Wavetable: Wavetable synths have a greater variety of waveforms you can use to produce sounds.You might also see this called “subtractive” synthesis.

This generally means that sound is produced by oscillators with a set waveform (saw, triangle, pulse, etc.), passed along to the filter, envelopes, and other FX.

Virtual Analog: Virtual Analog means a synth is a digital translation of what you might expect from a hardware synthesizer.

This article will touch on three prominent families of synths that vary in how this sound is generated (even more synths are covered in the Hyperbits Masterclass) : Synth VSTs primarily differ in how they actually produce sound. The vast majority of synthesizers have filters and envelopes - filters control the frequencies you hear in a sound, and the ADSR envelopes control when you hear them. And this is our final list of the absolute best ones for every genre.Įvery synth produces noise in its own way. We’ve spent hundreds of hours using these (and many more) synth plugins and VSTs. They simply can’t put in the same time and energy as the boutique synth plugin designers, whose sole focus is on perfecting their small handful of digital instruments. It just means that Logic, Ableton, and other DAWs make many different synth plugins and pieces of production technology. Of course, this doesn’t mean that your stock DAW synths are bad, per se. You get better products from people who specialize in what they do.

Why do you need third-party synth plugins? It’s the same reason that the best chefs in the world don’t use store-brand ingredients, preferring to go to the best bakery for their bread and the third-generation farm for their produce. Having a variety of tools at your disposal will ALWAYS help you tackle a more comprehensive array of sound design challenges. Over time, I felt I could get by with only one or two third-party synth plugins - and wow, was I wrong there too. When I started out producing, I thought I could get by with the stock synth plugins within my DAW, but I quickly discovered just how wrong I was. Many of the best synth plugins are incredibly versatile, meaning regardless of what genre of music you make, you will find synth plugins useful. If you want to make professional-sounding music, your plugin library needs some of the best synth plugins and VSTs.

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