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

[vitocorleone123]

Few softsynths sound like analog. If you don’t want analog sound, don’t get Diva or Repro. Why are those popular? Because a lot of people like analog. Simple. And why do some people use “old” synths? Because some are timeless instruments and can always be used in new ways. Does using Serum make someone cutting edge just by selecting a preset? No. It’s in how it’s used.

Overrated
Serum
Sylenth
90% of Plugin Alliance stuff (others are gems)
98% of Waves stuff
Soundtoys Decapitator

Underrated
Tokyo Dawn
TBProAudio
Xils synths
BlueCat
Hive2

[rezoneight]

98% of Waves stuff is not overrated. Give me a break. Waves plugins are the workhorses of the recording industry at this point.

[Spencer Maddox]

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.

The whole thing is I think we’ve peaked:
Is it even possible to make a synth that sounds more like a a miniMoog then The Legend.
More like a prophet then Repro.
People think their business model is cancer but Roland nailed all their synths in the cloud. Diva is a Swiss Army knife.

I don’t Think there’s anywhere for VA to even go. Unless you start making VA hybrids; which we’ve seen burst on to this scene (Pigments, Phaseplant, etc).

[BONES]

What are synths like DUNE or Hive if not V/As that go far beyond any slavish emulation of some old piece of junk? V/As that go beyond are the future and the sky's the limit when it comes to the possibilities.

Few softsynths sound like analog.

Actually, most softsynths can sound like analogue if you want them to.

If you don’t want analog sound, don’t get Diva or Repro. Why are those popular? Because a lot of people like analog.

How popular are they? Does u-he sell more of them than of Hive or Zebra? Seems unlikely to me. If they were big sellers, they'd probably be more expensive - Two for the price of one Hive is cheap as chips. In any event, if I wanted to make either of the RePros not sound analogue, I wouldn't have any trouble achieving that, just as I'd have no trouble making Hive sound analogue enough that you couldn't tell the difference.

[Sinisterbr]

I think I've read Urs stating somewhere that Diva was actually their best seller

[BONES]

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.

Emulations of old synths is just a tiny corner of what V/A is. Even the simplest V/A can do a whole heap of stuff - FM, Phase Modulation, Hard Sync, all manner of amazing timbres can be had from two simple waveforms cross-modulating. The filter then becomes the icing on the cake, not always even necessary. Then there are the relatively recent innovations with modulation sources - MSEGs, glitch sequencers and the like, a much more sophisticated way of manipulating your basic building blocks. Who knows what the next thing will be? I think there is plenty of life in the old girl yet.

[melomood]

Okay, I hope this isint a mistake

I’ve been making a lot of noise (or sometimes, if I’m lucky, somthin that resembles Music) during quarantine and I discovered a Gem I never knew I had.
Iris2. I bought iris 2 on a super sale along side “trash” a while ago but I was really only interested in Trash. I never even touched iris until recently when I downloaded the factory libraries onto my Mac and started playing with it.
Good Goodness! This synth is phenomenal. It’s niche. Very specific in its objective and sweetspot: but incredibly efficient, lightweight and flexible.

I've had an eye on that since I started playing around with the trial version of Harmor. It's niche but I think it's an interesting direction. In time it will be one or the other.
I'm loathe to call any of it overrated because,after all these years, I'm still so happy with all the modern tech that has given me access to music making tools I never dreamed I'd be using when I was young

[Spencer Maddox]

I think I've read Urs stating somewhere that Diva was actually their best seller

This isn't useful for good hard analyses, as i have no idea what this algorithm is On. But splice has Diva ranked as the 12th Most Used VSTI among all producers on the Platform.
Zebra is 27th
Hive is 51st

OUTSIDE of KVR, Obviously here being U-He's Core Base so its harder to tell, Diva seems to be above and beyond his most successful product.
I don't Use Hive, But I'm surprised Hive is 51st...It's better then Sylenth1 IMO. Needs more Love.

[GRUMP]

Overrated: all VA Synths, esp. those that are hyped like Queens. And Serum. And not just a few Others.

[Distorted Horizon]

Underrated?
Wiggle, Diversion..

Overrated?
Anything waves.

[Spencer Maddox]

Overrated: all VA Synths, esp. those that are hyped like Queens. And Serum. And not just a few Others.

Queens?

[FapFilter]

The whole thing is I think we’ve peaked:
Is it even possible to make a synth that sounds more like a a miniMoog then The Legend.
More like a prophet then Repro.
People think their business model is cancer but Roland nailed all their synths in the cloud. Diva is a Swiss Army knife.

I don’t Think there’s anywhere for VA to even go. Unless you start making VA hybrids; which we’ve seen burst on to this scene (Pigments, Phaseplant, etc).

I generally fully agree with this, but i still think that digital hasn't reached the “effortless, still good sound“ when it comes to absolute extreme distortion settings. And with distortion to the max i also mean filter fm, etc.
I haven't used Synapse stuff, but from the synths i tried (u-he, native instruments, tal), none can sound as raw yet still “nice“ as when i filter fm the living shit on my lowly monotribe. I also doubt we're there when it comes to the extremes a sherman filterbank can do.
The plugins i tiried allow such settings, but they still sound less “nice“ and become more “pffft“ or scratchy.
Not that such settings are really a requirement, i also don't really need those in my analogs for actual production. Also distortion plugins are actually good enough that noone* could pinpoint this down in an actual production unless you intentionally want it to sound digital.
From actual useful sound settings though (even for noise stuff) i don't think we really need to go any further. It's more about the general tone now that one prefers and imo a good sounding “analog“ vst synth can easily be now on par, if not even better than most true analog legend synths.
Same applies to digital synths.
Yes, maybe no synth will sound like a Virus, but that does not mean that no digital vst could ever sound better than one, assuming they haven't already.
At least I would take something like Icarus or Bazille any day over a virus, and not just because of convenience or the huge price gap.
In fact i've even heard stuff on the ancient Z3ta+ that made me question the need for a virus.




* at least i'm sure i couldn't

[GRUMP]

Overrated: all VA Synths, esp. those that are hyped like Queens. And Serum. And not just a few Others.

Queens?

Nosy Chicks. Expansive B******

[Dombaeb]

Why so many people here mention Serum "overrated". I have a lot of synths and, which is more important - I actually use it for sound-design instead of just "have an opinion". Serum still has one of the best (if not the best) interface and workflow. It' very comfortable to work with, I mention that I start to return to Serum and Ableton Operator more often these days. These synths don't fight with me, they have brilliant instant interfaces and provide good sound.

Maybe that's because so many tutorials on youtube where people do the same things - midrange filtered woob-woob basses and other mainstream bass-music.

But Serum can do everything, including lush evolving pads and ethereal percussion-pluck sounds and everything in between. It's a real creative instrument with a lot of smart features (for example - "resampling OSCs" and "Capture" that capture any sound to the new wavetable in Serum FX plugin). Yeah, it sounds clean, but actually everything that sounds so clean can sounds dirty and lush, it's the question of processing and some knowledge of how sound works. If you have a good quality sound generator like Serum or Operator - you can do practically any type of sound.

[FapFilter]

Why so many people here mention Serum "overrated".

Simply because of the fact that everyone and his mother is mentioning it. Has nohing to do with it's sound, capabilities or workflow.

If Icarus or Pigments were in it's place and an a bit more unknown, not as much exposed Serum came to the market, it would be Serum that'd be the underdog and the other two the overrated