Favorite Synths for synthwave

[jonathan0226]

What are your favorite synth vst's for synthwave and why?

Also any recommendations to get the sounds from Stranger Things or Tron Legacy would be appreciated!

[kvotchin]

My immediate choices (without thinking it over) would probably be Legend and V Collection. Another that might prove useful is TAL U-No LX.

Honestly though, haven’t ever thought about nailing those precise tones. Could be a ways off. *shrug*

[h66]

Nexus, no joke.

[AnX]

viewtopic.php?p=8073941

[pixel85]

U-he Repro1 & 5 - I did a few Synthwave tracks just with them and they were the easiest (least additional processing required) to get great results fast.
Massive X - it's one of my fav synths. I can recommend this one only if you know how to program synths.
U-he Diva - I have the only demo of this one (only for fun, not for music releases) - you can easily make synthwave sounds with this one.
Serum is often used by synthwave producers. Actually, any synth can be used for synthwave - it all depends on your skills in programming synths really.

If you're into Stranger Things Theme then these are the synths used:
"There’s [Korg] Mono/Poly arpeggios, [Roland] Jupiter 8 leads, Mellotron M400 choir stabs, [Sequential Circuits] Prophet 5 and 6 and VS pads and effects, [Roland] SH-2 on the bass line, [Sequential] Pro-One does the heartbeat thumps, and an original Oberheim SEM Two Voice playing the main arpeggiated sequence, to name a few" - so you can look for emulations of these... or buy hardware
Probably Oberheim SEM Two Voice is the one that you're looking for as this is the one responsible for arpeggio. These are the emulations:
https://www.arturia.com/products/analog ... heim-sem-v
and my favorite: https://www.plugin-alliance.com/en/prod ... ausen.html

[Ploki]

u-he Diva and u-he Repro are instant synthwave imo.
Repro is an impeccable emulation of the Pro One and Prophet V,
and Diva is
- Moog's Minimoog
- Roland's Jupiter 6
- Jupiter 8
- Alpha Juno
- Juno 60,
- Korg's MS20
rolled into one.

There's also a free SEM to add to pixel85's list of SEMs
https://www.synthanatomy.com/2018/05/hy ... c-mac.html

[mholloway]

Any JUNO emulation. My fav is the one from TAL (emulation of the 60).

TAL's Jupiter emulation, J-8, is even more powerful, and absolutely well-suited to Synthwave.

[yorubamonk]

Phonec 2 by Psychic Modulation

[Halonmusic]

FB3200
Mono/Fury
Tricent mkIII
TAL UNO-62
PG8X
Fury800

[jonathan0226]

Thanks for the input! I’ve been looking at repro 1 and 5. Definitely going to download the demos and mess around. Sounds like that plug in and diva might be the winners!

[MitchK1989]

Diva, Repro, TAL UNO, TAL J8, OBxD, PG8X, basically any vintage analog emulation (especially anything emulating stuff that came out in the late 70s or the 80s rather than the really old stuff), some good VHS/Cassette tape effects, lots of lush digital reverb and chorus, and some type of either vintage analog/digital hybrid emulation synth (think ensoniq ESQ-1 or PPG wave, or maybe an early sampler emu like Emulator V or TAL SAMPLER) or an FM synth for the shiny/spiky bits.

Realistically if I had to pick only one synth to do synthwave with I'd probably pick Bazille since it can do digital/analog/hybrid all in one fairly well and is generally a great synth, but the analog stuff will be more foolproof with something like repro or TAL UNO/J8

[zzz00m]

u-he Repro 1/5 for the Prophet stuff, and IK Syntronik Deluxe for everything else (Moog, Roland, Korg, etc).

Or u-he Diva might be a cheaper way to cover the everything else, and especially if you like to tweak everything. But since Sytronik uses actual samples of the classic synths, they are very good so it might be easier to get the retro "sound" right. But that's a personal decision.

[Dencheg]

Please take a look at ANA 2 with Synthwave soundset.
https://www.sonicacademy.com/products/a ... -synthwave
ANA 2 can sound with a lot of flavors.

[cryophonik]

Synthwave is basically a modernized version of 80s new wave/synthpop, so any synths (original or software emulation) from that era should do the trick. I don't own the Arturia suite, but if synthwave was my primary style, that would probably be an insta-buy. That said, I've experimented with synthwave styles using some of the synths I do own, including The Legend, Obsession, Repro, and DIVA, plus Blue 2 and FM8 to fill the DX7 niche, and was happy with the results (that I need to revisit/finish one of these days).

[JerGoertz]

NI's Super 8