Synthesizer software

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I'm starting to get interested in messing around with synthesizers, and since I have no budget to buy a good synth with, I'm looking toward virtual synthesizers. What are the best virtual synthesizers (freeware, of course), and what are the best VST hosts?

I've downloaded a couple synths and a host, but I haven't been able to get them together quite yet.

I don't really know any good freeware ones, but if you are ready to pay, I strongly recommend that you take a look at "Fruity Loops Studio (FLStudio)".
Many people use it for techno music, but it can be used for alot more, I have even used it to make classical music. One of the plugins it comes with, is the 3x Oscillator, it's a very nice tool to generate your own tones, and you can of cause have as many as you like, playing different parts of the music, with different settings.

I love using that software for a lot of my music creations, so I again recommend you to take a look at it. Of course it also supports VST plugins.
You can download a demo/trial version at their website (Just google the name).

Good luck, and I beg you... Please post some of your results


EDITED: To add the word "freeware".

I can't help you with free stuff. But I will tell you this: In the music world, you get what you pay for.

I've built up what I think is a good collection of plugs--some I can't live without, some I thought I'd enjoy but have really fallen flat.

The one synth you CANNOT live without is Absynth. It's worth your money.

Save your pennies and invest in Reason, also. Wait until September, though, because a new version will be out in August. Subtractor is, in my opinion, simply the fattest virtual analog I've heard and is easy to use. Thor is the next best reason to have Reason, because you can combine several different synth types into one complex instrument. The new version of Reason will have several new drum synths, so it's definitely a good buy.

Reason is a sequencer, btw, and it doesn't really do hosting other than its own instruments, though the instruments it HAS are really powerful. It's ReWire, though, and you can integrate it into your DAW if it's ReWire compatible.

The other plugs I have are Cameleon5000, FM8, and Korg Legacy Digital (emulates the M1 and the Wavestation). I was REALLY crazy over CA5000 for a long time, but the only computer I had at the time wasn't really powerful enough to make good use of it. It's an additive synth with a few really cool features.

It can do analysis/resynthesis, independently tune harmonics, add noise, AND morph among 4 different sounds. Spend a little time with it and you can make some NICE loops.

I've just found Absynth easier to work with, not to mention in Absynth EVERYTHING in a single channel of a patch (each patch has three channels) can be controlled by multi-breakpoint envelope. AND you can choose from a single wave oscillator, double-wave, FM, sync-granular, granular, and sample (but only one sample per channel, not like a dedicated sampler). Absynth has some amazing filters, but you can also create your own waveform, do additive synthesis, AND you can create "morph waves," which alternate from one wave to another. You can adjust morph waves in such a way you create a mix of the two, or you can set envelopes to morph from one wave to another. So if you, say, have all three oscillators set to "double" and each one has a morph wave, then you can have up to 12 completely different wave forms going at once.

Yeah, I'm a little partial to Absynth.

Something I DON'T have, but you should DEFINITELY look into is a program by Camel Audio (same guys that did CA5000) called Alchemy. It's WAY more advanced than Absynth or CA5000. The analysis/resynthesis is WAY more thorough than anything I've ever seen. I'm kinda broke right now, but if I had all my credit cards payed off I'd DEFINITELY be looking into this one.

IF you get Reason, you'll have a sampler called NN-XT. If you end up going that route, let me know. I'm the proud new owner of a Synclavier and would be delighted to email you some of my sounds. Even though I'm a composer, I've spent the last year focusing on sound design (writer's block). As soon as the 'clav came in, I got busy and put my own bank of FM sounds together. I've worked with some really, cool, sophisticated plugs before, but nothing quite compares to this thing!

If you don't have Reason, chances are you should have SOME kind of sampler with your DAW. Logic has EXS24, and I THINK EXS instruments are cross-compatible with different platforms. I can do NN-XT, EXS, AND I can do Gigastudio, but with Giga being an entirely different beast altogether, we'd have to work out something over Paypal before going that route! Anything other than those formats you'll have to do yourself, which I personally happen to enjoy doing anyway. If that's the case, I'd just send you zips of aifs.

Sorry I can't really offer you anything in the "free" department other than my own creations. But trust me, when you're dealing with sound and music creation, you really do get what you pay for.

Thanks for the in-depth replies, those are really good suggestions. But as amazing as some of that software looks, I really can't shell out $100 for it right now. I don't even know if I will enjoy it or be good at it; this is just a curiousity right now, not a full-blown obsession. I figured that freely available software would be a good way to test how much I liked it.

I think Alchemy has a three-week trial period. Check it out if you want, and let me know how you like it.

I remember using Asynth http://antti.smartelectronix.com/ a fair bit.

Hmm, says it's nagware, maybe you can live with that

I can't remember many freebie synths I liked much, but a lot of the freeware effects are actually pretty great. I will rack my brains.