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Synth and Software’s Top 10 Soft Synths
When diverse timbres are what you need, these virtual synthesizers are the cream of the crop.
Synth and Software has been publishing monthly Top 10 lists since April, and they’re almost surprisingly popular. We’ve had no shortage of ideas, ranging from Top 10 synthesists and synth soloists to Top 10 vintage synthesizers and Logic Pro X tips. This month’s top 10 is not a terribly original idea—you’ve certainly seen similar “listicles” on other websites—but it gives me an opportunity to share my recommendations about software I use all the time: virtual polyphonic synthesizers that run on computers.
All these synths are for both the macOS and Windows. All of them run as AU and VST plug-ins in most DAWs, and many run in Pro Tools, too. Four of them—Omnisphere, Pigments, Kontakt, and Falcon—can run standalone as well, without a DAW as host. That’s especially handy when you’re performing live or computer resources are limited.
Although companies like Arturia, Roland, and Korg make some terrific emulations of vintage instruments, you won’t find any emulations here. To stimulate your muse to the max, I’m recommending instruments that leverage the multitude of synthesis techniques that only software makes possible. I’ve listed them in alphabetical order by company name.
I chose these ten virtual instruments not only for their utility and quality of sounds, but also for their popularity. When you walk into a computer-based electronic music studio, they’re the ones you’ll most likely find in use. Most have been around awhile, and most are updated rather frequently. One thing they all have in common is that I can easily recommend them.
Arturia Pigments ($199)
With its colorful user interface, multiple synthesis techniques, and outstanding factory patch library, Pigments made a big splash when it first appeared in late 2018. A year later, the version 2.0 update added new capabilities and delivered even more unique timbres to work with. From Arturia—a French company that makes synthesizers and audio hardware and software instruments and effects—Pigments is their only software instrument that doesn’t emulate classic keyboards and synths. With twin sound engines, you can layer two types of synthesis in a single preset using virtual analog, wavetables, and sample playback.
Pigments’ sampling engine lets you load six samples and then map them or play them in sequence. Import your own samples and shape them with an assortment of granular parameters you can randomize within boundaries you define. Pigments’ wavetable synthesis lets you manipulate waveforms with FM, phase modulation, phase distortion, and wavefolding. Choose from nine filter types for two filters in series or parallel. You also get three envelopes with breakpoints, three LFOs, three function generators, three random generators, and the ability to combine modulation sources. Throw in MPE support, a 16-step sequencer and arpeggiator, and an effects section with 3 busses and 14 effects, and you’ll have a very capable platform for designing your own custom patch library.
Synth and Software’s Top 10 Soft Synths – NEXT
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KV331 SynthMaster ($99, on sale for $59)
If there’s one soft synth every electronic musician should own, it’s SynthMaster, from Turkish developers KV331. Dollar for dollar, its usability and versatility are unmatched. SynthMaster encompasses virtual analog, additive synthesis (with up to eight harmonics), physical modeling, vector synthesis, and wavetable synthesis that scans through as many as 256 waveshapes. It imports audio files as either single cycles, samples, or multisamples via drag and drop. In addition, SynthMaster’s audio input allows you to process external signals with the aid of a threshold trigger and an envelope follower.
Each SynthMaster voice comprises one or two layers. Each layer has two oscillators, two filters with continuously variable slope, and a host of modulators. Envelope generators are plentiful: four ADSRs, two multi-segment envelopes (with up to 16 stages), and two 2-dimensional envelopes (which are easier to demonstrate than explain). Each of the arpeggiator’s 32 steps has its own velocity, note length, and slide parameters. You can import MIDI patterns into the arpeggiator, too. SynthMaster’s generous modulation matrix has 64 slots for assigning 48 mod sources to hundreds of destinations.
Hundreds of included patches cover all the bases, and an impressive number of third-party expansion packs are available from KV331 at reasonable prices. If you have no interest in programming your own patches, though, SynthMaster Player ($29, currently on sale for just $14) lets you edit just enough parameters to tailor your performances. It comes with 1,800 patches and plays all the expansions, or you could get a free version with 550 patches. Also free, SynthMaster Player for iOS can import all the patches from your computer. SynthMaster boasts so many features at such a bargain price, you simply can’t go wrong with any version.
Synth and Software’s Top 10 Soft Synths – NEXT
LennarDigital Sylenth1 (139 €)
Sylenth1 is a virtual analog synth. It’s been popular worldwide for so many years that you’ve almost certainly heard it on countless songs and soundtracks. Of all the synths listed here, it’s easily the most straightforward to use. Sylenth1 doesn’t have dozens of filter types, seemingly infinite effects, or innumerable modulators like some of its competitors. However, it does sound fantastic, and it won’t tax your CPU. Its resizable, skeuomorphic GUI so closely resembles synth hardware that it’s fast and easy to learn and use. You can also select from a list of ten color schemes, or skins.
Standing out from Sylenth1’s more mundane features, its oscillator count may be unbeatable. To begin with, its maximum polyphony is 16 notes, and each note can play four virtual analog oscillators. Each oscillator plays as many as eight unison voices simultaneously. Multiplying 16 x 4 x 8, then, gives you a massive 512-voice sound. Sylenth1 also features two multimode filters with nonlinear saturation, four ADSRs, four LFOs, and seven types of effects,. Its arpeggiator/sequencer lets you use it as a modulation source. It ships with 6 banks of 128 presets, and plenty more are available.
Synth and Software’s Top 10 Soft Synths – NEXT
Native Instruments Kontakt ($399)
Kontakt is an an industry standard that belongs in every serious computer-based musician’s software stable. Running standalone or as a plug-in, it is top-of-the-heap for sample playback. The full version comes with a large and well-rounded library of electric, electronic, and acoustic instruments and voices of almost every description. Kontakt also hosts hundreds of sample libraries from Native Instruments and other soundware developers, opening the door to other soft synths that depend on it.
Using samples as raw material, Kontakt is exceptionally versatile for designing synthesized sounds. Although it’s marketed as a sampler rather than a synth, Kontakt is not a true sampler. That’s because you can’t record directly into it as you can with sampler hardware. To create your own sampled instruments, first you import files from an audio-recording application. Then you use Kontakt to create and play your creations from a MIDI controller or DAW.
Don’t want to build sampled instruments from scratch? Kontakt is the most popular vessel for third-party sample content. In fact, some instruments wouldn’t be possible without it. Depending on what libraries you’ll be using, you may not even need the full version. The free Kontakt Player plays about many third-party instruments for Kontakt. But the most cost-effective way to buy the full version is as part of a bundle. For just $200 more, for example, you could get Komplete 12, comprising Kontakt, Reaktor, and most other software instruments and effects from Native Instruments, along with tons of professional-grade content.
Synth and Software’s Top 10 Soft Synths – NEXT
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Reveal Sound Spire ($189)
Beyond just sounding good, much of what makes Spire stand out is that it delivers beyond what you may expect. For example, two independent filters have six modes, including emulations of filters from the Access Virus (Infecto), Roland TB303 (Acido), and Minimoog (Perfecto). Four envelope generators offer slope time and level parameters in addition to the usual ADSR. Each segment lets you choose from three curve types. Four LFOs give you an unusually broad selection of waveforms and the means to change their shapes further. Two unusual step sequencers called Steppers serve as additional modulation sources. You can copy and paste parameters between similar functions, too.
Spire is essentially an analog-modeling synth with four identical oscillators that Reveal describes as polymorphing. Choose from seven oscillator modes ranging from Classic to Vowel, with frequency- and amplitude-modulated modes among the choices. You can change waveform shapes continuously using knobs, but things get much more interesting when you use modulators in real time. Spire’s mod matrix has 15 slots, each accommodating two sources routed to four destinations. Additional features include microtuning, random drift for oscillator and LFO frequency, and a reasonably deep multi-effects section. Tons of extra content are available, too.
Synth and Software’s Top 10 Soft Synths – NEXT
Spectrasonics Omnisphere ($499)
Omnisphere is a class act all the way. Yes, it’s the most expensive software in this lineup, but most users will tell you it’s well worth every penny. For working studio musicians, it’s certainly the most popular soft synth. Omnisphere is among the most versatile because of its huge library of almost 15,000 first-rate sounds and the ease of modifying them and creating your own. Spectrasonics has enlisted the help of some of the most talented sound designers in the industry to create tons of timbres for every musical situation. Loads of third-party sounds are available, too.
Omnisphere’s proprietary sound engine (called STEAM) lets you choose from either factory or user samples or DSP-generated waveforms relying on techniques such as analog modeling, sample playback (even user samples), FM, waveshaping, and a variation on additive synthesis called Harmonia. Omnisphere’s Stack mode is a comprehensive approach to splits and layers that encourages multitimbral use onstage, too.
One particularly unique feature is hardware synth integration. This gives you hands-on control of Omnisphere by mapping its parameters to the controls on your Korg, Moog, Roland, or any of more than 60 other hardware synths. Additional features include breakpoint envelopes, racks of effects, seamless integration with other Spectrasonics software (especially the excellent Keyscape), and an exceptionally versatile polyphonic arpeggiator.
Synth and Software’s Top 10 Soft Synths – NEXT
u-he Zebra2 (199 €)
German software developer u-he makes some of my favorite synths, so choosing which to recommend was a difficult decision. Everything they make is excellent, but I’ve decided to go with Zebra2 for its versatility and popularity. It’s kind of a modular synth construction kit that stakes out its own paradigm. Clicking through Zebra’s generous collection of more than 500 timbres loads the custom-made synthesizers they spring from. That gives you a chance to check out the handiwork of some of the world’s finest synth programmers and sound designers.
When you build a synth from scratch, you’re presented with a grid containing three row of a dozen blocks. Clicking on any of these blocks summons a menu for selecting the modules you want in your synth. As you choose from among oscillators, filters with 23 modes, and other components, audio modules appear on the left and modulators on the right. You get four LFOs per voice as well as two global LFOs, and you arrange effects on a smaller grid.
As a bonus, Zebra2 comes with Zebralette, which is also available as a free download. You may be surprised at the power and sound of Zebralette, despite its single oscillator and its lack of a virtual analog filter. Grab it now, and check out u-he’s other great synths while you’re at it.
Synth and Software’s Top 10 Soft Synths – NEXT
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UVI Falcon ($349)
If you’ve never tried Falcon, you’ve missed a singularly multifaceted, multitimbral synthesizer that’s also a full-featured sample player. Falcon’s deep architecture allows for sophisticated patches encompassing additive, virtual analog, 4-operator FM, wavetable, physical modeling, and numerous variations on sample playback with an onboard sample editor. It can even import samples to resynthesize as wavetables.
Create patches by clicking and dragging to configure elements such as oscillators, effects, event processors, and modulations. Combine different sound engines and control them with the same modulators in a single program. Falcon’s multitude of filter types includes a morphing vowel filter and a ladder filter with 37 response curves. Comprehensive modulation options include many envelope types, from a pattern sequencer with up to 128 steps to a Drunk module that generates random values within limits you define.
Although Falcon’s large collection of excellent factory patches doesn’t include many traditional instruments, it can load and play any sample library in UVI’s extensive catalog. Lots of synthesized add-ons are available, too. Whatever you want to do with a synthesizer, Falcon can probably do it, even if you don’t learn its scripting language. Along with its extraordinary versatility comes potential complexity, though. It’s so deep and different, you may face a challenging learning curve if you hope to master it. If you do, though, you’ll never regret it.
Synth and Software’s Top 10 Soft Synths – NEXT
Vengeance Sound VPS Avenger ($220)
If you’re looking for sonic inspiration, VPS Avenger will never let you down. Harnessing virtual analog, wavetable synthesis, and sample playback with granular capabilities, this impressive plug-in is a serious synth for serious synthesists. Avenger comes with more than 900 factory patches encompassing a broad variety of musical genres. If you want more, you’ll find lots of expansion packs available for purchase on Vengeance Sound’s website. Its greatest strength, however, is that it’s such a capable platform for programming your own patches.
Avenger features loads of everything you want, including eight oscillators, four filters with 47 types, eight arpeggiators, and eight step sequencers. It comes with hundreds of wavetables, and you can import your own, too. It also has a built-in drum machine with 168 drum kits and 168 drum sequences. Four LFOs offer 17 waveforms, and you can layer 218 samples of noises and attacks with other sounds. Speaking of layering, you can stack multisamples and build four-note chords you play with a single key. Another standout feature is drag-and-drop modulation routing for controlling almost any destination with any source. One thing’s for sure: you’ll never get bored with VPS Avenger.
Synth and Software’s Top 10 Soft Synths – NEXT
Xfer Records Serum ($189)
Serum is another of the world’s most popular synth plug-ins, largely because of the quality and variety of its sounds and its intuitive workflow. It makes wavetable synthesis easy to use and understand by giving great visual feedback when you change harmonic spectra either manually or with modulators. Serum can import audio files and convert them to wavetables, too.
Serum also features a comprehensive editor to create your own wavetable sets and modify existing ones. That may explain why so many third-party presets and wavetables are available (many directly from Xfer Records) to supplement more than 450 presets and 144 wavetables that are included. With 89 filter types, LFOs with breakpoints, support for MPE, and an effects rack that handles 10 simultaneous effects in any order, Serum offers outstanding flexibility in a pro-level instrument. Download a demo version and try it for yourself.
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And check out Synth and Software’s Top 10 Synthesists