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

[eLawnMust]

-Z3TA
-Z3TA+2
-Rapture
-LinPlug Spectral

[Synthbuilder]

I use Live so I have an excellent sampler but for synth VSTs:

Diva, Zebra, G-Force OB-1, The Legend

[Examigan]

-Z3TA
-Z3TA+2
-Rapture
-LinPlug Spectral

I have those first 3, but never really use them anymore. Good synths though!
There once was an OSC that featured the z3ta+ plugin.

From LinPlug, I just have CrX4.

[BONES]

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.

And you seemingly missed the fact I was referring, with considerable exposition, to your citing of companies, not instruments. I don't get that blind loyalty, particularly to some of the companies most people show it towards or, conversely, companies people show so much blanket antipathy towards (Cherry Audio, for example). I take 'em all as they come, the good and the not so good, the useful and the less than useful.

And as I posited before, drums and samples aren't really synths in this exercise IMO.

That's kind of what I was getting at with the other point - that's just your assumption. Mine is that the guy who started the thread may simply want to get some ideas about what might be worth trying out, so I listed the instruments I find the most use for. I wasn't thinking about what kind of instruments they were or who makes them (I never think about either of those things), just what we get the most use from and why.

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.

Can you give us an example, please? Because the most interaction I have with any company is the process of buying and installing the thing. Once its installed, it's all over and done. Sure, iLok streamlines that in some cases but not to the extent that it makes any difference to my purchasing decisions. That would be like not buying the best car for my needs because it didn't come in the colour I wanted. (In fact, the car I own at the moment is only the second car I have ever got to choose the colour of, and I've owned around 20 cars since I got my license in 1975. And cars are every bit as important to me as music, they are the two things in my life I could never contemplate being without. The two things they will be prying from my cold, dead hands will be my music player and my car keys.)

PolyMax (simple, effective and pleasant to use)

Yeah, I rate PolyMax, too. I haven't had it all that long and I really need to use it more.
BTW, Alchemy, being almost 20 years old now, must be super-efficient on a modern computer. What's the CPU usage like?

-Z3TA
-Z3TA+2
-Rapture
-LinPlug Spectral

So four instruments that are 20+ years old have been dead for a decade or more. Their sound can't possibly hold up to even freebies that are available today, can they? I've got a z3ta+ license but it's got to be at least 10 years since I even thought to install it. I never rated anything from LinPlug. A couple of their instruments were some of the very first VSTi I ever bought but they were very quickly surpassed by improvements in Orion's native generators. The LinPlug synths had horrible filters.
___________________________________________

I notice quite a few people listing four complex, do-anything synths. Don't you ever just want to do something quick and simple? I don't think I'd ever get anything done if those types of instruments were the only ones I had to work with. They are the kinds of things I'd normally only reach for as a last resort, when simpler things had failed me and then I'd probably be looking for presets, not making my own sounds.

[DJDJ]

I can get by pretty happily with just 2 - Ultra and Zebra. But if I had to pick 4, I’d go:

1. Ultra
2. Zebra 3
3. Acustica Expanse 5
4. Plasmonic

[Ficciones]

Zebra 3, Zebra Legacy, Reaktor, Surge XT.

[Dirtgrain]

Right now:
Diva
Phase Plant
Phoscyon
UVI Drum Designer

[nusound mind]

I use Live so I have an excellent sampler but for synth VSTs:

Diva, Zebra, G-Force OB-1, The Legend

Excellent choice. First I've seen it listed here and I was tempted to slot it into my top 4 myself but for the shiny new toy effect, as I just picked it up. It's supplanted Imposcar as my #1 Gforce synth.

Good to see Plasmonic get a nod too. ^

[WolfKay]

- U-He Zebra3: head and shoulders above the rest. Alongside the broadest sonic possibilities available on the software market, the quality, warmth, richness and dynamic range of its sound engine are truly unheard of. Imperial. It walks on water.
- Reason Complex-1: West Coast semi-modular beast built around complex oscillators and deep audio-rate modulation. A rich trove of experimental sounds and textures.
- Korg MultiPoly: the last Korg synths have outstanding features and sound gorgeous.
- Softube Modular: still one of the very best modular soft synths for sound, still the worst for workflow. Most worrying is that the developers still haven’t committed to delivering the long-awaited enhancements, and aren’t even sure it will ever happen. It seems like they're sitting on a gold mine while trying to figure out their next hardware release. And now people who care about great-sounding modular synthesis in the box have been training for years on a half-baked tool. C'mon…

[zerocrossing]

I'd break the law and keep everything and lead an underground group of criminals who have a whole bunch of plugins and hardware synths and we'd always be one step ahead of the law.

[andrelafosse]

These aren't the ones I use the most - they're the ones I'd be last to get rid of, right now, at this moment:

- Reaktor
- Something Dawesome (Myth/Kult/Kontrast toss-up)
- Madrona Sumu
- Sugar Bytes toss-up between Aparillo and Factory

[BBFG#]

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.

And you seemingly missed the fact I was referring, with considerable exposition, to your citing of companies, not instruments. I don't get that blind loyalty, particularly to some of the companies most people show it towards or, conversely, companies people show so much blanket antipathy towards (Cherry Audio, for example). I take 'em all as they come, the good and the not so good, the useful and the less than useful.

And as I posited before, drums and samples aren't really synths in this exercise IMO.

That's kind of what I was getting at with the other point - that's just your assumption. Mine is that the guy who started the thread may simply want to get some ideas about what might be worth trying out, so I listed the instruments I find the most use for. I wasn't thinking about what kind of instruments they were or who makes them (I never think about either of those things), just what we get the most use from and why.

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.

Can you give us an example, please? Because the most interaction I have with any company is the process of buying and installing the thing. Once its installed, it's all over and done. Sure, iLok streamlines that in some cases but not to the extent that it makes any difference to my purchasing decisions. That would be like not buying the best car for my needs because it didn't come in the colour I wanted. (In fact, the car I own at the moment is only the second car I have ever got to choose the colour of, and I've owned around 20 cars since I got my license in 1975. And cars are every bit as important to me as music, they are the two things in my life I could never contemplate being without. The two things they will be prying from my cold, dead hands will be my music player and my car keys.)

PolyMax (simple, effective and pleasant to use)

Yeah, I rate PolyMax, too. I haven't had it all that long and I really need to use it more.
BTW, Alchemy, being almost 20 years old now, must be super-efficient on a modern computer. What's the CPU usage like?

-Z3TA
-Z3TA+2
-Rapture
-LinPlug Spectral

So four instruments that are 20+ years old have been dead for a decade or more. Their sound can't possibly hold up to even freebies that are available today, can they? I've got a z3ta+ license but it's got to be at least 10 years since I even thought to install it. I never rated anything from LinPlug. A couple of their instruments were some of the very first VSTi I ever bought but they were very quickly surpassed by improvements in Orion's native generators. The LinPlug synths had horrible filters.
___________________________________________

I notice quite a few people listing four complex, do-anything synths. Don't you ever just want to do something quick and simple? I don't think I'd ever get anything done if those types of instruments were the only ones I had to work with. They are the kinds of things I'd normally only reach for as a last resort, when simpler things had failed me and then I'd probably be looking for presets, not making my own sounds.

Well, I explained that, you just don't comprehend certain things. I just wonder how people decide their "magic numbers" for these type of threads.
And it's not blind loyalty, I'll turn on anything that suddenly becomes overly time consuming for anything but playing/using the instrument itself. In however way I choose to use them. I have many more great usable instruments that the company has decided to not support anymore and in some ways, that's the best improvement they made. And the companies I won't currently deal with are because I've experienced that with them.
And to be honest, you're in a similar category. I may go back and read the rest of your post here if I'm caught up in a customer waiting room. Maybe not. TL;DR.
Most of your comments are only about the troll for interaction anyway.
I'm more apt to answer the OP than spend time in your circle.
Be well.

[Monsieur_FyP]

BTW, Alchemy, being almost 20 years old now, must be super-efficient on a modern computer. What's the CPU usage like?

Works fine on Apple Silicon chips (I know that's not your thing ).

[whassup]

Zebra 3, Zebra Legacy, Reaktor, Surge XT.

Wow, a list with a surprise.
Would you please give some thoughts on why Surge is in this your list?

[emef]

Aalto, Reaktor 6, Synthmaster 3, Synplant 2