I WANT to love it...

[Introspective]

Which synth(s) do you want to love, but can't (for whatever reason)?

[gentleclockdivider]

One ping only because it’s only one ping

[waiting man]

One ping only because it’s only one ping

Absolutely, that thing has literally zero pong.

[darkinners]

Phase Plant and Arturia V collection.

I don’t use Phase Plant as much as I wanted to, it sounds ok for your bread and butter synth sound but it sound absolutely amazing in those really sharp and crisp complex patches. However the workflow never clicked with me.
I find myself using ZebraHZ much more if I want something that’s flexible and powerful. Even Zebra is not as flexible and powerful as Phase Plant.

For Arturia V collections I like the idea of the variety of those classic synth emulation but when in use they just all sound thin, too clean and uninspiring to me(except for Ms-20, CS-80, DX7 and Buchla), on top of that I really don’t like their GUI and load time. GUI taken up too much unused empty space for the sake of making them look like the hardware they emulate. I much prefer the approach of U-he, Gforce and TAL.

[MattLeschuck]

Toss up between Phase Plant and Pigments. Workflow for Phaseplant, and sound / cpu hit for Pigments.

[JonSolo]

1. Wiggle by 2nd Sense Audio
2. Unfiltered Audio Lion
3. the shocker.... UVI Falcon

[cryophonik]

I’d have to say Maschine, but more specifically it’s that I used to love it, but can’t anymore because it’s become a convoluted mess.

And, to a lesser extent, I’ll add Zebra. Now, before everybody freaks out, let me add that I like Zebra, but I don’t love it. I want to love it, but I find that I mostly just tinker with it and rarely use it in any of my songs. It’s just a workflow thing where I prefer using something like Hive, RePro, or Diva. Looking forward to seeing Zebra3 change/blow my mind, though.

[zerocrossing]

I want to love Massive X. I do love the sound of it, and the feature set. I’ll even spend some time with it, hoping it becomes second nature. Then I’ll leave it for a bit, and when I git back to it, it feels almost like I’ve never seen it before. “P2?” “L4?” It’s like my brain is angry remembering what they stand for. If someone who worked for me turned in that UI I’d ask him why is he showing me programmer placeholder and then fire them.

[hurricaneaudiolab]

I want to love Synapse's Obsession, but I think I stay away from it because of the stupid rack extension GUI.

Also, Ultra Analog 3 - you don't know how many times I've disabled/re-enabled this thing. It's currently disabled. The presets on it just sound outdated. And I don't mean retro because I like retro. It just sounds 90s old.

[Boy Wonder]

I agree with @JonSolo about Falcon. I REALLY want to love the powerful synth, it does so much, but the multi-page workflow and unintuitive routings slow me down too much to be useful when I'm anxious to get sounds down.

[BONES]

Top of my list would be DUNE. I really want to love it because I know that, objectively, it's awesome and it's made by someone I hold in the highest regard but, at the end of the day, I just hate using it.

Second was Pigments. I love the workflow and I appreciate all the bits and pieces but, ultimately, I could never get it to sound as good as the instruments around it. Eventually I gave up and I have replaced it in every song I had used it in.

HY-Poly is another synth I really want to love but I can't quite get there. I think it's the filters, which are workmanlike, at best. I still use it very occasionally but I'd love to be able to use it more.

[.jon]

All wavetable synths. I appreciate the concept and power they have, I just don't seem to be able to like the actual sounds they produce.

[SebAV]

I’d have to say Maschine, but more specifically it’s that I used to love it, but can’t anymore because it’s become a convoluted mess.

And, to a lesser extent, I’ll add Zebra. Now, before everybody freaks out, let me add that I like Zebra, but I don’t love it. I want to love it, but I find that I mostly just tinker with it and rarely use it in any of my songs. It’s just a workflow thing where I prefer using something like Hive, RePro, or Diva. Looking forward to seeing Zebra3 change/blow my mind, though.

Same with me with Bazille. Perhaps there are too many options (even setting the osc and LFO frequencies is a headache), the layout and the « sequencer », the « multiple » : all is double, quadruple uses depending on how you patch them…
I love the sound but I prefer something like Aalto (as an example of a « modular » kind of synth)

[Rastkovic]

The "I want to love it" feelings are gone over the years, there is always a good reason why I don't love it. It's ok.

But, I can also use plugins without love (non regularly), as long they don't drive me mad....

[machinesworking]

This is a strange one to me, because to me this list is most soft synths. I can get around about any of them, but only a dozen out of hundreds have me using them more than a few times.

Mostly I think of second tier synths, ones I use rarely, that at first I thought would be a constant part of my workflow. So ones like Lion, Knifonium, Massive X, most of Arturias synths, Repro, Xils.

Some of it is choice overload, I might like these synths, but I'm comfortable in the 5-10 synths I use all the time, so learning to get X synth to bend to my needs when I can already do that in Y synth is just more work with no reward.

Couple that with weird choices in GUI, heavy CPU hits, or in the case of Lion awkward modulation limits on what looks like at first a super modulation friendly synth puts me off. I'm still pissed about Plasmonics idiotic bass ackwards reversal of position on adjustment speed of faders depending on vertical or horizontal positioning, but in that case, I still use it all the time.