Underrated/overlooked synths

[El°HYM]

TAL-Mod is still one of the very best around. Sad for everyone who disagrees with this.

[Korg Supporter]

TAL-Mod is still one of the very best around. Sad for everyone who disagrees with this.

One turnoff about TAL-MOD is that when you do oscillator sync with the square eave, the sweep sounds steppy or unstable unlike TAL-J-8.

[Monsieur_FyP]

Phuturetone's brilliant GR-8

Yes

[NoriSato]

Underrated synth,

Someone mentioned TALmod, but I dare to say it is NOT modular synth. Because it has no audio-signal patching capability (except osc3 out).

so what?
it's a great synth, very easy to make great sounds with it
i'd go along with it being a bit underrated/overlooked

Never mind, it's my personal opinion.

I like the tonal characteristics of TAL's synths, so when I heard they were making modular I had high hopes. And I was greatly disappointed when I actually demoed it.

TALmod is not a 'modular', it's just a regular analog synth with a variety of modulation routing. Any synth with a multi-stage mod matrix is functionally equivalent.

So I don't think it's underrated. It's a nice synth, but it doesn't have the versatility that I feel is unfairly underrated in its current state. The name even seems rather OVERRATED.

[El°HYM]

At least its kind of semi - modular.

[swilow11]

Underrated synth,

Someone mentioned TALmod, but I dare to say it is NOT modular synth. Because it has no audio-signal patching capability (except osc3 out).

so what?
it's a great synth, very easy to make great sounds with it
i'd go along with it being a bit underrated/overlooked

Never mind, it's my personal opinion.

I like the tonal characteristics of TAL's synths, so when I heard they were making modular I had high hopes. And I was greatly disappointed when I actually demoed it.

TALmod is not a 'modular', it's just a regular analog synth with a variety of modulation routing. Any synth with a multi-stage mod matrix is functionally equivalent.

So I don't think it's underrated. It's a nice synth, but it doesn't have the versatility that I feel is unfairly underrated in its current state. The name even seems rather OVERRATED.

I feel like you're getting hung up on the name for some reason. It's pretty clear that by 'modular' they mean 'using virtual patch cables', similar to Bazille and Ace.

Personally, I'd probably prefer drag and drop or just a mod matrix but it is what it is. I'm using a synth either because it sounds amazing or because it sounds amazing and is enjoyable/easy to use. Tal Mod is the latter to me.

[Vortifex]

TAL-Mod. I do think this one gets overlooked. In the producer communities I've been part of no-one really talks about it. It's always Serum, Diva, Phaseplant, and various Arturia synths. U-NO-LX gets a shout occasionally.

I like TAL-Mod because it has everything I want for a VA on a one-page layout (except the mod env, sequencer and fx). Maybe people get put off by the interface, although I think it's fine. It does look a bit 'Rob Papen', and patch cables on a plugin might freak some people out.

Phonec2. A GUI that won't be to everyone's taste, and a janky preset system. But it's a very unique and capable synth that's also extremely CPU efficient. It has some quirks and probably won't be your go-to VA, but I can always make cool sounds with it. The chorus is nice.

Invader 2. A refined Prophet-esque sound, decent effects, a lovely one-page GUI, low CPU and pay-what-you-want pricing. One of the most criminally overlooked synths, IMO.

Corona. Flexible oscillators with hundreds of waveforms and wav/sf2 import, and nice filters with a drive control. Cons: The GUI only has three set sizes, and the preset system is bad. It's also very overpriced at £185. An RRP that's more expensive than Serum is crazy.

[muswellhillbilly]

- AAS Chromaphone 3
- Xhun Audio LittleOne
- Rob Papen Albino 3 / Linplug DeltaIII (still running)

[BONES]

- Rob Papen BIT 2
- Tone2 Saurus

I've never heard of BIT 2 but I definitely agree when it comes to Saurus. It has a really big sound and is super-easy to work with. It's not quite a go-to for me but when I think to try it in a part, it usually delivers.

[JerGoertz]

I've never heard of BIT 2 but I definitely agree when it comes to Saurus. It has a really big sound and is super-easy to work with. It's not quite a go-to for me but when I think to try it in a part, it usually delivers.

Yes, Saurus is about as beefy as they come

[SharksFin]

I think I'm alone in this, but I still really like them two softube things... monoment and statement

I quite like parallels too

[BONES]

I like Monoment Bass but I was disappointed with Statement Lead. They are both quite limited, so I think they tend to either work for you or not.

[EnGee]

I think there are underrated syntheses as well, not only synths. Although, they are mostly synths that implemented such syntheses.
PD is much less used that FM. CS-V is kinda underrated. I like a lot the tone and character of it. It’s done by the same guy who did Virtual CZ. I think he spent many years in the field.

Another kind of synthesis is I think was in a synth called Enzyme?! But I think it’s not available anymore. It uses a hammer and web of strings method, something like that but not Physical Modelling. It makes harsh sounds but still unique. That what I remember.
[edit] I couldn't find the developer's website but I found an SOS article about their fist synth Scanned Pro [/edit]

Finally, I remember that I liked a lot a synth which uses Pulsar something! Sorry I forgot its name. The light version was free for Studio One owners (I think version 2). I had it and really wanted to upgrade to full version.
It could produce very pleasant sounds without being too sweet. It was very nice to use also, although the GUI stayed very small without update.
[edit] Oh it is still there. I downloaded the demo to see if it is updated first! [/edit]
I will try to search for those latter two synths and post some links.

[BONES]

I used to love ReFX's PlastiCZ!, it had a great tone but ReFX! went all-in on Nexus and basically ditched everything else. It remains 32 bit only and, therefore, unusable for most of us these days. I used to also get a lot of mileage out of the PD oscillator in SynthEdit. Most of my favourite creations used it. That said, I wouldn't exactly say that Phase Distortion is underrated because it never felt like anything special and VIrtualCZ definitely doesn't have the same appeal.

[EnGee]

I found the result's structure of the PD wave appealing! I mean the shape of it. Of course the graphic representation doesn't mean something special to our ears, but I have always the impression that PD sounds nice and round (even the noises).
I'm trying to delve into Arturia's CZ-V because it has a nice interface that I can keep working with it. I want to know what sonic advantages it has over other syntheses.
Oh and u-he Bazille has implementation of PD oscillators as well, so I have two synths to play with.

For the NUKLEAR Pulsar Train Synthesizer. I installed the demo and it automatically loaded as a solo (mono) version of the synth in Studio One just like before. Well, the GUI is still damn small! I listened to some presets and they are either great sounding or awful trash! Anyway, I still like the sound overall, so I might use the Solo version for basses and leads.

I remember that I had a license of Scanned Synth Pro! I don't remember if I sold it or lost it! So, no luck here.