Crystal Clarity

Crystal proves the best things in life truly can still be free!

Perhaps the single greatest bargain in the softsynth world is the venerable and free Crystal (www.greenoak.com/crystal/), which is yours for nothing more than the time it takes to download. While you might suspect that a free synth is nothing to write home about, guess again—Crystal is a truly sweet-sounding instrument, with a great selection of presets and some seriously deep controls. It has two classic synthesis modes—FM and Subtractive—and a full range of built-in effects, along with extensive modulation controls. All this results in complex, rich sounds—and the online manual is quite extensive and clear.

May The G-Force Be With You

Get your Mellotron on for less than $100 with G-force’s M-tron synth.

G-Force (www.gforcesoftware.com) has created some truly impressive digital reproductions of some of the quirkier analog synths of yesteryear, and we have a particular fondness for M-Tron, which is based on the Mellotron keyboard (think Moody Blues or the strings from “Strawberry Fields Forever”). Then there’s the impOSCar, based on the somewhat obscure OSCar synth that graced quite a few British synth-pop albums of the eighties, and it’s got some seriously juicy filters. For a street price of less than a hundred bucks each, these synths are totally musical and will help add a vintage vibe to your tunes.

Go Native

Drinking this Absynth isn’t hazardous to your health.

Native Instruments (www.native-instruments.com) is one of the most popular music software makers in the world, and for good reason: Absynth is amazing, with an intuitive interface, excellent presets, and the kind of emanations that are perfect for any genre served by synthesized sounds. Massive is a big, bad bruiser that can shake the shingles off the roof, and we found it to be a cinch to program. If you’re looking to get into the R&B groove, B4 II is a dead-on impersonation of the unique Hammond B3 sound, and it’s a lot easier to lug to gigs than the real thing. Native Instruments makes some other great synths, so check them out and prepare to be impressed.

Go By Camel

This Cameleon has very good karma.

Another independent developer, Camel Audio (www.camelaudio.com), has a wonderful, mystical, and downright frightening synth called Cameleon 5000, which has absolutely no counterpart in the hardware world. It can do things that are almost paranormal in nature, like open a sampled sound file and “resynthesize” it with its awesome synthesis engine, as well as move between four different sounds in ways that will bend your mind. While it comes with over 600 excellent presets, there are thousands more for the taking when you register the software, so it’s unlikely that you’ll ever run out of inspiration—or useful sounds. If you’re into the kind of brooding, atmospheric sounds that are found in movie soundtracks, Cameleon 5000 is a one-stop shop for bona fide aural goodness. 

Indie Pop

Plug in to the Lin sound with Free Alpha 3.

In the spirit of independence, LinPlug (www.linplug.com) is a developer out of Germany with a wide line of useful softsynths. There’s a LinPlug synth for just about any budget, and if you don’t believe us, check out the potent Free Alpha 3, which is, well, free. The $99 Alpha 3 is a solid workhorse and an excellent introduction to subtractive synthesis theory, the foundation of the analog synth world. Moving up the scale, ChronoX3 is a sample-based synth that covers everything from electric pianos to bubbling trance passages. One of our favorite overall softsynths is Albino 3, and, while it costs $249, it has more programming power than you’re ever likely to tap in a musical lifetime.

Sound Surge

We bet you can’t exhaust all the possibilities open to you in Surge.

Vember Audio’s Surge (www.vemberaudio.se) is a potent softsynth that packs a serious wallop for its $149 price tag. With over 1,000 presets and a synthesis engine that encompasses a vast territory of possibilities, we found this almost-unknown gem to be a wonderful instrument, full of great timbres and a straightforward interface design. Surge is deep, highly tweakable, and loads of fun to program and play.

Jam Like Vangelis

Arturia (www.arturia.com) is the primary purveyor of reborn analog synths, and its officially endorsed MiniMoog V and Modular Moog V emulations are even better than the original gear—you can play actual chords, instead of just the single monophonic note capabilities of the originals. If you’re a Vangelis fan—he’s guy who did the soundtrack for Blade Runner—you’ll absolutely adore the CS-80V, which is based on the rare Yamaha synth that was Vangelis’s main axe for years. Arturia’s Analog Factory is a best-of collection of over 3,500 preset sounds culled from its vast virtual library, with basic editing abilities that should keep you going for a few years or so. Arturia’s softsynths are all list-priced at $249, but you can easily find them for $199 street. The V Collection is a bundle of Arturia’s top six instruments, and at $699, it might seem pricey—until you consider that $700 is what you’d pay for a low-end hardware synth. If you tried to acquire these six synths as hardware, you’d be looking at around $16,000.

Bang Your iDrum

Keep your headphones on so you don’t annoy the neighbors.

Izotope’s (www.izotope.com) sweet iDrum is an excellent and exceedingly straightforward electronic drum machine, and for $69, it’s both very cool and extremely useful. Patterned on classic drum machines, iDrum is geared toward electronic, trance, and dance music, and it includes a boatload of presets that will keep you in the beat for years.

Ebony and Ivory

Get lovely piano sound without the heavy lifting.

Modartt Pianoteq 2 (www.pianoteq.com) is the definitive modeled acoustic piano (5 out of 5 stars, June/08, p74), and even though it surpasses our $200 price ceiling, it might be the single most useful AU instrument plug-in in existence. It’s small, highly tweakable, and its sound is just astounding, gorgeous and alive. Ditch the heavy upright or grand—Pianoteq 2 is the holy grail of digital ivories.