Sonigen Modular

This one may very well be among the best 2 or 3 free synths out there, and I include beasts like u-he Tyrell N6 or synth1.

It's definitely the best synth you've never heard of anyway. It's a truely modular synth, that you program by adding blocks and patching them with cables. There are a few dozens of blocks. The interface is simple and clear, but the controls can be small if you have a high definition monitor.

From there, it's only positives:

+ the sound is phenomenal, up there with the best free AND commercial soft synths. As for free synths, I think it beats all the others I've tried hands down, .

+ despite this it's light in CPU. That's because the engine has been carefuly crafted in assembly language, .

+ it comes with a great presets browser and an amazing library of presets, some of the best pads I've heard.

+ despite being beta, it's stable enough that I've never experiences any crash. Make sure to always use a limiter after it though, as being a true modular, it can easily spit out super loud sounds.

- it can be a bit daunting at first.

What's not to like, really ? This one was supposed to be commercial as it has commercial quality, but somehow never did. The author was kind enough to offer it as a freeware. Thank you .