Buyer’s Guide: Which Synth is Right for You?

In this buyer’s guide, we’ve collected some of our favourite software synthesisers across a variety of categories. We’ve looked for synths for modular nuts, those on a budget, producers looking for an authentic analogue sound, and much more.

Of course, what’s classed as the “best” in any given category is subjective, so in a lot of categories we’ve provided alternative options so you can try out a few different options and work out which is best for you.

Read on to learn about a wide range of fantastic synths, or use the contents below to navigate to the section which is of most interest to you.

In this Guide

Best Analogue Style Synth: FabFilter Twin 3

Best Budget Subscription Synth: VPS Avenger

Best Synth for Bass and Sub: SubLab XL

Best Full-on Power Synth: Phase Plant AND Pigments 4

Best Synth for Preset Browsing: Analog Lab V

Best Analogue Modular Synth: Softube Modular

Best Analogue Style Synth – FabFilter Twin 3

FabFilter’s Twin 3 is the latest iteration in the Dutch DSP masters’ virtual analogue Twin series. Fourteen years on from Twin 2 – the previous entry in the Twin series – FabFilter released the much improved Twin 3 in early 2023.

FabFilter boasts up to four full-featured analogue-modelled oscillators designed to give you the authentic warmth so often only associated with hardware synthesisers.

Of course, this being a FabFilter plugin, Twin 3 has the added benefit of housing FabFilters highly lauded filters. Program up to four filters in series parallel or per oscillator and modulate them with Twin 3’s in-depth modulation section. Each filter also has 11 filter types to choose from – each giving a unique sound and texture.

FabFilter Twin 3 is available from Plugin Boutique for £109

Best Subscription Synth: VPS Avenger

For those who need a top-level synth for a short period of time, you can actually now get VPS Avenger with a rent-to-own plan right here on Plugin Boutique. VPS Avenger is a hugely powerful synthesiser which could have made its way into the ‘Full On Power Synth’ section later on in this article. 

Avenger’s eight oscillator modules are capable of multiple types of synthesis. Each oscillator gets its own signal path through the synth, so can also be transformed using eight per-oscillator functions such as FFT editor, Formant and Bit Crush. You can even sequence individual oscillator outputs differently.

VPS Avenger also comes with over 1000 factory presets which could have qualified it for our ‘Best For Preset Browsing’ section. 

However, it’s the unique rent to own option available with VPS Avenger which places it as the winner in the Best Budget Subscription synth section. You can get it for £15.50 per month for 12 months, or for a flat fee of £185.

Best Synth for Bass and Sub: SubLab XL

If you’re looking for an all out sub bass specialist synth, this could well be your best bet. SubLab XL allows you to mix and match up to four effects. Choose from: six distortion types, waveshaper with sine fold and linear fold options, tape hiss, bitcrusher and compressor.

The compressor also has an in-built auto sidechain which is perfect for bass mixing, helping you to avoid clashing kick and bass drums.

SubLab XL also comes loaded with samples from a wide array of great sounding drum machines and synths including: the Roland TR-808, Nord Lead, Dave Smith Tempest and more.

SubLab XL is available from Plugin Boutique for £42

Alternative Bass Synth: Iceberg Audio The Sub

The Sub does one thing and does one thing incredibly well: it produces spectacular bass sounds. It has a built in drive unit, punch control and expansion packs available packed with extra sub sounds.

Iceberg Audio The Sub is available from Plugin Boutique for £45

Best Full-on Power Synths: Phase Plant AND Pigments 4

Time for the big guns. In this section we’re looking at the best fully featured modern synths, and we couldn’t choose just one.

First up is the much loved Phase Plant from Kilohearts. This synth can truly do anything. It’s semi-modular design lets you load up as many oscillators, filters and effects as your computer can possibly handle and then modulate them in any which way you see fit.

It has three effects lanes so you can process different oscillators in different ways, each oscillator can be a wavetable, digital analog or sampler and can be frequency modulated by any other oscillator.

Phase Plant is truly a sound design beast that offers everything you would expect from a modern software synthesiser. It’s available from Plugin Boutique for £173.02

But Phase Plant isn’t the only high powered synth beast out there. Pigments 4 from Arturia gives Phase Plant more than a run for a money, and at £173.02 on Plugin Boutique Pigments 4 costs exactly the same as Phase Plant.

That makes choosing between the two a tough decision so it’s probably worth demoing the two to try them both out.

Pigments 4 has a virtual analog triple oscillator engine, a complex wavetable engine, sample and granular engines, and a harmonic oscillator additive engine. 

One cool feature that’s unique to Arturia is that Pigments 4 comes loaded with some gorgeous-sounding vintage filters from Arturia’s V Collection instruments.

Pigments 4 is available from Plugin Boutique for £173.02

Best Synth for Preset Browsing: Arturia Analog Lab V

There are those producers out there who aren’t looking for a synth with which to design their own patches; instead they simply want to flick through some awesome patches designed by professional sound designers. Analog Lab V is the best bet for these musicians.

Analog Lab V is perhaps not technically a synth. Instead it’s a very well organised library of presets designed on the incredible V Collection from Arturia.

With Analog Lab V, you don’t actually get access to the full synthesisers, but you do get presets from all 33 synthesisers in the V Collection with a handful of tweakable parameters with each preset.

The majority of the synths in the V Collection are absolute classic synths from the past 60 or so years of electronic music history such as the Buchla Easel, Roland Juno-60, Yamaha DX7 and many more.

The presets are meticulously organised and tagged so you can search by type of patch, instrument, sound designer and much more making it fast and intuitive to find a patch that works for your tracks.

Analog Lab V is available from Plugin Boutique for £173.02

Alternative Preset Powerpack: KV331 Audio SynthMaster One

Another great option for preset browsers is SynthMaster One by KV331 Audio. Unlike Analog Lab V SynthMaster One is a fully fledged synth which allows you to design your own patches, however it also comes with an incredible 1250 factory presets.

Presets can also be filtered by attributes and styles to help with finding the right preset quickly.

SynthMaster One is available from Plugin Boutique for £69.95

Best Analogue Modular Synth Plugin: Softube Modular

Modular synthesis is an exciting world that many producers want to explore, however the hardware version of modular synthesis is an expensive rabbit hole that many – for the sake of their bank accounts – do not want to risk falling down.

Luckily modular soft synths are a much more affordable way to get into modular, and the best one out there in our books is Softube Modular. 

Created in close collaboration with analog modular manufacturer Doepfer, Softube Modular is an authentic modular experience. It included six modelled Doepfer modules and 20 utility modules giving users a huge amount of sound design flexibility.

Patch them however you and discover the infinite possibilities of modular synthesis all within your DAW.

Softube Modular is available from Plugin Boutique for £42.60

Alternative Modular Synth Plugin: Cherry Audio Voltage Modular Ignite

Voltage Modular Ignite comes with even more modulus than Softube Modular – this awesome software modular synth boasts 45 modules and 296 presets.

Cherry Audio Voltage Modular Ignite is available from Plugin Boutique for £79.00.