KVR Audio

AstralExistence · Post by **AstralExistence** » Mon May 20, 2013 7:24 pm

brok landers wrote:the ones i considered as a must were albino1, rm4, waldorf ppg (for nostalgic reasons and some uses) and later hypersonic2 with the us1 module. i was extremely dissapointed by model d, as i mostly was with all steinberg products, with some exeptions.

if were strictly talking about the first vsti that made us smile like the chesire cat, for me that would be vanguard. the slogan alone sold tons.

"VANGUARD is the long awaited replacement for your old 19" hardware gear which you will never use again after you have tried VANGUARD."

probably one of the best, if not 'the' best selling vsti of all time.

audiojunkie · Post by **audiojunkie** » Mon May 20, 2013 7:33 pm

Now granted it's been a while, but I would have thought RGC Pentagon I would have been on a lot of people's lists as one of the first Payware synths that was a must-have. It stood in the number one slot and highest in the ratings for years here at KVR, before the ratings lost all value and meaning.

I would also agree with others that Synth 1 was the must-have synth in on the freeware side. I didn't appreciate it at the time, because I've been a patch kiddie for years, and not until the last few years (and the advent of youtube) have I come to understand how great a synth it was/is. I guess when there are so many patches, and a lot of them are crap, one comes to that opinion.

In short: Pentagon I and Synth 1

--Sean

dj ray · Post by **dj ray** » Mon May 20, 2013 7:52 pm

Oddity for me. Still the definitive Arp Odyssey emulation after all these years. +1 for the ReFX stuff including PlastiCZ and Vanguard.

Ayavaron · Post by **Ayavaron** » Mon May 20, 2013 8:23 pm

audiojunkie wrote:It stood in the number one slot and highest in the ratings for years here at KVR, before the ratings lost all value and meaning.

I know this is offtopic but how/why did that happen?

AstralExistence · Post by **AstralExistence** » Mon May 20, 2013 8:27 pm

because at that time and for a long time after it WAS the best till it was pwned by z3ta/albino.

bluedad · Post by **bluedad** » Mon May 20, 2013 8:29 pm

The first two vst's I bought were Spektral Delay and Reaktor. Later that summer of '02 I bought Pentagon and Sonic Synth 1 (after having it demo'd to me by Squids at summer NAMM). To supplement those I used Muon Tau and Crystal. LinPlug Delta was a lovely synth I played with a bit..later got Tau Pro and in a smoky private room off of the kvr chat room I bribed Rene for a copy of Z3ta+ before it was released.
No mention of Rhino? It was discussed as Zebra/ACE/DIVA are today.

griels · Post by **griels** » Mon May 20, 2013 8:39 pm

aMUSEd wrote:Pro 5 - came out just after Model E so one of the first commercial plugins and the first one that actually sounded good.

+1

I couldn't afford it at the time though, but then SynC modular came along at an insane price and presented an absolute no-brainer of a purchase. My Reaktor 5 ownership can be traced directly back to that point.

Sendy · Post by **Sendy** » Mon May 20, 2013 8:40 pm

For me it was Zebra. I didn't even demo it, beyond listening to online sound demos and some videos. I don't even remember how I stumbled across it because the moments leading up to it's discovery were dwarfed by a massive adrenaline rush and boundless excitement. You know when it feels like somebody made something just for YOU?... At the time I was SO tired of the same old oscillator section appearing time and time again in every single bloody synth. Synths with more waveforms on the LFO than the actual audio oscillator. Synths with static tone generators or wavetables that come pre-designed from someone else's blueprint. Zebra freed me from that.

To this day the oscillator section is still untouchable when it comes to digital waveform kung-fu. I think of it as a 3D wavetable synth when you're using the wavewarp in conjunction with the two oscillator FX slots. 3 freaking D... It does analog pretty well, too.

VitaminD · Post by **VitaminD** » Mon May 20, 2013 8:48 pm

audiojunkie wrote:Now granted it's been a while, but I would have thought RGC Pentagon I would have been on a lot of people's lists as one of the first Payware synths that was a must-have. It stood in the number one slot and highest in the ratings for years here at KVR, before the ratings lost all value and meaning.

I remember P1 being widely enjoyed on kvr eons ago.. Rene and rgcaudio were much like Urs and u-he software are today.. (thankfully, they write Mac software so they'll never be bought out by cakewalk

)

When Z3ta came out it was as if researchers discovered sliced bread... it was realllyyy popular.

And PSP VintageWarmer VST was also super popular too..

Of course, S1 was also really popular and well discussed (especially by ME

) but that is a freebie and thus does not count.

Vectorman · Post by **Vectorman** » Mon May 20, 2013 9:06 pm

The first VI I ever bought was Kontakt, back at the beginning of 2004. But right after that I went for PPG 2.V, which was an absolute must-have for me, as I'd lusted after the real thing as a teen and was still curious what it would be like to have one. Even if 2.V wasn't a totally accurate emulation, it sounded similar enough to the real deal that I finally felt like I had a "PPG" playing in my tracks and used it all over the CD I was working on at the time.

osiris · Post by **osiris** » Mon May 20, 2013 9:10 pm

I think SimSynth was the first to have a really good sound. But, it wasn't VST.
It had a built in step sequencer which you could then bounce to audio. Sadly, IL ported it to VST and it lost that oomph.
The first must have VST....
I think Reaktor and Absynth, and Pro-53. Along with VStation.

Xenobt · Post by **Xenobt** » Mon May 20, 2013 9:21 pm

The first one I HAD to have was Garritan Personal Orchestra. Once I heard what non-looped, non-synth hybrid orch instruments sounded like, it was truly all I could think about til I owned it. It's STILL a big part of my orchestral stuff, and one of my favorite pianos too.

Trilogy was another that made my workstation stuff seem instantly dated. What a lovely beast!

KVR/eSoundz: Xenobt

Asuyuka · Post by **Asuyuka** » Mon May 20, 2013 9:26 pm

I think, for me, the first synth that made me want to drop some money was Absynth 3, Vanguard or Triangle. I still don't own two of those, but at least Triangle was released for free.

I think virtual synths were a slow creep. I don't even remember one to be the first Must Have synth like you describe, though maybe it could be traced back to the ST? JM Jarre and Tangerine Dream were using one for its MIDI capabilities... Logic also came from that computer, if I remember.

D-Fusion · Post by **D-Fusion** » Mon May 20, 2013 9:34 pm

V-Station and z3ta+ and TC Mercury was my first

I remember V-station used 45% of my cpu with only one in use and some presets on the z3ta+ was making crackling noices on my soundblaster card.

Now they use about the same amount of cpu that reasons Subtractor did at that time with some effects connected after it.

MFXxx · Post by **MFXxx** » Mon May 20, 2013 9:56 pm

Vanguard, Zeta and anything NI...then came uhe, Game changer still in play.

Someone mentioned Rubberduck...now that brings back memories

What was the first "must-have" VST instrument?