7 Plug-ins That Will Breathe New Life into Your Synth Sounds

Date:2020/2/13 15:44:06 Hits:

Even if you’re lucky enough to have several hardware synths and a hard drive full of virtual synths, there will come a time when you need even more sounds to add to your arsenal.

One of the most rewarding ways to do this is to use virtual effect plug-ins on both your hardware and software synths. Even the most over-used sound can take on a new life with these seven plug-ins that were suggested by five of our Sweetwater Sales Engineers.

Ableton Echo
Recommended by Nate Edwards
The best plug-in I’ve found in a long time is Ableton’s Echo. I love, love, love delay and have spent hours (several, dozens, hundreds probably) with software such as Soundtoys’ EchoBoy, TAL’s Tal-Dub, and Surreal Machines’ Dub Machines, plus hardware such as my trusty Moog MF-104M Analog Delay. Great delay units bring so many elements into a sound, including saturation, variation over time, and spaciousness. They’re so versatile and can turn a dry, boring sound into something with deep metallic edges. Or they can go the other way and introduce a distant, dusky horizon — they’re so evocative.

Ableton Live always included some good clean delays that work for glassy, hyper-real sounds, but it always lacked a built-in delay effect that had any amount of character and life to it. Now that Echo is included in Live Suite, I have the sound that I want. It’s got its own attitude and vibe, it’s got built-in reverb that can be routed in a variety of ways to bring new life to the sound, it’s got intense modulation capabilities, and maybe most importantly, it is super light on the CPU. Lots of good delay plug-ins are processor hogs, which can really dampen the creative process. That’s not an issue with Echo.

Soundtoys Decapitator
Recommended by Ben Robinson
Drive and saturation are very important effects that spice up any synth track. I use Decapitator to distort and limit the range of a pad sound, thicken up lead sounds, and bring life to electronic drum tracks. If you really need to add extreme drive, the Punish button is your best friend. Use it on anything; you will love it!

u-he Diva
Recommended by Ben Robinson
Diva is the analog synth replacement, and it is a monster! Unlike most analog emulations, it’s more than just a copy of an ’80s synth. With semi-modular filters and oscillators, it’s possible to create concoctions that don’t exist in the real world. Imagine using an MS-20 filter with a Juno envelope and Moog oscillator section. It’s all possible! Utilizing Divine mode makes it difficult for me to choose any analog synth over this instrument. I’ve done A/B tests myself to confirm this, and I pick Diva over other analog synths. I actually get better results and have more voices, which is an added bonus! Having the capability to add Unison at any point gives it a richness and width that modern productions need. There are many powerful and useful effects ranging from warm chorus to a deep and wide plate reverb. The end result is a very polished and complete sound that inspires creativity and uniqueness along the way. It’s stellar!

Soft tube Bass Amp Room
Recommended by Brendan Murphy
When the subject of breathing new life into synths sounds is brought up, I immediately start thinking about the mix process and all the plug-ins I usually add to both virtual and hardware synth tracks in my DAW. One that comes up over and over again, and makes a huge impact, is Softube’s Bass Amp Room. At first glance, it doesn’t look like the tool of choice for your average electronic musician. It has a picture of a vintage bass cabinet right in the middle with a virtual MD 421 on the cab. This plug-in is laid out the way most engineers record bass. There is a virtual bass amp with standard amp controls at the top with EQ and compression at the bottom. It definitely looks like a go-to processor for rock or blues bass players. Forget how it looks and push the name out of your mind. This is far more than a bass amp and offers a collection of tools perfect for synths. Under the Softube hood is an amazing tone machine that can fatten up any synth track.

At the top of the plug-in, there is an amp simulator that reminds me a lot of those bass tone pedals. You can dial in a little drive and EQ to taste. With both an input volume stage and a master volume stage, this section can be driven pretty hard. The bottom of the plug simulates plugging an instrument into a DI then adds a basic channel strip with lowpass and highpass filters, a tilt EQ, and limiter. The amp and DI sections can be blended with a DJ-style crossfader.

Bass Amp Room is the perfect collection of tools that I’ve used on synths for years — saturation, EQ, filters, and limiting. I have yet to find a synth sound that this plug hasn’t improved or helped to sit in a mix. If you can get past the name and the bass amp graphic, you too might just fall in love with this plug-in and start using it on all kinds of things.

D16 SilverLine Group Total Bundle
Recommended by Carson McClain
Being a fan of vintage FX, vintage converters in samplers, and sound design, I’ve always gone to D16’s SilverLine products when I need very specific and unusual sounds added to my projects. I am a huge fan of UVI Vintage Vault and find myself sampling those instruments into my MPC every time I sit down. I don’t always have time to rig up my 500 Series modules or Eventide FX, so I reach for the SilverLine Bundle to enhance my soft synths and sample libraries.

Devastor finds its way onto a lot of my arpeggios and bass lines (think distorted TB-303). The diode-clipping emulation is just so crunchy and pleasing to my ears.

Fazortan is a super sweet phaser I love using on Juno-esque sounds if I’m producing Retrowave.

Redopter is a vintage tube distortion emulator that will make its way onto many of my bass guitar or Moog bass riffs to add more punch when necessary.

Toraverb is a throwback to old reverbs from the ’70s, ’80s, and ’90s. If I want something that is not lush, not pristine, and sounds old, I choose this.

Syntorus is another example of a vintage modulation I can’t live without. Think about all those basic vintage presets that came stock in your 1980s analog synth. None of them really sounded big, fat, or lush. Slap on Syntorus Analog Chorus, and those vintage-style patches start to come to life.

And last but not least, Decimort. I absolutely love this, because it emulates the circuit paths of all my favorite vintage samplers. You can introduce aliasing as well as dithering to really affect the outcome of your sound. I love using this on 8-bit synths and sampled drum breaks. There is nothing like a sampled vinyl break running through an ASR-10 or an MPC-60 signal path, and Decimort gives you that option.

Universal Audio Teletronix LA-2A Compressor
Recommended by Jeff Hollman
One of my favorite plug-ins to use for livening up synths is Universal Audio’s Teletronix LA-2A compressor for the UAD2 DSP Accelerators and Apollo audio interfaces.
Based on the vintage 1960s hardware, this plug-in is an amazing re-creation of the famous and popular optical compressor. One of the things that is really great about the LA-2A is how simple and quick it is. Just two main controls: Peak Reduction adjusts the threshold, and Gain adds gain to compensate for the reduced levels resulting from the compression. Beyond its simple-to-use functionality, what I really love about this plug-in for synths is what it does for the sounds. Even with just the smallest amount of compression, it adds depth, warmth, and vintage vibe to your synths. I usually start with about 3dB–5dB of gain reduction and then adjust from there depending on what the mix needs. Using Universal Audio’s LA-2A plug-in is my secret to getting great-sounding synth tracks in my productions! It’s a great reason to dive into the world of UAD-2 DSP plug-ins as well.

Waves H-Delay Effect
Recommended by Jeff Hollman
Another one of my favorites is Waves H-Delay effect. It is really great for adding movement on bass lines, lead, and arpeggiator synth parts. Sometimes using delay can be a better alternative than reverb for adding space and depth to synth parts. Delays can really help synths fit within a busy mix that’s already using reverbs for vocals and/or instruments. H-Delay is often what I’ll use to dial in the right amount of space and ambience for the sound, without muddying up my mix by adding more elements to the reverbs already in use. I can get a clean, nice ambience that works well for synth sounds. H-Delay is part of the Waves Hybrid line of plug-ins. As such, this delay plug-in is a mix of classic old-school hardware sound and modern digital DSP effects processing. I really like its controllable analog sound and character. It has easy BPM sync to host, along with full MIDI support to control and even “play” the effect manually to really work with your song.

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