You know who you are!
 
I, unfortunately, just sold my last Korg MS2000 last night (I had one with a keyboard until last night and sold my rack version about a year ago) and my Access Virus B has been on fleaBay forever 'cause I refuse to just give it away and get squat after all the fees.  Both because my stupid car has been in a shop for over three months!  Bah...
 
My first question is what your general opinions are about the current software synths.  Are there any that really sound like an analog synth (or, at least, an analog modelling synth like the MS2000)?  If you really want to have fun with them, do they take too much computing power away from normal DAW activities?  I really like being able to tweak all the dials and faders on a synth but, if the software ones have now caught up - or passed up - the abilities of the hardware ones, then I suppose I could control them with my last remaining keyboard (a Korg N5) or with a MIDI keyboard, etc.
 
Which software synths do you think are the best of the current bunch?  Are there any that you can buy and use as is, or do they all have annoying iLoks or similar protection devices?
 
So, what do you think?

I guess I should also mention that I'm much more an electronica user than a keyboard player.  I like to make drones and textures with lots of arp and oscillator abuse usage.  Not sure if that makes much of a difference, but there you go.  The MS2000's can do a LOT of things.  Their biggest limitation was the polyphony - only four notes but, outside of that, it had more abilities than the software synths I've used (albeit very old ones by now - heck, remember I'm still only on SONAR Producer v4!).

craigb,
There really are quite a few, and to me, each one really has it's own flavor... so beauty is in the ear of the beholder... ya know?
I have Zeta2, a free version of Alchemy, the ones that come with Sonar, and of course the ones that are in Komplete (Massive, Reaktor, etc.... Massive is hugely popular in dubstep)....and no 2 sound alike.
Based on some songs I've heard recently, the Virus sounds good and I'd like to add it to my collection at some point.

Tone 2, u-he, and FabFilter make some that are worth listening to as well.

I'm sure I left out a few.

I am a guitar player first, but w/ an addiction to classic synth sounds and odd pads and drones. I'm more inclined to listen to Kraftwerk, Depeche Mode and Nine Inch Nails than guitar music most of the time.

My first stop is usually the synths bundled w/ my DAW and I try to stick to them as often as I can. But I still have a couple of 3rd party which are hard to replace.

Steinberg's Retrologue. It won't do the over the top stuff that Diva and others may do, it doesn't have a built-in arp or sequencer, but for analog-type of synth sound, it's one of the very best I've heard. Clean but warm and vibrant. I don't usually recommend buying plugs from Steinberg, but that one is a true gem, and only $50.

Besides that, the Cakewalk synths (Rapture, Dimension and Z3ta) I still use quite a bit - for anything evolving or odd or on the harsh side, they're still my go to. Z3ta is quite a monster synth.


Did you check the Korg Legacy stuff? I've had them on my watch list for quite some time. They're also very attractively priced, like $50 a piece or under $200 for the whole bundle (M1, MS-20, PolySix, etc...)

Wow, thanks for the replies!  I didn't know that Korg even had software synths.

Since that Steinberg plugin is missing some of the options I'd use, can you use more than one of these together so that a second synth can arpeggiate the Retrologue for example?

In my head I'm not really getting why the software-based synths sound that much different from each other and I also have that notion that, since it IS only software, that you should be able to do everything seven ways from Sunday and in multiples (need five LFO's for some weird reason?  No problem!).

I wonder if the limitations are from trying to model the hardware based versions too closely or if there's another reason...

Have a try of FXpansion Dcam:Synth Squad synths. They are really good. 

http://www.fxpansion.com/index.php?page=62

For a modern type synth Z3ta 2+ is very good, the presets may lead you to the conclusion is a EDM synth but once you start programming its very versatile.

I have Komplete and I have only scratched the surface. There are some very good, complex synths in there.

I tend to prefer the "vintage" sound so GForce's Minimonsta, is the one I use the most, its still 32 bit but they are in the process of releasing 64 bit versions. There is a simple serial number registration. Its a reasonably straight forward Mini Moog emulation with added features such as patch morphing and the ability to go polyphonic.

I have and really like Korg's software MonoPoly but I have been dogged with it loosing its licence and needing frequent re-authorization. I am hoping it will behave better on my new DAW.

For analogue sounds U-He's Diva really impressed me and is on my wish list. If I did not have so many software synths already I would buy it now.

In regards to Retrologue - as far as I know I don't think so. Though you could probably use a MIDI arp in Sonar?

Another one which I haven't mentioned - Arturia's Minimoog - which I grabbed for free last summer when they were giving it. (Funny, I'm actually working on a song right now, and these are the only 2 synths I'm using so far - and the variety of sounds I'm getting is amazing.)

I don't know why they sound different but the do - kind of like fx plug-ins. Most of my hardcore analog synth friends complain about filters in virtual synths. 

Me, I couldn't tell what exactly what depends on what, but in terms of pure synth sound, Minimoog and Retrologue are favorites among those I own and/or have heard. What I mean is that, there are others which will impress me w/ the complexity of the patches, layers of sounds, depth, effects and all - just hitting a note and you get 20 song ideas. 

But the above-mentionned have that little something - you can play the simplest sound and it just sounds so alive. 

For several decades now, most free standing keyboard synths and sound modules have been digital. The fact that the digital programming is in firmware instead of loading from a hard drive is pretty much irrelevant to the sound, or the ability to control parameters. Those knobs and buttons on most keyboards are just outputting digital data, not affecting analog circuits like the old pots and resistors. About the only analogue control is on the analogue output stage where volume is usually the only thing controlled. Most likely the majority of keyboard synths you have used are softsynths in a box with keys. The big keyboard DAW's are not just a single synth, obviously, but a computer with multiple synths and romplers, recording and editing features, and effects. To replace one of those you need something like Sonar running on a PC.

Most sane users of outboard gear would not have used more external synths simultaneously than the number of softsynths that contemporary DAW's will run. So if the issue is can the features in freestanding synth modules be duplicated in PC software, the answer is yes. Pretty much anything that was being done in a digital keyboard synth can be done in a PC. Not everything is being done in a PC, but that has more to do with copyright issues and the access to the code used in the keyboards, and the contemporary fashion in sound than it has to do with the nature of the box they are in. 

I don't know anything about this, but if I may ask...

Can you use a keyboard with knobs and sliders to control a softsynth's parimeters as if they were it's own?

On a side note, I still feel that real synths produce better quality sounds than softsynths. I've even inserted the actual sample wav file into it's own track and played it against the same sample through a vsti track. The sound is diferent, to my ears anyway.