New poster here, but thought I'd add my two cents.

Most of the posters here mentioned the real good ones like Massive, Sylenth1, etc. Those are great ones. I'm not quite at liberty to talk about VSTs like I'm a pro with them, but in my experience, Nexus has treated me very well. FabFilter, as someone mentioned, has a variety of very impressive plugins, and they even have the Pro-Q 2 coming out soon which looks incredible. I've heard fantastic things about the EQing capabilities of FabFilter. Kontakt is quickly becoming my new favorite tool. It's a fucking headache unless you have a legitimate, paid-for version, but when you get it working, DAMN, is it powerful. The interface, imo, isn't that super user-friendly, but once you start getting used to it, there are a ton of things you can do in Kontakt that other samplers just simply can't do.

I didn't see Tone2 get mentioned, but they have an array of some decent synths too. Gladiator, RayBlaster, and Saurus are a few of them. Personally, I like Gladiator out of those. It's a powerful synth, and it works well with me, but I admittedly don't use it nearly as much as I do Massive, or Kontakt. iZotope has a line of REALLY great plugins too, for things like EQing, mixing/mastering, and even sampler/synths. iZotope Iris, for example, can take a sample and allow you to edit it to make a whole new-sounding instrument in a way that I find very unique.

Admittedly, I'm still a very inexperienced producer, and my knowledge is very limited at this point, but hopefully something I said will be at least a bit of help.

 

i wonder if tone2 instruments are really worth those 200 euros. each synth they make, it comes with a new hybrid-psycho-spectro-scanned-microsample-nanoparticles- synthesis technique.

 

My problem with Tone2 is everything they make is RIDICULOUSLY overpriced and I hate their shady business practices. Would never buy a synth from them.

 

If you don't mind getting your hands dirty you could try an additive synth. AirMusic's Loom is on sale for $49 and it's an absolute monster (I'm glad I picked it up).

It looks (and sounds) complicated but it's quite easy once you get you head around it.

Here's a show and tell from:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8cBZzNEh_o

 

my experience is .
dune is a good synth ( was anyway).. i used it for a while, am waiting to see what the update will be like). and i believe it has a fair following of enthusiasts for it. there are lively forums about it etc.
i only think cracks and hacks come into play when stuff is just to expensive to buy, at least without a good not to limited demo. by all means if you use something a lot and it's is delivering the goods, buy it.
tone2.. now that is a different ballgame.
i had a cracked version on here for a few days i was doing a collab. anyway, about two days after i had looked at it and, as has already been mentioned, i thought it was overhyped and really just a very generic sounding ( and not so great sounding to my ears - was really muddy) another synth for instant trance. then i was working in my daw and just when i was getting into a serious groove, my machine switched off. the cause? tone2 phone home.
yes, it's all unarguable that this should be the case. but shut my machine DOWN???
i will never touch any of their heinous shit ever again. i have more than enough of my own stuff, but that is a flagrant abuse of MY privacy. i lost a lot of work and i am really pissed about it.
here are a few that i own ( some free) that are REALLY GOOD and creative
Synplant
Zebra2
Spire
Podolski
Tyrell 6
Discovery Pro ( yes it's a bit trancey, but it is very powerful)
Poise Drum Sampler)
actually, there is a lot of good free or low cost stuff out there, just look around.
just avoid tone2 : )
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