*Urgent Plea For Help* - What Are The Top Synths Today?

[Examigan]

I thought you bought everything in the world last month?

But seriously…Diva, Synthmaster 3, Icarus 3, Dune 3.

[wagtunes]

I thought you bought everything in the world last month?

But seriously…Diva, Synthmaster 3, Icarus 3, Dune 3.

Wow, really? That's a big departure from the Serum 2, Pigments, Zebra 3 I've gotten so far. Curious as to your thought process on this.

[Examigan]

I meant those are the top synths for me. Even though I also like OP-X Pro 3 a lot, I usually gravitate to those others these days so I didn’t mention that one. I have Pigments, but I don’t use it much.

I don’t have the Zebra beta installed and I don’t have Serum.

[pdxindy]

I will do a Zebra library. My Zebra 2 library is my 6th best selling library so I'm sure I'll do well enough with Zebra 3 that it will be worth putting in the time.

The feature set for the 3.0 release of Zebra is basically set. What is still being worked on some is the UI, but that is not an issue for presets. The next Zebra 3 beta should be out in a week or two and that one will be safe to make presets on for sure.

[Danilo Villanova]

Analog Lab banks are hugely popular as well.

[twal]

Hang in there bud. God moves in mysterious ways. I would say to go with Current 2. I think it will pick up steam like Pigments did (even after Serum), and being one of the first to get some quality packs out might be a good bonus. I feel its (Current) total package is worth something the market needs.

[sin night]

I’m sorry for your incident, I wish you to recover soon.

Now, about the thread subject: I’m not the right man to suggest what’s popular in the virtual instrument world and I usually don’t buy patches.
With that said, I still have a consideration: you may look for something that has not many patches yet (or, conversely, for something with a user base largely reliant on presets…) and maybe not easy/fast to program… if the instrument is great but the limited presets and the effort to make them are pain points for the users, maybe they’ll be more interested on buying your presets.

Another idea is to focus a preset bank on some new features introduced recently to one of the major synths. For example, Pigments received an update about two months ago and I don’t know (I have no idea!) how many patches already take advantage of those features. It could be an idea to further differentiate your new product from what’s already available.

[wagtunes]

I’m sorry for your incident, I wish you to recover soon.

Now, about the thread subject: I’m not the right man to suggest what’s popular in the virtual instrument world and I usually don’t buy patches.
With that said, I still have a consideration: you may look for something that has not many patches yet (or, conversely, for something with a user base largely reliant on presets…) and maybe not easy/fast to program… if the instrument is great but the limited presets and the effort to make them are pain points for the users, maybe they’ll be more interested on buying your presets.

Another idea is to focus a preset bank on some new features introduced recently to one of the major synths. For example, Pigments received an update about two months ago and I don’t know (I have no idea!) how many patches already take advantage of those features. It could be an idea to further differentiate your new product from what’s already available.

Thanks. This is all very useful info. Appreciate it.

[Echoes in the Attic]

Absynth 6 may be worth some time. It’s pretty new, not the easiest for a lot of people to program but very deep. Massive X as well. Great sound but not the funnest to program.

Also Omnisphere, Dune 3, Icarus. Agreed on Pigments and Serum too.

[wagtunes]

Absynth 6 may be worth some time. It’s pretty new, not the easiest for a lot of people to program but very deep. Massive X as well. Great sound but not the funnest to program.

Also Omnisphere, Dune 3, Icarus. Agreed on Pigments and Serum too.

Thanks. Appreciate the advice.

[dune_rave]

This will be my list.
I don't mention anything from Native Instruments, maybe i'm wrong in this relation.
Obvious ones are:
U-he: Zebra, Diva, RePro, Hive
Xfer Serum,
Lennardigital Sylenth
Arturia: Pigments, Analog lab
Spectrasonics Omnisphere,
Tone2 Icarus,
Vital Audio Vital,
UVI Falcon,
Steinberg Halion,
ReFX Nexus,
VPS Avenger,
Universal Audio: Polymax, Minimoog, Anthem etc.

But these were only the biggest "names" so I can continue with not so obvious ones that are also well known:
Kilohearts Phase Plant
Minimal Audio Current
Korg Collection (It contains several good stuff: M1, Triton, etc)
Korg Native plugins : opsix, wavestate, modwave, multypoly
Gforce software: Imposcar, OB-E and several others....
Rob Papen also have some cool synths, maybe Predator or Albino or Blue are the most famous ones.

At last I have to mention one plugin, that's not just a synth rather a mixture of synths and a plugin wrapper:
Pluginguru Unify
If you create for example a DIVA preset bank, you can create its Unify version also.

[wagtunes]

This will be my list.
I don't mention anything from Native Instruments, maybe i'm wrong in this relation.
Obvious ones are:
U-he: Zebra, Diva, RePro, Hive
Xfer Serum,
Arturia: Pigments, Analog lab
Spectrasonics Omnisphere,
Tone2 Icarus,
Vital Audio Vital,
UVI Falcon,
Steinberg Halion,
ReFX Nexus,
VPS Avenger,
Universal Audio: Polymax, Minimoog, Anthem etc.

But these were only the biggest "names" so I can continue with not so obvious ones that are also well known:
Kilohearts Phase Plant
Minimal Audio Current
Korg Collection (It contains several good stuff: M1, Triton, etc)
Korg Native plugins : opsix, wavestate, modwave, multypoly
Gforce software: Imposcar, OB-E and several others....

At last I have to mention one plugin, that's not just a synth rather a mixture of synths and a plugin wrapper:
Pluginguru Unify
If you create for example a DIVA preset bank, you can create its Unify version also.

In other words, there's a lot of stuff I can work on in 2026.

Thanks.

[dune_rave]

Last comment:
Inserted Sylenth and Rob Papen synths to my previous list.

[mutagen]

Another idea is to focus a preset bank on some new features introduced recently to one of the major synths. For example, Pigments received an update about two months ago and I don’t know (I have no idea!) how many patches already take advantage of those features. It could be an idea to further differentiate your new product from what’s already available.

This is great advice and aligns with what I was doing on picking up new versions of some of these flagship synths: looking for new patches that highlight new capabilities and modules in these products and uses them for usable and unique sounds. Maybe some hybrid tutorial / marketing videos to teach me how to use these new tools while you tour some preset pack highlights would work if you're up for that.

Another avenue might be looking for possible gaps in the available libraries for specific synths and trying to fill them. For example, there was discussion on the vi-control.net forums about the lack of cinematic preset packs for Synthmaster 3. That could be a trap where lack of presets and marketing from the developers means no one is purchasing the synth for that genre or musical direction but it could also be an opportunity.

I hope this project is successful for you!

[swilow11]

Serum is the obvious choice but bear in mind, it's popularity also means there's fuckloads of preset banks already.

Vital would he a good choice too. Probably also Pigments, Phase Plant, Current, Omnisphere, Spire, Hive 2, Sylenth, etc.

In my own playing around with Serum 2's standard sounds, they sound surprisingly boring for a very capable synth. It needs more interesting, complex sounds, including more that take advantage of its unusual "clipper" capability.

Agree re: Serum 2. I've not really taken a deep dive into the presets but when I do I almost always give up within minutes. Much prefer to just roll my own...

Curious, what do you mean by "clipper" capability?