Trying to pick top 3's to reduce GAS ;)

[Echoes in the Attic]

Apologies if this comes across as another "What's your favorite" type thread, but I actually did this excercise for myself the other day because honesly I'm annoyed at how many soft synths I have and want to reduce but I get so resistent to letting some go even though I don't use them much. I thought, really there's no way I should have more than 3 of each category of synth that I care about, like analog vintage mono or hybrid wavetable or whatever. So I put together the categories of synths that I like to use to see what my top 3 picks would be if I could only keep 3 of each. A couple categories were really hard and some not that hard at all. The reason I broke them down this way is because it's how I think about a type of synth when I go to grab one. E.g. I want an analog bass or mono sound, maybe sequenced, or I want to play a simple polyphonic classic synth sound, or I want gnarly wavetable or hybrid synth with lots of modulation type thing where who knows where experimentation will take me. Or I feel like patching some cables and making blips and blops, or granular mangling, or I jsut want to browser presets and be surprised by sound and play.

I'm curious to see what others would be and if there were any surprises, like "I can't believe x synth didn't make it for me".

So here's mine:

Top 3 Vintage analog mono (the emulation can have a poly mode but the originals they were based on should be mono or duo)
Softube Model 72
Repro-1
Korg ARP Odyssey

Top 3 Vintage analog poly
Repro-5
OP-X Pro 3
Softube Model 84

Top 3 Vintage Digital
Plogue OPS7
Korg Prophecy
Arturia Prophet-VS

Top 3 Modern Hybrids (Wavetables etc, everything from Virus onwards)
Ultra
Ana
Icarus

Top 3 Granular/Sample manglers
Omnisphere
Pigments
Equator

Top 3 Modular or semi-modular (patch cables anywhere, could be fully modular or like an Arp2600 or bazille etc.)
Softube Modular
VCV Rack
Bazille

Top 3 Physical Modeling
Expressive E Noisy
Reaktor stuff
Otherwise fine with DAW ones like logic sculpture or Ableton AAS shnths

Top Preset Players (If they were jsut preset llibraries and if you couldn't tweak or create your patches)
Omnisphere
Absynth
Blue 3

For me it turns out the mono synths were tough and I really struggle not to have 101 and 303 in there. Also the analog polys I figured I'd have a jupiter but the OP-X Pro is so verstaile I had to go with that. Also hard to leave out Aly James OB-Xtreme as the OB, but also OP-X Pro has the SEM variable filter.

Not saying I'm getting rid of everything else, but it helped focus in on whats important and think about ditching some stuff. Some things I can't get rid of anyways like Roland Cloud and and some other NFRs. Even free stuff alone like Vital, Tyrell, UAD PolyMax (I got it free) and Cardinal VCV could displace some of these.

Anyways I'm just curious to see other people lists and if some categories would actually be blank or not even needing to use all 3. I have huge respect for people who focus on just a handful of synths!

[ksandvik]

You could just rotate between a few synths for each project. For example, for a 10-track album I'm finishing composing I'm just using U-HE Hive 2 and Zebra 3.

[4_the masses]

My top three in no particular category are:

Korg Triton.
Surge XT.
TAL J-8

I have many more VST, but these are my go to synths all the time. I also have and use a lot a Roland D-20 / MC303 groovebox and a Korg EM-1.

I Don't suffer with GAS, The less you have the more you learn about the kit you have.

[Echoes in the Attic]

You could just rotate between a few synths for each project. For example, for a 10-track album I'm finishing composing I'm just using U-HE Hive 2 and Zebra 3.

Yeah I do actually create virtual "synth rooms" sometimes where I put a bunch of stuff on tracks before doing anything as if they were physical synths plugged into the mixer and that's whats available for the session. Still, and it may be my minimalist mentality conflicting with GAS, but I don't like having unneeded stuff that perhaps someone could use a license for.

[kvotchin]

The hell do people want monosynth plugins for. Seriously, just set voices to 1 or w/e.

Anyway. I’d probably do the categories differently.

[Echoes in the Attic]

The hell do people want monosynth plugins for. Seriously, just set voices to 1 or w/e.

Anyway. I’d probably do the categories differently.

Do tell. Those were just the way I think. And the monosynth thing is just silly nostaliga, I agree with you.

[pdxindy]

A few years back I got rid of 80% of my plugins... a decision which I have not once regretted and would do again.

For me, Zebra 3 and Bazille cover every category you listed except Granular/Sample Manglers. For that I have Bitwig's Grid and Icarus.

[4_the masses]

A few years back I got rid of 80% of my plugins... a decision which I have not once regretted and would do again.

For me, Zebra 3 and Bazille cover every category you listed except Granular/Sample Manglers. For that I have Bitwig's Grid and Icarus.

[Korg Supporter]

My overall top 3:

• Icarus 3

• Hive 2

• TAL-MOD (previously was Repro, which I am still not selling)

My favorite VA plugins:

• Hive 2

• TAL-MOD

• impOSCar 3

My favorite "Digital" plugins:

• Icarus 3

• OPS7

• torn between Razor and Synclavier V

My favorite "Retro" plugins:

• Repro

• TAL-J8X

• KORG M1

My honorable mentions:

• ArcSyn

• Synthmaster One

• Imagninando DRC (excellent ladder filter!)

My acoustic/percussion plugins:

• Addictive Keys

• TAL-Drum (and Microtonic for synth drums)

• Orange Samples Evolution Modern Nylon (Kontakt)

More plugins that deserve more use:

• Omnisphere 2 (is it worth upgrading?)

• Chromaphone 3 (Zebra 3 may replace it)

• Rayblaster

• Generate

Plugins that I am most likely to sell:

• Ace

• OP-X Pro II

• Bazille (I really should explore it more)

[Cuauhtli]

The hell do people want monosynth plugins for. Seriously, just set voices to 1 or w/e.

Anyway. I’d probably do the categories differently.

My sentiments as well. Even worse are those single oscillator jobs.

Anyway, if I had to limit my choices:
Reaktor
Massive (the original)
Pigments
FM8

For vintage stuff:
Modular V
Jupiter 8
Gforce OB-E

[Echoes in the Attic]

The hell do people want monosynth plugins for. Seriously, just set voices to 1 or w/e.

Anyway. I’d probably do the categories differently.

My sentiments as well. Even worse are those single oscillator jobs.

Anyway, if I had to limit my choices:
Reaktor
Massive (the original)
Pigments
FM8

For vintage stuff:
Modular V
Jupiter 8
Gforce OB-E

Interesting, old NI synths still top of the pile eh? FM8 interface is a bit small these days I find. But OG Massive still great yeah. Which Jupiter-8 are you referring to?

[oobesan]

Vintage: NI Super 8, u-He Diva
Hybrid: Arturia Pigments
Modern: NI Massive X, Current
Presets: Logic Pro Alchemy
Granular: Logic Pro Sample Alchemy, Baby Audio Grainferno

[nusound mind]

atm my top 3 are:

Strobe 2
Zebra 3
Alice 9

[Teksonik]

Apologies if this comes across as another "What's your favorite" type thread

But that's exactly what it is. I thought you were above such posts.....

Anyway I'll make an analogy, say you've got a toolbox full of screwdrivers. You may not use some of them very often or at all but what harm does it do having them in your toolbox? You could say "they take up space" but in the digital world of terabyte drives space really isn't a concern.

I have a lot of synths and effects that I rarely use but I enjoy having all of them in my collection. I simply use my DAWs' plugin managers to keep the ones I use the most within easy reach and the rest can be accessed with a few more mouse clicks if desired.

I've never understood why anyone would care what my top 3, top 5, top 10 whatever plugins are and why I should care what other people's top whatever are. We all make different music so those lists will vary wildly from person to person and rarely if ever fit everyone's needs the same.

But I suppose such threads are good for idle conversation so do carry on.......

[wagtunes]

I tried to do this but realized I can't.

You're a better man than I am. LOL