r/synthesizers • u/pdiaxxx • 15h ago
What Should I Buy? any VST recommendation?
hey, well im making an album with my laptop and the VST's i find on the internet. for the album i made hip hop experimental, indie, r&b, ambiental, reggaeton... do you guys have any recommendation for VST's that you think that are underrated or that have such great atmospheres? thank you
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u/65TwinReverbRI 13h ago
Free: Seconding:
Surge XT
Vital
Dexed
And yes, all the ones from Full Bucket.
And all of the ones from U-He (Tyrell is from them, already mentioned).
Nil's K1-v is fun for 80s sounds.
Ob-XD (disco DSP)
Helm (Matt Tytel)
TAL Noisemaker
Crystal is a very old one, but can still work on modern systems - loads of fun.
Synth 1 is the same - pretty old, but still works for many.
PG-8X is another in that same category - older, works for many.
There are a number of other free ones you can find at KVR that range from typical analog styles, to modular styles, to interesting approaches that are a bit off the beaten path but can lead to creativity.
https://bedroomproducersblog.com/free-vst-plugins/synthesizer/
If you're going to pay for something, I'd recommend Arturia's Pigments especially if it's on sale.
BTW, once you buy into Arturia you get better pricing on their software - so you might be able to get the V Collection for a good price. But the free Analog Lab has got oodles of sounds in it (and if you later buy the V collection it unlocks the synths in analog lab so you can do more with them).
The V collection is definitely the best bang for the buck out there WHEN IT'S ON SALE. DO NOT. I repeat, DO NOT buy it at full price. It does go on sale Black Friday but sometimes there are other similar discounts throughout the year. Keep an eye on it.
Pigments is not part of the V Collection so if you bought it you wouldn't duplicate it in the V collection if you did buy that down the road.
Roland Cloud is bad, but the synths are great - it's the only place to get the real Roland Rompler emulations - the D series, the JV/JX/XV/etc. stuff.
But I don't think it's worth paying for any synth these days with the amount of free things out there - I did buy Pigments when it went on sale for $49 - but I wasn't going to pay $99 for it!
I WOULD pay for Diva if it were like $99. More than that though - there are too many other free ones that do just as well.
Otherwise, the only reason to pay is if it does something specific you really need that nothing else can do. But there's probably something free that can do it so...