Greatest Software Synths Of All Time

Here are the most important, iconic and influential software sunthesizers of all time. I'll demo them all back and present some information about each. These are the synths that defined the sounds of new musical genres and revolutionized the music industry. All the synths we talk about today are softsynths, virtual synthesizers in software VST plugin format for running in your DAW for music production.

MORE WOODY PIANO SHACK

SPOILER
SYLENTH1
NATIVE INSTRUMENTS MASSIVE
U-HE DIVA
XFER RECORDS SERUM

Honorable mentions
SPECTRASONICS OMNISPHERE
ARTURIA V COLLECTION

#synthesizer #synth #synthwave

[stefanelf]

IMHO:
1. Synapse Audio Dune
2. Softube Model 84
3. u-he Diva
4. Arturia Pigments
5. G-Force OB-E

Then there’s the whole range of synths from Cherry Audio, there’s Vital, there’s TAL-U-NO-LX and TAL-J-8, there’s Arturia V Collection and KiloHearts PhasePlant. I love them all but then the whole point of a top 5 is to really distill your absolute favourites!

[rbrtck]

I don't know about influential, but Arturia's Pigments is the deepest, most flexible, and powerful software synthesizer I know of.

[DerekPower]

If you were to pick one from Arturia, it would be Pigments with an honorary mention to the V-Collection suite. Pigments presents a lot of creative options, but presented in a way that’s not intimidating. Each version has gotten better, whether it’s adding new sources or new functions. It basically gives you the ability to create your own dream synth patch/sound.

As for the V-Collection, it’s basically a synth museum in your computer and for a steal (when compared to the original list price on several of them).

[WarrenPostma]

Of these, you should still buy Diva if you don't have them. Don't bother buying massive or sylenth1, or serum unless you are an obsessive preset pack buyer. Serum seems to be the one everyone buys and then buys thousands of presets for. Maybe you can make money selling Serum presets as everyone seems to want to buy those.

Other candidates for greatest: Phase Plant, Pigments
Special category for free and insanely great: Surge XT, Vital.

[The_Sonic_Oasis]

Nice video woody, I would say the Ominisphere belongs on this list.

[vanessajazp]

Love your content as always, Woody!
Always so upbeat and straight forward.
Keep ‘em coming.

[ScottsSynthStuff]

I'd add Vital. It's got a lot of fresh and unique sounds and capabilities, and is a definite powerhouse.

[aquaticborealis]

Diva still sounds terrific

These days, we have some amazing stuff. Dune 3 has an amazing sound, OB-E is huge, Pigments has just about everything, and Hyperion is very powerful. Lots of others I have not tried.

[Gabbanadj]

I love both sylenth1 & diva but i find myself digging into the Korg legacy collection just for their low cpu usage & old school analog sound

[HenriDeCarvalho]

What a surprise @1:31 China Crisis - Black Man Ray. Somehow this band went off the radar of the industry. What a brilliant band, combining multiple influences always with a certain nonchalance. Flaunt The Imperfection is must have ...Love your videos ! Thank you for sharing your insight...

[Acrimonious_Snake]

Your channel perfectly shows why Roland is so amazing. I will stay with my System-1, JD-Xi, D-05 and Juno DS.

[eaglechildkeys]

Great VSTs. Diva is awesome.
Another that I would like to mention is HYBRID 3 🎹🎶

[freimutspitzkopf]

Totally agree with the list. There are so many synths out there, but only a few are really something worth using.

[janeeightfive]

For beginners: Arturia MiniFreak V
For advanced: Pigments

Both have a visualization of the waveforms so that you can understand what's exactly going on with the signal. So, perfect for beginners like me :)

[falconbravo]

Hi Woody, I've used several Virtual Synths plugins, of various values, from free to $400, 3 free, I got great sounds; Synth 1, PG-8X and of course Dexed, but of all the ones that came closest to a real synth was the OPX-pro II! 😄 The serum is very intuitive I like it too!

[Dudderlyful]

When you played Black Man Ray, I was so impressed! Love it Woody!

[mudia]

U-He Zebra 2 surely also should be added to this list. It has been used by Hans Zimmer for Film scoring.

[mihaimalaescuofficial]

It is a pleasure to listen again to my favourite ones too. Cheers

[SwiftDreamer]

If you're talking objectively the greatest as far as features & flexibility with oscillators, I would have to include Image Line's Sytrus & Harmor plugins. Truly ahead of its time & still very relevant today

[entropybentwhistle]

Hi Woody! I believe you correspond with Espen Kraft. Do you know what the state of his channel recovery is? I can’t believe U-Tube’z programming, personnel and storage redundancy are so inept they can’t recover a person’s hacked channel in shorter order.