Before going any further in searching and buying virtual synth’s I strongly suggest learning these two.

Xpand! on the other hand is a polyphonic virtual workstation synthesizer featuring a broad range of sound generation possibilities including multi-sampled instruments as well as FM, wavetable, and virtual analog synthesis. It has a twin signal path with two oscillators, two filters, two envelope shapes, a mixer and an arpeggiator section. Per short, Vacuum is a virtual analog monophonic synth, with a focus on creating rich timbres with a lot of sonic control. If these are the first synth’s you have ever heard of, then I suggest diving head first into the manuals of both synth’s by clicking here. Pro Tools comes ready packed with two synth’s: Xpand! and Vacuum. However, understanding that different plug-ins may employ different technologies or even switchable modes are something that might help you filter through the overly crammed virtual synth market. Taking a close look to each and every one of them is far beyond the scope of this article. Additive, subtractive, sample-based, imitative, analytic synthesis are all different ways to synthesize sound. I was saying that this is not entirely correct as there are a wide variety of synthesis methods out there.

Monophonic refers to the ability to play one note at a time while polyphonic refers to multiple notes. You can cram them all together in two big categories even though it is not really correct to do so – monophonic synthesis and polyphonic synthesis. You have to understand that there are different types of sound synthesis. Their digital counterparts which we can instantiate in our DAW’s usually copy the electrical architecture of analog circuitry with clever algorithms – to explain it in a very simple way. At their core, most analog synthesizers are a combination of electronic circuits/ components such as oscillators, filters, envelopes, effects such a time-based modulation, distortion, etc. You can use a synthesizer to emulate the sound of real instruments or create utterly fantastic electronic sounds. What are they anyway? A synthesizer is an electronic instrument that uses several modules of circuitry to create sound and is usually controlled with a piano-like keyboard. Maybe you lived under a rock for the last 30 years and you just heard about synths. In fact, analog synthesizers changed the face of music so much that understanding how technology evolved into these amazing tools will really help you in your musical endeavors and in choosing/ using virtual synthesizers. Most synth plug-ins out there are actually based on famous analog synthesizers. It sounds like a historian’s work but I promise it will save you a great deal of confusion. If you are a beginner in synthesis I suggest you start your journey in this vast domain by researching the hardware gear that influenced popular music in the last 50 years.

Like with all plug-ins, synthesizer plug-ins fall into two broad categories: replica’s of classic gear or innovative products. Today we will be looking at synthesizer plug-ins. We make a lot of top ten articles ourselves but I invite you to read them in with a pinch of salt. Every time someone tells you “these are the best 10 …” and he/ she is talking about music gear, stop listening, or start listening with a very critical ear.

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