SONICALLY Best VST Synth

[ghostwhistler]

Personally, of the VAs I love Synapse Obsession, Model 84, Xils PolyKB and Diva.

For more modern stuff Zebra and Massive X.

Obsession sounds phenomenal and nails the Tom Sawyer Big fat rez (IMHO). However recently my copy, inepxlicably, has stopped responding to mod wheel inputs. Everything else works fine and the mod wheel works fine for all my other stuff. Weird

Only other thing i'd fix is to add a proper LFO.

[Masterofdisaster]

Omnisphere ofc

[Synthman2000]

For lowest distortions Serum.

For enjoyable character, Sylenth1, Viper, Rapid, Harmor, Diva, Rapid, Bazille personally.

On my B list are Zebra, Dune, there is just something about the sound that is not quite to taste, hazy is the best way I can describe it.

[kraster]

Personally, of the VAs I love Synapse Obsession, Model 84, Xils PolyKB and Diva.

For more modern stuff Zebra and Massive X.

Obsession sounds phenomenal and nails the Tom Sawyer Big fat rez (IMHO). However recently my copy, inepxlicably, has stopped responding to mod wheel inputs. Everything else works fine and the mod wheel works fine for all my other stuff. Weird

Only other thing i'd fix is to add a proper LFO.

What do you mean by proper LFO?

I have two issues with the LFO.

One is that it always retriggers with note on and secondly there's no way of syncing the regular non step sequencer LFO to host/midi clock.

That modwheel thing is weird. Does it do that when you route it via the Mod Matrix?

[ghostwhistler]

Personally, of the VAs I love Synapse Obsession, Model 84, Xils PolyKB and Diva.

For more modern stuff Zebra and Massive X.

Obsession sounds phenomenal and nails the Tom Sawyer Big fat rez (IMHO). However recently my copy, inepxlicably, has stopped responding to mod wheel inputs. Everything else works fine and the mod wheel works fine for all my other stuff. Weird

Only other thing i'd fix is to add a proper LFO.

What do you mean by proper LFO?

I have two issues with the LFO.

One is that it always retriggers with note on and secondly there's no way of syncing the regular non step sequencer LFO to host/midi clock.

That modwheel thing is weird. Does it do that when you route it via the Mod Matrix?

I just wanted a simple LFO i can sync to tempo. What we have is fine, but it's awkward when you just want a simple lfo for basic modulation, like syncing sample and hold filter effect to the BPM, rather than having to use the weird matrix and draw stuff in.

[ghostwhistler]

For lowest distortions Serum.

For enjoyable character, Sylenth1, Viper, Rapid, Harmor, Diva, Rapid, Bazille personally.

On my B list are Zebra, Dune, there is just something about the sound that is not quite to taste, hazy is the best way I can describe it.

I feel a bit similarly toward Pigments. Phenomenal piece of software and a fantastic GUI, but it sounds a little thin to my ear. I'm sure if my mixing kungfu was better it wouldn't be an issue as I'm sure it isn't for everyone else. Still love it tho

[chk071]

For lowest distortions Serum.

For enjoyable character, Sylenth1, Viper, Rapid, Harmor, Diva, Rapid, Bazille personally.

On my B list are Zebra, Dune, there is just something about the sound that is not quite to taste, hazy is the best way I can describe it.

I feel a bit similarly toward Pigments. Phenomenal piece of software and a fantastic GUI, but it sounds a little thin to my ear.

Yeah. Both Dune and Pigments are rather on the soft, "thin" and sterile side.

[zvenx]

I think that way of Pigments too, something about generally doesn't grab my ear.
But Dune, no Dune definitely would be in my top 10 (btw even after participating in this thread at least three times in the three years, I only now realise the question was top 10 not top 1.. .my bad).

rsp

[chk071]

I always forget if I posted in these threads as well. Probably already did 3 or 4 times, and always posted the same.

[zvenx]

yeah Repro-1 has been consistent for me.

Anyway finally following the instructions. My July 2023 list:

For me based on sound alone not features (sound can include fx for me), actually only one entry doesn't have built in FX.

Tied for first for me would be: Repro-1, Tal J-8, Korg WaveState, at different days or different time of the days one exceeds the other in ear candy for me.
Tied for second (technically 4th): Korg ModWave, Softube Model 80 (the one without fx but still made it in).
Tied for third (6th technically) Repro-5 and GForce's OB-E (though a lot of the code is similar it isn't the same, and something about Repro-1 excites my ear more than Repro-5, OB-E's bottom end is not quite fully there compared to the SEM 8 Hardware; if that there was more bottom end like the hardware, it would be in the top tier for me.. love the Oberheim sound, always did, probably always will).
4th (8th) is Bazille
and tied for 5th (9th) is Dune 3 and Diva.

My honourable mentions go to VPS-Avenger, Omnisphere 2 and DS Thorn.

rsp

[Synthman2000]

For lowest distortions Serum.

For enjoyable character, Sylenth1, Viper, Rapid, Harmor, Diva, Rapid, Bazille personally.

On my B list are Zebra, Dune, there is just something about the sound that is not quite to taste, hazy is the best way I can describe it.

I feel a bit similarly toward Pigments. Phenomenal piece of software and a fantastic GUI, but it sounds a little thin to my ear. I'm sure if my mixing kungfu was better it wouldn't be an issue as I'm sure it isn't for everyone else. Still love it tho

I tried Pigments and rejected it. It is too hard sounding to me, everything I did had a harsh hard edge to it so that won't work for what I am up to generally.

[zerocrossing]

I think that way of Pigments too, something about generally doesn't grab my ear.
But Dune, no Dune definitely would be in my top 10 (btw even after participating in this thread at least three times in the three years, I only now realise the question was top 10 not top 1.. .my bad).

rsp

That’s always the problem with threads like this. How do you separate what you like best from what is sonically the best? What are we even talking about when we say, “sonically the best?” I sort of view that as lack of digital artifacts when doing things that aren’t specifically supposed to have them. For example, you couldn’t criticize Prophet VS V for having aliasing oscillators. My complaint about the previous version was that they were too high resolution. So… it got worse to become better. But to someone who has no nostalgia for those early digital instruments, they’d think it got worse, and go for Dune 3 instead, which I agree sounds wonderful in general.

Lately I’ve been doing these little quick assessments to see how various plugins deal with things that are historically hard for software:

High resonance
Oscillator sync
Analog style FM
Filter FM
Drive/Distortion

The results are pretty interesting. The one plugin that I find consistently performs the best on all of those fronts is MSoundFactory. You need to set it for high quality, but it really outperforms almost everything.

[zvenx]

Well if you go to several restaurants and end up with a favourite meal at a favourite restaurant, it usually boils down to subjectively what you like the best. What appeals to your palate the most.

I suggest, sonically best synth is exactly the same thing.. What pleases your ear the most.


Some people love Alchemy, Falcon, Rapid all which may have alias free whatever.. for me they are vanilla sounding and wouldn't ever come close to my sonically best sounding list.. But they very well may be the top of someone else's.

I propose it has to be a subjective analysis of what sounds best to your ear.
rsp

[kraster]

Personally, of the VAs I love Synapse Obsession, Model 84, Xils PolyKB and Diva.

For more modern stuff Zebra and Massive X.

Obsession sounds phenomenal and nails the Tom Sawyer Big fat rez (IMHO). However recently my copy, inepxlicably, has stopped responding to mod wheel inputs. Everything else works fine and the mod wheel works fine for all my other stuff. Weird

Only other thing i'd fix is to add a proper LFO.

What do you mean by proper LFO?

I have two issues with the LFO.

One is that it always retriggers with note on and secondly there's no way of syncing the regular non step sequencer LFO to host/midi clock.

That modwheel thing is weird. Does it do that when you route it via the Mod Matrix?

I just wanted a simple LFO i can sync to tempo. What we have is fine, but it's awkward when you just want a simple lfo for basic modulation, like syncing sample and hold filter effect to the BPM, rather than having to use the weird matrix and draw stuff in.

Yeah, I hear ya.

The Step sequencer is great to have but not being able to sync the regular LFO to tempo is kind of ridiculous.

[Geomystery]

Yes, all subjective opinions, but for me it's good inspiration what to try to get great sounding synths.