The Favorite 2016 Softsynth Is...

[4damind]

I think it will be one of the not yet released synth (Avanger or Predator2)

[hivkorn]

okay... RePro-1 wins my synth of the year vote.

It is amazingly good sounding. Even with extreme audio rate modulation, it never gets a harsh tone like digital usually gets when pushed out of its comfort zone.

Also, the FX are excellent... something outside the usual... creative with top notch sound quality. The sequencer is big and bright and fun.

GUI is clear and easy on the eyes, has a bit of enjoyable eye candy in the tweaks page while not being in the way. RePro-1 is all around innovative, freshly conceived and with exceptional sound quality.

I've guessed you for a paid U-he shill, but this is pretty thick even from such.

1) sound is nothing special, compared to similar Blocks patch it sounds weak, thin and flat without the FX

2) FX are basic, CPU intensive and have poor UX due to naive cartoon GUIs, easily replaced by better FX plugins

3) the sequencer has 0 usability, yes it takes huge amounts of space (seriously, a monosynth on two pages?) but the actual controls you interact with are tiny and fiddly- it does everything but encourage improvisation

4) GUI is unclear due to mimicking some hardware with no colour coding or any other modern enhancements

5) it's a replica, which by definition is the antithesis of innovation- it contains nothing worthy of the word innovation. First replicas were made over 15 years ago, nothing fresh there either. Sound quality is a disappointment and certainly does not live up to the hype.

It's achievement is sounding similar to a budget monosynth from early 80's, in every other department it fails miserably, making it easily the worst synth by U-he ever.

it is BETA !

Best softsynth ?

Softube Modular

[Ingonator]

Those are synths that were released this year and that i currently use/own:

- Tone2 Icarus
- Synapse Audio The Legend
- U-He Repro-1 (currently public beta but already purchased)
- VPS Avenger (currently in Beta)
- Arturia Synclavier V
- Xils Lab StiX (drum synth)

With those alone (besides the bunch of others io got here) it should be possible to do a lot of tracks or spend a lot of time with doing sound design.

I love all of those but also as they are mostly really different it is hard for me to choose one that would be synth of the year. Anyway somehow Icarus from those is outstanding for me and is difficult to rpelace by other synths i own.

[recursive one]

Rapid for me

Also high hopes for Adam Szabo's Viper (iirc the release is planned in December)

[sacer]

is cypher2 arriving this year ?

[fluffy_little_something]

I've guessed you for a paid U-he shill, but this is pretty thick even from such.

1) sound is nothing special, compared to similar Blocks patch it sounds weak, thin and flat without the FX

2) FX are basic, CPU intensive and have poor UX due to naive cartoon GUIs, easily replaced by better FX plugins

3) the sequencer has 0 usability, yes it takes huge amounts of space (seriously, a monosynth on two pages?) but the actual controls you interact with are tiny and fiddly- it does everything but encourage improvisation

4) GUI is unclear due to mimicking some hardware with no colour coding or any other modern enhancements

5) it's a replica, which by definition is the antithesis of innovation- it contains nothing worthy of the word innovation. First replicas were made over 15 years ago, nothing fresh there either. Sound quality is a disappointment and certainly does not live up to the hype.

It's achievement is sounding similar to a budget monosynth from early 80's, in every other department it fails miserably, making it easily the worst synth by U-he ever.

That's a bit harsh, and I am anything but a U-he fan I even like the GUI, unlike with other U-he synths. Some of the effects sound very good and interesting.
It is the first U-he synth that seems inviting to me, maybe because I like its old-skool appearance.
The sound is pretty good. Most synths sound worse when not using effects. I don't know the hardware, but I assume the emulation pretty much nails it in terms of sound character and quality. So I am not sure what you were expecting, frankly.

[chk071]

I've guessed you for a paid U-he shill, but this is pretty thick even from such.

We don't pay for opinion.

TBH, i wouldn't expect that from many companies anyway, actually from the least, if even. I don't know where that "shill" thing hails from, IMO, it's an imagination by people who can't understand that there's people who are excited about certain products. Or that there are people who are even personally involved with, or in the company, thus are a bit biased, or, simply, convinced by the prdoucts.

That said, i think .jon is totally entitled to his opinion too. I wasn't too impressed with Repro-1 either, but i rather think that the Prophet synths are not my cup of tea in general anyway. I never really listened to a sound demo of one where i was like "WOW, that's the sh**!". But, generally, i do also think that Native Instruments does one hell of a job with analog modelling, Monark is pretty great, as is the latest Reaktor stuff. At the very least, there's some healthy competition in that regard, not the monoculture that some people, especially here, want to see in that area.

[Lotuzia]

It's not released yet

Innovative : Reaktor 6, Synclavier V and of course StiX (Biased)

[fluffy_little_something]

You Xils shill

By the way, how is Xils even pronounced correctly? ^^

[dune_rave]

Predator 2 .....

[fluffy_little_something]

Predator 2 .....

Which time machine plugin do you use?

[igoramos]

no doubt for me for 2016 is ArcSyn

[thomekk]

Sinnah

[.jon]

I've guessed you for a paid U-he shill, but this is pretty thick even from such.

We don't pay for opinion.

TBH, i wouldn't expect that from many companies anyway, actually from the least, if even. I don't know where that "shill" thing hails from, IMO, it's an imagination by people who can't understand that there's people who are excited about certain products. Or that there are people who are even personally involved with, or in the company, thus are a bit biased, or, simply, convinced by the prdoucts.

That said, i think .jon is totally entitled to his opinion too. I wasn't too impressed with Repro-1 either, but i rather think that the Prophet synths are not my cup of tea in general anyway. I never really listened to a sound demo of one where i was like "WOW, that's the sh**!". But, generally, i do also think that Native Instruments does one hell of a job with analog modelling, Monark is pretty great, as is the latest Reaktor stuff. At the very least, there's some healthy competition in that regard, not the monoculture that some people, especially here, want to see in that area.

The shill accusation was triggered by "innovation" which is completely dishonest bullshit when talking about a basic emulation. It's clearly not something anyone would claim, unless it reads in his/her/bots astroturfing assignment brief.

My opinion of the synth is just my heavily biased opinion (I'm passionate about the topic of emulations, they are the bane of the industry) and I don't expect many to agree with my assessment of Repro-1, it was mostly provoked by the blatant commercial "user post" by a paid shill.

[foosnark]

I'll stick with ArcSyn here. Form is fun but I keep forgetting I even have it.

Repro-1 is quite an achievement and gets a lot of respect from me, I'm just not in the market for what it does.