If You can only keep Four VST Synths You have. Which Ones ?

[tumface]

Serum 2
RayBlaster
wavestate native
Zebra 3

[sunthief01]

Icarus 3
Massive X
Zebra 3
Phonec 3

Running all 4 on Linux via Bitwig

If modular environments are in then I'd swap in PlugData, The Grid or Reaktor

[I.M. Blur]

Dune 3
Serum 2
Repro-5
Reaktor

[Ah_Dziz]

Zebra, Kontakt, reaktor, alchemy

[Funky40]

Pianoteq
Zebra3
Absynth6
Legend HZ*


* while quasi unused. But at only 4 it would be probably that in 4th position

[zerocrossing]

I have too many good ones to just choose only four.
If it is just at this moment, I'd say:

Icarus 3
Synthmaster 3
Diva
Dune 3

I really should check out Massive X again.
I have it, but I just haven't made the time to learn all it can do.

Massive X is one of the best sounding wavetable plugins available, though it has some flaws and limitations. For me, not responding to polyphonic aftertouch is a crime, especially considering they make one of the best controllers for that.

Second, there’s no wavetable import of any kind. That’s a bit crazy in modern times.

Last, the interface takes a bit learning. It’s not the best, and lacks things like scroll wheel support.

But the sound is great, especially if you like distortion and feedback. I don’t think there’s a polyphonic plugin with that extensive feature set that does per voice distortion and feedback as well.

[BONES]

This doesn't include samplers and drum synths, right? What about free synths?

I always assume these questions get asked by people who just want to find out what others rate so I never feel compelled to restrict myself to one thing or another.

As much as I love Repro...

I don't really know why but I've never bonded with the RePros. For some reason they don't really work for me. I think it is possibly down to the GUI. I cannot make head nor tail of the stupid extras screen. It was obviously designed to be one of those little "surprise and delight" things but it just pisses me off. If I look back at the 4 albums we've made since I bought it, I think we've used Repro 1 on just a single song. They sound good, although I always thought RePro 1 sounded better than 5, I just never think to use them.

Thinking about it, I only use Hive now because of a 3rd party skin for it and I don't have any interest in any of U-He's other synths (not even the free ones). Maybe my disinterest in U-He has to do with their UX? Not the interface graphics, most of them look great, but the overall user experience of working with them.

Using the latest "deductive" threads of what runs on all three OSs and what uses the simple serial/key card authorization without online intrusions, there are currently three companies I would choose that fit the synth category.

I find this line of reasoning strange. I don't care what company a plugin comes from. I have a 25+ year association with Synapse Audio but the basis of that is that Rich and I see a lot of things in the same way. It's a personal connection but it doesn't stop me from complaining about certain aspects of some of Synapse's products. Proxima is probably the first one since the early DUNE betas (before it got too complicated) that I really love. DUNE has it's place and The Legend and Obsession are both fine instruments, they just aren't quite my thing. And if I am not going to show blind loyalty to Synapse, then you can be damned sure I'm not going to give a rat's arse about any other company. And, honestly, I can't think of any plugin I own with such onerous license management that I wouldn't want to have to deal with it. Both things are complete non-issues for me when deciding whether a plugin is worth buying or not. I'd be more likely to be put off by the colour of the background graphic.

And I probably would not limit it further to only four from their total offerings.

Think of it as a mental exercise, a way of sorting out in your own mind which ones you actually like more than the others. Or, as I kind of did, which ones you actually use the most. In the course of making an album, we probably use 15-20 different instruments but there are definitely instruments that show up a lot more often than others.

And at this point for this thread, I feel the list would still be too long. So I'll give you just two "synth" companies that do fit those considerations for me.

1. u-He
2. Audio Damage

I have quite a few Audio Damage plugins but I almost never use them. Continua is easily my most used and I think I've used it on 3 or 4 songs out of the last 100 things I've worked on. I'd love to use it more, the GUI and workflow are both great, but I don't often think to try it. In the end, the filters let it down, I think. And I've already given my thoughts on U-He.

To be clear, I am not having a go at you, personally, it's a very common thing, but it does my head in. People who keep buying the same brand of car, or the same brand of computer, or the same brand of mobile phone, or who drink the same beer all the time. People who never even look at what else might be out there and have no clue what they might be missing out on. To me, brand loyalty only goes as far as making sure I include my favourite brands when I am looking to buy something. That means I'll always look at what Mazda has to offer when I'm buying a car (even though I haven't owned a Mazda in 30 years or so) and I'll always look at what Asus have in their lineup that might interest me when I'm up for a new computer but if I find something that suits me better when I start looking, then that's what I'll buy. (I deeply resent the necessity of carrying a phone with me, so I don't give a flying f**k what brand I end up with, as long as it does what I need it to do, which is mostly to leave me the f**k alone.)

If I sort my instrument plugins by vendor, I have VSTi from 44 different companies/developers, not counting Fender/PreSonus. I have MIDI controllers from 8 different vendors and the last 10 hardware synths I've owned have been from 8 different manufacturers. Brand loyalty is for morons, yet it is extremely common among creatives. Weird.

[digitalboytn]

Vital
Surge XT
SynthMaster 2
ANA 2

[nusound mind]

Strobe 2
Serum 2
Gladiator 4
Zebra 3

If we're talking vst *instruments* purely, then StylusRMX iis my #1 pick.

I also agree that people saying Kontakt are cheating. If you say Kontakt from now on you can only choose one synth sample library heheh.

[TechHaus]

Hive 2 and Tracktion F.'em for me, but I am determined to get up to four by this summer. I just spend most of my time in these two.

Maybe Repro and TAL-PHA someday just based on the lust I have from a couple of soundpacks I heard on YouTube. I have to think seriously when a plugin costs more than like $39.

[cryophonik]

Meh, the beauty of being a Logic user is that I could just randomly pick 4 VST synths to keep, then go happily about using my all my AU synths.

OK, but playing along, I mostly use hardware synths and have my subtractive analog needs well-covered, so my four software choices would probably be:

- Omnisphere 3
- Kontakt
- Spire
- Blue 3 or Zebra 3

That last slot is a little tricky. Blue had been one of my go-to soft synths since v1, so I’m pretty familiar with it, but I rarely use it anymore. I just finally got a chance to install my Zebra 3 upgrade earlier today, but only spent a half hour or so with it so far. I suspect that once I get more familiar with it, Zebra would be the winner.

[kraster]

Serum 2

Zebra 3

Kontakt

Fors Chiral

[BBFG#]

Using the latest "deductive" threads of what runs on all three OSs and what uses the simple serial/key card authorization without online intrusions, there are currently three companies I would choose that fit the synth category.

I find this line of reasoning strange.

And I probably would not limit it further to only four from their total offerings.

Think of it as a mental exercise...

And at this point for this thread, I feel the list would still be too long. So I'll give you just two "synth" companies that do fit those considerations for me.

1. u-He
2. Audio Damage

Being strange to you doesn't surprise me at all and apparently you missed that I took the mental exercise and kicked it up a notch. Even though you quoted that.

But I'll play the less mental way too.
1. Pianoteq
2. Zebras
3. Biotek
4.
And as I posited before, drums and samples aren't really synths in this exercise IMO. So I can use whatever and how much I want or don't there.

My point being it doesn't take much.
And the relationship with certain companies are more time consuming than the use I get from their product. So it's very relative for me.

[Monsieur_FyP]

Vital (by far the one I'm most comfortable with)

Alchemy (because it can do almost anything)

PolyMax (simple, effective and pleasant to use)

Pendulate (weird)

[woodsdenis]

Omnisphere
Serum 2
Falcon
Diva