musicradar just released their top 17 plugin synths for 2010…
[url]http://www.musicradar.com/tuition/tech/the-17-best-vst-plug-in-synths-in-the-world-today-262145[/url]
I find some have a great sound out of the box (i.e. good presets), and some are easy to tweak giving good results quickly–and then there are some that just sound so rich and colorful they don’t need a lot of TLC in Live to make them sing.
But what do you think?
Vote for the ones that have the best sound for the kind of music we produce on Sonic Academy…
this is an easy poll.
sylenth 1 No. 1
best out of the box hands down!!
has such a pure electronic sound IMO!!
You know, I have to say Sylenth1 is great.
When I first got it I was totally engrossed with Omnisphere, but Sylenth1 is so easy to turn a knob and get a great effect. Now I find myself going to Sylenth1 for leads on almost every track–I can have several of them open in Live 8 and only use a fraction of the CPU that Omnisphere takes.
I think my close 2nd favorite is Zebra 2–not as many great presets in the box, but Arksun makes some good ones which show off what the synth can do. Omnisphere sounds amazing because of the huge sample library, but making custom sounds that sound as good as the presets isn’t easy.
I also really like the sylenth. I’m definitely no synthesis master, but I find it very easy to use, and coupled with some nice effects you can get nearly anything out of it given you know what you’re doing. Which I don’t always but hey 
Also, I might be alone in this, but I’m not really a huge fan of massive. It might be that I don’t know how to use it properly, but I find it way harder to create new sounds that I’m satisfied with, and that many of the wavetypes and built in effects cause a sort of unwanted fuzzy distortion, or some noise I have to go back and try to locate later on in programming.
Not saying it’s a bad synth, I’m sure if I knew it well enough I could make it do whatever and I still get some nice sounding stuff out of it on occasion, but my go-to synth is easily sylenth.
Oh and people always overlook it but Operator deserves a lot more credit than it gets in my opinion.
Has to be sylenth but I have been using Rob Papen blue alot more.
as Much as i love Sylenth1 and Think D.cam is the most analogue sounding my vote had to go with Massive its the only synth that truly sounds different to anything out there hardware or software its hard to find a synth to match it.
I agree that massive is a great synth purely for the fact that it has such an original sound, and Sylenth will prob win on this forum, but those who have spent some time getting to know Zebra know how amazing this synth sounds and how flexible it is.
Unfortunately many nobodies don’t give it a proper look due to its weak amount of presets. Many of the zebra fanatics on KVR have posted their preset banks and waveforms to make up for this.
I also really like minimonsta for special fx.
DCAM is my fav newest one, strobe sounds great, its has a rich and pure sound that set it apart from the rest IMO but there is a lot to be said for massive and sylenth
[quote]rmallam (05/02/2011)[hr]I agree that massive is a great synth purely for the fact that it has such an original sound, and Sylenth will prob win on this forum, but those who have spent some time getting to know Zebra know how amazing this synth sounds and how flexible it is.
Unfortunately many nobodies don’t give it a proper look due to its weak amount of presets. Many of the zebra fanatics on KVR have posted their preset banks and waveforms to make up for this.
I also really like minimonsta for special fx.[/quote]
would agree that Zebra is a great synth and (Probably) one of the best for subby basses I’ve heard but it’s not may fav to use and I’m sure if anyone was colour blind they would be truly stumped by it lol, but in all fairness i forget i have this half the time haha
I’m also a huge fan of minimonsta
just saw an interview with W&W. they said sylenth 1 is there most used synth.
I have to say guys … im not gonna tell you what you want to hear ,
albino is a massively underrated synth if your serious about dance music then you need to learn all aspects of synthesis including fm … and albino does fm unlike any other synth imo any takers ??? …
I’ve got Albino… and have had it for a long time, but only started digging into it recently tbh.
Sh!tloads of modulation options on it. Really like the filters in it too.
Havent really made anything really, apart from FX’y, Leady, blippy things - and nuts FM things of course. But really trying to make some bass that I’m happy with. Still just messing around to see what it does… still experimenting.
You can do 4 layers in it too? Fkn hell.
The Modulation wheel & Albino are definitely best friends 
[quote]egg2 (06/02/2011)[hr]I have to say guys … im not gonna tell you what you want to hear ,
albino is a massively underrated synth if your serious about dance music then you need to learn all aspects of synthesis including fm … and albino does fm unlike any other synth imo any takers ??? …[/quote]
wft do you know anyway? get back to your room and don’t come out until you’re told!!!
[quote]Jon_fisher (06/02/2011)[hr][quote]egg2 (06/02/2011)[hr]I have to say guys … im not gonna tell you what you want to hear ,
albino is a massively underrated synth if your serious about dance music then you need to learn all aspects of synthesis including fm … and albino does fm unlike any other synth imo any takers ??? …[/quote]
wft do you know anyway? get back to your room and don’t come out until you’re told!!![/quote]
hahahahahahahahahahahahahahah yes sir boss sir !ahahahhahahahahaha:D
Also its spelt WTF dude … mong head
Nexus is amazing. probably the reason why it’s not as high as Sylenth1 and Massive is because it can’t be pirated and there is no demo version… haha! Either way, it is more than worth your money!
can’t be pirated? how so?
Is Nexus a synth? I thought it was a Rompler. I also thought it was very trance focused, which might explain not being top of the list.
Yeah I think it’s a rompler. Does sound fantastic though to be fair
[quote]gedeon (08/02/2011)[hr]Yeah I think it’s a rompler. Does sound fantastic though to be fair[/quote]
+1
what, no pro-53 or genesis? loljk