WhiteLightning

Don't let the looks and age of this one fool you- there's a lot more to WhiteLightning than one might think at first glance. The large number of well-organized presets is one clue that the developer didn't just cobble this together in an hour and call it a day, and while tweaking the controls to roll your own might be a bit painful on the eyes after a while, it's still nice to see something slightly different from, and a bit more subtle than, the bog-standard ADSR/LFO arrangement in a VA synth.

Not relying on a gazillion waveforms or filter types to come up with interesting sounds, WhiteLightning proves that sometimes taking a slightly different approach to an old idea can yield satisfactory results.. now if only a talented GUI specialist could give it a badly needed makeover, it might end up a bit higher on people's radar. If you don't have a problem with Win x86-only, and you're willing to explore an older but well-made and creative take on the bread-and-butter VA, I strongly suggest giving WhiteLightning a try. The very dated GUI and 32-bit limitation kept my score from being higher.