Sytrus

THIS SYNTH NEEDS A SEQUEL.

This is a super old plugin that has definitely stood the test of time. This plugin has a high skill ceiling due to it's many features and poor outdated UI, but sounds crystal clear and is still very useful for producing just about anything a producer of today would want. I still use Sytrus alongside with newer VSTs such as Serum/Pigments, and will continue doing so as this synth is unique in the way it produces sounds. I really hope we get a Sytrus 2 one day that fixes all the outdated problems Sytrus currently has.

This synth has a fixed modulation setup that cannot be altered, and can be viewed by one of the icons in the top right corner. First a waveshape is generated additively through an Oscillator's wave editor. You can choose between analog sine/tri/square waves, and then edit those waves by shaping them with the tools provided. The real unique and amazing part of Sytrus is that you can then add non-Sine harmonics based on the waveshape you created. You can even wave-edit a 4 harmonic oscillator and then "convert to sine-harmonics" to further edit the spectrum, however this process becomes laggy with more than 4 harmonics (imagine if Sytrus 2 allowed for endless harmonic edits). No other additive synth I've seen can do this while ALSO being able to FM/RM between the 6 oscillators. After FM/RM, you can further edit the sound through 3 subtractive filter oscillators which are each equiped with a powerful editable Waveshaper. Unfortunately the modulation ends with filters and FX, so you cannot FM a filtered wave (FM8 and most other FM synths can do this). The FX are limited to a metallic reverb, a decent 3 layer delay, and a decent chorus. I personally don't care for VST fx as I usually use other fx anyways, but others might find this limitation a problem for sound design.

Sytrus really needs an update, after 10 more years this plugin probably should deserve 4 stars instead of 5. For now it certainly deserves 5 stars.