Top 5 Vst/Soft Synths

What are your top 5 vst/vsti/soft synths? I want to get some ideas on the next one I'm getting.
Please don't post ones that are already included in sonar

Hmm...

I would say

VST instruments
- Battery 3 (Part of Komplete 7)
- Addictive Drums (Incl. all exp packs)
- Kontakt 4 (part of Komplete 7) + Numerous sample libraries
- Fabfilter's Twin 2
- IK Multimedia's Miroslav Philharmonik
- NI's Kore 2 (+exp packs) 

For VST Instruments, if you don't already have Komplete 7, I would highly recommend it. Great value and bang for your buck!

VST effects - 
for mixing
 - Fabfilter's Total Bundle (Pro-C, Pro-Q, Pro-L, Volcano 2, Timeless 2) Is really stellar, the more I use it the more I love it!
 - UAD 2 - Studer A800, Massive Passive, EMT 250, EMT 240, Fatso, 
 - IK Multimedia's T-Racks 3 Deluxe
 - 2C Audio's Aether 1.5 and Breeze
For creative effects
 - IK Multimedias Amplitube 3
 - NI's Guitar Rig 4 (+ effects)
 - Camel Audio's Camel Space

And there are many more  but those are some of my favorites

Kontakt 4
EZ Drummer + Expansion packs
Superior Drummer


worst purchase ever:  Gigastudio.  not because it wasn't good, but because Tascam ruined it and dropped support.

Current Favs

1. DCAM Synth Squad
2. Stylus RMX
3. Trillian
4. Battery
5. Absynth
 

Top of my Wish List

-Omnisphere

Kontakt 4
Tassman
Wusik
Albino
FM8

Top five ... you're going to get a different list from everyone, so I'm not sure how useful this is.  But since you asked (in no particular order):
 
Omnisphere - I don't even own this one yet but based on its reputation alone, it's got to be on the list
 
Zebra 2.5 - A brilliant fabulous sounding instrument that finally has documentation on how to use it properly in designing sounds.
 
Alchemy - Utterly brilliant design and programming from top to bottom.
 
FabFilter Twin 2 - just bought this and haven't even installed it yet, but I'm putting it here based on how excited I am after just reading the documention (that and FabFilter's sterling reputation as one of the top suppliers of VST effects plugs).
 
Kontakt - You probably need one instrument who's specialty is playing samples, and this one has the widest coverage in terms of third party sounds.  Buy Komplete and you get a whole bunch of other instruments and effects for a small premium.

Superior Drummer
Lounge Lizard
Real Guitar
Virtual Guitarist 2
Trilian

Almost all of my projects seem to include these:

NI Battery 3
NI B4II
Cakewalk Rapture
Cakewalk Dimension Pro
GSi MrRay

These are the softsynths that I definitely use most.

JoshWolfer


I've been wanting to check out Alchemy for a while, but it's some serious cash. Same with Symphobia (Kontakt expansions).

Josh,
This guy at KVR has been unloading all his VST's (some really good ones) including Alchemy:
http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=320045

Kontakt + third party libraries
Superior Drummer
Minimonsta
Amplitube 3.5
Overloud VKFX - (specalist vintage keyboard effects that really work well with the e pianos and keyboards I have in Kontakt)
 
 

Love this thread!  I hope it doesn't sink too far down too quickly.  I've been out of the VST market for awhile and am using this to help me know what's out there now (unfortunately, I have a couple that are listed here, but not all work on my box-o-rox DAW - something I've started working on to replace).

Good examples are all the Spectrasonics stuff - never heard of them before today. 

I'm going to buck the trend here and give Steven Slate Drums Platinum the nod over Superior Drummer. I bought both, but only EVER use Superior for hi-hat or cymbals. For hard rock and metal, Slate just kills.

So in order of most usage, these are my 5:
1) Voxengo GlissEQ
2) Crysonic Nxstacy. This is killer and I'm using it on usually 3 busses per project lately. Try the demo!
3) Nomad Factory BlueTube compressor - a miracle for vocals!
4) IK Multimedia CSR Plate Reverb - ridiculously versatile.
5) Steven Slate Platinum 3.5

Crysonic Sindo 3.0 might push something out soon. Great great product. Interesting that none of mine are on anyone's list haha.

Wow, they have Novation BassStation as a plug-in?  I've got a "real" one - very cool for as simple as it is!

Sylenth 1
Vienna Symphonic libraries
Ozone 4
Fabfilter simplon!
Novation bass-station

+( sonar effects/synths )

craigb


Wow, they have Novation BassStation as a plug-in?  I've got a "real" one - very cool for as simple as it is!

It's been out since 2003 afaik. Can be found for around £20/$40 new online.


I think it can load patches/sysx from the "real" one too, so you could save yourself some rack space & gain a bit more control.