Best plugins for sound design?

[Tayo]

Hi,

Ive been making music for 2 years and am shaping my style with each beat.
I want to get into some more advanced stuff and was wondering what VST have the most flexibility (most parameters) to bend a sound to my will.

Any help is appreciated, love.

[juno987654321]

I can recommend you "Vital" as the "best" freeware plugin for sound design purposes in your DAW.
It is very visual and it has overtly many functions. Still you don't get lost or lose the overview.
You can shape all of the most common sounds with it, including even some FM and sampling possibilities.

There are also (at least) thousands of other freeware plugins for shaping sounds but you don't get many tutorials on them on youtube and they are often very specialised on one thing...

There are also many plugins that aren't free but they are not necessarily better or offer you more possibilities. "Massive" by NI is one of them. "Serum" is another one.

If you haven't done so, you can have a look at the inbuilt plugins in your DAW as well and get to know them, too.

[chk071]

Hi,

Ive been making music for 2 years and am shaping my style with each beat.
I want to get into some more advanced stuff and was wondering what VST have the most flexibility (most parameters) to bend a sound to my will.

Try Arturia Pigments.

And don't be too ambitious. It's surely better to be able to master something manageable, before bringing out the really big guns. Even with a reasonably complex synth like Spire, you can already do a lot.

[Unaspected]

Reaktor or any environment that allows you to properly crunch numbers.

[T-CM11]

Try Arturia Pigments.

And don't be too ambitious. It's surely better to be able to master something manageable, before bringing out the really big guns. Even with a reasonably complex synth like Spire, you can already do a lot.

But the OP asked for the big guns! So I'm going to advise... Reaktor! Or how about VCV Rack with all modules installed.

[SpartanNoble]

Hi,

Ive been making music for 2 years and am shaping my style with each beat.
I want to get into some more advanced stuff and was wondering what VST have the most flexibility (most parameters) to bend a sound to my will.

Try Arturia Pigments.

And don't be too ambitious. It's surely better to be able to master something manageable, before bringing out the really big guns. Even with a reasonably complex synth like Spire, you can already do a lot.

+1 for Pigments.
2. Massive X
3. Serum
Spire is also great, but need to be updated.

[juno987654321]

I don't know about Spire. It seems less effective for this purpose. What's the use of 4 oscs and the many envelopes if you only have 2 filters for them all? Filters are most important I think. And Spire's choice of filters is also very limited as compared to the more recent plugins. There's not even the typical 8-12-18-24 DB/oct steps for the most common filters that you would expect to have. Instead you'll find a more or less surperfluous step sequencer, intransparent names for the few filters, etc.

[morphex]

@Tayo - I personally make great use of Vital and NI's Reaktor when I'm aiming for really modern-sounding synth patches. In particular, Toybox Audio offers an insane collection of Reaktor Blocks, which are some of the very best modular tools on the market for Reaktor.

I would also suggest looking at UVI's Falcon. If it's advanced features you're after, you simply can't go wrong with this extremely versatile and powerful synth. It's got a list of features a couple miles long with synthesis, sample mangling, with full-featured effects processing and sequencing abilities. It's a gorgeous-sounding synth with a slick GUI to boot.

Phase Plant by Kilohearts is another powerhouse plug-in. I really like modular and semi-modular synths. I like having an extreme amount of control over all of the sound-shaping capabilities of each synth (yeah I know, a control freak ).

In addition, I would recommend one of the newer multi-effects that have come out recently, or an effects bundle (Eventide or Soundtoys come to mind). There's so much great stuff to choose from nowadays.

[ciperlone]

+1 for Vital, not only great for creating but also for learning sound design and synthesis, because it's very visual with animations.

Anything from Unfiltered Audio, mainly Triad, Byome, Lion, Silo, Lo-Fi-Af, SpecOps... Several of their plugins can be acquired for free on Plugin Alliance if you wait patiently long enough for them to release their $20 no minimum spent vouchers (that might happened in this next December).

Glitchmachines, they can be bought for $10 or less in Plugin Boutique. They also have a couple of them free. Palindrome, Quadrant, Tactic are amazing, but I really recommend all of them. I recommend reading the manual, tho!

[chk071]

I don't know about Spire. It seems less effective for this purpose. What's the use of 4 oscs and the many envelopes if you only have 2 filters for them all? Filters are most important I think. And Spire's choice of filters is also very limited as compared to the more recent plugins. There's not even the typical 8-12-18-24 DB/oct steps for the most common filters that you would expect to have. Instead you'll find a more or less surperfluous step sequencer, intransparent names for the few filters, etc.

I don't get this post at all. But, let's try to answer it anyway:

"What's the use of 4 oscs and the many envelopes if you only have 2 filters for them all?"

What does the amount of oscillators or the amount of envelopes have to do with the amount of filters? And, further, do you know many synths with more envelopes than Spire has (it has 4 envelopes) and filters (it has 2 filters, capable of running in serial or parallel)?

"Spire's choice of filters is also very limited as compared to the more recent plugins. There's not even the typical 8-12-18-24 DB/oct steps for the most common filters that you would expect to have."

8 db/octave filter? 6-12-18-24 is the usual (actually, in most soft synths, 12 and 24 dB are the only options). Spire has 5 different filter types, the Perfecto is 24 dB/octave, the Infecto 12 dB/octave, the Scorpio has 2 variants, which both have 12 dB and 24 dB per octave options, and the Acido filter has 6, 12, 24 and 48 dB/octave options.

"Instead you'll find a more or less surperfluous step sequencer, intransparent names for the few filters, etc."

The "superfluous" step sequencer is actually very useful, for trance gates, step sequencing (doh), or pan modulation. And, there's also no "intransparent" names for the filters. The Infecto is an Access Virus inspired filter, the Perfecto a "standard" digital filter, which also seems to have the character borrowed from the Virus filter, the Acido filters are... who would have guessed?... 303 style acid filters, and the Scorpio are Korg MS-20 inspired filters.

Again, I don't really get your post, or your motivation to post such a load of nonsense. If you don't like Spire, fair enough, but, you should really get your facts straight. Reading the manual might help as well.

[juno987654321]

chk071: 8 instead of 6 was just a misprint. Everything else: forget it... Spire is least important. (Not enough of what seems necessary, too much of what seems replacable by external plugins, etc.)

[Dirtgrain]

Falcon because of its powerful sound generation options and its top-notch effects. I don't have Omnisphere, but it is similarly touted.

Lower in price:
Pigments for its versatility and nifty effects. Its GUI is more easily used for me.

Zebra and the HZ version are still my favorite for some damn cool effects (like the comb filter, resonator) and routing system that jibes with me. No sampler and no granular, but that doesn't hold it back much--so many great sounds.

Some like MSoundFactory. It has so many effects and generator options (now granular, too). Some can't stand it's interface, but one can get used to its routing.

Even cheaper:
Ana2 is pretty powerful and great sounding.

Cheaper yet:
DSThorn is strong sounding (no sampler/granular, though).

Finally, consider that in the sound design sub-forum, CHOOS has made so many sounds people have asked about with the free Vital. For a while he did it with Charlatan. In a lot of cases, it is more about knowledge, experience, methodology, skill and talent--than it is about tools.

[Jafo]

Definitely Reaktor: infinite possibility, seemingly infinitely extensible. Some assembly required.

[martiu]

Reaktor, GRM Tools, Unfiltered Audio

[Mr D]

Vengeance Avenger ......... nothing can touch it for sound design IMO.

I'd also look at Cableguys and Blue Cat Audio (Patchwork, Late Replies). Especially Patchwork is extremely useful for sound design.

Melda plugins are also very deep.