Underrated/overlooked synths

[brok landers]

https://blaukraut.info/#download

Charlatan3


Sound quality is pretty good, comes with presets too.

Indeed. A great synth at almost _no_ cpu usage - and free. Extremely overlooked, imho. I use it constantly and i am over and over again stunned how that thing delivers at almost everything i throw it against. And i am not easily wowed. However - there are a few downsides. As it is exceptionally good in doing pads, 8 voices is rather on the short side of things. And some other tiny downsides such as imo not enough modulators and the phaser not having its own lfo and no flanger onboard, let alone an arpeggiator or stepsequencer (though you can mimic that sort of whithe the msegs).
but overall one of the best free synths out there - again, at almost _no_ cpu usage. It's a milestone in efficient programming - even on quite slow computers you could run a lot of instances fullblown without any problems.
One of my contenders for a one-synth-only on an island.

[BONES]

I'm going to say Wave's Flow Motion should be on this list. I didn't even know it existed until the other day but I really like it. It makes FM easy and almost fun. It can have that very distinctive "DX" sound but with a decent sounding multi-mode filter, it's capable of a lot more. The snapshot sequencer is also quite interesting, if something of a one-trick pony.

[kraster]

Air Loom II is pretty unique and capable of some really odd sounds.

[Rktect]

I just upgraded my Rob Papen Explorer bundle from v8 to v10 and have been spending a bit of time with RAW-2 this evening. I never really gave RAW v1 much attention and I don't think I've seen it discussed very often, but if RAW-2 is anything to go by, it seems like a pretty underrated synth to me.

I have the same bundle you have and was looking at upgrading to v10 as well mainly for Raw 2! Good to hear you like it, I'll have to upgrade myself to check it out!

[Korg Supporter]

I'm going to say Wave's Flow Motion should be on this list. I didn't even know it existed until the other day but I really like it. It makes FM easy and almost fun. It can have that very distinctive "DX" sound but with a decent sounding multi-mode filter, it's capable of a lot more. The snapshot sequencer is also quite interesting, if something of a one-trick pony.

I got it for free, and its GUI was laggy on my computer. I heard good things about Steinberg's FM Lab, which is integrated into HALion. It's basically Yamaha's official FM plugin.

[BONES]

Yeah, I read a few things about it, like the laggy UI and high CPU use, but I've not had those issues so either hardware has caught up since its release or Waves has addressed them. It still takes more time than most other synths to initialise but once it's up and running, it's fine. I paid $35 for it last week, which feels like really good value to me.

It looks like FM Lab has been replaced by FM Zone, which looks pretty ordinary. The GUI is spread over 5 pages and you can only see one operator at a time, so that's five tabs within that one page. It uses algorithms like a DX series synth, too, which is not intuitive at all. i.e. You can't sit there and think "if I want to make this particular sound, I will need to use Algorithm 4 and for this other kind of sound, I'll need Agorithm 1". It doesn't work like that, it's mostly down to trial and error. Of course, Flow Motion, like any synth, can also involve a bit of trial and error but it feels like you have more control over the process, in that you can start simple and add complexity as you feel you need it. At it's most basic level it can act as a four oscillator V/A synth, which means it has uses beyond what you might regard as typical FM timbres.

Then there's the price - it doesn't look like you can buy it standalone, which means you're up for around $400 for the bundle it comes in. If anything, the comparison makes Flow Motion seem even better than I thought and absolutely insane value.

Interestingly, I got FM8 for free from Plugin Boutique several years ago but I've never bothered to install it. I had assumed (which is never a good idea) that it would also be a nightmare to work with. Last night I watched a video tutorial on it and it seems it's actually quite easy to work with, not unlike Maxx Claster's Toxic, so that's possibly another thing I have under-rated for a long time. It's so easy to do when you have so much choice available.

This is FM8, in case you don't know what it looks like. The matrix is what makes it so much easier to use.

[Korg Supporter]

It looks like FM Lab has been replaced by FM Zone, which looks pretty ordinary.

FM Lab is the standalone instrument, and FM Zone is part of HALION 7. OPS7 is by far my favorite FM softsynth because of its retro feel and sound. Not to mention, the on-board fx work so well with it, and it has an Extended Mode with extra waveforms and feedback per operator! BLEASS Omega is a nice-sounding FM synth, but the operator modulation isn't as strong. The Windows-only Aurora FM is extremely powerful and has a DAC mode that actually makes the FM waves sound harmonically richer, not just add quantize noise.

[EnGee]

It looks like FM Lab has been replaced by FM Zone, which looks pretty ordinary. The GUI is spread over 5 pages and you can only see one operator at a time, so that's five tabs within that one page. It uses algorithms like a DX series synth, too, which is not intuitive at all. i.e. You can't sit there and think "if I want to make this particular sound, I will need to use Algorithm 4 and for this other kind of sound, I'll need Agorithm 1". It doesn't work like that, it's mostly down to trial and error. Of course, Flow Motion, like any synth, can also involve a bit of trial and error but it feels like you have more control over the process, in that you can start simple and add complexity as you feel you need it. At it's most basic level it can act as a four oscillator V/A synth, which means it has uses beyond what you might regard as typical FM timbres.

Then there's the price - it doesn't look like you can buy it standalone, which means you're up for around $400 for the bundle it comes in. If anything, the comparison makes Flow Motion seem even better than I thought and absolutely insane value.

It is not an easy synth to grasp. The UI is not one page either, but it is from the best FM synths out there if not the best (sound quality).

Have you visited their web page? I think you can correct some info you have visiting there:
https://www.steinberg.net/vst-instruments/fm-lab/

Anyway, I'm trying the FM abilities in Bazille and Bitwig for now as I really want to concentrate what's there from native Linux synths. I have MODX as a hardware alternative of FM Lab, so I won't miss it that much I hope!

[Shabdahbriah]

[...] Of course, Flow Motion, like any synth, can also involve a bit of trial and error but it feels like you have more control over the process, in that you can start simple and add complexity as you feel you need it. At it's most basic level it can act as a four oscillator V/A synth, which means it has uses beyond what you might regard as typical FM timbres.

[...]. If anything, the comparison makes Flow Motion seem even better than I thought and absolutely insane value.

[BONES]

FM Lab is the standalone instrument, and FM Zone is part of HALION 7.

I couldn't find any mention of FM Lab on Steinberg's website and the only things that came up on a KVR search were expensive bundles that included it.

OPS7 just looks like a DX style FM synth, which I'm really not interested in. FM8 and Flow Motion are much easier for me to get my tiny brain around. The way they do things makes at least some small sense to me. That said, I was trying to do what they showed me in the FM8 tutorial video and it didn't work at all. At least I can get Flow Motion to do what I want so I'll be uninstalling FM8.

It is not an easy synth to grasp. The UI is not one page either, but it is from the best FM synths out there if not the best (sound quality).

Thanks for the link. I couldn't find it anywhere on Steinberg's website this morning (I don't know why they don't have a search function) and it doesn't get a page here on KVR, either (doesn't show up in a search, anyway). The Algorithm Designer looks like a very similar concept to the matrices in Toxic and FM8, which is kinda cool, but it ain't cheap. I think I still prefer Flow Motion; 4 ops is plenty, especially within a V/A framework and it keeps things (mostly) manageable.

I often use TRK-01 Bass for FM basslines, it works more than well enough and it always sounds great, so Flow Motion will be for other stuff. I went through the factory presets and found around 50 that will be usable starting points and I've already made variations of my own on a few of them - mostly more DRIVE, more DISTortion and FATTER unison. The DRIVE and DISTortion are both really nice.

[Weasel-Boy]

I couldn't find it anywhere on Steinberg's website this morning (I don't know why they don't have a search function) and it doesn't get a page here on KVR, either (doesn't show up in a search, anyway).

I typed "FM Lab" into Google and got this page immediately:
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source= ... 4gNI7HdbmM

[EnGee]

FM Lab is the standalone instrument, and FM Zone is part of HALION 7.

I couldn't find any mention of FM Lab on Steinberg's website and the only things that came up on a KVR search were expensive bundles that included it.

Yes, it’s also part of Halion 7 synth engines, which have excellent VA part by the way.

I got FM Zone as a part of Halion 7 that I cross-buy from Groove Agent 5 (another underrated drums instrument). I got automatically Halion Sonic and FM Lab to load it inside.

FM Lab, FM Zone and FM-X are all the same mostly. I have also MODX which has FM-X. FM-X has 8 operators which can do lots of complex sounds or a thick VA sound. In theory, you can do whatever you want in FM but it needs long time to master. Anyway, best way for me is by trial and error. However, I think I will spend sometime with Bazille these days which has 4 oscillators, that can be connected like operators but it has the advantage of PD synthesis and semi modular nature. Great digital synth by u-he.

[BONES]

I typed "FM Lab" into Google and got this page immediately:
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source= ... 4gNI7HdbmM

Good for you, I'm not that lazy.

[Ah_Dziz]

I miss vaz modular and vaz plus. I lost my old installers so never tested them on my newer systems. I still think they sound as good or better than most of the hardware or software virtual analogs of the time.

I also think that crusher x is pretty overlooked as it can do pretty much any granular synthesis that is possible.

[whyterabbyt]

I miss vaz modular and vaz plus. I lost my old installers

waybackmachine has them

https://web.archive.org/web/20190307023 ... Index.html

https://web.archive.org/web/20190224154 ... Index.html