We’re here to help you find the synth to suit your needs, whatever you’re willing to spend - starting from free.
Although you will always hear analog lovers decry them for the unforgivable sin of being in the box, the truth is that the power and functionality of synth plugins far surpass most hardware units out there. Throw in the fact that they’re far cheaper and don’t take up any space in your living room, and it’s easy to see why most producers have an arsenal of soft synth power to unleash in their tracks.
Perhaps your only real enemy when it comes to synth plugins is choice, as there’s quite an array of options available to you when it comes to purchasing time. Wavetable, virtual analog models, FM, modular, additive and subtractive synths – it can be hard to know where to begin, especially when you consider there’s a range of price points within each category.
In this article, we’ve gone through the best synths in every price category, from the freebies all the way up to the big guns.
£10 - £49
Klevgrand Pipa
Kicking things off in a rather unusual style, Pipa is a crossover between a wavetable synthesizer and a granulating sample player, specialised for vocal sounds. Instead of using ordinary samples or processing oscillators with formant filters, Pipa uses a large database of wavetables extracted from real vocal samples, which Kievgrand openly admit will tax your CPU pretty heavily.
During the development of the plugin, Kievgrand recorded singers performing vowel sounds using varying dynamics and pitches, which they then chopped up into tiny wavetables. Pipa’s internal engine morphs between these wavetables to give you a continuous vocal sound. You can develop the expression of this sound by using the synth’s LFO/envelope section, which allows you to add things like pitch scoops at the start and end of notes, shifting timbres and volume envelopes.
TAL TAL-U-NO-LX Synth
It’s blindingly obvious which classic analog synth this plugin is inspired by, so much so that TAL felt they had to name it accordingly. “You know” what it looks and sounds like, and that it is of course the beloved Roland Juno 106. Classic synths made a serious comeback during the last ten years, you can hear the Juno 106’s warm, lush tones on White Ferrari by Frank Ocean, On the Level by Mac DeMarco and pretty much anything by Tame Impala.
TAL-U-NO-LX Synth is a fantastically authentic clone of the Juno 106 and comes with virtually all the same synth architecture as the original unit. The clean and crisp GUI means programming patches won’t give you a headache, but you’ll be most impressed by just how good the plugin sounds. The deep, subby bass; classic strings and pads, and slightly plasticky leads that the Juno 106 is known for have all been painstakingly emulated, and you’ll also enjoy the famous chorus modules that are almost worth the price of the instrument on their own.
£50 - £99
Audio Damage Quanta 2
As we move into the higher price brackets, the synths in our list become more versatile and fully featured. Quanta 2 is a powerful but easy-to-use granular synth with far-reaching sound design capabilities, and it’s an instrument that succeeds in making granular synthesis fun and productive for music makers of all levels.
The sounds in Quanta 2 emanate from three sources: the “granulator”, an analogue oscillator and a noise generator. You start off by dropping an audio file into the granulator (it takes any mono or stereo WAV, AIF, OGG, FLAC or MP3 file), which Quanta 2 chops up into tiny grains. From there, you can use the synth’s wide range of controls to manipulate the way it synthesizes the sound.
Quanta 2 is also a fully capable subtractive synth in its own right and will work as a granular or subtractive (or both) synth without any sample at all. The synth’s two multi-mode filters and virtual-analog oscillator and noise generator can be used in addition to or injected into, the grain engine, adding some welcome colour and warmth.
Sonic Charge Synplant
A synth that requires you to grow your sounds like a plant? It might sound like a gimmick, but Synplant is anything but. In an episode of the popular music podcast TapeNotes, Australian electronic artist Flume named Synplant as being hugely influential on his sound, and once you hear the plugin it’s not hard to see why. Gritty, deep, dirty and above all, organic, pretty much everything that comes out of Synplant is unique and inspiring.
Synplant has two interfaces - seed and DNA. In the main seed section, you plant a preset seed sound which then branches out into 12 branches that are semitone intervals of the main seed. Branches can be moved around, and as they change and grow, so too does the sound. Each branch can then become a fresh starting point if you want.
The DNA section is where you modify the underlying genetic code of your creation, with a whole range of synth parameters like FM amount, envelope times and LFO balance. A lot of this is trial and error, but the whole point of Synplant is that it’s supposed to push you creatively.
£100 - £199
u-he Diva
Thought of by many as the closest thing to an analog sound in the digital realm, Diva is a game-changing soft synth that distils the essence of a gamut of vintage synths for a fraction of the cost, including the Moog Minimoog, Rolan Jupiter 6, Jupiter 8, Alpha Juno and Juno 60 and the Korg MS20.
Diva feels analogue right from the off, with an attractive interface bookended in luxurious digital wood. The synth’s oscillator, filter and envelope models are all closely modelled on components found in the classic units mentioned above. Traversing the divide between analog and digital is no mean feat, and u-he have managed it by applying a combination of real-time circuit simulation and zero delay feedback design to give the synth its gloriously buttery sound.
Kilohearts Phase Plant
When Phase Plant was released in 2019, it shot to the top of many producers’ synth wishlists. With modular functionality that includes a versatile waveform generating system, dynamic and easily adjustable filters, a three-lane effects section and almost limitless modulation capabilities, Phase Plant brings a fresh take on developing tones and textures to craft.
Phase Plant is a sound design playground that gives you full synthesis control. By routing the plugin’s built-in modules along a signal chain, you can build your patches from the ground up, or choose from one of the 300-plus quality presets if you prefer having instant sounds on tap. All in all, there are so many sound design possibilities with this synth that at times it feels like you’re only scratching the surface of what it can do.
Arturia Pigments 3
As a developer known predominantly for its vintage gear emulations and forays into hardware, Arturia made a splash with the launch of Pigments in 2018. A totally original mega-synth, Pigments 1 was founded on two synthesis engines: a virtual analog synth oscillator and a wavetable sound engine. Arturia then added a sampler and granulator engine to the follow-up, and Pigments 3 came out of the traps with a fourth utility engine based on noise samples.
Along with the colourful sound engines, Pigments include filters, effects, modulation, sequencing and arpeggiation, making it a sound design powerhouse. Finding your own sonic fingerprint with this synth is a doddle, by combining any of the state-of-the-art sound engines, and then shaping your sound with instant patch modulation, classic and modern filters and studio-grade FX.
£200+
Arturia V Collection 9
Okay, so it’s not a singular synth, but at the top end of our list is a premium instrument suite with top-end quality. For those of you with some cash to splash, Arturia’s V Collection 9 comes with a hand-picked, expertly engineered line-up of 33 instruments – essentially all the synths you’ll ever need! Although this collection is the most expensive title on our list, when you take a closer look at the array of iconic synths, keyboards and hybrids within, it can only be considered a bargain buy.
The V Collection has it all - analog classics remodelled in absolute detail with Arturia’s exclusive True Analog Emulation technology; digital synths and samplers reborn and remastered; keyboards, organs, acoustic and electric pianos captured with state-of-the-art physical modelling technology, and innovative augmented instruments that fuse sampling and synthesis.
Free
Digital Suburban Dexed
Of course, you don’t always have to part with your hard-earned cash when you want to add a new synth to your collection. Digital Suburban Dexed is a free synth that emulates the Yamaha DX7. Yamaha’s digital synthesizer launched in 1983 and became a global success, featuring FM synthesis that was groundbreaking at the time.
Dexed perfectly captures the sound of the iconic instrument, which can be a little sterile, although nothing a few effects can’t warm up. Where the plugin really improves on the original is its all-in-one single UI window, which displays the entire six-operator synth engine - no menu diving required!
FM synthesis isn’t the most intuitive synthesizer format if you’re a beginner, but thankfully you can easily access thousands of free presets online. For a free synth, Dexed is plenty of fun and a great addition to your collection.
