What are the best VST instruments that sound "really" analog?

[Unaspected]

Repetitive sound without natural variation = "machine gunning".

[e-crooner]

What are you referring to with "machine gun", free-running oscillators?

No, the opposite

I know, I wanted to write free-running vs retriggering, but I was too lazy and thought people would know what I mean

[e-crooner]

e-crooner it s even more than the music, it s also the time spent listening to music with warm sounding equipment , the old quality gears sound very good to me, some old amps and also vinyl all this have analog like flavor and to me is analog sound , synth share some similar sound quality to this, it s a whole world that don t touch younger people soul , so i think it s a lot about nostalgia more than anything else, even if analog is superior for some stuff that no one can deny when tweaking the knobs in reality ,digital also is great for some other stuff best is to get both ..

On the topic i think reaktor 6 can sound very good it might be the most convincing to me, not sure , i need to use it more

I think it has more to do with production. I mean, some EDM people use the Minimoog as well, yet it doesn't sound like in the old days. It is mostly about the music and production.
That's why I don't really hear much difference, nor do I care as long as the sound is nice.

I don't even agree that analog hardware sounded warm, something a lot of people claim. Some synths did, some didn't. The same goes for "digital" synths, whatever that is.

[AnX]

It's all marketing blurb

Just use whatever you like the sound of, and stay away from forums....

[zerocrossing]

And, excuse me, but, the Arturia Mini V is really one of the worst emulations.

Just proves my point, the whole good/bad emulation thing is irrelevant when it comes to making music. Ultimately it comes down to subjective perception of sound and workflow.

We’re talking about different things. An emulation gets judged on how close it gets to the original. It can sound great but still fail as an emulation. For instance…



Now, I’d say that all those software synths sound analog, but fail at various points to sound like a Model D. I don’t have a Model D, but I have a Studio Electronics ATC-X which has an oscillator design based on the Model D as well as that filter design. The basic tone is there. I’ve done a similar shoot-out and my ears tell me that Legend is the best by a decent amount. Does that mean Diva sucks? Not at all. I just don’t really think of it as an emulation, but more like a tribute. Now, when we’re talking Sequential, Repro is as close to my Prophet 6 as Legend is to my ATC, but you’ll still get aliasing when you start working with the distortion. It’s generally fine if you don’t creep too far up the keyboard.

Anyway, if I did a test on that the guess of which was analog would probably get a 100% correct response, so of course when you hear the shoot outs they normally steer away from distortion and feedback or filter FM with a lot of resonance. Cross mod is another place where software starts sounding crappy or very band limited. Within certain ranges the software can still sound good, and that’s where most people’s taste in sounds are anyway, so it’s fine for most people and a lot of people just hate to use software, so that’s that.

Another reason to have true analog is that there’s a lot of great stuff that has no emulation. I’ve got a Dominion 1 that just sounds so amazing and there’s no emulation and probably will never have one. I really buy all my instruments that way. I try not to think too much about the technology. It’s irrelevant to me. I just want to like the sound and the possibilities. I look at the cats that have a Prophet 5 r4 and who hate the 6 or RePro, and I think those people are really missing out on a lot of great things that the r4 just can’t do, but whatever.

[Sinisterbr]

Most real analogue emulation, probably Repro-5, I'd say.
But most beautiful sounding emulation, I think TAL J-8.
Of course, it's a matter of taste.

[Urs]

For instance…

Not sure about this one, but my problem with almost all of these comparisons is that there's so much guessing and speculation going on.

Some reviewers take the time to fact check with us, but others can't be bothered. Yet, the videos with the "I can't explain this..." - just like the audio examples where basic settings are obviously wrong - are the ones that keep being shared.

(but then of course, there's the infamous case where the reviewer plays Repro an octave higher than the Prophet-5 and people interpret that as the Prophet 5 having "more bass and weight" when it just was a different note).

Repro [...], but you’ll still get aliasing when you start working with the distortion.

I never considered the distortion a part of Repro's "layer of authenticity", but one of our new developers brought up a "miracle algorithm" which reduces aliasing in the distortion by a few dozen dB at next to no extra cost of CPU. Not sure if that's already in current versions, or when it's coming.

[Ah_Dziz]

Your mom.dll

[ghettosynth]

Your mom.dll

Steinberg sez she can only be distributed as a VST-3-way.

[crickey13]

Your mom.dll

Steinberg sez she can only be distributed as a VST-3-way.

I've heard she aliases left and right and produces all sorts of nasty digital artifacts, I wouldn't plug her if I were you.

[legendCNCD]

Personally, I wish more threads would revolve around finalizing tracks, general mixing principles and getting the right sounds in the mixing/mastering context, as these "best/most analog plugin" threads aren't very constructive. It would be nice to see a dedicated mixing/mastering subforum on here.

Sure, there is some info around but its scattered. Then again the styles might be very differing, we in our tracks make sure the mix already sounds like mastered as far as it can. Our master chain is small and does just few small adjustments and limiting.

For others the sound might come mainly from the master chain.

[crickey13]

Sure, there is some info around but its scattered. Then again the styles might be very differing, we in our tracks make sure the mix already sounds like mastered as far as it can. Our master chain is small and does just few small adjustments and limiting.

For others the sound might come mainly from the master chain.

My point is that you can at least learn something from these more technically-oriented threads, whereas the informational value of the "best/most analog softsynth" threads is virtually zero.

Nobody discusses any synthesis techniques in these threads and it all devolves into a shit-flinging contest sooner or later.

[vurt]

Sure, there is some info around but its scattered. Then again the styles might be very differing, we in our tracks make sure the mix already sounds like mastered as far as it can. Our master chain is small and does just few small adjustments and limiting.

For others the sound might come mainly from the master chain.

My point is that you can at least learn something from these more technically-oriented threads, whereas the informational value of the "best/most analog softsynth" threads is virtually zero.

Nobody discusses any synthesis techniques in these threads and it all devolves into a shit-flinging contest sooner or later.

try the sound design or production techniques forums.

[crickey13]

try the sound design or production techniques forums.

My point is that there is nothing of substance being said in these "best softsynth" threads, it's all filler, the same brands, the same names, the same tired opinions. These threads exist only to serve the purpose of stating your opinion, tickling your ego and shittalking others who do not conform to your opinion on the matter.

It's kinda entertaining to watch these dumpster fires unfold, but I wish there was more of the kind of threads I've talked about previously and it all gets tiresome after a while. This is literally white noise, completely meaningless.

[kobal]

e-crooner it s even more than the music, it s also the time spent listening to music with warm sounding equipment , the old quality gears sound very good to me, some old amps and also vinyl all this have analog like flavor and to me is analog sound , synth share some similar sound quality to this, it s a whole world that don t touch younger people soul , so i think it s a lot about nostalgia more than anything else, even if analog is superior for some stuff that no one can deny when tweaking the knobs in reality ,digital also is great for some other stuff best is to get both ..

On the topic i think reaktor 6 can sound very good it might be the most convincing to me, not sure , i need to use it more

I think it has more to do with production. I mean, some EDM people use the Minimoog as well, yet it doesn't sound like in the old days. It is mostly about the music and production.
That's why I don't really hear much difference, nor do I care as long as the sound is nice.

I don't even agree that analog hardware sounded warm, something a lot of people claim. Some synths did, some didn't. The same goes for "digital" synths, whatever that is.

might be true.. the loudness make everyhting more sterile anyway.. you can t have big depth loud like today music is so it make less difference in the end , the more it s squasched by cliping and limiting the less difference the sources used makes in a way, but at "non destructive" loudness when sound can breath and big depth his possible it s probably a other story.. the thing with daw and plugins we can manipulate so much the sound that we can find tricks to try to get closer to what is there naturally with some hardware tools but it need really good level of production to be convincing , it s easier to get satisifed by just using a box that give the result after wihtout dealing with complex equing, processing, mixing.. in a way today electronic music for some is about polishing bad / not so great source sound and try to make them sound the best possible and offcourse some are very good at it, it also need good monitoring but it s not optimal.. like we were saying long ago we can t polish a turd or something like that .. 30 000 $ of gears can t make your sound worst.. it s a budget thing