This post was inspired by the D16 LuSH-101 thread.

Whenever a new synth comes along, I see a lot of interest from folks who, like me, don't do EDM but still use synthesizers regularly. It seems we have a common goal, which is finding pleasing organic sounds that aren't based on a swept-bandpass sawtooth or dissonant, fizzy detuned unison oscillators. If you're like me, you have no interest in anything "lo-fi", bit-crushed or aliased. You prefer acoustic drums to a TR-808, sampled strings and brass over Jupiter-8 simulations. If this describes you, then this thread is addressed to you. Fans of acts beginning with "DJ___" or whose names end with "Z" need not reply. 
 
If you are into EDM, there are plenty of resources to turn to. KVR's membership is 80% EDM practitioners. Computer Music magazine is 99% EDM-oriented. Even the relatively stodgy Sound on Sound devotes a lot of ink to products that appeal primarily to kids with laptops who want to be the next DeadMou5e. The same wealth of information is not available to those of us who use synths for color in what is mostly real-world based music.

I'm not talking about the world of sampled instruments. Forums do exist that are dedicated to orchestral music and sampled sounds, even on EDM-obsessed KVR. I use samplers a lot, but samplers don't cover every base (I despise sampled analog synths!). What I'm talking about are real synthesizers that may or may not be inspired by hardware predecessors. Products such as Zebra, Diva, Dune, Oxium, Massive, impOSCar and sylenth1, as well as hybrid sampler/synths such as Alchemy and Omnisphere.

Of those synths listed above, Omnisphere is the only one I actually own. I have heard examples of them all, but in almost every case the demo songs were nothing I could personally relate to. I have listened to almost every entry in KVR's One-Synth-Challenge, but it's the same story: lots of imaginative sounds but very little I'd ever use in my own material. Nothing that screamed "I gotta have that synth!".

Which is all just a long-winded way of asking others with similar musical tastes and interests to clue me in to software synthesizers that they have found useful. 

The two I find most useful are MiniMonsta and Korg's MonoPoly, both classic vintage analogue emulations that are good for rock music, funk and pop (and EDM).

Away for vintage emulations I am slowly getting into Z3tA 2. Once you get away from the EDM biased presets and start building things from scratch its very versatile.

And of course there are sampled synths and sampled synths. Some of the things Hollow Sun do in their Music Laboratory Machines are pretty amazing. 

Bit
I use various Arturia synths a lot these days. I used to use a couple of Gforce synths, but since I went 64 bit / X1 these do not seem to play well at all - Imposcar 2 does and is a fantastic product which I have and use.
I have a number of the "usual suspects" you have mentioned, but since continually getting burned by Software Companies dropping products (Kore, Powercore, Muse - the list is forever growing!) I went and spent some money on second hand REAL synths.
Glad  I did - as well as sounding greta, they are fun to play and if they stop working I just get them repaired!
My latest two purchases are a Seil Flying 61 which cost me 69 pounds (cost of a mid priced plug in!) and a Honher K4 with swell pedal - this was expensive at 107 pounds!!!!!

One soft synth I do love which you have not mentioned is Phosphor from Audio Damage - I have most of Chris's stuff (plug in wise) and this synth is a little different I feel - limited perhaps but definitly different!

http://www.audiodamage.co.../product.php?pid=AD027

and have you ever tried Scanned Synth - I don't use this too much but it does make some interesting sounds.
http://www.humanoidsounds.co.uk/products.html

Nigel

I can relate to Bitflipper's musical tastes, and while I haven't worked much with purely synthetic sounds lately, the ones I find most pleasing have been from Fairlights and vintage Moogs (as used in '70s-style rock).  Hollow Sun has a Vintage Samplers Kontakt library that includes the Fairlight -- I haven't used it, but the price is right. 
 
I've also found interesting stuff in Dim Pro, but I assume you've already explored that one.
 
Cheers,
Eddie
 
 

Thanks for the input, guys. 

Nigel, I followed your suggestion and checked out Phosphor. Not many audio demos there to base a purchase decision on, but at sixty bucks the price tag sure makes it interesting. 

Glyn: Z3ta+ is pretty much the only SONAR-bundled synth I've actually used, not counting Dim Pro. But man, if you like to start with a preset and tweak from there, good luck! Every preset sounds like a screaming TV commercial for some teen-targeted product. I'll have to sit down with it again and start by zeroing out every control, and see what I come up with from scratch.

Eddie: I wonder if anyone else sees the irony in offering 24-bit Fairlight samples.

bitflipper


Eddie: I wonder if anyone else sees the irony in offering 24-bit Fairlight samples.

Maybe they recorded a Fairlight playing thru an amp.  :-)
 
Cheers,
Eddie

Even though I have written a fair amount of EDM, among many other diverse styles, I see the OP's point.  The synths mentioned thus far should do the trick, as should any soft synth that attempts to emulate classic hardware synths from the 70s-80s (i.e., pre-dating EDM).  One synth that you should definitely look into is U-he DIVA.  It's arguably the most faithful emulation of classic hardware analogues, although it does require some pretty serious horsepower to run it.  And, if you need any evidence that it was not designed with EDM producers/DJs in mind, note that the original webpage proudly boasted "no supersaws!" as one of its features.  

http://www.u-he.com/cms/diva

max dsp , reaktor  , absynth  , synplant , iris

perhaps , might be of interest.. if thats your line of thought.


it all depends on how much you want to mess about with a synth or not.. not really if it's for EDM as much as I can use guitar rig for more than just guitars


do wanna get lush and diva myself, have sylenth and the usual NI stuff (in komplete) and the obvious cakewalk things and fxpansion d-cam , fabfilter ones. much as guitars are some folks "gas" as is synths to me.. but not all , I wait till xmas a lot of the time.

...the original webpage proudly boasted "no supersaws!" as one of its features.

Well, that's a good sign. And the "Venus" demo on his web page is encouraging. I know Diva regularly gets a lot of props on KVR, but I take everything I read there with a grain of salt.

cryophonik, the stuff on your SoundCloud page features a nice mix of organic- and synthetic-sounding synths and acoustic instruments. Any comments on which synths were used?