SONICALLY Best VST Synth

[BONES]

By the way Bones do you still have that trinity? I have a "fully loaded" still, and though it is dated there are some great sounds that I just can't quite replicate elsewhere.

Dog, no. I got rid of it 18 years or more ago. Once we moved to software, all my hardware was gone in 12 months or so, except the CS1x, which I kept to play on stage until I eventually replaced it with an Alesis Micron in about 2004. (I got rid of that, too.)

I've never worried too much about exactly replicating sounds. New gear is an opportunity to freshen up old songs, to try and find even better sounds than I was using before.

[audiot]

Good Dog! How on Earth did anyone manage to make Richard Butler sound so dog-damned awful?

I knew that would come You wouldn't even like a colab of all your favorite artists, playing your own songs

[BONES]

No, I'm in the same camp as Andy Partridge from XTC when it comes to versions of a song - the one we preset to the world should be the best possible version we can do. I can't think of a single remix I have ever heard that was better than the original. As in, ever. I'm not a huge fan of covers, either, although I am currently working on one of my own. But, honestly, it is a bit of a cynical marketing exercise in an attempt to broaden our fanbase. That said, I am having an absolute blast doing it - other people write way better songs than I ever could. It's also a good way to pay a bit of homage/respect to your influences, assuming you do a good job, which makes it a big responsibility, too.

[Sindikhate]

No, I'm in the same camp as Andy Partridge from XTC when it comes to versions of a song - the one we preset to the world should be the best possible version we can do. I can't think of a single remix I have ever heard that was better than the original. As in, ever. I'm not a huge fan of covers, either, although I am currently working on one of my own. But, honestly, it is a bit of a cynical marketing exercise in an attempt to broaden our fanbase. That said, I am having an absolute blast doing it - other people write way better songs than I ever could. It's also a good way to pay a bit of homage/respect to your influences, assuming you do a good job, which makes it a big responsibility, too.

Still working on The Cure cover?

There are def a lot of remixes that smoke the originals for fun. I know it is probably not your cup of tea but latest and greatest example is that young kid Imanbek's remix on Roses from saint jhn(a horrible trap track, I am not biggest fan of that style at all). Talking about covers remixes there are a lot of remakes from 80s 90s 00s from the EDM scene during the last year. Mostly done by Sony catalogue or artists, but more are following now. They are ok.

In the goth/ebm/aggro scene there are also dozens of great remixes that are far better to the originals. Grendel's remix on can you feel the beat from Nachtmahr for example. Or vnv nation's remix on Das Ich's destillat.


To the main topic now.... sonically best vst synth! RePro for me. Massive X really close. Also big love for dune3 and serum.

[BONES]

The Cure cover has been done for ages. It was the second one I worked on but I've done another dozen since then. The latest one is Planet Claire, which is coming along nicely and also features the default preset from ANA very prominently (most of them do). I think we'll have a good batch to choose an album's worth from but my favourites are Are Friends Electric? and Underpass, which were the two I did straight after All Cats Are Grey (before it turned into a sausage factory).

[Dasheesh]

you have good taste bones. i'll give you that.

[perpetual3]

Hmmm....probably MX for me, with all the UHE coming very close. TAL MOD also sounds amazing to me.

[chagzuki]

I don't really have a considered view on whether there's a difference in audio fidelity amongst the competing crop of synths at the moment. There are so many variables that come into play in real world use-cases. However, I've somewhat distrusted my impression that Serum sounds more pristine than Pigments when it comes to basic wavetable playback, particularly as I don't have a proper monitoring environment at the moment... but I often have that impression. On that subject, this video was interesting to me:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2XLjGDk_5YY

[vertibration]

Anything from U-He imo. I think Repro is such an achievement.

[matteoluigiodaro]

U-he and Serum ain't bad but I've to realise no vst comes close to hardware, even with the magic fx plugins. It's close but not exactly that. Also CPU is bringing all sorts of limitations, and it's easier to tweak a synth with its knobs vs. DAW mapping. Anyway, to each their own I suppose.

[chk071]

I would add Spire to my list from a couple of pages ago. Really, whenever i reach for it for bread and butter unison supersaw pads, plucks and such, it does such a great job, and is definitely my favorite synth for that. It just oozes nice character, and "that" sound for those sounds.

I can easily see past the shitty and haphazard architecture and layout for that... hope that a potential version 2 which may come at some point would make up for that though.

[pdxindy]

U-he and Serum ain't bad but I've to realise no vst comes close to hardware, even with the magic fx plugins. It's close but not exactly that. Also CPU is bringing all sorts of limitations, and it's easier to tweak a synth with its knobs vs. DAW mapping. Anyway, to each their own I suppose.

Yeah... sound is pretty subjective

A friend of mine thinks hardware sounds better too. One day I was using one of my hardware synths as a controller and playing some different softsynth presets from it and my friend thought I was playing the hardware synth and he commented on how good it sounded. That of course is just one subjective experience but people often hear what they think.

I've owned lots of analog and digital hardware. For the most part my experience is that VST's sound better. Some of my analog synths get some tones and character I've not heard from software. For example, the Analog Rytm and its analog filter, distortion and compressor gets this beautiful grunge that nothing in software I have heard comes close to.

My favorite VST synth is Bazille... it's the sonically best for me, but of course that is a subjective term.

[Ploki]

Yeah... sound is pretty subjective

A friend of mine thinks hardware sounds better too. One day I was using one of my hardware synths as a controller and playing some different softsynth presets from it and my friend thought I was playing the hardware synth and he commented on how good it sounded. That of course is just one subjective experience but people often hear what they think.

I've owned lots of analog and digital hardware. For the most part my experience is that VST's sound better. Some of my analog synths get some tones and character I've not heard from software. For example, the Analog Rytm and its analog filter, distortion and compressor gets this beautiful grunge that nothing in software I have heard comes close to.

My favorite VST synth is Bazille... it's the sonically best for me, but of course that is a subjective term.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cognitive_biases
it's incredible how much people are unaware of flaws in their perception

bazille is great tho, dare i say best

[atya]

Dunno about 'best' but when it comes to synths that keep giving me goosebumps on a regular basis I'd have to mention ...
Synthmaster 2.9 & Synthmaster One
AAS Ultra Analog 3
AAS String Studio VS-3
AAS Chromaphone 2
Iris 2
The Mangle (Sound Guru)
Korg MonoPoly
Arminator (Krakli)
Synth1

[vertibration]

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