On to our picks for the best VST synthesizers.

An oldy but a goody, Omnisphere is a hugely expansive synthesizer. Originally designed for pads, it has evolved to become a versatile playground of sound, landscapes, and rhythms that can reflect hardware but also take you off to planets you’ve never explored before.

The secret of its huge and powerful sound comes from the layering of mixing of sounds within the engine. Each patch can have 4 layers of sound made from over 500 DSP waveforms, filtered by 34 types, modulated by 8 LFOs and 12 envelopes.

You can import your own audio and then have it pulled apart into individual grains and modulated to within an inch of its life. There’s a massive bank of 57 effects units to process and push your sounds into new zones. All of which can be modulated from the same synthesis engine. There are over 14,000 presets to play with. It has an “Orb” performance interface where you can set things in motion and spin it into sound morphing and discovery.

Omnisphere also has a unique relationship to hardware synthesizers. A growing list of over 30 hardware synths now supports a level of integration where Omnisphere becomes the synth engine of the hardware. Taking every hardware control and mapping it to parameters inside that pull our hardware-specific elements of Omnisphere. It brings that familiar layout of your favorite synth into the inner workings of Omnisphere.

Omnisphere is an extraordinarily powerful synthesizer.

Street Price: $479
spectrasonics.net

Regarded as one of the most vital virtual instruments for EDM and contemporary pop music, Serum is a complex wavetable synthesizer that enables you to explore intense sounds through a playful user interface. Although it’s been around a while now it can’t be beaten on how effortlessly it offers up killer sound after killer sound.

Serum comes with 450 presets and 144 wavetables and so at a basic level, you’re not going to run out of ideas very quickly. Although you can design and import your own wavetables, Serum gives you loads of ways to mess about with what’s already there. You can frequency modulate, amplitude modulate, and ring modulate. You can dial in some oscillator sync and lean heavily on the Warp to push the waveform in all sorts of directions.

Modulation works by dragging and dropping connections between modulation sources and the knob you want to modulate. It’s instantly satisfying, controllable, and editable in the waveform display. There’s a wide range of filter types from regular low pass to comb, phasers, and flangers, and all of it ripe for modulation.

An effects rack of 10 effect modules makes Serum sound huge and you can play polyphonically or stack the voices up into huge unison modes for unbelievably fat sounds.

Serum sounds fantastic for the beginner and the seasoned professional. It’s instantly awesome and has bags of depth for those who want to dive deeper.

Street Price: $189
xferrecords.com

This is a superb and officially endorsed emulation of one of the greatest synths ever made, the Oberheim OB-X. Used by every 80s artist and pop star worth talking about and has defined what we know as that synth sound ever since. Warm, lush, thick and fruity tones are the name of the day.

OB-X features up to 16 voices of polyphony using authentic emulations of the original two-oscillator circuitry, classic SEM filter and comprehensive modulation. So you get all the sounds and all the warmth that you’d expect from this awesome synthesizer. And if things get a bit clean then you can dial in the “Vintage” sound with added imperfections and deterioration.

A whole new row of enhancements has been added to augment the workflow. You have extra modulation in the fully customisable XLFO and XADSR. You’ve got velocity and aftertouch for a more dynamic performance. And you’ve got studio-quality chorus, delay, and reverb effects for a complete studio sound in one instrument.

It has four macros controls for simple sound transformations and comes with over 400 presets to take you on a journey through the possibilities.

Street Prices: $99
Gforce Software.com

They call it a “polychrome software synthesizer” and it combines wavetable, virtual analog, granular, and sampling in one engaging and organically flowing machine. Pigments is emotional — it’s all about movement and engaging all of our senses in the exploration of sound and synthesis.

Right from the start Pigments oozes life and visual excitement. It wears its modulation front and center with graphical representations of every wave, every curve, and every possibility. You can almost program this synth visually and know exactly what it’s going to sound like.

Getting into the details: you have 2 synth engines that can handle any of the available types of synthesis and then combine and modulate through each other. With the sampling side, you can load up to 6 slots of samples and play them like a sampler or route them through a granular engine to pull out the grains and generate new soundscapes.

There are multiple filter types including SEM and Buchla low pass gates to sculpt your sound and then you can create the most amazing amount of movement through the many-faceted modulation engine.

You can trigger automation from the keyboard, wrap it in envelopes, move it with LFOs, create mathematical functions, randomize and combine modulators to form new modulators. This is crazy town. And once things are moving you can work it all through the step sequencer with lanes of further automation and explorable randomization.

Pigments has awesome architecture and a workflow that’s easy to use and fun to stumble through.

Street Prices: $199
arturia.com

VCV Rack is a wonderfully deep, complex and versatile emulation of the world of Eurorack modular synthesis. It has ballooned into an extraordinary universe of sound and possibility that will expand your mind and work your computer to the edge of its capability. Previously only available as a standalone product the new Pro version 2 can run as a VST synth inside your DAW.

There are hundreds and hundreds of individual modules available for VCV Rack. Each one bringing its own flavor to your recipe of modular madness. You have oscillators, modulators, filters and sequencers, utilities, logic, effects and mixing, blending, shaping, bending and granulating. Anything you can imagine can be found in VCV Rack.

However, it’s not going to that easy. With VCV Rack, as with a modular system, you’re going to have to patch it together yourself using virtual patch cables and some idea about what you’re doing. If you’re new to concepts of synthesis then you’ll have to learn pretty quick about signal flow, control voltage and modulation. But once you’ve got through the surface then there are limitless possibilities inside and not a preset to be found.

Street Prices: $149
VCV Rack

This is cheating and I fully embrace it. The Arturia V Collection isn’t a single virtual synthesizer; it’s a collection of all the most important and desirable classic synthesizers you could ever need. It’s an extraordinary bundle of Synth VSTs that authentically captures the legendary sounds and interfaces of vintage synthesizers and bulks it out with some innovative modern instruments.

You have the expected legends like the Minimoog and Moog Modular, SEM, MS-20, Jupiter 8, and ARP 2600. But then there are more unusual machines like the Buchla Easel, SQ80, Synthi, and Yamaha CS-80. And it’s not all analog as we have a Fairlight, Synclaviar, and DX-7 to play with. And going beyond synthesis into acoustic and electric pianos, string machines, and organs.

The V Collection is a stunning range of instruments, each of which would keep any synth fan happy for a long time. It also comes with a huge curated library of presets and, via the Analog Lab plugin, you can run the sounds together without loading up the individual synths.

At $499 it’s a decent investment that’s worth every cent.

Street Prices: $499
arturia.com

The Moog Mariana is the most exciting bass synth I’ve come across in a long time. It draws on the Moog legacy of making fantastic low frequency machines. It’s distinctive, throbbingly powerful and guranteed to rattle your rib cage.

Mariana is a two-layer synth, each built around two oscillators and two resonant filters. If it wasn’t meaty enough Moog added in a sub-oscillator that has a life and filter all of its own. Using these oscillators in union offers up some amazingly juicy beating and viby warmth. An entire page is dedicated to control and modulation where you can employ envelopes, LFOs, random sources to dozens of destinations. And you have two identical layers to build the most epic of synth sounds.

At the end of the chain is a stereo mixer that brings the synth layers together through tube distortion and tape saturation. It glues things together before sending out to delay and chorus effects.

The power of this synth is in the versatility of the oscillators and the extensive modulation. You can make a decent bass sound – sure – but you can also take into directions you never would have considered.

Street Prices: $49
MoogMusic.com

The Korg collection of synths has been going for a long long time. I think I used some of the synths at a gig in 2010. Anyway, the collection lay dormant for a few years but has recently been reworked and expanded into its fifth iteration.

The Collection is a showcase of Korg’s finest achievements along with a shared legacy with ARP synthesizers. You’ve got old favorites like the MS-20 and miniKORG 700s, the polyphonic Polysix and the classic Mono/Poly. But you’ve also got digital classics like the M1 and Triton workstation. From ARP we have the 2600 and Odyssey to add some serious character and classic vibes. You’ve also got rhythm machines, groove boxes and effects processors and many more synths. The latest additions include the VOX Super Continental organ and EP-1 electric piano.

What’s interesting about this collection is how diverse the sounds are. You’ve got classic analogue mixed with virtual analogue, wavetable and PCM. You’ve got thick basslines alongside environmental soundscapes and twinkling keyboards. It’s an amazing exploration into the history of synthesis and every one is recognisable from how often you hear them in popular music.

Street Prices: $299
Korg.com

Check out our comprehensive guides on the best polysynth, best drum VST, free drum VSTs and guitar VSTs.