Best Soft Synth

H

hollywoodending

New member
I'm a veteran at programming, but usually I only stick to making beats and nothing more. However, lately I've been wanting to add more sounds into my beats to make complete tracks. So far I've used a lot of the softsynths found native in cubase and reason, but I want to take the next step and actually buy a good 3rd party vst softsynth. So, my question to you guys is where should I start? What is a good all-around synth that is very high quality? I'm basically looking for a solid synth that I could use for years. thanks.
 
Pretty much anything from Native Instruments. I really love FM7. You would have never guessed a Yamaha FM synth could have made these types of sounds.

Arturia has some excellent sounding softsynths (CS-80V, Prophet V, Moog Modular V, Arp 2600V) which emulate some synth classics.

I recently purchased Korg's Legacy Collection - Digital Edition which emulates the original M1 and Wavestation, but with some added bonuses. You now get much more polyphony (up to 256 voices) and added features such as resonant filters which breathe new life into these synths. You also get every expansion card Korg ever released for both synths (including all T1/M1EX waveforms). The original KLC also does a good job re-creating the Korg MS-20 and PolySix as well as allowing you to combine the two into M1 style Combinations for some really fat sounds.
 
yeah, the korg legacy collection seemed worth looking at. I was also interested in the gmedia minimonsta or the m-tron, what do you think of those?


If I bought the legacy collection, do you think that would suffice for an all-around synth that I could use on various genres... I'm looking to produce both rock, hip hop, and electronica with this. Thanks.
 
For $100 the GForce ImpOscar can't be beat. It sounds great with low CPU comsumption and it goes WAY beyond the original obscure UK monosynth that it's modeled after and takes its name from. The original had what they called 'Duo' mode but the softsynth has up to 16 polyphonic voices.

I agree with brzilian (for once) about the Korg legacy collection but not the one he's talking about --- I have the one with the Wavestation and the Polysix and I love it.

My next purchase will be Native Instruments Absynth which is probably not one that I would recommend as your only soft synth because it's abstract and more abstract with not a piano or bass patch to be found. Well, that's not true -- you COULD create those, but then you'd be wasting a bunch of the power of Absynth.

Cakewalk's Dimension is still my recommendation for a good overall softsynth, and in my humble opinion you would be foolish to buy anything without at least giving this a look. Here's a link to the KVR page. Unfortunately Cakewalk doesn't make a demo available of this one, but at least you can see what it looks like.


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I was also interested in the gmedia minimonsta or the m-tron, what do you think of those?
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Sorry, I have no experience with them, but I assume they are decent coming from M-Audio.

If I bought the legacy collection, do you think that would suffice for an all-around synth that I could use on various genres... I'm looking to produce both rock, hip hop, and electronica with this. Thanks.
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For the most part, yes. The only weakness of KLC-DE would be piano sounds. The M1 piano patch was used to death in the 90's. Because it is such a trademark sound, people may consider it dated. Ignoring that, I have always loved the M1 piano patch because it does a killer job of cutting through a mix. My Motif and XP30 may have more realistic piano sounds, but they just don't have the presence of the M1.

Again, I strongly urge you to check out NI's FM7. They are running huge discounts on all their products this month because of their 10th anniversary. I paid $99 for FM7 at GC - normally, it goes for $200-250.
 
I was also interested in the gmedia minimonsta or the m-tron, what do you think of those?
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I love the gmedia stuff.

M-tron is a mellotron emulator so if your looking for a mellotron sound, thats it (including the tape rewind sound). Its a pretty good mellotron sound, but not too flexible or broad in its scope

Oddity is the Arp odyssey emultor. Again, if your looking for the arp sound, that what you want

Imposcar replicates the Oxford Oscar synth

Out of all of these, the Oddity has the most flexibility since it was the most programmable of all those listed

One other thing I would look at is the NI Xpress stuff. It includes the B4 (B3 organ) FM7 (DX7) and Pro 53 (Prophet 5) emulators for about $120. The plugs are stripped down versions of the full blown ones and only have a couple controls but there are tons of presets available for free
 
I have to agree that most all of Native instruments synths are of the best quality. I also have the korg legacy collection(and like it) and many other of the freebees out there. I would need to know what sounds you are mainly after. There is a nice rompler out there from a Korean company called Luxonix,just type in luxonix purity on your search engine. This company offers you a free tryout of their synth. The sounds are awesome,designed to compete with the Motif and others.Very low CPU load and very good sounds and only about 200 usd.
There seems to be better luck buying this product from the UK. Luxonix is having the same cultural /language communication problems that CME in China is having(did you see the weird video?).

Anyways, you could also opt for a software sampler like Kontakt 2. I will be using K2 exclusively in my studio. It imports anything it does a whole lot no other program does and what music you are into doesnt matter because K2 will play anything anyway you want it. If you own K2 and cant make good music it isnt the fault of K2!
 
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