I expected also the OBXD, free Oberheim kinda plugin. Synth1 is my favorite plugin of all time. I use this plugin since 2007 and still use it in all of my projects. And even when I'm out of inspiration I scroll through the banks with 25000 presets. I love the synth1
Neutrino Sky's synth1 librarian vst does a fantastic job of managing +10k patches for synth1. It works as a wrapper for synth 1. It auto categorizes, finds similar patches, tracks favorites etc. Fantastic solution for finding the sound your after.
If you're in the programmer camp, you can down load the source for Dexed and play around. I've modified the timings for the envelope to fix some issues where it's not quite the same as the DX7 and added some switches to set the velocity to 100 for some of the purists and a few other items. I love it, love it love it love it love it love it love it!!! TAL Noisemaker is another little gem.
My top three free synth plugins would be Dexed - Synth1 - Tyrell-N6. However, I found a free VST synth called "Charlatan" which, while it may not sound the best or have the most features, is very useful for beginners. It has a very simple, clean GUI and is a great tool for getting your head around using synthesis to create sounds, rather than surfing for presets.
"I don't really understand it, but who cares? It sounds great!" I absolutely love that logic. I totally agree too! Keep up the cracking work Woody. 🎹 ♥
4 ปีที่แล้ว +5
Props for covering Prism, it's such an underrated instrument, one of my all time favourites. Very organic and malleable sounds. It uses a type of physical modelling called modal bank, which is a stack or resonant filters excited by noise (for wind and string type sounds) and/or a short ping for bells, mallets and guitar type of tones. I recognize and used them all, and would like to recommend U-he Zebralette, which adds another type of synthesis, wavetables. Nice job!
I remember a good friend getting his DX 7 in the early 90s. I was consumed with envy lol. Now we have an unimaginable choice of sounds and polyphony available, beyond anything we could envisage back then.
Other than your three. 1. Surge by Vember Audio better than most pay VST's, I use this one in many of my projects. 2. VB-1 by Steinberg it's a synth that does a Fender electric bass and it's my go to for bass lines 3. LABS by Spitfire. A sampler VST with more samples posted every month. Really good.
Woody, I dunno if you've looked much under the hood of Dexed, but you can can jump into the PARM menu, and if you change the Engine Resolution from Mark I (yukky 12 bit sine sample), you will get rid of the noisy artifacting in the Mark I DX7 (always wanted to do that on my real Mark I LOL). It's more like an SY77 or any modern FM engine when you select 24-Bit. Hope that little tip helps someone who wants a super-clean sound with the "real" DX patches.
@@WoodyPianoShack Oh and I forgot SQ8L! Long in the tooth and only 32-bit, but really captures the spirit of those old analogue/digital hybrid Ensoniq beasts. :)
Great picks and great review as usual, WPS! Synth 1 was my first synth and I used it in my 2005 album, so it must be around since even earlier. But when i changed PC, I didn't install it anymore. First love you never forget.. Mikroprism has fantastic plucks, mallets, bells (and nothing else). As a free synth gives more than expected. But I payed the extra bucks to get the full Prism (30$ at Black Friday) and still it suffers from being on the Reaktor Player and not the full Reaktor: clumsy preset handling, no way of changing poliphony, no portamento, wrong user manual (you have to read Reaktor's manual..). Mikroprism sounds are not loaded into Prism!! So I was hoping for 2 out of 3!! Thanks for the tip to DeXEd, I did not know. Generally this is a beautiful era, where we find the first '80 synths for free (the so called virtual analog). I got the little Vacuum Pro for free with Computer Music Magazine and it does the typical Duran Duran sound in save a prayer and few others. AIR gave it away at 1$ at some times. Spending money, in the range 10 to 30 $ (at special times) one gets even more and all in all it's not much - for instance last year I got the fabolous Korg Wavestation vst (now 2.0) at 23$ with all the '90 sound card sets - but that's another topic..
I really enjoyed this. I kinda knew about these but it was nice to have someone go through and play some examples. I have too many synths. You really ought to check out that free SURGE synth, it's an absolute beast.
Hi Woody, i have a few faves which are Surge, Synth1, TyrellN6, PG-8x, Nexus 2, Dexed, Genesis CM, I can go on & on , its so easy to get presets for them too.
I owned an SQ80 from new back in 89, got the SQ8L since I was doing remote work and after A/B'ing it to death against my hardware sold the board! The only things I am really missing is the REALLY simple to use sequencer and of course the poly aftertouch keybed
The undisputed king of free VST synths, which is so good that beats easily the vast majority of commercial VSTs as well is ZynSubAddFX. If the name sounds like a nightmare the UI is even worse, but this thing is a beast when it comes to power and sound quality. It comes with a ton of cool presets and if you like making your own sounds it nukes alternative from orbit because this beast can do not only substractive, but also additive, fm, granular, sample based , waveshaping, ring modulation and the list goes on and on. Of course it has powerful effects and of course it has a powerful sequencer. There is a recent reskin but is not free, it low cost but worth its money hands down. But the original version is not only free but also open source. When it comes to free stuff there list is enormous. My favorite is Cabbage Audio, you can think of it like the open source version of Reaktor only much more powerful because its based on the amazing CSOUND. Even if you are not a hardcore synthesist the presets will provide you with a few hundrend good emulations of classic synths. Then there is crystal (absynth clone), Arminator ( an emulation of the god of analogue synth,s Yamaha CS-80) , the must have synths of HG Fortune for any musician interested in ambient music, Helix , Helm, Tripple Cheese, Zebrallete, VCV Rack, Arppe2600va, Nebula and many , many more :) Yes all of them have been around forever
Figured Dexed right from the start... but not the others. I did wonder if I would see Arminator 2 - a CS80 lookalike... or even Harmonaught - a harmonic additive synth that reminds me of the Fairlight....
I knew what #3 was from the first note - NI Mikro Prism. The nice thing about Mikro Prism is that if you eventually get the full Prism synth from NI, it doesn't replace Mikro Prism. There's a few unique sounds in Mikro not duplicated in regular Prism. They complement each other nicely.
Then there's another "category of free" too: The included "Free" Synths in different DAW:s. I think "Steinberg Retrologue 2" is one of the absolute best "native"/included vst-i:s. Fantastic analogue sounds that rivals many of the commercial offerings. You can get extremely warm string and brass sounds and it has a great, great distortion unit that when brought in, make it sound better than almost any other vst-i. The great thing is that the distortion unit also works very well to warm up strings and brass sounds, which is not often the case. Very retro sounding (hence the name). But, yeah, I'm off track here. I can see that it is only included in Pro (which I have) and Artist, but not Elements or LE. You have to pay for it if you use the cheaper versions of Cubase or other DAW:s.
@@WoodyPianoShack Ah, yeah that too! Never been into NI or Arturia and the likes. Neither for their controllers, nor for most of their vst-i:s (Kontakt, Reaktor for NI and some of the retro 80s digital(digital) emulations from Arturia being some of the exceptions). But it looks really cool, more "hardware-y" and convenient! Tempting when seeing them demonstrated. But nothing feels like my original DX7 when playing. The "even response". The travel of the black keys, for instance! And my other controllers gets the job done in combination with that.
I guessed all 3 correctly as I heard them. Proud of myself. However, I was really expecting one of them to be Tyrell haha. I think it’s great that the last one was an easily overlooked but powerful option. Still, I had to assume it was this upon hearing it, as there aren’t many other free options that do those types of sounds naturally.
*Bristol* : It's a Linux synth that emulates loads of classic synths from Korg MS20 to MiniMoog and also does a few organs. I haven't actually used it in a few years but it does makes some lovely noises.
Hi Woody. Totally agree with you about the Reaktor Micro Prism synth, it's awesome. I've spend hours messing about with it and sent myself into some kind of 'sonic orbit' a few times. Great choice!
I know plenty of people have suggested (arguably better) VSTs but one I think is a worthy candidate is the Cyclone (By Sonic Charge) it's a Yamaha TX16W sampler with the Typhoon OS upgrade. I suggest this as it's a good way for people to get a feel for vintage samplers without having to pint up cash and the space for one.
@@ElectronicazMusic Absolutely! Can't believe it's all free. After months of using his synths the least I could do back was donate some money to his Paypal.
I picked Dexd as the first but was pleasantly surprised by the following 2, and now will have to revisit Micro Prism which I have always liked Love your work👍
It sounds great but is not an exact emulation at all, the 8000 is a dream synth for 80s music and I haven't heard a plugin come close yet, this synth is one of the best out there and way beyond the Junos, probably closer to a Jupiter.
My top ten free synths, in no particular order: Synth1 OBXD Surge PG-8X Tyrell N6 SQ8L Dexed Minimogue VA TAL Noisemaker Superwave P8 Bonus: Crystal Of course, you don't need 10 synthesizers. But it's so fun to just sit there and jam out for hours on a midi controller while testing them all out.
Yes yes! I knew I`ll see my all the time fav Synth1 by Ichiro Toda here! Thanks Woody for choice it. Dexed and VSTs by TAL is also one of my fav, but for the FM-synth today I have the hardware Yamaha SY77 =) Thanks for demonstrating the Micro Prism - I heard about but didn`t try it. This sounds very interesting and cool!
The Superwave P8 is a great free VST. ReFX Vanguard was awesome too, but I don't find the link anymore (not free). A VST I always wanted to try out is Rubberduck, a 303 style synth.
good call, i've tried that before and always struggled to get it to work, discontinued and unsupported for many years, the quest goes on for a decent free rompler vst...
I can't remember where I came across it but I found the "modules" offered by Emu as add-ons to ProteusVX. I bought Proteus X YEARS ago and still use it, and those add-ons worked in VX as well. The "modules" cover fairly well everything Emu put out EXCEPT the Morpheus (sadly).
@@WoodyPianoShack Its tricky, something I notice is that sometimes it appears to have crashed but whats happened is a window has popped up behind the daw or reaper asking to save, or something like that. I used it in reaper on win 7.
@@WoodyPianoShack I got the Analogue Dreams going eventually but it all sounded harsh and distorted. One big gotcha you might mention is you have to add Kontakt as a virtual instrument to the track, instead of a midi recorder. Helpful TH-cam. Stay safe. Regards,..
Hi woody, have a question for you. Have you done a review on the Yamaha MOXF 88. ? I have been wanting this keyboard. Foe a while , but the stopped making them. Another? Is 61s or the 88s keyboard is Komplete control. Iam a guitar player first and have written parts of songs on keyboards when I have been around them really stuck on what to buy.. ,if the computer dies the jam screwed. What would you do?,
I'd never seen Dexed, but by the sound I sorta thought is was an emulation of something like DX7. that's cool thanks, will give it a try ! I did strongly suspect the Synth1, as I've had it for a few years. I LOVE the controls, I wish more synths were like that. BUT I'm firmly of the opinion is doesn't sound so 'analog'. Some people might call the sound 'plastic'. I sorta agree. I can here the difference. The Synth1 is a bit frustrating because it's so fun and easy to use, but the sound is not premium really IMO, and I don't think that's such an uncommon opinion. Still recommend it thought yeah, easy, solid, variety , low resource use. I'm not sure how much or for what sounds I'll continue to use it as I'm branching back into hardware and have other plugins I like the sound more (but not the controls !). I've tried some TAL, decent yeah. I've not gotten into Reactor. Great video. For the third one it may have been better to stay with the theme of a simpler-to-get-and-install. More in spirit of not just free, but also free of any hassles, complications, required registrations, or taunting limitations.
I was just thinking what free VST synths I can get yesterday. I knew about dexed, didn't know about synth1. Just going to say this...I think FM synthesis has to be one of the most important contributions to music in the last 50 years.
It’s amazing that dexed is free and still the most accurate sounding dx7 emulation, while there are versions of big companies that cost more than a 100 bucks,
@@maccagrabme I wasn't talking about that one, the one you're referring is more a general fm synth, not (just) specifically emulating the dx7.. I was pointing out the ones that just try to emulate a dx7 and not vst fm synths in general
Well yes, I knew Dexed and Synth1 would be the first two but I really thought TyrellN6 would be third. Must admit, I've had MikroPrism installed a few times but didn't get it enough of a shot. By the way, I can use the Reaktor Users Forum synths in Reaktor Player!
good shout, you know Tyrell or the 8X synth would have been a strong candidate for #3 except I was trying to pick different categories, and we'd already done the VA. Interesting about the reaktor player, I've heard that typically it won't work, I need to investigate and perhaps make a vid about it.
@@WoodyPianoShack ah yes good point regarding the different type of synths. I'm thinking of doing a vid on soft synths that are still, and probably will only be, 32bit. There are many hidden gems out there. Worth installing Jbridge alone!
I did guess _dexed_ right after the classic twangy, metally FM sound. But I also regret that Native Instruments do not support their brilliant FM-7 plugin any more. It was completely free last time you could install it, but since it is licenced via their NI Access DRM interface and they stopped offering to install it, I don't see any way of porting this to a new installation of any DAW - or operating system, for that matter. FM-7 is superior to _dexed_ IMHO for all the great presets it features, namely all the original DX-7 sounds, and a full bank of extented sounds. It also features a much extended control panel for _much_ easier editing of your own sounds. Then again, FM-8 is out, but sadly, it is not free of charge (last time I checked). So in my year-old installations, I still opt to use good old FM-7 instead of _dexed._
I have no Idea how to deal with all the options out there. I just want to enhance my songwriting. Which is all done on physical guitars and basses that I built from scratch. I have no keyboard skills other than a couple basic chords. Picked up a 49 key controller that works well enough. Do you know if these synths will work in Linux, with Harrison Mixbus, or Reaper?
@@WoodyPianoShack I have one called synthv1 that I'm playing with, but have a way to go to figure it out. I also have Fluidsynth, but it basically just plays sound fonts.
1:14 I'm going to pause the video right now and say that the first plugin was Dexed, with the "Say Again" preset. Edit: I was right! As for at 7:52 not sure, TAL noisemaker maybe? (again I posted this before watching the rest of the video) Edit: I was wrong/ and 17:48 ... no idea/ Edit: Dam stupid computer, when I type a "." dont put a "/" on the screen.
I expected also the OBXD, free Oberheim kinda plugin.
Synth1 is my favorite plugin of all time. I use this plugin since 2007 and still use it in all of my projects. And even when I'm out of inspiration I scroll through the banks with 25000 presets. I love the synth1
Yeah oxbd is the muts
+1 for OBxd. Amazing that it's free...
Neutrino Sky's synth1 librarian vst does a fantastic job of managing +10k patches for synth1. It works as a wrapper for synth 1. It auto categorizes, finds similar patches, tracks favorites etc. Fantastic solution for finding the sound your after.
Watch the video from him explaining about it: th-cam.com/video/vBF74Cg6E_s/w-d-xo.html
If you're in the programmer camp, you can down load the source for Dexed and play around. I've modified the timings for the envelope to fix some issues where it's not quite the same as the DX7 and added some switches to set the velocity to 100 for some of the purists and a few other items.
I love it, love it love it love it love it love it love it!!!
TAL Noisemaker is another little gem.
way to go Peter, respect!
Yeah, source code for us programmers! I think it was the first repo I starred on github.
My top three free synth plugins would be Dexed - Synth1 - Tyrell-N6. However, I found a free VST synth called "Charlatan" which, while it may not sound the best or have the most features, is very useful for beginners. It has a very simple, clean GUI and is a great tool for getting your head around using synthesis to create sounds, rather than surfing for presets.
"I don't really understand it, but who cares? It sounds great!" I absolutely love that logic. I totally agree too! Keep up the cracking work Woody. 🎹 ♥
Props for covering Prism, it's such an underrated instrument, one of my all time favourites. Very organic and malleable sounds. It uses a type of physical modelling called modal bank, which is a stack or resonant filters excited by noise (for wind and string type sounds) and/or a short ping for bells, mallets and guitar type of tones. I recognize and used them all, and would like to recommend U-he Zebralette, which adds another type of synthesis, wavetables. Nice job!
I think the PG-8X is highly underrated! A great free synth!
@@AlfaRomeoQ very accurate indeed. I have a roland JX10 and can hardly hear any difference
very interesting, thanks for sharing :)
@@WoodyPianoShack Check it out Woody! Looking forward to that content! And if you need some presets, let me know!
I have that too, sounds great and can play JX-8P Sysex
Great synth, indeed.
I remember a good friend getting his DX 7 in the early 90s. I was consumed with envy lol. Now we have an unimaginable choice of sounds and polyphony available, beyond anything we could envisage back then.
Other than your three.
1. Surge by Vember Audio better than most pay VST's, I use this one in many of my projects.
2. VB-1 by Steinberg it's a synth that does a Fender electric bass and it's my go to for bass lines
3. LABS by Spitfire. A sampler VST with more samples posted every month. Really good.
ya, surge! i own Serum, and it is comparable, but Serum cost over $200...
Woody, I dunno if you've looked much under the hood of Dexed, but you can can jump into the PARM menu, and if you change the Engine Resolution from Mark I (yukky 12 bit sine sample), you will get rid of the noisy artifacting in the Mark I DX7 (always wanted to do that on my real Mark I LOL). It's more like an SY77 or any modern FM engine when you select 24-Bit. Hope that little tip helps someone who wants a super-clean sound with the "real" DX patches.
that's a great tip, I have experimented with that setting in the past, and found the DX7 setting to be much noisier than my actual DX7! thanks :)
My 3 favourite freebies are TyrellN6, PG-8X (which I think you'd like Woody) and Dexed.
Haven't tried Mikro Prism. Sounds mad. I like it. :)
i have tried the 8X, feeling bad for not mentioning it at least on the vid! will do a separate video about it perhaps.
@@WoodyPianoShack Oh and I forgot SQ8L! Long in the tooth and only 32-bit, but really captures the spirit of those old analogue/digital hybrid Ensoniq beasts. :)
and obdx is also phenom!! like, I usually end up going straight to those 2 beofre anything else
Great picks and great review as usual, WPS!
Synth 1 was my first synth and I used it in my 2005 album, so it must be around since even earlier. But when i changed PC, I didn't install it anymore. First love you never forget..
Mikroprism has fantastic plucks, mallets, bells (and nothing else). As a free synth gives more than expected. But I payed the extra bucks to get the full Prism (30$ at Black Friday) and still it suffers from being on the Reaktor Player and not the full Reaktor: clumsy preset handling, no way of changing poliphony, no portamento, wrong user manual (you have to read Reaktor's manual..). Mikroprism sounds are not loaded into Prism!!
So I was hoping for 2 out of 3!!
Thanks for the tip to DeXEd, I did not know.
Generally this is a beautiful era, where we find the first '80 synths for free (the so called virtual analog). I got the little Vacuum Pro for free with Computer Music Magazine and it does the typical Duran Duran sound in save a prayer and few others. AIR gave it away at 1$ at some times.
Spending money, in the range 10 to 30 $ (at special times) one gets even more and all in all it's not much - for instance last year I got the fabolous Korg Wavestation vst (now 2.0) at 23$ with all the '90 sound card sets - but that's another topic..
My favorite three freebies: the TAL Juno emulation, Synth1, and the U-He TyrellN6. Only paid synth I own is U-he Diva.
I use Noisemaker from TAL a lot, love the filters!
I really enjoyed this. I kinda knew about these but it was nice to have someone go through and play some examples. I have too many synths.
You really ought to check out that free SURGE synth, it's an absolute beast.
Hi Woody, i have a few faves which are Surge, Synth1, TyrellN6, PG-8x, Nexus 2, Dexed, Genesis CM, I can go on & on , its so easy to get presets for them too.
SQ8L would be my choice for #3 if you have a setup powerful enough to handle 32bit plugins ;)
should have mentioned that one, thank goodness for the comments!
th-cam.com/video/bBaSXsLMiQw/w-d-xo.html
th-cam.com/video/OmMVB2ei3Gw/w-d-xo.html
www.buchty.net/ensoniq/
I owned an SQ80 from new back in 89, got the SQ8L since I was doing remote work and after A/B'ing it to death against my hardware sold the board! The only things I am really missing is the REALLY simple to use sequencer and of course the poly aftertouch keybed
The undisputed king of free VST synths, which is so good that beats easily the vast majority of commercial VSTs as well is ZynSubAddFX. If the name sounds like a nightmare the UI is even worse, but this thing is a beast when it comes to power and sound quality. It comes with a ton of cool presets and if you like making your own sounds it nukes alternative from orbit because this beast can do not only substractive, but also additive, fm, granular, sample based , waveshaping, ring modulation and the list goes on and on. Of course it has powerful effects and of course it has a powerful sequencer. There is a recent reskin but is not free, it low cost but worth its money hands down. But the original version is not only free but also open source. When it comes to free stuff there list is enormous. My favorite is Cabbage Audio, you can think of it like the open source version of Reaktor only much more powerful because its based on the amazing CSOUND. Even if you are not a hardcore synthesist the presets will provide you with a few hundrend good emulations of classic synths. Then there is crystal (absynth clone), Arminator ( an emulation of the god of analogue synth,s Yamaha CS-80) , the must have synths of HG Fortune for any musician interested in ambient music, Helix , Helm, Tripple Cheese, Zebrallete, VCV Rack, Arppe2600va, Nebula and many , many more :) Yes all of them have been around forever
Got the first two right. I would never have guessed the third vst though, so thanks for the surprise!
Figured Dexed right from the start... but not the others. I did wonder if I would see Arminator 2 - a CS80 lookalike... or even Harmonaught - a harmonic additive synth that reminds me of the Fairlight....
Arminator is fantastic but I'd give a kidney to have a mac version.
@@PeterWalkerHP16c Arminator 2 is even better!
I knew what #3 was from the first note - NI Mikro Prism. The nice thing about Mikro Prism is that if you eventually get the full Prism synth from NI, it doesn't replace Mikro Prism. There's a few unique sounds in Mikro not duplicated in regular Prism. They complement each other nicely.
well done, nobody guessed during the premiere...
Then there's another "category of free" too: The included "Free" Synths in different DAW:s.
I think "Steinberg Retrologue 2" is one of the absolute best "native"/included vst-i:s.
Fantastic analogue sounds that rivals many of the commercial offerings. You can get extremely warm string and brass sounds and it has a great, great distortion unit that when brought in, make it sound better than almost any other vst-i. The great thing is that the distortion unit also works very well to warm up strings and brass sounds, which is not often the case. Very retro sounding (hence the name).
But, yeah, I'm off track here. I can see that it is only included in Pro (which I have) and Artist, but not Elements or LE.
You have to pay for it if you use the cheaper versions of Cubase or other DAW:s.
+1, not only synths you get with DAWs but the software bundles you get when buying hardware controllers.
@@WoodyPianoShack Ah, yeah that too! Never been into NI or Arturia and the likes.
Neither for their controllers, nor for most of their vst-i:s (Kontakt, Reaktor for NI and some of the retro 80s digital(digital) emulations from Arturia being some of the exceptions).
But it looks really cool, more "hardware-y" and convenient!
Tempting when seeing them demonstrated.
But nothing feels like my original DX7 when playing. The "even response".
The travel of the black keys, for instance!
And my other controllers gets the job done in combination with that.
Have you heard or tried FLEX from Image Line?. If you have FLStudio 20.6 it is a free VST plugin.
I guessed all 3 correctly as I heard them. Proud of myself. However, I was really expecting one of them to be Tyrell haha. I think it’s great that the last one was an easily overlooked but powerful option. Still, I had to assume it was this upon hearing it, as there aren’t many other free options that do those types of sounds naturally.
trying to do 3 different types of synths, otherwise tyrell, obx, pg8x would have been competing 3rd place!
*Bristol* : It's a Linux synth that emulates loads of classic synths from Korg MS20 to MiniMoog and also does a few organs. I haven't actually used it in a few years but it does makes some lovely noises.
Hi Woody. Totally agree with you about the Reaktor Micro Prism synth, it's awesome. I've spend hours messing about with it and sent myself into some kind of 'sonic orbit' a few times. Great choice!
Synth one has a program as an add on called synth librarian. Makes preset browsing easy.
fantastic tip, will look into that.
I know plenty of people have suggested (arguably better) VSTs but one I think is a worthy candidate is the Cyclone (By Sonic Charge) it's a Yamaha TX16W sampler with the Typhoon OS upgrade. I suggest this as it's a good way for people to get a feel for vintage samplers without having to pint up cash and the space for one.
And anything by full bucket music.
Agreed. Amazing stuff they make.
@@ElectronicazMusic Absolutely! Can't believe it's all free. After months of using his synths the least I could do back was donate some money to his Paypal.
Oh yeah! I use them all the time.
DEXED, Doped! Terrible to use interface when programming.
One worth a mention is SQ8L (Adamski used the original for 'Killer'). The interface is.. Interesting.. But you can get some nice crunch out of it.
I picked Dexd as the first but was pleasantly surprised by the following 2,
and now will have to revisit Micro Prism which I have always liked
Love your work👍
There's also a very good free VST named Cobalt, an exact emulation of the Korg DW8000. The only downside is that you can't load SYSEX files
is there a cobalt version for mac users?
Cobalt isn't exactly like the DW8000, but it does share some waveforms.
It sounds great but is not an exact emulation at all, the 8000 is a dream synth for 80s music and I haven't heard a plugin come close yet, this synth is one of the best out there and way beyond the Junos, probably closer to a Jupiter.
My go-to free synths are OB-Xd, Helm and Dexed. I haven't spent much time with other free ones. We really are spoiled for choice these days.
Tunefish V4 is an awesome free VST synth. Powerful and very light on resources.
really helpful, thank you I'm going to add some of these to my collection!
Mini Moog, Yamaha DX7 and Krog Wavestation 🤔
Oh snap, I got one right. But these are my favorite synthenziers.
Very good video. My 3 choices WERE (before your video) dexed, pg8x, sq8-l. But your synth 1 and reactor synth is very nice I’ll download right away.
My top ten free synths, in no particular order:
Synth1
OBXD
Surge
PG-8X
Tyrell N6
SQ8L
Dexed
Minimogue VA
TAL Noisemaker
Superwave P8
Bonus:
Crystal
Of course, you don't need 10 synthesizers. But it's so fun to just sit there and jam out for hours on a midi controller while testing them all out.
Amazing presentation... I'm new to software synth and would like to know your opinion about VCV Rack
Yes yes! I knew I`ll see my all the time fav Synth1 by Ichiro Toda here! Thanks Woody for choice it. Dexed and VSTs by TAL is also one of my fav, but for the FM-synth today I have the hardware Yamaha SY77 =) Thanks for demonstrating the Micro Prism - I heard about but didn`t try it. This sounds very interesting and cool!
Two others that people should check out that have a lot of third party soundbanks are Firebird and Oatmeal.
Besides Synth1 and TAL Noisemaker, I use Charlatan2 a lot. Amazing little free synth.
TAL Noisemaker is a great free synth for a long time now.
@@usnmjim Great filters!
The Superwave P8 is a great free VST.
ReFX Vanguard was awesome too, but I don't find the link anymore (not free).
A VST I always wanted to try out is Rubberduck, a 303 style synth.
Me during the entire first 3 minutes: "dexed on the list? Is it dexed? I hope its dexed"
Micro Prism is actually only a player, the full version with all controls is named just Prism.
Surge is very nice. Only used it a little bit, but it will be used more in the future.
25:22
“COVID-19 Social Distancer”
Hi, I enjoy your channel a lot, thank you! Is synth1 compatible with Catalina, as I see no updates since 2015.
Thank You, Woody! You`re just awesome! And thanks for the nice demonstrations!
great name synth1
Never heard of Mikro Prism but it sounds awesome! Gonna grab me some of that ASAP. Tnx for the heads up.
Dexed, Synth1 and.... i don’t know :)... lol i was right. I would add Proteus VX imho
good call, i've tried that before and always struggled to get it to work, discontinued and unsupported for many years, the quest goes on for a decent free rompler vst...
I can't remember where I came across it but I found the "modules" offered by Emu as add-ons to ProteusVX. I bought Proteus X YEARS ago and still use it, and those add-ons worked in VX as well. The "modules" cover fairly well everything Emu put out EXCEPT the Morpheus (sadly).
@@WoodyPianoShack Its tricky, something I notice is that sometimes it appears to have crashed but whats happened is a window has popped up behind the daw or reaper asking to save, or something like that. I used it in reaper on win 7.
The Proteus has great sounds!
Great video as usual, hope you are safe in Sweden. I have an AKAI MPK49, is it difficult to map the knobs as you did with the Roland?
no i don't think it will be hard, the software has a midi-learn feature which listens for whichever knobs you want to map.
@@WoodyPianoShack I got the Analogue Dreams going eventually but it all sounded harsh and distorted. One big gotcha you might mention is you have to add Kontakt as a virtual instrument to the track, instead of a midi recorder. Helpful TH-cam. Stay safe. Regards,..
Thanks again Woody. Those bells at 17:50 sound like "Time" by Pink Floyd (what a masterpiece). BTW - Great choices for your free synths.
Hi woody, have a question for you. Have you done a review on the Yamaha MOXF 88. ? I have been wanting this keyboard. Foe a while , but the stopped making them. Another? Is 61s or the 88s keyboard is Komplete control. Iam a guitar player first and have written parts of songs on keyboards when I have been around them really stuck on what to buy.. ,if the computer dies the jam screwed. What would you do?,
thanks for the synth1. My faves would actually be Dexed. Obxd and Helm. but the synth 1 sounds great.
I'd never seen Dexed, but by the sound I sorta thought is was an emulation of something like DX7. that's cool thanks, will give it a try ! I did strongly suspect the Synth1, as I've had it for a few years. I LOVE the controls, I wish more synths were like that. BUT I'm firmly of the opinion is doesn't sound so 'analog'. Some people might call the sound 'plastic'. I sorta agree. I can here the difference. The Synth1 is a bit frustrating because it's so fun and easy to use, but the sound is not premium really IMO, and I don't think that's such an uncommon opinion. Still recommend it thought yeah, easy, solid, variety , low resource use. I'm not sure how much or for what sounds I'll continue to use it as I'm branching back into hardware and have other plugins I like the sound more (but not the controls !). I've tried some TAL, decent yeah. I've not gotten into Reactor. Great video. For the third one it may have been better to stay with the theme of a simpler-to-get-and-install. More in spirit of not just free, but also free of any hassles, complications, required registrations, or taunting limitations.
I was just thinking what free VST synths I can get yesterday. I knew about dexed, didn't know about synth1. Just going to say this...I think FM synthesis has to be one of the most important contributions to music in the last 50 years.
100%, the DX7 changed everything.
Nice video! I guessed Synth 1 correctly. AlgoMusic M42 is great too!
microprism is such a lovely sounding synthesizer!. love it. well all of the vsts you recommend are fantastic actually.
First has to be Dexed. Other two i haven’t a clue. Wait second is synth1. It has to be. Obxd is also pretty amazing sounding.
The synth at the end sounded like watching an episode of Miami Vice
Great list, nice one Woody!
Thank you for this
You should check out Akai VIP to manage your VSTi patches.
All these sound good, Woody.
Great! Can't not droole despite having to much already. Surge is also nice. Oh and Spitfire gave a wurli free today in labs. Amazing times
good call on the Spitfire Labs!
Can't wait to see this one!!!
Wow.. That Mikro is awesome.. kinda wonky to get working.. but is it worth it...
nord modular demo is a one voice exact replica of the hardwar3 unit. Run it at 96k and you have a nord modulo free. Also vcv. Free
It’s amazing that dexed is free and still the most accurate sounding dx7 emulation, while there are versions of big companies that cost more than a 100 bucks,
Well I still love the sound of FM7/8, it has far more scope than just the basic FM sounds so you are paying for the extras.
@@maccagrabme I wasn't talking about that one, the one you're referring is more a general fm synth, not (just) specifically emulating the dx7.. I was pointing out the ones that just try to emulate a dx7 and not vst fm synths in general
Well yes, I knew Dexed and Synth1 would be the first two but I really thought TyrellN6 would be third. Must admit, I've had MikroPrism installed a few times but didn't get it enough of a shot.
By the way, I can use the Reaktor Users Forum synths in Reaktor Player!
good shout, you know Tyrell or the 8X synth would have been a strong candidate for #3 except I was trying to pick different categories, and we'd already done the VA. Interesting about the reaktor player, I've heard that typically it won't work, I need to investigate and perhaps make a vid about it.
@@WoodyPianoShack ah yes good point regarding the different type of synths.
I'm thinking of doing a vid on soft synths that are still, and probably will only be, 32bit. There are many hidden gems out there. Worth installing Jbridge alone!
Nice hoodie Woody. And if you're in a good mood S-VHS?
Micro-Prism reminds me a lot of the Kawai K5 additive synth from the 1980's.
Is the SYNTH 1 close to the Korg DW synths of the 1980s?
9:28 Do I detect a hint of Kraftwerks Tour De France? Thanks for a great review of these VSTs Woody 👌
Thought exactly the same. :-)
i started playing it and then had the sinking feeling that I didn't know how to play it, so tried to disguise it :)
mikro prism is badass, thanks!
I did guess _dexed_ right after the classic twangy, metally FM sound. But I also regret that Native Instruments do not support their brilliant FM-7 plugin any more. It was completely free last time you could install it, but since it is licenced via their NI Access DRM interface and they stopped offering to install it, I don't see any way of porting this to a new installation of any DAW - or operating system, for that matter. FM-7 is superior to _dexed_ IMHO for all the great presets it features, namely all the original DX-7 sounds, and a full bank of extented sounds. It also features a much extended control panel for _much_ easier editing of your own sounds. Then again, FM-8 is out, but sadly, it is not free of charge (last time I checked). So in my year-old installations, I still opt to use good old FM-7 instead of _dexed._
FM7 and Fm8 are fabulous, yes, don't remember 7 ever being free though
I have no Idea how to deal with all the options out there. I just want to enhance my songwriting. Which is all done on physical guitars and basses that I built from scratch. I have no keyboard skills other than a couple basic chords. Picked up a 49 key controller that works well enough. Do you know if these synths will work in Linux, with Harrison Mixbus, or Reaper?
the 3rd one, probably not, the first 2, probably. maybe just pick up a entry level synth or if you're getting started on keys?
@@WoodyPianoShack I have one called synthv1 that I'm playing with, but have a way to go to figure it out. I also have Fluidsynth, but it basically just plays sound fonts.
For some reason i just had to subscribe again to your awesome channel.
ah shucks, thanks!
Does dexed work well with Yamaha MX88?
Gonna guess dexed and tal juno
They are my all time favourites. Have you tried TAL Noisemaker?? It's a little gem as well.
good video,but i can not find in synth1 the sound 19:scenicvoyage,in wich soundbank is this sound?
probably somewhere in the megapack...
@15:53 "It looks great"? Hmmm ... DOES it? ;) @17:47 Not often a free synth makes me go "WOW" at the first sound - this is really nice.
there is beauty in the simplicity and functionality, no frills ftw!!
Dexed I figured be the first one just by the sound. The Native instruments one sounds very FM like.
1:14 I'm going to pause the video right now and say that the first plugin was Dexed, with the "Say Again" preset.
Edit: I was right!
As for at 7:52 not sure, TAL noisemaker maybe? (again I posted this before watching the rest of the video)
Edit: I was wrong/
and 17:48 ... no idea/
Edit: Dam stupid computer, when I type a "." dont put a "/" on the screen.
respect, not only the synth but the preset name!
paused it 30 seconds in to type this: i am subscribed. pretty sure i will have no need of the free plugins but you look interesting so i am in.
thank, but i'm actually quite a bore :D
i guessed the first two. would love to see you do a vid on surge...or anything really...oh synthmaster one...it's on massive sale now too
Feel like i need to add the TyrellN6 to your list.
Mikro Prism sounds really interesting.
Great video man. I predicted Dexed. For obvious reasons. :D
How are you liking that A49?
i used the roland because it transmits program change from buttons very easily. and it's compact, otherwise i don't have much good to say about it.
Interesting. I haven’t used program changes with soft synths in years.
Synth1 is my Jam!
What is this midi controller on the video ?
What DAW is Woody using?
Reaper
5:40 And also usable for Volca FM
Taking a guess at the beginning of the video: Dexed will be one of your choices.
Which midi keyboArd is this?
I suspected Synth-1. I didn't know the others. I'v e got to get my DAW working again after a computer crash and the first VST I add will be Synth-1.
Nice one Woody :)
Uvi workstation, push randomizer, synthmaster player free, big list ahead
Lol when i heard the first Dexed preset i burst out laughing, just like i did when i first play it.
I'm going to guess that first one is called the hiccup remover? Mmmm nice *WOMP* so sweet *WOMP*