A set of softsynths to replace Virus Ti
 

Imagine a hypothetical scenario, where you would have to replace your TI with a softsynth or a bunch of them for whatever reason. Which would be your choices and why?

Speaking for myself, I hope this will never happen to me, but if my Virus gets broken I think it would be a combo of Spire, Dune2 and Massive and also Fabfilter Saturn as a saturation/distortion unit. It wouldn't sound the same but could possibly work. Aslo new synth Icarus by Tone2 looks interesting.

I'd include the Arturia V Collection and OPX Pro 2, if you like a great selection of vintage synth sounds.

EG

Dune 2 remains my overall pick for "what if I were on a deserted island scenario" synth plug-in. On my monitors and ears it competes with and can at sometimes sound better than the Virus (depends on the context). But there are a number of other plug-ins that I recommend as "must haves". By that I mean I wouldn't want to give them up, to call them must haves for any sound-designer or musician seems hyperbolic because of different strokes, etc.

But here's the critical short list, in no particular order :

Dune 2
Zebra 2 *
Synthmaster *
Massive
Sylenth
OP-X PRO II

I put stars by Zebra 2 and Synthmaster because of their incredible versatility, they are so feature-rich it's kind of a shame to consider either just a synth plug-in because you can do almost anything with them. I reach for Dune 2 more often than others for productivity and sound quality, but there are times you want something deeper.

Nexus if you have the occasional use for ROMpler.

Dune2 is an interesting synth, I love how they managed to pack such a deep and flexible engine into a very straightforward GUI. It pretty much could be my choise as the only synth for ambient/downtempo music. But as I'm currently making psytrance, my desert-island synth would be Spire, it has more agressive/edgy character compared to Dune and is actualy more deep than meets the eye.

I have no experience with Arturia or OPX synths abut afaik they are more of analogue-emulating kind, I'd say they should be complementary to Virus rather than replace it.

Yes, that's correct. OP-X Pro II is not a Virus replacement at all in my mind, the two have very little in common, and it should probably only be in your collection if you like anything about retro analog synths. The Virus can certainly do retro sounds but perhaps not approaching the emulations of old Oberheim, Jupiter etc. that OP-X does out of the box.

Yeah, I see. I have Diva for that, I don't often need "vintage" sounds but when I do, Diva does the job.

I have Diva as well, and its a good plug-in and would make my long list but probably not my short one. One thing OP-X Pro II does well is provide a lot of out of box patches of famous retro sounds, which goes a long way toward validating the specific hardware it emulates (and is also inspiring if dabbling in old school stuff).

You may have heard these before, but...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UIXuxp2I2B0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mAry3nbsGAM

I also like the Korg M1 plug-in when I'm in the mood to relive the past, but again it's not a short-lister. I think it might only appeal to folks who owned an M1 or M3r back in the day. It uses the wavetables from the original hardware and the original sound pretty much as it was, so it brings back some fond memories.

Maybe when touch screens are more prevalent & we get to a time where I can touch a control & manipulate it with a generic fader or encoder.

Or if I ever get around to programing my zero xl. Maybe software will have a place in what I do.

Hey guys, although I'm no longer a Virus owner, I still love this forum.

I have replaced my Virus TI with the following synths. On each line, I have included two similar options you can choose between:

* Sylenth1 or Hive: Supersaws and other dance sounds based on simple synthesis
* Massive or Serum: Cutting edgy sounds, phase modulation or FM, wavetables, higher CPU usage needed
* DUNE 2 or Zebra 2: Really great for pads and great all-rounders too. DUNE 2 is better in the CPU department than Zebra 2.

I own all of these except Hive which I'm going to buy soon. They are all absolutely amazing :) Serum is my most recent purchase and apart from some stability issues I'm working through with the devs, the thing sounds insanely good.

Serum is a very capable synth but for some reason I never liked its sound. I have the demo installed for more that a year, but whenever I try to program it I come up with sterile and lifeless sounds and the factory presets are no different to my ears. I have Massive, which has some kind of gritty digital character which I think is really lovely unlike Serum. Massive is one of my most used synths aside from Virus. I guess, Serum is just not for me.

Hive is IMO is a failed attempt to copy Sylenth. It does nothing Sylenth can't do, but Sylenth sounds much better overall.

In fact right now I don't have access to my main studio and have to toy around with a notebook and a bunch of plugins. Spire, Sylenth and Dune2 in combination with some processing plugins (PSP Mixsaturator and Mixpressor, Izotope Alloy, Valhalla Vintage Verb) do fine job for most sounds I need.