Best all round soft synth?

[SamDi]

Only backdraw: no phase offset for oscillators and some parameters in the Fx section are not able to get modulated (e.g. EQ-settings).

I asked someone at Arturia about phase settings a while back. I'm not sure if it helps with your wish for phase offset or not, but here's what they said:

Analog Oscillator : Unless the Drift parameter is exactly at 0, then the oscillator will use a random phase at each note.

Wavetable oscillator : In the Phase mod section, the Sync/Retrig option lets you choose how the oscillator gets retriggered. Either on each key, when the Mod Osc is reset (Hard Sync), reset based on the Coarse + Fine parameters (thus ignoring FM and PMeffect) and randomly generated on each new voice. There is no free running per-se, meaning with a constantly calculated phase, as we do not process voices when they are not in play, to save CPU.

Hm, the problem I have with not beeing able to control the phase is especially with bass sounds. There the phase offset, when mixing two or more oscillators can make a big difference. Just having the option between synced and free is not enough at this point.

Only solution could be to create a wavetable which changes the offset dependent on the position. But before taking this effort, I take then another synth, when it would be really important.

Beside that, Pigments is for me really the synth, where it is the most easy to craft out a sound out, how I intend it.

[SamDi]

Pigments in every case. With it‘s sample and granular and since short time the additive engine the flexibility starts from the oscillators. Also filter and effect routing are outstanding.
It‘s for me the best compromise beetween flexibility and usability (Falcon & co are just no goto-synths for me).

Only backdraw: no phase offset for oscillators and some parameters in the Fx section are not able to get modulated (e.g. EQ-settings). But beside that, there are no wishes left open.

Less CPU use would be my main wish... Pigments is really heavy on CPU

Hm this was never important to me nor I never made some comparisons TBH. For the most presets, Ableton shows me between 5-10%, which is OK for me. But when you need like 30 synth instances in parallel, this is too much I guess.

Which synths are regarded to have a low CPU print then?

[Examigan]

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=493897

[kobal]

dunno if it s best all round but i think i could have just one of these and i would be ok for all sounds of a track including drums : rapid , massive X, bazille , msound factory

[Gadget Fiend]

I'm sure a lot of people voted for Omnisphere or should I say "ROMnisphere" as their desert island synth. Let's face it, 80% of the synth patches in Omnisphere are based on samples of other synths. This wouldn't be so bad if Spectrasonics had done the smart thing and sampled each patch at multiple velocity layers. But instead, Spectrasonic sampled each synth with its filter wide open and then used the (average sounding) digital filters in Atmosphere/Omnisphere to create the filter dynamics. This sounds much less authentic than a multi-velocity layer patch which captures the real filter dynamics.

So basically, Omnisphere just sounds like any other VA except that it takes forever to load the patches because the oscillators are almost all sample-based.

[kelvyn]

There are a few but Synthmaster 2 from KV33 comes to mind.

[pdxindy]

Bazille, Hive and Bitwig's Sampler can cover all my synthesis needs.

[Vortifex]

Edited

[Ah_Dziz]

Zebra HZ. Most of the time.

[dune_rave]

any of these:
zebra, icarus2, avenger, phaseplant, reaktor, omnisphere, korg collection triton

[Gadget Fiend]

Zebra HZ. Most of the time.

I know, I know, the great Hans Zimmer uses Zebra in his scores. Who cares, his scores haven't been any good since Driving Miss Daisy. Also, it's a widely known secret that Hans has always used ghost writers and professional orchestrators to create most of his scores except for the main themes.

The fact is that Zebra sounds very average for a software synth (which is not saying much when considering competing hardware synths). Zebra is certainly flexible and has a whole load of features. But it's really thin and weak-sounding compared to the software and especially the hardware competition.

Even Hive 2 is a much better synth.

[Gadget Fiend]

There is just no software synth that sounds anywhere near as good and/or unique as my hardware synths.

Not Omnisphere, not Diva, not Repro, not Hive, not Zebra, not any of the Arturia synths, not DUNE, not Legend, not Obession, not any of the Steinberg synths, certainly not any of the Native Instruments synths (which are just god-awful except Super 8 )...the list of software failures goes on and on.

[excuse me please]

Dexed

[excuse me please]

Dexed

I don't know about all-arounder. But it's an excellent softsyth.

Haven't found any great supersaw presets for it. Although I know it's possible with FM.

[BBFG#]

Zebra HZ. Most of the time.

I know, I know, the great Hans Zimmer uses Zebra in his scores.
The fact is that Zebra sounds very average for a software synth (which is not saying much when considering competing hardware synths). Zebra is certainly flexible and has a whole load of features. But it's really thin and weak-sounding compared to the software and especially the hardware competition.
Even Hive 2 is a much better synth.

Zimmer's Zebra does have the Diva filters that this poster seems to exclude in their closed opinion. And Hive isn't better, except by subjective preferences, just different. As are all the plugins I've seen suggested in this thread. Except yours, since I couldn't find you stating any particular synth, just an over-generalized group. And the topic starter did ask for "best", as in "one". And BTW, Omnisphere has been more than a "ROMpler' for a while now.

There is just no software synth that sounds anywhere near as good and/or unique as my hardware synths.

Since you seem to keep bandying this point of an absolute singular approach...
Specifically, which one synth of yours is your "all around best"?

(To keep in the topic starter's question and your specific answer to it.)