The Favorite 2013 Softsynth Is...

[BBFG#]

For me, it is Monark!
Another synth I liked (but didn't buy) is Spectral by Linplug

Same, opposite.
Spectral, is great, all around. Lovin it.
Monark is probably (and sounds) amazing, but I have not really kicked it around.
The Mangle... surely amazing.. havent tried it.

Yes Sure Spectral is a great synth, but I have Harmor which IMO covers most of the sounds of Spectral. I also have Razor, Prism, FM8, Massive and some other digital sounding synths, so I felt I just don't need Spectral.
Monark is different. I don't have something like it!

I have pretty much the same. I have the Spectral beta which seems to work without restrictions and the Harmor demo that I think does. I finally downloaded the DIVA demo and installed it to play with a bit.

They are all very nice, but to be honest, I'm pretty sure at this point I wouldn't have any real use for DIVA. I haven't found any reason to open up Monark at all and rarely even open FM8 or Massive. Spectral seems to be going that way too. Spire; I completely uninstalled after just a few days and it's doubtful I would find a need for it. I kind of like Harmor though, but won't truly consider it unless the price is really right. I put Spectral below Harmor for my personal tastes. I am watching Mangle for a PC version. And Cycle, unfortunately bugged on me and the developer never checked why it refuses to close on my system without doing a forced task manager shut down each time.

They seemed promising until I played with the demo and I ask the right questions about whether I will really use it or just to play with it for fun, (which has been the final say for all the Tone2 stuff for me since I think they're a lot of fun, but nothing I end up doing anything with).

I keep going over what I have, and I don't think any of my favorites are even in the last two or three years of their releases. Demo, beta or otherwise.

[D-Fusion]

FXPansion Tres for the punch and sound

[Kriminal]

The favorite synth of 2013 is

Togu Audio Line TAL-Bassline-101 (Roland SH-101)
http://kunz.corrupt.ch/products/tal-bassline-101

Best synth released this year by a mile. No contest.

[musikmachine]

What is this cycle, can't seem to find it. Mine would be Spire and Tone 2 Nemesis.

http://www.amaranthaudio.com/products/cycle/

Thanks! Yeah i had seen that, impressive sound!

[musikmachine]

WaveGenerator was released and people still think it's just another plugin, as in similar to countless unthrilling plugins, or not much above that. It's one of the best synths ever made, it's by a "synth legend" himself, in many ways it totally smashes several highly revered hardware synths, and the PC/Mac version finally enables much higher sound quality which wasn't possible with the tablet version.

I actually though it was just a tool for generating waves for the PPG synths.

[dexterbella]

WaveGenerator was released and people still think it's just another plugin, as in similar to countless unthrilling plugins, or not much above that. It's one of the best synths ever made, it's by a "synth legend" himself, in many ways it totally smashes several highly revered hardware synths, and the PC/Mac version finally enables much higher sound quality which wasn't possible with the tablet version.

I actually though it was just a tool for generating waves for the PPG synths.

WaveGenerator gets my vote for the best synth of 2013. With the latest version of Audio-Term able to create wavetables for it I feel like I've finally got the PPG Wave/Waveterm audio playground I've been after for years!

[musikmachine]

I'm just watching the youtube video; holy shit!

[pdxindy]

WaveGenerator was released and people still think it's just another plugin, as in similar to countless unthrilling plugins, or not much above that. It's one of the best synths ever made, it's by a "synth legend" himself, in many ways it totally smashes several highly revered hardware synths, and the PC/Mac version finally enables much higher sound quality which wasn't possible with the tablet version.

I actually though it was just a tool for generating waves for the PPG synths.

WaveGenerator gets my vote for the best synth of 2013. With the latest version of Audio-Term able to create wavetables for it I feel like I've finally got the PPG Wave/Waveterm audio playground I've been after for years!

Can't you create wavetables right in WaveGenerator?

[Rah]

I liked Monark and Tal Bassline best of the Synths I've bought this year.

They both have a 'je ne sais quoi' about them, that raise them above

I like my synths to be simple and awesome sounding

[Tricky-Loops]

WaveGenerator was released and people still think it's just another plugin, as in similar to countless unthrilling plugins, or not much above that. It's one of the best synths ever made, it's by a "synth legend" himself, in many ways it totally smashes several highly revered hardware synths, and the PC/Mac version finally enables much higher sound quality which wasn't possible with the tablet version.

I actually though it was just a tool for generating waves for the PPG synths.

That's exactly what I thought, too. I was surprised that it's a synth on its own.

[dexterbella]

Can't you create wavetables right in WaveGenerator?

There's a lot you can do to edit/create wavetables in WaveGenerator but you can't, for example, load single cycle waves. Using it alongside Audio-Term adds a lot more possibilities.

[pdxindy]

Can't you create wavetables right in WaveGenerator?

There's a lot you can do to edit/create wavetables in WaveGenerator but you can't, for example, load single cycle waves. Using it alongside Audio-Term adds a lot more possibilities.

loading single cycle waves seems like such a basic task for a wavetable synth. that is a significant deficiency

[dexterbella]

Can't you create wavetables right in WaveGenerator?

There's a lot you can do to edit/create wavetables in WaveGenerator but you can't, for example, load single cycle waves. Using it alongside Audio-Term adds a lot more possibilities.

loading single cycle waves seems like such a basic task for a wavetable synth. that is a significant deficiency

Copared to PPG Wave V3, for instance, WaveGenerator is a quantum leap in wavetable editability. PPG Wave V3 also doesn't allow single cycle wave import (there are a number of wavetable synths that don't) but also doesn't allow any kind of editing of the included wavetables. With the freeware Audio-Term able to add some additional functions to the already fairly extensive ones available, WaveGenerator really doesn't feel deficient at all imho.

[pdxindy]

Can't you create wavetables right in WaveGenerator?

There's a lot you can do to edit/create wavetables in WaveGenerator but you can't, for example, load single cycle waves. Using it alongside Audio-Term adds a lot more possibilities.

loading single cycle waves seems like such a basic task for a wavetable synth. that is a significant deficiency

Copared to PPG Wave V3, for instance, WaveGenerator is a quantum leap in wavetable editability. PPG Wave V3 also doesn't allow single cycle wave import (there are a number of wavetable synths that don't) but also doesn't allow any kind of editing of the included wavetables. With the freeware Audio-Term able to add some additional functions to the already fairly extensive ones available, WaveGenerator really doesn't feel deficient at all imho.

I suppose nothing to something qualifies as a quantum leap, but not being able to import a single cycle wave means it is a tedious task to draw many dozens of waves by editing partials... And Audio_Term is PC only... so of no use to me.

[Phase47]

Top 5:

Razor
Monark
Massive (never ceases to amaze me how far this thing goes...)
Spire (a new challenger emerges...)
TAL Bassline

Runner-up: LuSH-101