The Most Overrated and Underrated VST/AU (Effects And Instruments)

[Russell Grand]

Because it's cheap and because it's a bit weird, people seem very dismissive of it

I'm guessing the cost and its "weirdness" aren't the reasons people are dismissive of Union. Soundspots' products are generally just not very good, sometimes being laughable. They're definitely cheap...but not just in the way you meant it.

With that said, I've never demoed Union so I can't comment on that specifically. But there was a time when I bought a bunch of Soundspot plugs 'cause they were so inexpensive and the GUIs were decent. I soon realized they were of subpar quality and haven't even demoed any since.

So I could be missing out on something amazing by not giving Union a chance...but I doubt it.

[empphryio]

What's underrated (and not kidding) is the etorki bells preset from Cheeze Machine 2 (you have to start from that preset as they have stuff hiding under the hood in this partially disabled free version). Take that and turn it into strings. At least 4 times now I have replaced strings from multiple 200 dollar synths with this otherwise really aptly named free vst.

Also Massive X.

[JoeCat]

Imma change the wording a bit, and say I think currently Serum is probably the most 'overexposed' synth.

Overrated implies it's not as good as reviewers/users are saying, and I don't think that's the case (for what it does - obviously it's a poor Moog emulation, but that's not what's on the box). It's a great synth for the money and was a bit of a game-changer for wavetable plugs.

But judging from a lot of the social media groups I lurk in, for a ton of young producers it's virtually the only third-party synth they know of. Plus you have the Splice tie-ins, etc. And the dev himself is famous as a producer, DJ. So the synth takes off, sound designers flock to it, lots of presets are made helping to fuel more sales (availability of sounds is of course a great selling point).

So a synth like Icarus then is underexposed (not on KVR, but elsewhere) - most of the novices haven't heard of it.

The overrated / underrated characterization can be tough 'cause usually quality gets sussed out, and whats not important to me looks overrated and visa-versa. So BONES finds a lot of what he needs in Soundspot Union, and Vacuum Pro, but not Moog emus. Your mileage gonna vary (especially if you're into more subtle sounds )

For me, if I were to say I appreciate something more than I hear people discussing on KVR, it's probably Ableton Operator (tied to the DAW of course, so that's understandable), and XiLS Oxium, which took a hit for its interface but to my ears is one of those subtractives that has a ton of sweet spots.

Operator has a ton of somewhat esoteric features that are just fantastic for certain things. It's FM but has the Cytomic analog-modeled filters, fixed-phase position settings per oscillator, characterful filter drive models, and a few neat workflow features that really come in handy in an FM additive (like the "Time" feature, which just increases / decreases all of the time/dependent envelope settings, which you can modulate by key tracking to get just the right sustain on piano / keyboard sounds without tweaking each oscillator). It's fantastic for generating percussion, and low CPU usage means you can drop an instance per drum pad in a Live Drum Rack. Basically, you get a Digitone.

[Schmidi]

I think the entire AIR Music Tech line is quite good and useable for almost free/bundle-in software. I do wish they got a little GUI size love from the dev though.

[dandezebra]

I think the entire AIR Music Tech line is quite good and useable for almost free/bundle-in software. I do wish they got a little GUI size love from the dev though.

It should be amazing when it comes out as they've been working on the GUI updates for years!

[Spencer Maddox]

But judging from a lot of the social media groups I lurk in, for a ton of young producers it's virtually the only third-party synth they know of. Plus you have the Splice tie-ins, etc. And the dev himself is famous as a producer, DJ. So the synth takes off, sound designers flock to it, lots of presets are made helping to fuel more sales (availability of sounds is of course a great selling point).

Ain’t this The truth.
I’m 21 so I am in these groups and my goodness people love their Serum
Not the only one tho usually they know 5 VSTS
Serum. Sylenth1. Massive (x), Kontakt, And Spire.

It’s not a bad thing, per-say, I mean.
but With great exposure and success comes a lot of mixed results in quality, and when you have boatloads or Gen Z’s armed with Serum, and an boatload of overcompressed Riddem Presets...
I feel serums success with younger much less experienced producers as well as its heavy preset industry that was powerful enough to literally BUILD companies (Cymatics comes to mind); has almost given it a disadvantage in forums like KVR.

Not to over-read the demographics of KVR but KVR has always seemed to lean away from that style of music and production period. For example People share actual compression knowledge instead of telling people to “Put OTT on it Bro” (I kid I kid). Most users here seem to be more experienced, knowledgeable and tend to sway away from the heavy preset, smash mouth compressed style of some of the well known “Serum” kinda music

You make a really good point about it being overexposed.
Mabye the best I’ve seen in terms of dealing with the complicated divide it seems to have on KVR.

[Spencer Maddox]

Is FM underated however or is the medium and format for FM just changing.
In the era of the powersynth hybrid FM seems to be a really popular thing.
This often is stereotyped with Serum in “FM FROM B” which as been jokingly called the new modern talking. Pigments now has FM, Falcon has wavetable FM. ANA2. Synthmaster is amazing at FM. Rapid has wavetable PM, I hope FM soon will come to them.
Phaseplant has........

What even is phase plant that’s like everything-M

My point is, as synthesis evolves into new trends are we certain FM is really underated or is it just that FM is alive and well just FM specific synths seem to not do as well as they once did.

[SLiC]

I think the AAS synths are very underrated- Chromaphone 2, VA3, VS3 etc. Physical modeling and VA are as good as it gets, interfaces are good (and resizable, they have just added GUI scaling) and they do an installer so you can update all products with one file, NKS preset etc.- relay top of their game yet hardly a mention on KVR!

I also think 'Zone' and 'Rapid' don't get much press but they are very small companies and don't have the hype machine of say IK Multimedia who get my vote for overrated 'by them selves' (their products are fine though )

I also think VA in general is overrated, it is a very limited form of synthesis and all VA (subtractive) VSTs pretty much end up covering the same ground...its been done well, but its been done to death and there really is no need to keep finding old obscure analog synths to emulate, personally I am looking for something new now.

[chk071]

Imma change the wording a bit, and say I think currently Serum is probably the most 'overexposed' synth.

Overrated implies it's not as good as reviewers/users are saying, and I don't think that's the case (for what it does - obviously it's a poor Moog emulation, but that's not what's on the box). It's a great synth for the money and was a bit of a game-changer for wavetable plugs.

But judging from a lot of the social media groups I lurk in, for a ton of young producers it's virtually the only third-party synth they know of. Plus you have the Splice tie-ins, etc. And the dev himself is famous as a producer, DJ. So the synth takes off, sound designers flock to it, lots of presets are made helping to fuel more sales (availability of sounds is of course a great selling point).

It's the "Sylenth1 syndrome".

One synth to rule them all, to bind them, etc.

[chk071]

I think the entire AIR Music Tech line is quite good and useable for almost free/bundle-in software. I do wish they got a little GUI size love from the dev though.

I really wished they would release a Hybrid 4. Hybrid 3 has so much potential, yet fails in a couple of areas (unison turns the synth monophonic, no stereo oscillators, the wavetable quality could be better, the decay 2 parameter for the envelopes shoulw be optional...). If they'd fix those things, and keep the general sound character, it'd be quite a winner, I'm sure. Never spent 1 € on a synth which turned out to be that good.

[BONES]

I'm guessing the cost and its "weirdness" aren't the reasons people are dismissive of Union. Soundspots' products are generally just not very good, sometimes being laughable.

There you go - preconceived notions, not willing to judge a product on its merits. Stupid way to operate. Yes, a lot of Soundspot plugins are pretty krap but they also make some absolutely irreplaceable gems. Anything that costs less than a meal at McDonalds is as good as free and why the hell wouldn't you at least try something that was as good as free?

With that said, I've never demoed Union so I can't comment on that specifically.

But you just did.

So BONES finds a lot of what he needs in Soundspot Union, and Vacuum Pro, but not Moog emus. Your mileage gonna vary (especially if you're into more subtle sounds )

That's just bullshit because there are good and valid reasons that "Moog emus" don't rate. They are quantifiable. It's not just personal preference or something whimsical, it's based on reality, on actual limitations of the original. Similarly, the reason I find what I need in Vacuum Pro and Union is that I put the effort in. Oxium might be OK but those demos don't do it any favours.

My point is, as synthesis evolves into new trends are we certain FM is really underated or is it just that FM is alive and well just FM specific synths seem to not do as well as they once did.

But "trends" are just popularity contests, they have little or no bearing on the value or worth of anything. FM is just oscillator cross-modulation and the majority of VSTi you can buy have it. There is really nothing special about it, per se, it's all in the implementation.

[Apratim]

imo
most absurdly overrated - omnisphere
kinda overrated - dune , u-he stuff (except bazille)
overrated but deserved that overrating - serum
middle ground - pigment2 , massive
kinda underrated - massive x , bazille ,AIR stuff(mann they need that resizing feature or else they are ficked)
actually underrated - Arcsyn , imageline synths(harmour ,etc) ,odin2 , fantom
so underrated that its painful to watch it there - Msoundfactory

[e-crooner]

overrated but deserved that overrating - serum

That makes little sense in terms of logic

[rezoneight]

Vastly underrated IMHO is u-He ACE. The power there for that price is just crazy. And it sounds go good.

[gunark]

Europa. Does some things no other synths do. Combine that also with the flexibility of the Reason Rack (wish it had a sequencer? Add a Matrix) it’s hugely overlooked.

See also: Grain, Complex 1