Synths are some of the most powerful tools available to sound designers, and there's never been a broader range of wildly inventive software-based tools available to the modern producer.
If you're hoping to create cutting-edge sounds, you'll need cutting-edge instruments - and that's where we come in. Below, we've rounded up six uniquely imaginative software synths that can help take your sound to another universe.
1. Sonic Charge Synplant 2
MusicRadar's got your back Our team of expert musicians and producers spends hours testing products to help you choose the best music-making gear for you. Find out more about how we test.
We’ve told you how to get your heads around most synths for sound design, but Synplant is like none of those. On its UI, you grow branches from 12 slots, and as you do, the sound changes so it’s a fantastically creative tool. But it gets even better. Version 2 adds the Genopatch feature where AI attempts to replicate any sound you throw at it, and in doing so, creates a bunch of similar sounds from it. This synth really is the ultimate sound design tool.
$149 from Sonic Charge
2. Sound Particles Skydust 3D
One of the first synths to use 3D space, Skydust lets you create sounds to immerse yourself in. The 3D version’s modulation features make sound dance around you, but even the cheaper, non-immersive option is powerful. A cutting edge option, and the only synth here that modulates in both time and space.
£166 or £333 from Sound Particles
3. UVI Falcon 3
Capable of just about every type of sound you can imagine. It has 20 oscillators, over 100 effects, around 70 script processors (MIDI-type sequencers and generators) and 13 modulators. It might be complex, but it is easily the most powerful sound design tool here.
$349 from UVI
4. Arturia Pigments 5
Pigments is one of Arturia’s few titles that doesn’t emulate an old keyboard or synth, but it’s also the company’s most powerful instrument. It has four synthesis types – Analog, Wavetable, Sample and Harmonic – but its best feature might well be its easy modulation where you can create fantastically evolving sounds with ease. It looks fantastic and of course sounds amazing, so it’s easily one of the best modern sound creation options out there.
€199 from Arturia
5. Dawesome Kult
Like Synplant, Kult is trying to make your sound creations just that little bit off-the-wall. It uses 30 ‘Strange Attractor’ oscillators and has controls to adjust their frequencies, but that’s where the similarities end with normal synths. But with a beautiful UI, plenty of features and surprisingly easy results, this is for a sound designer not afraid to go off road. Truly awesome, Dawesome!
Free to $30/month from Dawsome
6. Kilohearts Phase Plant
One of the older synths here, but Phase Plant still rocks for sound design as you can basically build whatever modular system you like. It has everything from analogue to wavetable oscillators, but it is the way that you simply drag and drop them together that will have you designing some dream sounds in no time.
$199 from Kilohearts
