VST Synths you purchased that were very disappointing

[dandezebra]

Sample Tank 4 - pre-ordered. Never worked.
Got a refund. Have the cheaper version now. Maybe I'll install it so I can use SampleTron and SampleMoog.

Air products. Love some but unusable in current GUI state. Years of promises have put a bad taste in my mouth.

[clipnotic]

Ah, makes sense. Compared to hardware, there are quite a few disappointing plugins. Still, some of the synths you listed are the bee's knees, even when compared to hardware. IMHO of course...

It seems you are "teachable". If you go on like that, perhaps the day will come ...

Therefore I'll give you a lesson for free about the history of buying crap!

As that "VSTs Boom" started many years ago, every "wannabe programer" thought, it's enough to create a nice gui and invest in a big marketing. And at this time that worked, because for ordinary 199€/$ you got a "full" synth! And compared to hardware at that time, that was very cheap. Therefore I bought almost everything, but most of that VST synths from that time sounded thin and the filters were terrible, you had to layer everything and so on. Of course, some synths from that time were and still are great, but the most were shit!

At the same time more and more samples provider meant, they must have their own VST plugin, instead of sell only good multisamples. The best software sampler was and still is a good DAW! But if you wanted that "ultimate" sample collections, you had to buy endless VSTs with endless different copyright protection shit and bugs, that killed your system and so on.

Because "wannabe programmers" are not really good programmers, often the support was shit, too. If you told them about bugs and problems, you mostly got arrogant answers like "it's your DAW", "it's your PC system" bla bla bla.

But now we have 2020 and there are some really good plugins available and therefore hardware is not necessary anymore, too. And if you have a good system with many VSTs running without problems, you can easily compare, if a VST was programed by a "wannabe programer" or are really great programer! It's like my bad "wannabe english", I can only give this away for free!

[Muziksculp]

For me it's the Arturia V-Collection 6 , never liked the way their synths sound. I feel it is more quantity/variety, and GUI design, but they all sound meh..

I have not bothered using Pigments yet, although there is a bit of a buzz about this one. I also used their Farfisa Organ a little bit for pads, but other than that not much in it for me.

Also Xils Lab's Poly KBII, V+, and Oxium I never bother using them. Although I love their Poly-M Synth, it has a lot of personality, and sounds very fat, great for brassy leads, and some interesting Pads, and Basses.

[Forgotten]

every time I click on the plugin window it goes entirely black and I have to click on it a second time to get it to display again. I mean every time I click on it...

Well apparently only every second time then...

Weird error! The dev is usually very responsive on their own forum, maybe he can address this bug?

Just for shits and giggles I thought I'd check - Ralph hasn't responded in the MacOS beta thread for 4.5 months now, but in that time he has been responding in other threads. I kind of feel he's abandoned the MacOS version, bugs and all.

[V0RT3X]

Lion because for some reason it won't let me use the preset manager.

I want to like it, but right now it's just buggy.

[U-o]

Harmor, Alchemy and Dune

[Russell Grand]

Synthmaster here. Both Synthmaster 2.9 and Synthmaster One are riddled with bugs, and the unison detune isn't great either. I have found way too many different bugs and flaws with both of those synths. KV331 doesn't seem to pay attention to their support forum here either.

I agree with you about Synthmaster but I love Synthmaster One; I haven't noticed any bugs in SM One yet, though, so...

If you don't mind me asking, are you on Mac or Win?

Mac

That might explain it.

[Russell Grand]

Ah, makes sense. Compared to hardware, there are quite a few disappointing plugins. Still, some of the synths you listed are the bee's knees, even when compared to hardware. IMHO of course...

It seems you are "teachable". If you go on like that, perhaps the day will come ...

Therefore I'll give you a lesson for free about the history of buying crap!

As that "VSTs Boom" started many years ago, every "wannabe programer" thought, it's enough to create a nice gui and invest in a big marketing. And at this time that worked, because for ordinary 199€/$ you got a "full" synth! And compared to hardware at that time, that was very cheap. Therefore I bought almost everything, but most of that VST synths from that time sounded thin and the filters were terrible, you had to layer everything and so on. Of course, some synths from that time were and still are great, but the most were shit!

At the same time more and more samples provider meant, they must have their own VST plugin, instead of sell only good multisamples. The best software sampler was and still is a good DAW! But if you wanted that "ultimate" sample collections, you had to buy endless VSTs with endless different copyright shit and bugs, that killed your system and so on.

Because "wannabe programmers" are not really good programmers, often the support was shit, too. If you told them about bugs and problems, you mostly got arrogant answers like "it's your DAW", "it's your PC system" bla bla bla.

But now we have 2020 and there are some really good plugins available and therefore hardware is not necessary anymore, too. And if you have a good system with many VSTs running without problems, you can easily compare, if a VST was programed by a "wannabe programer" or are really great programer! It's like my bad "wannabe english", I can only give this away for free!

Good post, clip. I understand more where you're coming from when you say you're disappointed with so many VST synths.

[Tj Shredder]

A lot of synths listed here and I own I don't mind at all. A lot of them even when not used too much have at least a set of presets which are worth it...
The one big disappointment I have has not been mentioned yet though: Initial Audios Sektor. They advertised it as MPE compatible, it doesn't work as MPE, they constantly ignore my bug reports. Now they sell it for prices that make it impossible to sell my license...

[claudedefaren]

...

[LeVzi]

I have loads of VST's some are great, others are not so great, but they all have something to offer.

But if I had to put my finger on one I am disappointed with more than others, that would be Serum.

I'm constantly suprised at the CPU cost to get a sound, it has amazing modulation and sculpting options, but even for something basic comes a mega high CPU cost, it just seems like such a badly coded plugin in terms of optimizing. 1 osc supersaw with minimal voices 20-30% in serum, same thing in Sylenth 1-2% , how does that work ?

[boriskarloff]

I'm constantly suprised at the CPU cost to get a sound, it has amazing modulation and sculpting options, but even for something basic comes a mega high CPU cost, it just seems like such a badly coded plugin in terms of optimizing. 1 osc supersaw with minimal voices 20-30% in serum, same thing in Sylenth 1-2% , how does that work ?

Yes, this. And the same situation is with Pigments. Great modulation concept, perfect granular synthesis but CPU hungry as hell. Even with basic saw or bass sample and some unison is very demanding.

[nachenko]

Iris 2.

But what pisses me most of Iris is that, as other people said, it could be a great synth. The main concept and the core sound engine are actually very good, but the rest of it is poorly executed.

Iris 2 was a great concept developed by a company that did not fully believe in it.

Now I have Pigments 2, where I can combine sample playing, granular and synthesis in one place. Not the same, but leaves almost no use for Iris to me.

[Russell Grand]

Synthmaster here. Both Synthmaster 2.9 and Synthmaster One are riddled with bugs, and the unison detune isn't great either. I have found way too many different bugs and flaws with both of those synths. KV331 doesn't seem to pay attention to their support forum here either.

I agree with you about Synthmaster but I love Synthmaster One; I haven't noticed any bugs in SM One yet, though, so...

If you don't mind me asking, are you on Mac or Win?

Mac

That might explain it.

What do you mean?

I just meant that perhaps the reason Synthmaster and Synthmaster One are buggy for you is because you're on a Mac. Kinda like how (based on what I've read on forums) the Windows version of FL Studio seems to be less buggy than the Mac version.

This is obviously just speculation on my part though.

[Howgs]

Can attest of the following bugs on SynthMasterOne (running the latest version on Windows 10) :
- Load a new preset. Load Lo-Fi in the FX section. When you move the Mix or the S&H Interval knob, the curve display doesn't update correctly.
- Load a new preset. Click on the Arpeggiator button (bottom-left). Click the magnifying glass on the right of the arpeggiator window. Click the browse button up top. Close the large arpeggiator display. Click the synth button up top. UI is gone !
These are only GUI bugs though !