SONICALLY Best VST Synth

[wagtunes]

i think it's also common to lose sight of how well particular synths work in song, since a lot of discussion on here focuses on the minutia of our instruments instead of their usefulness in creating music.

For example, i really don't like the basic sound of Massive, but no other synth i've tried is as good at doubling with an electric guitar and sitting nicely in the mix without screaming attention to itself. Anything u-he sounds amazing on its own, but i find the bass in Zebra hard to mix unless i want it to be really focal in the mix. i have the same issue when using Serum (which i find excels at lead moments). TRK-01 Play's bass module, however, while sounding a little dull in the mids, is absolutely the hardest hitting bass synth i've ever used. You can cave your skull in listening to the low end on that thing. And while Absynth is definitely lagging behind in things we take for granted today (oscillator features, awesomepants filters), i'm turning to it more and more because it excels at weird, organic, quasi-physical modeling sounds which fit really well in the music i'm making.

Most people will agree that Thorn, RePro and Aalto sound absolutely amazing, but i have a really hard time fitting them into my music. So while they have an objective, base sound quality, they're almost worthless to me for what i do, subjectively.

Maybe because i make crappy sounding music.

I find I have the same problem with many synths. They sound great but then I can't seem to find a use for them in the songs I do. And considering I do a ton of genres, that's actually astonishing. Thorn, which I think is one of the coolest sounding synths, I can count on one hand how many times I've used it on a song. Diva, on the other hand, I use almost all the time as I do Dune 3, Synthmaster, Zebra 2, Omnisphere and The Legend. Most of the synths I own, honestly, I could probably get rid of and not miss them.

[samsam]

Sylenth and Omni.

[Elektronisch]

Synths Oscillator/Sound Quality without looking at features what would the top ten look like?

Sonicly every synth with initial state sound 99% the same near like identical unless it presents aliasing or starts with different wave. So pick your poison.

And this topic is...

[dandezebra]

Bazille
Repros
Phonec
Hive
Diva
Dune 3
The Legend
Harmor
Tal-Uno and Bassline
Factory / Aparillo
Razor

I like a lot of synths for other reasons (Biotek, etc.) but those are the ones that sound like they have some balls to me. The biggest ones you may ask? Hmmmmmmm...

Diva
Harmor
Phonec
Dune 3

[tony10000]

Dune 3
VPS Avenger
Serum
Sylenth
Spire
Hive
Diva
Repro
Zebra
ANA 1/2
Harmor
The Legend
BioTek 1/2

[DuX]

Great points voidhead23 and BONES. Whilst some synths can sound great on their own, the real test is how they sound in *your* mix. Great point BONES about them being a sum of their parts. Some synths are great for programming, and inspiring, so you could make them kinda sound better. Some synths come with great sounding presets [subjective], and you could think their quality to be better than they actually are.

Great that you mentioned ArcSyn, pictus. That's one of the greatly underrated synths, IMHO Great programmability, great sound, a bit underwhelming factory presets. My guess is that's why it isn't more popular.

Cheers!

[Teksonik]

Tek's First Law of KVR will soon be in effect.....If a "What's the Best" thread goes long enough every synth known to man will be mentioned, thereby making the question pointless.

[chk071]

Synths Oscillator/Sound Quality without looking at features what would the top ten look like?

Sonicly every synth with initial state sound 99% the same near like identical unless it presents aliasing or starts with different wave. So pick your poison.

I'm always surprised how different they even already sound with a simple sawtooth playing. Add a low pass filter, and a filter envelope, and you really hear the differences then.

[Elektronisch]

Synths Oscillator/Sound Quality without looking at features what would the top ten look like?

Sonicly every synth with initial state sound 99% the same near like identical unless it presents aliasing or starts with different wave. So pick your poison.

I'm always surprised how different they even already sound with a simple sawtooth playing. Add a low pass filter, and a filter envelope, and you really hear the differences then.

Then you are doing something wrong. If a synth has option to turn off the filter try it out, you will be surprised. Here is a quick example with Wave audio (dont mind the volume differences) and FL project file.

6 different developers synths

Hive
Spire
Dune 3
Harmor
Massive
Serum

Reason why i didnt picked something Like Diva, Legend, Repro ect ect is because you cannot turn off the filters.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/venn357fo9zea ... t.zip?dl=0

Other things like mod rate, filters ect give a bigger role to the core sound then the pure oscillator sound itself.

And just for fun, Hive and Virus Ti. By the sound they are the same. Only by looking at the waveform you can see Virus, that thing is asymmetrical

https://www.dropbox.com/s/5dzq7qnqakmx5 ... s.wav?dl=0

[chk071]

You're right, they almost sound identical. Wonder why they always sounded more different when i tried. You haven't bugged the test, have you?

Some synths have some sound enhancement activated by default, by the way. Spire, for example. To compare, you have to turn off the warm and boost stuff in the master section (even though boost only boosts the amplitude, i think. Warm definitely does something to the sound though, you can see that when you take a look at the raw waveform in a oscilloscope).

[Elektronisch]

You're right, they almost sound identical. Wonder why they always sounded more different when i tried. You haven't bugged the test, have you?

Some synths have some sound enhancement activated by default, by the way. Spire, for example. To compare, you have to turn off the warm and boost stuff in the master section (even though boost only boosts the amplitude, i think. Warm definitely does something to the sound though, you can see that when you take a look at the raw waveform in a oscilloscope).

No didnt bugged, i just made everything to default so the sound would be only oscilator (like you said turning off boost and warmth options). Dune 3 by default has filter on, Massive has different ADSR settings and square wave. Harmor only ADSR aswel, Virus ti by default has analog saturation applied at around 30 percent and 2nd osc activated + punch. Hive only ADSR and sub (with turned off volume), Serum just pure osc.

[chk071]

Well, i stand corrected then. I probably DID something wrong. They sound very identical.

[Butwug]

Serum. Best sine waves Ive ever heard.

[chk071]

Serum. Best sine waves Ive ever heard.

This may not even be as silly as one would think. Some soft synths are declicked and/or have really lazy envelopes, so, the click when you set retrigger phase, and set phase to a non zero crossing, or, with free phase, will get "swallowed". Of course, the pure sine wave won't differ much, it at all.

[NeoKortex88]

omg... shit i might have to get me Diva&Repo to be complete...