I have to say I have a few favs, but I come back to Omnisphere time after time, mostly because of the enormous amount of Arp presets and the Spectrasonics Groove lock feature... nothing quite like having Stylus RMX, Omnisphere and Trilian Groove locked to the same beat in my humble opinion.

:dancing:

 

yep I feel the same, as i also have the 3 of them ...they are my staple diet so to speak =)

but overall I guess kontakt is the greatest of all...but it doesnt really qualify s a vsti does it? it's a sampler ... anyway it has so many good/great and diverse banks that I use it almost all the time

 

Sometimes I wish Kontakt had an 'other' simplified version layout in the effects section, and was more pleasing to look at, I think it tends to be overly complex, and the colors used in the UI of the effects section, or 'under the hood' honestly make me want to close it.

Sad really, because it is a very powerful sampler but graphically, for me at least, a bit of a turn off... especially when u consider that the NI libraries are so well designed.

 

I have so many faves. I suppose Kontakt is cool, love to use drum samples from Kontakt to live. Also Rob Papen stuff is very good. And FXpansion DCAM synth squad a fave. Oh and Massive, i could go on for a while *yes*

I like Kontakt because the drums sound so good, as they do a better job of the fx than me. I like Albino, Predator, Blue & DCAM synth squad as i am just used to them now, nice sounds/ editing as well. Massive is great, simple to use, sounds Massive

EDIT oh yeah i forgot about Sylenth for some reason, use it a lot

 

I agree with you One Reason – Native Instruments neglects their GUI designs!
Like so many other developers they tend to use gray way too much.
WAVES are still the best developers for my taste; professional sound and look.
For their easy use i like WAVE ARTS products very much.

 

+1 for Massive. My current fave The sounds i can get out of the plug are insane. I tried to build the same sound in sylenth, and the new z3ta+2. Massive just sounded more, well um...MASSIVE. All the different wavetables is what i like the most about it. Im starting to like z3ta+2 more the deeper i dig into it too. Same reason, the wavetables.


I love being able to automate and morph between wavetables. *yes*

 

Vember Surge

Very intuitive, very good sound, very easy to get the sound I have "in my head", possible to morph and breed between presets (in my DAW of choice) which almost always comes up with new and interesting sounds. A competent hybrid (FM, wavetable, subtractive, vocoder) synth that doesn't tire me, my ears or my eyes. It also loads as a VST effect for processing incoming audio.

There are plugins out there that are better when it comes to other areas, but this is my work-horse. I know it though and through, and I love it.

 

Sylenth is pretty awesome, I even customized a skin for it, its amazing how much more comfortable I am using something, that looks.. good.

 

big: Omni
small ones: sylenth1, dune and zebra

and... synth1 (never betrays, always has something to offer)

 

I might be a little different with the VSTIs that I use the most. I produce full songs with a lot of standard instrument sounds, Music that sounds like a real band playing (example Tom Petty style). I use only a keyboard controller, computer and then add vocals.

I love the realLPC, realstrat and realguitar also strum acoustic and strum electric , they take keyboard chords and convert them to guitar voiced chords, add strumming, and also output MIDI.

Broomstick Bass is wonderful for bass lines with MIDI out. Virtual Bassist no MIDI out though. Superior Drummer, Mdrummer, Groove agent and now Studio Drummer.

Kontakt for samples!

Sometimes I work like this,

I select a chord progression I like to drive the VSTIs, this is a continuous MIDI part with no rests. This will make all the Instruments change chords in sync.

Select a Bass part with Broomstick Bass then output MIDI to a realstrat and select chords, change the Bass part driving the guitar a little, This makes an Instant moving rhythmic guitar part that follows the basic chord progression!

Add drums, Organ B4 II or True Piano, Vocals.

Most of the people who listen to my music think it is recorded in a studio being played by real band.

 

Thats pretty much how I work too burningstar, u should post some of ur songs

 

Spectrasonics stuff is really stable

but RMX needs its own goofy format
- got rid of mine
- sample collection had to be twice the size
- cant edit the new goofy rmx format without having to re-inport the whole folder?

Trilian and Omnishpere - sound great....... but loading time kills the buzz

NI stuff always gets me down for being great turning to shit when using the interface and well buggy software

-- my answer --

• SYLENTH - stable as fok - sounds great like access virus everyone make presets for it (some are pretty good)
• Trilogy -(good old trilogy is great.. less space needed for the library than trillian faster loading)
• NERVE (XFER) - knock up a beat in 3 minutes - it's very good
• VANGUARD - I'm getting back into vanguard for sounding 'vengancey' (is that a word)

 

maybe you meant.. Vanguardy..

Would be nice is the other two loaded faster, *yes* but.. good things come to those who wait and if its killing ur buzz, your not drinking enough :dancing:

 

Seriously, Omnisphere has a depth to the patches and the ability to screw with them that is so intuitive and fun, I don't think any other thing comes close. Kontakt obviously is amazing, but it's just not "fun" to use.

Pretty awesome time to be a solo musician eh? Wish they had this stuff when I was like 13, 14, was talking to a buddy about that recently... Oh well, at least we can have it now

 

Yes, we can... except Reason 6 and Waves 8

 

Meh... if you can't make music with the ENORMOUS amount of ridiculously awesome programs we're already blessed with, don't think those two are gonna help you much lol

 

Let’s see now how do I type without writing a novel

Rob Papen – Albino has always been my favorite since version 1. I like it due it’s very straight forward and flexible. The GUI is simple, clean and very visual, because you can follow the signal from the oscillator to the output and never be lost. Also in version 3, I like how they use layers and the matrix to really make some complex sounds but not be a rocket engineer. Also the filters in Albino are stable, smooth and pretty organic for both dirty, digital, smooth and analogue. The envelopes are great too, perhaps not the fastest boys in town, but yeah they’re not like a slow turtle, either.

Rob Papen – Blue, Alpha and Octopus, has also climbed pretty high on the ladder, however they are pretty specific and it takes a bit of experimenting to really dive into the ocean of FM to get a good understanding how it works. This goes for Octopus and Blue, to be more exact. Alpha is like an extended version of Vanguard, that is also one my of all time favorites, so yeah for their kinds they are nice too. And Not only ”nice” because they are, I like the quality, filters, envelopes and the very robust oscillators.

When coming to some more ”advanced” softsynths such as modular based synths these are my favorites, so far.
Native Instruments – Reaktor:
I love the freedom to design anything you like, build from scratch and really get the perfect sound you’re looking for. The interface might be a bit low-end, but don’t let it fool you and stop you from being creative. All is pretty self-explaining once you spend a few hours and yeah it’s not in the way to know a bit about how things works.

Native Instruments – Absynth:
Again, this is absolutely one of the first modular synths I ever came across and I was hooked-up at once. Same here, it’s easy to make, manipulate, mutate, shade, change, evolve and so on, sounds with lots of freedom and nearly no restrictions. I tend to use Absynth for ambience and background and its true power are the mutator, bank faders, envelopes and modulations. There is really nothing like this softsynth and hah yes I’ve beta-tested this since version 1

Audiorealism – ABL Pro:
If you want something that outshine when it comes to deep bases, analogue oscillators, stable unique filters, the freedom to route around with patch cables, you’ve reached the right station. This has all you need and many hidden bonus tricks. Also the interface is very easy to get a feeling about what’s going on. Again, this is one of my favorites!

There are some alternatives and a bit more simple modular(ies) like Circle, that has pretty much a solid foundation of components you need to ”patch” up a sound. It is very simple and you can follow the chain very easily due the simple GUI and workflow.

Waveshaper/Subtractive/Adactive/Grainular –synth:
I could really go on and write pages about each of them but I am going to cut the grass a bit short here and just kiss them a bit.
Z3TA2, is one of the best waveshapers out there. It’s easy to follow and has a nice logical GUI. The sounds are brilliant, due the flexibility to make your own oscillators. Also you have a wide range of oscillators to manipulate. The filters are really awesome and got a fresh definition. The envelopes are super fast and this is one hell of a good thing if you want to make physical sounds with some crazy stuff going on in the sound.

Ace2, is also one of the best tools out there. I love it and it’s basically ”always there” in all my songs.
Zebra, same here. I love it due its sound and quality.

Like I said, I want to keep this a bit short :P
So I can only agree with what you guys all ready said about synths like Kontakt, Nexus, Sylenth1,Surge, Kubik, FM8, Spectrasonics, etc. They are great.
I’ll stop for now and heh maybe I will write a full ”review” about more synths in the future
Have a nice day,
Xiny6581

 

I totally agree with you. I'd love Vember to update Surge just a bit, in some case it can be a bit unstable and crashes(FL-Studio is the host I use).

 

Yes burningstar should post some of his songs. I love the way he described his way to work. and Yep, now he's opened the box heh :D