10 Amazing VST Synthesizers
IMAGE-LINE HARMOR
Image-line Harmor is a very unique synthesizer capable of incredible sound design possibilities.
At the heart of the synth is an additive resynthesis engine, meaning you can load your own samples into Harmor and they will be resynthesized and converted into ‘partials’ which will give you much more control over the original sound. If you are a sound designer looking for deep control over sounds that have never been heard before, then check out Image-Line Harmor.
NATIVE INSTRUMENTS MASSIVE
A tried and true classic, NI Massive has become a staple in many producers homes. Commonly known as being the ‘go-to’ synth for Dubstep sounds, NI Massive is capable of so much more.
XFER SERUM
Probably one of the hottest synthesizers on the market today, Serum has been a game changer ever since Steve Duda dropped it on us.
Probably one of the hottest synthesizers on the market today, Serum has been a game changer ever since Steve Duda dropped it on us. With it’s extensive wavetable editing capabilities and incredible on board fx, this has become a workhorse synth for many producers today. Serum also features one of the biggest available commercial library expansions of any synth, so if you are looking for presets Serum may be for you.
PARAWAVE RAPID
Parawave is a new company which has brought an incredible new synth to us by the name of Rapid. Rapid supports multisamples, wavetable synthesizer, 8 layers, and a huge amount of sound manipulation and modulation possibilities. The included sound library is excellent and you may find yourself getting polished and professional sounds out of this synth faster than you would with some other offerings.
SYNAPSE AUDIO DUNE 2
Another very unique synth is Dune 2 (Differential unison engine). Dune features a very interesting approach to unison synthesis. Each unison voice can have different parameter mappings. For example you can spread the cutoff of each unison voice around to create an incredibly complex and fat sound.
OMNISPHERE 2
Omnisphere is a hybrid sample based, and subractive VA synthesizer created by legendary synth creator Eric Persing of Spectrasonics. With an incredibly enormous sound library and ability to add 4 layers of sound, Spectrasonics Omnisphere 2 has a world of sound waiting to be discovered.
REVEAL SOUND SPIRE
Reveal Sound Spire has often been compared to the Access Virus model synthesizer. With a hybrid of wavetable, analog modelling, and FM synthesis, Spire offers a wide range of sound from razor sharp plucks to huge lush pads.
PROPELLERHEAD EUROPA
For many years the devices from Reason have been locked away and inaccessible to producers unless you were running a copy of Reason. Now Propellerhead have ported on of their most popular devices to VST. Europa is a very smooth sounding synth with features both VA synthesizer and wavetable synthesizer. You can load your own samples and convert them to wavetable, or even as a “Spectral Filter” which can yield very interesting results.
U-HE DIVA
U-he is a company that is constantly pushing the boundaries of virtual instrument synthesizer, and when DIVA landed on the scene it become a new benchmark for analog modelled synthesis. While heavy on the CPU, the idea behind DIVA is that it was a no compromise synthesizer focusing mainly on sound quality. You can expect deep and organic basses and rich analog style sounds out of DIVA. It’s semi-modular architecture will allow you to mix Moog modelled oscillators with filters of old vintage analog Roland or Oberheim synthesizers.