In my opinion, you are focusing too much on the numbers. Why three? Maybe you will need five? The idea is to find what works for you specifically, not to stick to some arbitrary number.

I would suggest to start with just one or two synths and work your way up, i.e., buy more stuff only when you are unable to do something specific with the tools you already have. That way, you can learn what are the "niches" for the VSTs you have and never feel paralysed.

Personally, I could live with just Diva and Thorn, because I use synths mostly for pads and arps.

 

Last edited: May 3, 2022

you can "delete" them by deactivating them in the plugin manager so they dont show up in your plugins list... or make plugin "playlists" like I do for different go to plugins instead of the never ending scrolling I have to go thru to grab something I use all the time

 

The original # of 3, this is the kind of advice someone gets from the usual sources about Writers Block, ad infinitum. Because all that person has to offer is a few platitudes on the subject which they feel they can cleverly summarize like they are writing up a cute blog article for Goop or whatever other cute consumer outlet.

It's coded language for "You don't know this music stuff very well, do you?". The best one is "Use Your Ears". (this might as well say F you) But at the same time, a list of people's go-to plugins really can't hurt either.

 

Turns out I'm not the only oldie here! I remember when I wanted HQ Orchestral (as it was also known as, once upon a time)l so badly that I snuck it by downloading separate 1.44mb zip files at work (during office hours on a company system) and storing them on 3.5 floppy disk until I could get them home, extract it fully and then and load it up into my Cakewalk software!

Good times ... Good times!
Still one of the nicest full strings lines and best sounding french horns out there!

 

Omnisphere, Diva, Zebra.

 

@ BEAT16 - I produce ambient music, which is interesting given my rock/reggae/ska background. Because the music I do has no focus on drums, rudimentary percussion will suffice. Same for bass. A lot of good ones exist in many synths but I lean towards plucks, pads, arpeggiators, keys and special effects for my bread and butter. My three effect units would be Adaptr Sculpt, Valhalla Shimmer Verb and Valhalla delay. I'm actually ok with the mastering, mixing and other effect plugins in Cubase 12.

 

Omnisphere1, Alchemy, Absynth5. STW Audio Reflex Pro, Jam Origin Midi Guitar2, Ozone5.

 

Last edited: May 4, 2022

Proooooooobably Diva, Omnisphere and CS80V.

 

Nexus, Nexus 2, and Nexus 3.

 

3 synth and 3 fx ?? too much stuff
I can produce an entire album just with Diva, I don't need other synths nor any effects

 

Could probably just do with Serum on it's own. Since I have been granted 2 more wishes, however, let's also go with Obsession and Diva.

 

Basically I would need these: a polysynth, a monosynth and a sampler. So let's go with Zebra 2, Monark, and Kontakt. I could substitute the synths with a modular, so maybe the mono would be either Reaktor or Voltage modular.

For FX I normally approach it like this: I need 2 reverbs, a short dense one and a long spacey one, so say Vintageverb and then either Lexicon RandomHall or Audio Damage Eos2. I usually do with 2 compressors as well, a fast one for individual tracks and a slow one for busses, say Rough Rider and Shadow Hills.

I'm exceeding the limits here but for modulation give me a flanger, anytime, this would be Flair these days.

But the thing is, whatever tools you pick, you need to learn them, limitations or not.

 

Synths: Vital (and one or two fingers lol):

(The drums in some of these sequences are also from Vital, one single instance)

Then Synth1 and Obxd.

 

Last edited: May 4, 2022

Phaseplant, Avenger, Serum

 

Its a great move @OP
limiting yourself is a great move. Makes you focus on the important bits.
for some(?) it makes them even more creative with limits in place. i do.

my softsynth choice would be
Serum, Vital, and Diva ...or Omniphere depends on what sort of music

regarding fx tools, cheery audio's delayunit Stardust 201 is to my surpprise, VERY nice sounding. highly recommended everyone to atleast test it out.

 

Outer Space is the best 201 emulation IME, and it's on sale today because of it being star-wars-day

 

Diva, Spire, Serum

But 3 fx isn't going to work for me. I need at least: reverb, delay, saturation, filter, eq, few compressors, limiter, maximizer, loudness tools and so on.. With 10 fx i'd barely manage.
OK, f*ck mastering, i'll play along..

Timeless 3, R4, Trash 2

 

Last edited: May 4, 2022

OB-E, Ample Sound (Guitar X), Modo Bass, EZ Drummer.

Vanguard, Nexus1, Gladiator, Blue2

And if I can't achieve what I need with the above I may reach for Dune, Diva, Serum, Spire, Falcon, OBE-2, Wavestate, Triton, Massive, DSP56300 Emu with Virus, Sylenth1, Massive, and maybe Omnisphere.

All the above synths would be replaced with EzSynth if Toontrack were to develops it.

 

The reason why I mentioned Analog Lab as opposed to other people who mentioned Pigments is because pigments and the whole V Collection are in Analog Lab, and with the V.R expansion pack the Lab contains 26,000 presets.

I didn't mention Kontakt because I don't consider that a synth.