for the longest i've only been using my guitar and a microkorg to make beats but recently i've been getting into soft synths and i'm just curious what y'all like to use.
my favorite rn is the diva cause its so easy to make real dreamy a***og sounds

Zebra HZ (made by U-He who also makes Diva), it’s a great compliment to Diva and I highly recommend it. I also use Omnisphere 2 and Serum.

prophet V. Not sure why but just go to it out of habit and like it

same

arturia collection is nuts

if u want soft synths look into synth vsts that focus on fm synthesis. or a***og synths too.

Alchemy as a sampler

Serum but I tend to resample

i heard ableton got a really good stock fm synth, and diva is probly the best a***og synth imo, makes arturia redundant for me. Can't believe a***og is censored here lmao

I was really close to getting the arturia collection but I got keyscape instead

I really wish I had the suite upgrade cause it’s also got a wavetable synth now

Are there any you recommend?

Operator is sick - lotta dnb guys swear by it. Basic FM patches and some post processing can create super unique results.

For true FM with a matrix - FM8 is classic, it's been around for a decade+ so there's pretty much unlimited resources.

There's a cool free Yamaha DX7 emulator, I'm blanking on the name of it. It sounds great, I just hate the envelopes in it. It can load the same presets the original DX7 used. There are a million patches for it.

Serum is great, but it doesn't have an FM operator matrix. I'm a huge fan. It's easy to get good sounds out of it. Theres a lot of cool stuff you can do with serumFX as well. Being able to draw your own envelopes is really intuitive. I <3 being able to draw my own wavetables too. The FFT bin is dope once you get the gist of waveshapes.

Phaseplant seems super super cool. It has an operator matrix. You can get it for $10 a month + a bunch of other plugins on kilohearts website. The kilohearts multipass plugin looks insane. A lot of dnb guys are hyping up phaseplant a lot.

Personally, I prefer reshaping samples. I make a patch a like/grab a preset, bounce it and drop it in a sampler/work with it in audio. I'm trying to work with samples more than softsynths atm.

If you really wanna be a nerd, VCV rack. Press record in audacity before you start making a patch. Chop out the cool parts that don't sound like s*** and arrange them/put them in a sampler.

It's a blast, but it's also black hole of productivity lol

Dexed is the name of the free dx7 emulator. synth1 is another free synth, modeled after the nord lead, has a really bright sound. good for pads and leads. minimogueva is a free minimoog emulator, has a darker sound and is good for basslines (would recommend diva over this one, but some of the presets are nice)

honestly if you're tryna make commercial music i would stick to stock/paid synths

zebra is nice its got a retro feel to it and it does FM. it helps if u kno what kinda music u wanna make and just youtube the demos

omnisphere seems to be the hip hop industry favourite rn. lot of presets (too much imo) and sounds great straight out the box very little tweakin required.

Arturia DX7 and Tal Uno X are what I use all the time. I tweak the s*** out of them

FM8

Ableton’s operator or a***og

Arturia prophet

i like ample guitars plugins but the acoustic is probably the most versatile.