Underrated/overlooked synths

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0degree wrote: Fri Feb 14, 2025 4:00 pm Audjoo Helix - holy shit, this thing sounds good! Anybody knows if it ever will get UI update or is it abandonware?
He added a soft waveshaper to the limiter in it not long ago, year or two maybe. It works fine on Windows 10. Idk about ui update or not.

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duplicate

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MachineClaw wrote: Fri Feb 14, 2025 3:54 pm Spectrasonics Omnisphere. Great synth, no demo, expensive and so doesn't get a lot of attention in Community. I love my copy of Omnisphere 2.5 keeps getting better, but not a lot of talk, tutorials, etc
Not a tutorial, but it’s a nice presentation by Mr. Persing
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=BypwhO0IDy0

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Most of Reason's synths.

Algoritm and Objekt are among the best in their class.

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nusound mind wrote: Fri Feb 14, 2025 10:06 pm
0degree wrote: Fri Feb 14, 2025 4:00 pm Audjoo Helix - holy shit, this thing sounds good! Anybody knows if it ever will get UI update or is it abandonware?
He added a soft waveshaper to the limiter in it not long ago, year or two maybe. It works fine on Windows 10. Idk about ui update or not.
Just purchased a license - what a nice little gem. Too bad UI is so small - I hope it will get bigger in the future
osiris wrote: Fri Feb 14, 2025 9:30 pm Found that on a backup disc. May have to install.
Definitely worth taking a look

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Daru925 wrote: Fri Feb 14, 2025 6:59 am The stock synths in our DAWs.
You win 🏆 🥳

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HOTF wrote: Fri Feb 14, 2025 3:18 pm Oh list time !! :) :)
But of course.

Ideally people could explain why their underlooked little gem is so good but listing easier.

Seconding DS Thorn. I ignored this for years as just bloatware via Komplete. I was so wrong. It's one of the best synths for soundscapes and atmospheres out there. And the glitch sequencer, while somewhat hard to tame (clicky as f**k), is almost too easy to have yield crazy shit. I just wish there was a dry/wet for the harmonic filter (which there very well could be and I simply haven't found it).

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swilow11 wrote: Fri Feb 14, 2025 10:52 pm I just wish there was a dry/wet for the harmonic filter (which there very well could be and I simply haven't found it).
Maybe there is a way using Thorn’s matrix settings? I’m not at my PC to check.
Last edited by Examigan on Sat Feb 15, 2025 12:53 am, edited 1 time in total.

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0degree wrote: Fri Feb 14, 2025 10:45 pm Just purchased a license - what a nice little gem. Too bad UI is so small - I hope it will get bigger in the future
I’m not sure they will update the UI, but you can try what Jonas mentions here:
viewtopic.php?t=389277

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Examigan wrote: Sat Feb 15, 2025 12:50 am
0degree wrote: Fri Feb 14, 2025 10:45 pm Just purchased a license - what a nice little gem. Too bad UI is so small - I hope it will get bigger in the future
I’m not sure they will update the UI, but you can try what Jonas mentions here:
viewtopic.php?t=389277
Interesting, will give it a try. I wonder if this also applies to fonts. Thanks

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This plugin has been flying under the radar for years. It has exactly the feature you need to make the music style.
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swilow11 wrote: Fri Feb 14, 2025 10:48 pm
Daru925 wrote: Fri Feb 14, 2025 6:59 am The stock synths in our DAWs.
You win 🏆 🥳
Depends on the DAW and upgrade level of it.

FL Studio All bundle, Logic Pro, Ableton Suite, Reason, Cubase (??) = Absolute gold.

Reaper = not so much.. :hihi:
"Wisdom is wisdom, regardless of the idiot who said it." -an idiot

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swilow11 wrote: Thu Feb 13, 2025 11:52 pmFor me, it's Tal Mod. Fantastic analogue sound, plenty of modulation, does hard sync, FM, ringmod, nice unison. MSEG, basic sequencer/arp, simple GUI which is easy to navigate, not too CPU heavy. It's my go to for basic analogue stuff, can do sharp cutting leads, squelchy acid, eerie pads, even pretty nice drums. Downsides are the useless filter saturation which drops volume significantly, ladder filter style bass stealing resonance, and the fx are average (but usable). It's not expensive too. Presets aren't great but it's so easy to program that this hardly matters. I use multiple instances every track. Honestly sounds better than stuff like Diva to me.
You don't think the downsides are more than enough for people to discount it? People rave about TAL synths, so I got my hands on TALpha when it was cheap and, honestly, I don't know what the fuss is about. It's not terrible but it's nothing special, either, so I tend to be skeptical when anyone starts raving about their stuff.
That's an insanely good deal!
cryophonik wrote: Sat Feb 15, 2025 2:26 amThis plugin[/url] has been flying under the radar for years. It has exactly the feature you need to make the music style.
And no-one will ever know because you're too f**king lazy to write its name.

Anyway, I can't believe anyone is daft enough to just list names, without explaining why they think they're underrated. Why bother posting at all if you're not going to give anyone any useful information to get them interested?
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BONES wrote: Sat Feb 15, 2025 6:37 am
swilow11 wrote: Thu Feb 13, 2025 11:52 pmFor me, it's Tal Mod. Fantastic analogue sound, plenty of modulation, does hard sync, FM, ringmod, nice unison. MSEG, basic sequencer/arp, simple GUI which is easy to navigate, not too CPU heavy. It's my go to for basic analogue stuff, can do sharp cutting leads, squelchy acid, eerie pads, even pretty nice drums. Downsides are the useless filter saturation which drops volume significantly, ladder filter style bass stealing resonance, and the fx are average (but usable). It's not expensive too. Presets aren't great but it's so easy to program that this hardly matters. I use multiple instances every track. Honestly sounds better than stuff like Diva to me.
You don't think the downsides are more than enough for people to discount it? People rave about TAL synths, so I got my hands on TALpha when it was cheap and, honestly, I don't know what the fuss is about. It's not terrible but it's nothing special, either, so I tend to be skeptical when anyone starts raving about their stuff.
Never used Talpha so no opinion. And yeah, could see people discounting Talmod based on some of the annoying features I mentioned, but for me, it's a trade off I'm willing to make. I've set up a Bitwig preset with assigned macros to compensate for the gain drops when using saturation or bandpass filter. Which is a hassle but to my ears, the sound quality is good enough for me to work with it.

I know you're not a fan of bass stealing resonant filters (who is?) so Talmod is probably not your cup of chai. For simple squelchy stuff, it's great though. I think it's probably overlooked because it's so simple and doesn't really do the 'exciting' multi engine stuff everyone seems to love these days. I would put it in a similar category to Hive- easy, simple, not a show off synth, overlooked but well worth checking out.

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MachineClaw wrote: Fri Feb 14, 2025 3:54 pm Spectrasonics Omnisphere. Great synth, no demo, expensive and so doesn't get a lot of attention in Community. I love my copy of Omnisphere 2.5 keeps getting better, but not a lot of talk, tutorials, etc
No tutorial ?... :)


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