into two distinct modules, one dedicated to voice and the other for general background noise. It can be a resource hog if you use it in more than one incidence or on multiple tracks, (I edit in PPro CC). But it's well worth it for correcting takes from the field that were shot in noisy environments. It has a dynamic, or adaptive learning mode that has made quick work of long takes. I will sample and tweak in the edit, (and do this as a last step), then crank up the quality slider before rendering out.

The best tool for the professional in the market. No other mastering tool matches it in quality, performance and perfect final sound. If you can't master professionally with this version 11, do something else.

Version 3:
I had an accident and could no longer play guitar. :- (. I missed having guitar on my tracks, especially acoustic accompaniment and riffs. I tried using my synths, but they sounded like synths! I needed something real — something human! Waiting for friends to come over and play parts for me became inconvenient and embarrassing. I needed to find a way to lay down tracks on my own. I needed a virtual guitarist! I went on a mission, buying and trying nearly every guitar library ever made. A couple of them weren't bad, but most of them left me cold or frustrated. I was tired of filling my hard drive with thousands and thousands of samples that were packaged in a non-user friendly interface. The last thing I wanted to do was spend more years learning complicated key-switches. By the time I got a track down, the inspiration was lost. I was discouraged and frustrated until I tried MusicLab's RealGuitar. It's fantastic.

The interface is neat, clean, and fun! I'm a visual person, and I love seeing the notes on the virtual neck. The way the keyboard is laid out is intelligent, giving total control over the type of strum, fret noise, slide, tremolo, and all the other little squeaks and articulations. The strum engine is a snap to work with and as powerful as you need it to be. I think they call it the "Struminator." The built-in rhythmic patterns usually give me exactly what I need, and if not. .. I can simply make adjustments or create my own patterns. All in all, RealGuitar is easy to use, sounds realistic, and sits perfectly in the mix. This is the first sample-based virtual guitar plug-in I've found that truly emulates the real thing. I've got pretty good ears and most of the time I cannot tell if it's real or RealGuitar. I feel like I'm playing again! Thank you, MusicLab, for creating such a great product. :-). I'm saving up to buy RealStrat and/or RealLPC.

Version 4 (update):
RealGuitar v3 by MusicLab is an amazing piece of audio software and represents the finest in virtual guitars, and it just got better with the release of v4. Like many previous version users, I had to consider whether or not to upgrade. After reading through the list of improvements and new features, it was impossible for me to pass on this one, and I'm glad I went for it.

The new Song Mode alone was enough to justify upgrading. I'm a songwriter, and I work in a linear fashion, measure by measure and in structural parts, i.e., intro, verse, pre-chorus, rise, climb chorus, bridge, middle eight, etc. The Song Mode in RG4 helps to create backing tracks in a familiar and natural way — as if I had a guitar in my hands and could play it well. The Time line enabled easy navigation along the song. And, to make the workflow as simple as possible, chords are inserted into the song track and patterns are drag-n-dropped into it.

The Pattern Library Browser has been improved, and provides faster access to over 1200 guitar rhythm patterns that are neatly categorized and selected with the help of the Pattern Filter. Any inserted pattern can quickly be multiplied or edited throughout the song. Chord edited has also been enhanced. Other improvements include Humanizing (sound, timing, velocity, pitch), FretNoise (trigger) FX, Transpose, Harmonics, etc.

Version 4 is a significant update, and I'm glad I grabbed it!

Version 5 (update):
RealGuitar v5 a BIG BIG upgrade that is very impressive. Most notably MusicLab added a new guitar sample set called "Steel String." This is in addition to their "Classic" model. There are easier than ever switching between soloing, strumming, string picking, etc. via key velocity. It takes a little time to get used to, but with the right touch it's a breeze. There are many other additions and improvements. All-in-all, the upgrade is well worth it, and I continue to be happy. Thank you, MusicLab!.

free 2.0 update for current users: the new sampling features are great! If you want an instrument for creative sampling - deeply exploring the sonic potential hidden inside a sample - then Pigments exposes the best tools for that right on the surface. You can run it as a straight up sampler, with modulatable sample start (essential creative tool), 6 samples mapped per engine in round robin mode, random, key map, velocity map etc., or switch to granular mode - and here's the cool thing - when in granular mode the engine can alternately pick individual grains from the sample slots according to the mapping mode you've chosen, or you may choose the active sample with a knob (modulatable of course). Granular mode has tons of options and features, from max number of overlapping grains to modulatable grain envelope shapes - e.g. triangular, trapezoid - as well as grain direction, size, density, pitch, and left-right channel separation. Grain density can be clock-synced, including a per grain probability control for density. Each sampler engine also has its own shaper modes including bitcrush, FM and ring mod as well as a resonator. Great stuff.

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Pigments is a monster synth that stands out in a field of monster synths. The sequencer / arpeggiator is unique, and the modulation system is a pleasure to use, making patch creation fast and fun. CPU usage is moderate, and the GUI is beautiful both visually and ergonomically.

The wavetable oscillators can display in 2D or 3D mode, with 2D giving a better representation of how the sound is being warped. Adding wavetables is a drag and drop operation - and yes, it can use Serum's wavetables. Pigments will also allow you to drag in any old wave file, however this yields mixed results and takes some trial and error and fiddling with master pitch. Creating wavetables from wavs is a bit of a black art at the best of times using the best of tools, so I hope Arturia will update Pigments with better wavetable creation tools. I've had good results creating single cycle waveforms with the free Hardcore and Softcore apps from Floats, then gluing them together with an audio editor, then importing into Pigments, but there ought to be an easier way. There are 119 factory wavetables though so just the default install gives you plenty of raw material. Once you've selected or imported a wavetable, you can push it further with audio rate modulations including FM, PM, phase distortion and wave folding, and dedicated mod oscillators. All these parameters can be modulated with the control mod sources, with results ranging from subtle to blistering. The phase distortion algorithm combined with wavetable index modulation is especially cool to my ears, and doesn't sound quite like anything else out there in synthland.

Which brings us to one of Pigments' best features: the control modulation. Select one of the colour coded mod sources in the middle row, then drag the mod ring around a knob, or click the plus sign that appears next to a knob on mouse-over, and drag any number of mod sources up or down in the middle row to assign modulations. Hovering over a knob or clicking the plus shows all the mod sources assigned to that control. It's visually appealing and encourages experimentation. Tracing mod assignments this way is easier than with a tangle of photorealistic spaghetti cables on the screen, in my opinion.

Despite the absent spaghetti it's very much like working with a fully modular synth, where you can use an LFO to trigger and re-trigger an envelope, and similar shenanigans. You get three each of: LFOs, envelopes, drawable function generators, random sources, and very clever modulation combiners that enable lag and value remapping. The modulators can trigger / gate / reset and modulate the parameters of other modulators, including each unit's synced or free running clock speed. One of the random sources is a Turing unit, which if you're not familiar, can generate varying degrees of randomness, partly-recurring sequences, and lock in a sequence once you hear something you like. Any of the mod sources can be assigned to the synth's master pitch, which can be quantized to snap to scales. The ease of use invites daisy-chain and loop-the-loop mod routings for pleasantly unpredictable results that aren't just noise - you can create cool generative patches that are greater than the sum of their parts.

The polyrhythmic arp / sequencer is a joy for anyone who likes to create evolving sequences. Gate, trigger probability, octave and pitch lanes can be set to different lengths and clock divisions, and the master clock rate itself is modulatable by any of the mod sources, which makes ratcheting sequences possible. There are also randomize and periodic randomize functions here, and optional scale snapping so the randomized sequences always play in key.

Another feature in Pigments that's nice to see is microtuning. I don't consider a synth to be a full fledged citizen of my plugin folder unless it has this.

Additions I'd like to see in updates: ring mod; the ability to drive the sequencer lanes using LFO zero crossings; individual reverse and pendulum motions for the sequencer lanes, or even the ability to scan across the lanes with a modulator; better raw wave import and creation tools for wavetables; and comb filter enhancements and feature additions for physical modelling. None of these are showstoppers though; it's already a bottomless pit of sound design potential. Two thumbs up for this mad beastie.

Omnisphere 2 has replaced all my outboard gear. I've been producing electronic music, professionally for over 15 years and find that it's much quicker and easier to work "inside the box". The sound I get from this beast is just as good, if not better than any of the analog gear I used to own, and for much less the cost. Full disclosure, I create 3rd party patches for Omnisphere, so I've had years to dive deep into it. And since it keeps getting better with improvements (all of which are free to registered users), I don't have to worry about it becoming outdated or obsolete at some future point.

Overwhelming EQ.

The new frequency collision makes it the ultimate weapon in my arsenal. There is no better, just "another".

I've owned this for a while. If you're after that Thermionic Culture type tube distortion this thing does it well. You can use subtly or obliterate your audio as you wish.

Whatever your music genre, this little tool is mind blowing and it will help you to expand your creativity, transforming a dull and boring sequence in something more "alive" and musical.

a great reverb. Valhalla makes some of the best sounding effects and I would put this next to the other amazing stuff they sell, idk why this is free it's incredible.