so no favourite then?

 

I think Kniforum is one of the most overrated overhyped synth that came out in recent years. GUI is horribly small and cluttered which may work in a physical world but not on-screen. Most of the presets are horrible and completely unusable in current modern music. I bought it on sale as well and was like, wow that's a bullshit synth right there. Same goes for bx Oberhausen. On the over hand there's DS Thorn which nobody cares about which is actually a super useful and easy to operate.

 

Last edited: Mar 13, 2022

where do you hear hype about it? I never even see it mentioned. Meanwhile, Thorn is already on Beat16's list. I am trying to think of others he may have missed.

 

Or too many favorites . Interesting thing, I like the sound of Z3ta 1, but always uninstall it just because I find the workflow terrible: too many tabs and clicking to choose things (at least for me, it kills any joy or fun in designing a sound). And too small for today standards, too.

 

Last edited: Mar 13, 2022

I am a sound desigener and have made all these presets:

Sonic Sirius - 199 Synthesizer Soundsets from 2010 to 2021 - Free
https://audiosex.pro/threads/sonic-sirius-199-synthesizer-soundsets-from-2010-to-2021-free.61484/

 

And a very generous and talented one!

 

Another one that I always open when looking to design basic analog sounds is the free OBxd. Love it!

 

Few good freebies
https://plugins4free.com/plugin/2816/
https://plugins4free.com/plugin/1357/
https://plugins4free.com/plugin/2610/
https://plugins4free.com/plugin/2378/
https://plugins4free.com/plugin/2181/

 

Amaranth Audio - Cycle is a category of its own. Sadly seems abandoned...

 

I have eaten 20 different chocolate bars but my favourite is the classic Cadburys Dairy Milk.

 

Yeah, Avenger is a beast. But in my opinion it's GUI os too overhelming, I think it would be better to have the basic things in a more streamlined interface and some more advanced stuff in a second tab. Another good thing to consider is that when you buy (or get) a Avenger expansion you get not only new presets, but a new set of samples and wavetables to expand your sound design arsenal, which is pretty cool imo.

But answering the op question, I would choose Serum all the way, it's almost perfect. The only thing I wish they made is adding a nice set of "analog" non linear filters to it and it would be perfect. Maybe improving the sampler would be cool as well but then I might be asking too much, lol.

 

Viper, Europa, Rapid, Avenger, Retroloque, z3ta+, Invader 2, Vital, Back in time, HY,Poly, Zenith Beta3, Surge XT, Discovery 2

 

Interesting your mentioning Dune 1 instead of 2 or 3.

 

Youtube, as usual. There was a buzz about it 2 years ago since the hardware costs about 20k. I know that Thorn is in Beat16's list already. I wanted to give it a co-sign as an example for a good synth from PA for sound design.

Most people here are refering to sound desing in regards to music production. But when I speak about sound design, I am referring to designing synthesized sounds for visuals (moving objects on a screen) which requires a different approach, where the sound can give weight to an object or describe speed or direction of an object or to support layered sampled sounds, etc and where timing has to be frame perfect. So having a synth where assigning parameters for modulaton is super quick, intuitive and the visual feedback from an Envelope/LFO is super helpful. And in this regard I haven't come across anything better than Serum yet I would invest money in.

Another one to mention in regards to sound design would be iZotope Iris 2, since it's based on spectral synthesis of samples – it's like using Izotope RX as a synthesizer. It can create sounds just by accident you wouldn't imagine when using trditional subtractive synthesis.

 

Never heard of it. But one probably shouldn't invest in a product, when you find statements like "Planned for Q2 2014" on the products page. :D

 

Last edited: Mar 14, 2022

I feel the same about many new versions of many plugs: sometimes the older ones just do the job in a simpler, more intuitive, more enjoyable way.

 

Adam Szabo - JP6K VSTi (32 Bit) jBridge
AlgoMusic - Enceladus VSTi (32 Bit) jBridge
AlgoMusic - M42 VSTi (32 Bit) jBridge
Analog To Digital - Supersaw Plus VSTi (32 Bit) jBridge
Buzzroom - Lallapallooza lite VSTi (32 Bit) jBridge
Cakewalk - Session Drummer 3 VSTi (32 Bit) jBridge
Cakewalk - Triangle II VSTi (32 Bit) jBridge
CeloX - MegaCeloX VSTi (32 Bit) jBridge
ConcreteFX - Kubik VSTi (32 Bit) jBridge
Contralogic - Pterosaur VSTi (32 Bit) jBridge
Electrostudio - Six Moon June VST 32 Bit) jBridge
Groovecube - Exciton v2.0.1 VSTi (32 Bit) jBridge
H.G. Fortune - Lazy Percumat VSTi (32 Bit) jBridge
H.G. Fortune - ProtoPlasm 21 VSTi (32 Bit) jBridge
H.G. Fortune - STS-17 VSTi (32 Bit) jBridge
H.G. Fortune - STS-21 VSTi (32 Bit) jBridge
H.G. Fortune - STS-33 VSTi (32 Bit) jBridge
H.G. Fortune - Swamp XT VSTi (32 Bit) jBridge
H.G. Fortune - X-WoF 4 VSTi (32 Bit) jBridge
iloyd - iloSynth VSTi (32 Bit) jBridge
Kiesel Software - Helga VSTi - 32 Bit
LinPlug - CRX4 VSTi - jBridge - 32 Bit
LinPlug - Rob Papen - Albino 2 VSTi - jBridge - 32 Bit
Luxonix - Purity VSTi (32 Bit) jBridge
Maxx Claster - Toxic III VSTi (32 Bit) jBridge
Mesa+ - Add v1.21 VSTi (32 Bits) jBridge
MHC - Extreme VSTi (32 Bit) jBridge
MHC Synthesizers and Effects - Industrial Tones VSTi (32 Bit) jBridge
MiniSoftmusik - UniRetroPro v 2.5 VSTi (32 Bit) jBridge
Native Instruments - Carbon VSTi - jBridge - 32 Bit
Native Instruments - FM7 VSTi (32 Bit) jBridge
nB Audio - Daedalus VSTi (32 Bit) jBridge
ProSounds - PS-1 Performance Synthesizer v1.2 VSTi (32 Bit) jBridge
reFX - Vanguard VSTi (32 Bit) jBridge
RGC Audio - Pentagon VSTi (32 Bit) jBridge
SoftPlug.com - Adventus VSTi (32 Bit) jBridge
Steinberg - Dcota v1.0.1 VSTi (32 Bit) jBridge
Steinberg - Wizoo - Xphraze v1.2 VSTi (32 Bit) jBridge
Synthepolis - nrg-A VSTi (32 Bit) jBridge
TerraTec - Komplexer VSTi (32 Bit) jBridge
TubeOhm - Pure-D16-24 Rack VSTi (32 Bit) jBridge
U-HE - Zebra Computer Music VSTi (32 Bit) jBridge
Ummet Ozcan - Genesis Computer Music VSTi (32 Bit) jBridge
Ummet Ozcan - Genesis Pro v1.0.3 VSTi (32 Bit) jBridge
VirSyn - Tera 3 VSTi (32 Bit) jBridge
WayOutWare - TimeWarp2600 VSTi (32 Bit) jBridge
White Noise Audio Software - Zero Vector VSTi (32 Bit) jBridge
Wizoo - Darbuka VSTi (32 Bit) jBridge
Wusik - EVE 3 v3.0.4 VSTi (32 Bit) jBridge