The best virtual VST synthesizers of the moment
Virtual synthesizers have positioned themselves in recent years as essential for producers, live keyboardists and all musicians in general, covering a wide range of possibilities from classic analog synthesizer emulators, to powerful forms of synthesis such as granular and powerful samplers that reproduce libraries of samples of the highest quality.
VST technology was created by the Steinberg brand but has been standardized to the point of being compatible with the vast majority of music production software. In this technology it is possible to find VST instruments or commonly called VSTi or VST effects to complement the sound work in our digital workstations.
There are many free and paid VST instruments of excellent quality and it would be impossible to define the best virtual synthesizer because of the thousands of options available, but today we will list some of the best virtual synthesizers of the moment and highlight their most important features to help you find your allies in music production.
Arturia V Collection 6
The brand of synthesizers, controllers and audio equipment presented this year the new version of its collection of virtual synthesizers, the V Collection 6, a collection that is already part of the software of many producers with emulations of legendary synthesizers such as the Minimoog, the Moog Modular, the Roland Jupiter-8 and many more iconic synthesizers that made history in music.
In this new edition the brand added 4 new virtual instruments, the Yamaha DX7, pioneer of FM synthesis in the 80’s and one of the best selling synthesizers in history, the Buchla Music Easel, a synthesizer from the 70’s remembered for its sound design capabilities, the Horner Clavinet that was indispensable in the sound of R&B music.B, the progressive rock and pop of the 60’s/70’s and the Fairlight CMI, the first ever sampler, an instrument that arrived in 1979 to change the history of musical instruments.
Along with all 21 virtual instruments, there’s an instrument called the Analog Lab, which gives you instant access to over 6,000 presets created by expert sound designers and allows you to easily navigate between all 21 instruments, as well as giving users of the brand’s controllers the benefit of having parameters pre-assigned to their controller.
Spectrasonics Omnisphere 2
One of the most complete synthesizers with the best reviews in the market, since the release of its first version in 2008 it has positioned itself as one of the favorite synthesizers of the most demanding users. To install it and put it into operation you need about 65 Gb of storage available for the amount of samples and patches it has (more than 12,000 presets).
It stands out from other virtual synthesizers because of its power in terms of synthesis, since sounds can be created with the following techniques: PWM, Sync, FM, Ring, Waveshaping distortion, bit and sample rate reduction, Unison, Granular, Harmonization.
Version 2 features a large number of sounds focused on the EDM genre and the ability to load your own samples to create new sounds based on user samples.
IK Multimedia Syntronik
The Syntronik could be the direct competitor of the Arturia V Collection, as they share some classic synthesizer emulations such as the Oberheim SEM, the Minimoog, the Moog Modular, the Prophet-5 and the Roland Jupiter-8.
Its concept is the same as the V Collection, a large collection of 17 instruments that model 38 legendary synths in software with more than 2,000 presets, also featuring a wide range of effects among them powerful amplifiers and 4 filters that emulate very well the technology of voltage-controlled analog filters.
It differs from the V Collection in that the Syntronik is more sample-based (occupies about 70 Gb of disk space) while the V Collection is more synthesis-based (occupies about 8 Gb).
Vengeance-Sound VPS Avenger
A complete synthesizer with extensive capabilities, with 8 simultaneous oscillators, each with SuperSaw and sub oscillator with the possibility of transforming the sound with various types of synthesis (Subtractive, FM, wavetable, multisampling and more) in addition to the possibility of using 8 arpeggiators and 8 parallel step sequencers, with an excellent library with a multitude of waveforms and powerful drum kits, modulation matrix in the style of modular synthesizers, a wide range of effects and
Although its presets are very focused on electronic dance floor music (EDM), it is a very powerful synthesizer that can be used for any genre.
A great advantage is also that it has a series of expansions developed by the manufacturer to expand its sound bank, focused on different genres of electronic music such as Deep House, Trance, Tropical House, Drum ‘n Bass, Moombahton and many more but also expansions for Hip Hop and a kinematic sound expansion for soundtracks.
Native Instruments Komplete 11
This is perhaps the most complete library of audio production, with extensive instruments and effects covering all musical genres, with 45 instruments spanning libraries of orchestral samples, piano, guitars, winds, drums, film sounds, and many synthesizers covering many of the synthesis techniques available today.
A library that occupies more than 155 Gb and that has options for the most expert sound designers but that is also very useful for newcomers thanks to its more than 13,000 available presets, including a much larger version called the Komplete 11 Ultimate with 87 synthesizers.
One of the great advantages of this package is the constant updating and implementation of new instruments by the Native Instruments brand, which is in continuous research and development of new products.
Among the synthesizers included in this package are the Massive, the Reaktor 6 blocks that emulates the modular systems, the Form, the Monark and the FM8 as well as its complete libraries of orchestration and cinematic sounds for the Kontakt sampler.
Korg Legacy Collection
The Legacy Collection is a virtual synthesizer package created by the Korg brand, famous for creating legendary synthesizers in hardware.
This package is quite interesting because it makes available to the user and in software, synthesizers of the brand that made history in music, such as the MS-20, the Mono/Poly, the Polysix, the M1, the Wavestation and the Oddisey of the ARP brand that was recently relaunched to the market in physical in collaboration with Korg, synthesizers definitely remembered by many keyboardists and that marked milestones in the history of physical synthesizers for their high quality and powerful sound.
This is the lightest virtual synthesizer package on the list, as it only weighs about 125 Mb, but don’t let its light weight fool you because its synthesizers are very powerful and were recreated very faithfully to sound as close as possible to their hardware versions.
You can also read our article on the best Korg synthesizers of the moment.
Conclusions
These are just a few of the thousands of VSTs that exist and although those listed here are all paid for, there are also excellent free virtual synthesizers, including online virtual synthesizers with very high quality and sound design options that are unimaginable.
