The Most Overrated and Underrated VST/AU (Effects And Instruments)

[j wazza]

overrated : omnisphere 2

Disagree, whats not to like about omnisphere? It is overpriced though

[QuietSheep]

Underrated: Zebra 2, Surge XT
Overrated: Zebra 2, Synth1

[anomandaris1]

Wiggle is underrated. I have so many vsts and none are quite like wiggle. It does really cool stuff.

Indeed, Wiggle is one of the best examples here. Amazing sounding synth and well thought out GUI as well. I wish it was developed further.

Looks like abandoned by developer vsti (their website doesn't work)?

[LoveEnigma18]

Wiggle is underrated. I have so many vsts and none are quite like wiggle. It does really cool stuff.

Indeed, Wiggle is one of the best examples here. Amazing sounding synth and well thought out GUI as well. I wish it was developed further.

Looks like abandoned by developer vsti (their website doesn't work)?

Yeah. I think it is still available with resellers like Plugin Boutique, but the $99 price is a bit high. It used to go on sale occasionally for around $30. At least I bought my license for that price from Thomman a couple of years ago.

If you are interested, since it is abandoned, perhaps try contacting PB support and see if they can help you get a license for a better price. Make sure to try the demo first though.

[D-Fusion]

Underrated: Rob Papen B.I.T, Aly James OB-Xtreme 2, Audiorealism RE-Dominator.
Overrated: Korg Modwave, Wavestate and OPSiX (lots of weird problems/Bugs).

[0degree]

Ok I found a good one totally underrated. Nostromo spectral synthetiser. It goes inside the Reason Rack, it has a grey boring but functional UI, is very cheap.
All the "feel" claim cheap except when you play with it... The sound is just crazy, powerful, expressive.... Would be funny to make it compete against an Avemger or Zebra 3 in a blind test....

Thanks for this - already purchased. Quite a nice synth indeed

[Jac459]

Ok I found a good one totally underrated. Nostromo spectral synthetiser. It goes inside the Reason Rack, it has a grey boring but functional UI, is very cheap.
All the "feel" claim cheap except when you play with it... The sound is just crazy, powerful, expressive.... Would be funny to make it compete against an Avemger or Zebra 3 in a blind test....

Thanks for this - already purchased. Quite a nice synth indeed

You will like it more and more...

[HOTF]

overrated : omnisphere 2

Disagree, whats not to like about omnisphere? It is overpriced though

it's not bad at all... just overrated imo. I feel people put Omnisphere on a pedestal. Don't get me wrong it's a very powerful synth. I feel like some newer synths with multiple engines like Pigements, phase plant are way more usable workflow wise. The price point and huge amount of SSD space required is also a bummer. I don't dislike omnisphere 2, it was the first third party soft synth I ever bought and iv'e used it a lot back when I was mostly using presets. Nowadays I almost exclusively program my patches from scratch and Omnisphere can feel like a chore to program sometimes. Just my opinion tho.

[Jac459]

overrated : omnisphere 2

Disagree, whats not to like about omnisphere? It is overpriced though

it's not bad at all... just overrated imo. I feel people put Omnisphere on a pedestal. Don't get me wrong it's a very powerful synth. I feel like some newer synths with multiple engines like Pigements, phase plant are way more usable workflow wise. The price point and huge amount of SSD space required is also a bummer. I don't dislike omnisphere 2, it was the first third party soft synth I ever bought and iv'e used it a lot back when I was mostly using presets. Nowadays I almost exclusively program my patches from scratch and Omnisphere can feel like a chore to program sometimes. Just my opinion tho.

On that matter, to be fair, it is difficult (impossible) to beat Phase Plant... The workflow is just genius... It looks so obvious, you feel at home immediately and everything behaves as you would expect (took me time to figure out the effect lanes though). It is a workflow totally decorellated from the constraints of "looking like a real synth" and making things that make sense only from a workflow standpoint. Pigments is still trying to look like a real synth and Omnisphere was created 11 years before before phase plants and of course it shows...

[j wazza]

it's not bad at all... just overrated imo. I feel people put Omnisphere on a pedestal. Don't get me wrong it's a very powerful synth. I feel like some newer synths with multiple engines like Pigements, phase plant are way more usable workflow wise. The price point and huge amount of SSD space required is also a bummer. I don't dislike omnisphere 2, it was the first third party soft synth I ever bought and iv'e used it a lot back when I was mostly using presets. Nowadays I almost exclusively program my patches from scratch and Omnisphere can feel like a chore to program sometimes. Just my opinion tho.

I think the workflow in omni is really good, but it might not suit everyone. Agree on price and disk space. For me it's the most realistic VA, on a par with softube's synths, but with lots more voices. Because of this analog sound I find its one of the easiest synths to get something I like as it naturally sounds good. Phase plant and pigments are great synths too and more powerful/flexible than omni but sound very different, more digital, so they take a bit more design and don't sound as nice right off the bat. The extra features can lead to more interesting sounds though, but I think if you compare a simple patch like filtered saw waves with unison playing a chord in those 3 synths, omni already sounds huge, its one big sweet spot and the best option for VA polysynths imo. But when you want to experiment and don't want a classic analog sound there are better options. Also just my opinion

Also, voltage modular is underrated, the modules by psp and weevil are really good.

[Jac459]

it's not bad at all... just overrated imo. I feel people put Omnisphere on a pedestal. Don't get me wrong it's a very powerful synth. I feel like some newer synths with multiple engines like Pigements, phase plant are way more usable workflow wise. The price point and huge amount of SSD space required is also a bummer. I don't dislike omnisphere 2, it was the first third party soft synth I ever bought and iv'e used it a lot back when I was mostly using presets. Nowadays I almost exclusively program my patches from scratch and Omnisphere can feel like a chore to program sometimes. Just my opinion tho.

I think the workload in omni is really good, but it might not suit everyone. Agree on price and disk space. For me it's the most realistic VA, on a par with softube's synths, but with lots more voices. Because of this analog sound I find its one of the easiest synths to get something I like as it naturally sounds good. Phase plant and pigments are great synths too and more powerful/flexible than omni but sound very different, more digital, so they take a bit more design and don't sound as nice right off the bat. The extra features can lead to more interesting sounds though, but I think if you compare a simple patch like filtered saw waves with unison playing a chord in those 3 synths, omni already sounds huge, its one big sweet spot and the best option for VA polysynths imo. But when you want to experiment and don't want a classic analog sound there are better options. Also just my opinion

Also, voltage modular is underrated, the modules by psp and weevil are really good.

I agree on phase plant being more digital in its approach....

Have you already watched this comparaison on supersaw sounds? Omnisphere vs diva, serum, hive and a few others... I find the differences very limited.

[j wazza]

I agree on phase plant being more digital in its approach....

Have you already watched this comparaison on supersaw sounds? Omnisphere vs diva, serum, hive and a few others... I find the differences very limited.

I hadn't watched that, they do all sound very similar here when they are designed to sound the same, and supersaws generally sound like supersaws. Maybe using so much detuning makes it harder to tell the difference, I wasn't talking about that kind of very detuned EDM/trance sound as I've never experimented with that.

I've tried all those synths and can definitely hear a difference when using them. Using a synth is the best way to get to know its character, its much harder when just briefly hearing them. Omni, hive and diva are all really good VAs, but still different and omni/softube are the closest to the real analog I've used imo, I think omni and softube's sound has a bit more detail to it but the difference can be subtle from other good VAs. But to me, those VAs sound very different from digital sounding synths like phase plant, serum and pigments.

I don't think I could distinguish between real analog and omni or softube in a blind test. Diva maybe, I think I probably could with a really simple sustained patch of just the oscillators, but probably not with a melody/musical example. Serum I think I definitely could

[Jac459]

I agree on phase plant being more digital in its approach....

Have you already watched this comparaison on supersaw sounds? Omnisphere vs diva, serum, hive and a few others... I find the differences very limited.

I hadn't watched that, they do all sound very similar here when they are designed to sound the same, and supersaws generally sound like supersaws. Maybe using so much detuning makes it harder to tell the difference, I wasn't talking about that kind of very detuned EDM/trance sound as I've never experimented with that.

I've tried all those synths and can definitely hear a difference when using them. Using a synth is the best way to get to know its character, its much harder when just briefly hearing them. Omni, hive and diva are all really good VAs, but still different and omni/softube are the closest to the real analog I've used imo, I think omni and softube's sound has a bit more detail to it but the difference can be subtle from other good VAs. But to me, those VAs sound very different from digital sounding synths like phase plant, serum and pigments.

I don't think I could distinguish between real analog and omni or softube in a blind test. Diva maybe, I think I probably could with a really simple sustained patch of just the oscillators, but probably not with a melody/musical example. Serum I think I definitely could

Got your point.

Have you tried Obsession? I am not particularly into VA but I love OBx and this version is the one that sounded the best. Synapse also does the legend but I am less into Moog....

I was disappointed with some softube products so didn't gave them a second chance for VA....

[j wazza]

Got your point.

Have you tried Obsession? I am not particularly into VA but I love OBx and this version is the one that sounded the best. Synapse also does the legend but I am less into Moog....

I was disappointed with some softube products so didn't gave them a second chance for VA....

I haven't tried obsession, but I probably will at some point. I haven't explored oberheim emulations. I like dune but I don't think its meant to be an exact analog emulation, only sort-of.

Which softubes didn't you like? Their model series sound the same as the real versions to me. They'll probably get round to doing an oberheim as they're doing all the classic synths.

To keep it on topic, I'd say soundtoys are a bit overrated. Still pretty good, but very popular for plugins that have many better alternatives imo. And sonimus are kind of underrated, they are rated highly by people who use them, but their sound quality is as good as anyone's, and they deserve more attention imo. Same for nomad factory.

[Jac459]

Which softubes didn't you like? Their model series sound the same as the real versions to me. They'll probably get round to doing an oberheim as they're doing all the classic synths.

It wasn't a VA but a rompler named parallels. Not bad but lacking lots of features.
How is dune 3 compare to hive 2?