My Go-to Free VSTi

 

As a music hobbyist who uses several pieces of hardware, insofar the synthesizers are of concern, I sometimes rely on free VSTis when it comes to virtual instruments.

Undoubtely, there exist some really good commercial virtual machines over there, but tbh, some good and expressive free VSTis, can compensate for moderate productions.

To distill the prefered free VSTis, I have run in the past two tests, see f.ex. my previous posts here and here. It would be of surprise if my preferred ones were not among those scoring high in those tests.

No doubt that this choice reflects the easiness and the expressiveness of the preferred synths. In addition however, I will use the VSTis that I miss in terms of synth type from my hardware (e.g. I find it easier to tackle FM operators using the mouse in the computer screen, rather attempting to communicate with a hardware synth's LEDs).

To facilitate the presentation I include here two lists. The first list is the synths I will consider for special tasks, so they are most often used as a companion to my hardware. The second list simply extends the first list, and includes all VSTis for which I have implemented midi mapping using my availability of 50 slides and rotary knobs and 29 buttons, coming from my master keyboards (Samson Graphite 49 and E-MU Xboard 49) and my master controller (Omnitronic FAD-9). With 50 slides/rotaries and 29 buttons available, I am able to map between 90%-100% of the most important synth parameters - if not all parameters - for most of the VSTis chosen.

As you may have figured, I prefer tweaking those synths with my hardware slides, rather than using the mouse and the GUI (not that I don't use it at all, of course). To make this work, I have come with specific pages/controller maps to quickly navigate to a synth section, using short colored labels grouped by functionality. In the beginning such an approach may require a learning curve, but once mastered it can become more convenient than having to navigate f.ex. to each and every synth's small/large/non-resizable GUI having to use every time different locations for every section, etc.

To get an idea on how such a mapping looks like, see the photo below.

 

The arrangement of the various slides/rotary/buttons corresponds (mostly) to the locations of the hardware as you can see at the photo above (e.g. upper two left sections is the X49, upper two right sections is the FAD9 and the middle left and right section is the Graphite. Bottom line is the buttons, left for the FAD9, and right for the Graphite). You may see in the paper charts that I tend to use similar controller locations (as possible), so f.ex. I don't need to search where is the 2nd ADSR or the Resonance.

So, here's the list of the chosen ones (in alphabetical order). In brackets, it's the parameters that I've mapped.

List 1 - 12 synths that will be my choice #1 depending on the task 

I most often use these irrespectively to having them midi mapped (update:June 2019).

Cobalt (wavetable, linear FM, PWM) [48 parameters + 16 buttons]
Dexed (DX7 emul., FM synthesis 6 OP) [no midi mapping]
Dune CM (wavetable, unison) [32 parameters + 12 buttons]
Oatmeal (VA, wavetable) [no midi mapping] 
Ob-xd (VA,  Oberheim emul.) [39 parameters + 19 buttons]
Superwave P8 (VA, vintage strings) [45 parameters + 7 buttons] 
Surge (wavetable, FM synthesis 3x3OP, mod.matrix) [no midi mapping yet]
Synth1 (VA, Clavia Nord Lead II emul.) [48 parameters + 9 buttons]
ToneZ (4 Osc wavetable, unison) [no midi mapping]
Unifyer 3 (mono, wavetable, unison, arp) [no midi mapping]
VK-1 Viking (mono,VA, Moog emul.) [no midi mapping yet]
Xhip (VA and PCM, waveshape, mod. filter) [48 parameters]

List 2 - 20 synths that I have fully midi-mapped

Midi-mapped synths, because I consider them useful (and they support the easy way to map a VSTi, that is midi learn). Some of the following ones appear in the top-10 list above, too.

Virtual Analog-Digital, Wavetables
1. Alpha CM (wavetable, 2x2 Osc, quick editing) [32 parameters]
2. Athmonova (strings, pads, unison) [32 parameters]
3. Cobalt (wavetable, FM, PWM) [48 parameters + 16 buttons]
4. Dune CM (wavetable, unison) [32 parameters + 12 buttons]
5. Superwave P8 (VA, vintage strings) [45 parameters + 7 buttons]
6. Synth1 (VA, Clavia Nord Lead II emul.) [48 parameters + 9 buttons]
7. Swierk (VA, 2 x everything, mod. matrix) [48 parameters + 4 buttons]
8. Tyrell N6 (VA, ring, mod. filter, mod. matrix) [48 parameters + 5 buttons]
9. Xhip (VA and PCM, waveshape, mod. filter) [48 parameters]

FM
10. Brzoza (FM synthesis 2x3OP) [50 parameters + 12 buttons]
11. K200 (FM synthesis 4OP) [50 parameters + 5 buttons]

Additive - Spectral - Waveshape - Phase distortion
12. Lynx (Wavedraw synthesis, phase distortion) [16 parameters]
13. Zebralette (Spectral synthesis, mod. matrix) [50 parameters + 5 buttons] 

Vintage - virtual replicas
14. Gigmate v2 (VA, Concertmate MG-1 emul.) [21 parameters + 5 buttons]
15. Mono/Fury (VA, 4 Osc, Korg Mono/Poly emul.) [32 parameters]
16. Ob-xd (VA,  Oberheim emul.) [39 parameters + 19 buttons]
17. Phutura (VA, Roland Alpha Juno emul.) [29 parameters]
18. Poly-2016 (VA, Roland Juno-106 emul.) [35 parameters + 16 buttons] 
19. Prophanity V1-5FE (VA, SC Prophet-5 emul.) [24 parameters + 16 buttons]
20. U-No-62 (VA, Roland Juno-60 emul.) [20 parameters + 10 buttons]


There are many other possibilities (f.ex. I use physical modelling or formant synthesis as well), when it comes to sound and music synthesis using VSTis. The above template simply suits my regular needs, but it is nevertheless filtered in terms of quality, diversity and capability for those free VSTis, as well as in terms of sound peculiarity (this concerns the replicas). That said, do not underestimate some older free jewels from the world of the VSTis - at least in my case (where I mostly use my hardware), they have pretty often saved the day.

About me

I'm a music hobbyist enjoying writing and instrumenting music in my spare time. My involvement with the music begins since 1985. Among others, I bought my Roland SH-101 in 1986, my Yamaha TG-500 in 1992 and my Clavinova and SY-35 in 1994. I still have (and use) the first three ones, together with my Access Virus TI2, Clavia Nord Lead A1, Novation Peak, Behringer DeepMind 12, Elektron Digitakt, Roland SH-201, Roland JV-1080, Behringer Neutron, Behringer Model D, and my software (VST) instruments.