What's the best VST plug-in synth in the world today?

[Fritze]

Music Radar (and all the affiliated rags) are so pointless.
Define best?

Agree... but so are e.g. votes for established politicians.

I wouldn't say such votes are pointless as they are influential. Well, for sure the political ones ...

So my vote is Zebra. Great sounding, versatile synth. The guys at u-he and the community are very cool.

[ariston]

I wonder how many of the people who voted "Omnisphere" actually own Omnisphere... ?

Not to knock this impressive synth, but it reminds me of the school yard discussions about the "best" cars (it was always Lamborghini vs. Ferrari). We didn't have a clue, but were awed by the rep.

Anyway, clicked Zebra and moved on. You should do the same.

[Ingonator]

Hmm. My favorites are U-He Diva (just pre-ordered), Xils Synthix, KV331 Audio Synthmaster 2.5, Waldorf PPG Wave 3.V and Waldorf Largo. As ImpOSCar 2 would be the next in my list i voted for this.


Ingo

[Doug1978]

Yep, it's pretty much Zebra or Alchemy for me.

However, if any of you like great-sounding and free (PC) synths, try this (it's the best 'cos it's my favorite!):

[tehlord]

Music Radar (and all the affiliated rags) are so pointless.
Define best?

Agree... but so are e.g. votes for established politicians.

Isn't that kind of insulting to musicradar.com?

One can only hope

[Lotuzia]

NI FM8 ... such a nice, powerfull, versatile and underated synth.

I would never factor in something as being better due to being "underrated".
It's not a characteristic to judge a synth by...and doesn't make something sound better, or become more versatile, or powerful in anyway.
I'll add after trying the demo of FM8, I'm not finding it to be versatile, or powerful. Nice possibly. Underrated?

Zebra is clearly the best synth I have...and I'll be adding some proof shortly to back up my reason for saying so.
Although I can't demo Omnisphere, so can't vote on that one. I actually can't even listen to the demo tracks, cuz they're on youtube.
I wouldn't choose Diva even if it was up there. It's a niche' synth, and sounds great, but it is not versatile. I like variety, and a synth that can't do a large variety of sounds wouldn't get a best synth vote from me.
I do wish the Diva filters were in Zebra though...maybe someday.

edit:btw...it looks like Zebra is now no#2 from the vote results so far.

1/ I just never said it was "better". Where did you read that ?

In this list its the synth I prefer, ie the best for me in this list. Other choices could have been Massive, Omnisphere, or Alchemy. With an extended list, my vote would also have been different. I read "the best" as "the one I prefer in a list". You read "the best" as "better than others". Its your interpretation, not mine.

2/ I did not say I put a factor of my choice on the fact it was underrated, nor that it was a criteria for me to judge this synth : you just invented that. Fyi, I made a 260 instrument soundbank recently for the FM8. The time involved in this project might have influenced my vote. Who knows.

3/ Where did I say that the fact it was underrated made it "better" "more versatile" or "powerfull". You seem to speak englis fairly well. Can you READ it too ?

3/ You dont find it versatile ? Fair enough. For me FM8 can make some patches other synths just cant touch. Reverse beeing also true. Different opinions. Anyway beeing versatile again might not be an argument to "prefer" a synth. A TB303 or a TR909 might not be that versatile, still it can be the best musical instrument for many people.

Before you establish yourself with a cristal bowl and presume of what people are, or not, thinking, and read in their thoughts, I'd suggest that you begin to read other people posts in a neutral way, and stop putting your own words into other people's mouth.

I expressed a personal choice, you expressed a kind of "supremacist" -see below- argument and attitude. If you're not able to stand the fact that I dared to choose a different synth than your's, this might be your problem, not mine.

( Note : And bring all the "proofs" you want to -try to- establish that your -imho_ fanboyish attitude is justified : There will still be some billion tracks made with other instruments to balance what will always stay only as ...... "your personal opinion".

Also make sure you can at least make a decent instrument with an FM8, it might be helpfull to be able to compare different instruments when you're a declared supremacist wannabe ..... I dont mind if you prefer this synth over that synth, I myself favor some synths over others, but bringing proofs of supremacy ( and btw undercover badmouthing a totally different synth like FM8 ) ...... well .... that's something totally different )

Ok, I'll let everyone reading this to make their own opinion. A forum is a place where anyone can have and express his own opinion, right ? I expressed mine very simply, and you took the time and made a considerable effort to try to minimize and demolish it (and the FM8 altogether ), by completely changing the meaning of my simple words and making hative and false interpretations. So I hope its not too much of a problem for you if my turn comes to answer to your delicate intervention

Music is -imho- about tolerance, diversity. Musical instruments also. Politically correct thinking and soft synths police are not my concern. I'm talking about music and musical instruments.

[Bronto Scorpio]

I always liked the FM8 videos of this guy:


Cheers
Dennis

[Fritze]

I always liked the FM8 videos of this guy:


Cheers
Dennis

THIS is just mind boggling.

There onces was a guy who made orchestral patches for the Moog Modular by Arturia. Could this be the same guy?

Thanx Dennis for posting this!

[hakey]

There onces was a guy who made orchestral patches for the Moog Modular by Arturia. Could this be the same guy?

That was Elhardt - very talented sound designer but something of an odd character, imo.

With respect to using synths to emulate fully orchestrated music, I think just about any half-decent synth can do it and, for a given level of realism, the individual instruments don't need to be as close as they would if they were just going to be heard in solo. It's a classic example of the whole being much more than the sum of the parts.

(And I see Clouseau's on form!)

[rockmachine]

Not in order:

1. Zebra

2.Alchemy- the full synth, not the player

3.Imposcar 2

4.Tera -though really disappointed with how Virsyn has desserted its support for over 2 years. Definitely, this is last for this reason.

[T-CM11]

Does these plugins like Omnisphere and Alchemy count as synthesizers? I think they look more like sample players with synth module, than synthesizers.

A tiger looks like just a big kitteh. Go and pet it at the zoo!

[CPCompany]

People can scoff, but these polls matter, especially for beginners.
Most people like myself have no idea what they were getting into when buying synths and these kind of polls from magazines/internet sites are the first place many look before making a purchase.

[Gonga]

It would perhaps have been more useful to narrow the field a bit, such as best virtual analog, best FM, best additive, best emulation, or best sampler/rompler, etc.

[FarleyCZ]

Zebra of course! Sonic pallete is amazing. One can do things other synths just dream about being capable of.

[Doug1978]

People can scoff, but these polls matter, especially for beginners.
Most people like myself have no idea what they were getting into when buying synths and these kind of polls from magazines/internet sites are the first place many look before making a purchase.

+1

You probably already do this CPCompany and sorry to state the obvious but, in addition to the above, always test out the demo fully over a number of days before making a purchase (if the software has a demo).
I don't think I'm the only person here at KVR who's sometimes tempted into impulse buys (some of which are great).