Best Software Synths with a Free Trial

Want to fulfil your dream of being a creative music producer, even without any experience? Music Maker lets you get started right away. Simply choose sounds from a massive collection of beats, tunes and vocals at chart quality level. Combine sounds and loops per drag & drop, play a whole library of software instruments and apply professional effects. Choose sounds and loops from your favorite genre and combine them with virtual instruments on your timeline. Analog synthesizers, drums that pack real boom or elegant strings – they can all be applied with a single click. Form an entire band! Start recording your own melodies or vocals from the get-go. Just connect your MIDI keyboard, drum pad controller or microphone – that's all you need to do. Want to record a live guitar solo? No problem. You're free to customize each and every element for your groove. Create a track that's one of a kind. Drag & drop to apply professional effects to your sounds, loops, instruments and vocals.

Syntronik is a cutting-edge virtual synthesizer that raises the bar in sound quality and flexibility thanks to the most advanced sampling techniques combined with a new hybrid sample and modeling synthesis engine. Syntronik includes 17 amazing Synths, available as a collection or separately, with over 2,000 preset sounds covering a wide selection from 38 of the most iconic to ultra-rare and painstakingly multi-sampled vintage synthesizers. Syntronik’s synthesis engine goes well beyond traditional sampling thanks to a brand new analog modeled filter section created with the utmost expertise from IK, the pioneer in virtual circuit modeling. This is coupled with exclusive DRIFT™ technology to accurately reproduce the behavior of oscillators from real hardware synths. All of this combined with an effects section that is unrivaled in the world of virtual instruments along with advanced features like 4-part Multis, splits and arpeggiators make Syntronik the ultimate source of inspiration.

Concept 2 is everything you want in a modern synth plugin, beautiful sounds without the complexity of operation found in many other synths. Your time is valuable, and so we wanted to give you access to a rich sound design palette without having to spend time learning how to use it. With Concept 2, you can get lost in the music, not the manual. We designed Concept 2 for musicians, producers, composers, sound designers, and post-production professionals who want to create sounds fast. Here are just some of the highlights of the benefits of creating sounds with Concept 2. With tons of great-sounding presets from top artists, including Roni Size, Richard Devine, and Kayla Painter, there’s every chance you’ll find a sound that works right out of the box. Cinematic lush pads, organic soundscapes, stirring strings, killer bass synths, screaming leads, and more. Presets are a great starting point, but Concept 2 gives you access to almost limitless routing parameters to shape the sound.

With Music Maker JAM, anyone can create amazing music, and instantly release it to a community of millions. Join the music revolution now. Make it yours, you can choose from hundreds of mix packs across all genres, from hip hip to rock. Or remix the tracks of hot artists and producers to create your own take on a song. Combine studio-quality samples in our 8-track mixer, then add FX to make your own sound. You can even add your own vocals. Take your music to the next level with PRO, bringing you exclusive access to all of our best JAM features. Choose from 300+ Mix Packs with a 100k+ loops library. Become a producer who records live with a perfect mixdown on the 8-channel mixer. Access thousands of studio-quality loops; from beats and vocals to synth leads and bass lines. Compose your own unique sound by combining samples from different music genres. Remix free/premium audio loops from our store. Add vocals to your track on top of studio-quality beats.

VCV RACK simulates a modular synthesizer where each module itself can be a challenge to simulate on a modern computer, whether it’s a virtual analog model with hundreds of analog components to simulate, or a digital module designed to be run on an ARM microprocessor similar to your smart phone’s. A common patch of a hundred modules can require billions of floating point calculations per second to simulate and millions of 2D path elements to draw using OpenGL. Use VCV Recorder to record audio or video. It operates in engine “time”, not real-time, and therefore does not record real-time audio hiccups/stuttering. This means that any hiccups/stuttering you hear in real time will not be present when the recording is played back. Plugins extend VCV RACK functionality by adding one or more modules to use in your patch. Plugins are typically installed via the VCV Library. Save, share, edit, and move around selections of modules.

The dream synthesizer did not seem to exist, a wavetable synthesizer with a truly high-quality sound, visual and creative workflow-oriented interface to make creating and altering sounds fun instead of tedious, and the ability to “go deep” when desired - to create/import/edit/morph wavetables, and manipulate these on playback in real-time. Serum has a wavetable editor built right in, you can create your own wavetables in a variety of ways. Import audio directly from audio files. Serum has a variety of methods and options for analyzing audio for breaking it apart into individual waveforms. You can import single-cycle wavetables of course, as well as many at once (with in-built sorting options, or manual re-ordering). Morph between various wavetables using standard linear interpolation (crossfading) or via harmonic/spectral morphing. Draw directly on the waveform, with optional grid-size snapping and a variety of shape tools.

Phase Plant’s open modular architecture gives you the freedom to design anything from compact synths to complex evolving patches within an ecosystem that is fun and intuitive to use. Combine as many generators, modulators, and effects as you need to create your own unique sounds with precision and ease. Choose from regular waveforms, wavetables, samples, and noise for your source sounds. Make use of an extensive selection of factory wavetables or design your own with Phase Plant’s advanced wavetable editor. Start with solid foundations to create original layers and combinations of sounds within one synth. Phase Plant comes with Kilohearts Essentials, a large range of useful effects plugins. These are all available as snapins to be combined and modulated as you desire in Phase Plant’s three effects lanes. Keep all your FX processing right inside Phase Plant and baked into your presets. Premium Effects are available to buy separately to further bolster your sound design capabilities.

Generate, developed by Newfangled Audio, is a unique cinematic polysynth that combines chaotic oscillators with traditional synthesis elements to create evolving and dynamic sounds. It features eight chaotic generators capable of smoothly transitioning from sine waves to complex, unpredictable textures, offering a vast sonic palette. The synthesizer includes five wave folder types, providing diverse harmonic shaping options. Generate's modulation system is extensive, allowing users to modulate any control with MIDI or MPE, facilitating expressive performances. The built-in effects suite comprises delay, reverb, chorus, and more, enabling further sound enhancement. With over 800 professional and artist presets covering basses, leads, pads, plucks, rhythms, sequences, and textures, Generate serves as a versatile tool for musicians and sound designers seeking innovative and evolving sounds.

Pendulate, developed by Newfangled Audio, is a free chaotic mono synth that introduces a novel approach to sound generation through its double-pendulum oscillator. This unique oscillator design allows for seamless transitions from pure sine waves to complex, chaotic textures, enabling the creation of biting basses, searing leads, and gritty soundscapes. Inspired by the designs of synthesizer pioneer Don Buchla, Pendulate incorporates a wave folder and low pass gate, further expanding its sonic capabilities. The user interface features an innovative modulation system, permitting modulation of every control directly from the main page, with support for up to 325 simultaneous modulation routings. Additionally, Pendulate offers MPE support, enhancing expressive control with compatible hardware. The synthesizer comes equipped with 136 presets, including contributions from professional artists.

HALion is a comprehensive virtual sampling and sound design system developed by Steinberg, offering a versatile platform for creating and manipulating sounds. It combines advanced sampling capabilities with a powerful synthesizer engine, providing users with a vast array of tools for sound creation. HALion supports multiple forms of sound synthesis, including granular, wavetable, and virtual analog synthesis, allowing for a wide range of sonic possibilities. The software features a user-friendly interface with a customizable macro page designer, enabling users to create personalized user interfaces for their instruments. Additionally, HALion includes a comprehensive library of high-quality samples and presets, covering various instruments and genres. It integrates seamlessly with major digital audio workstations and supports VST, AU, and AAX plug-in formats, making it a flexible tool for music production and sound design.

Roland Zenbeats is a music creation app that keeps you in an effortless artistic flow. Get started on any device or platform. With its collection of both modern and legendary sounds, Zenbeats brings Roland’s history of innovation into a new, accessible format. Whether you’re an emerging musician or an established producer, Zenbeats makes music creation easy. Make beats, take lessons, and sample the world around you. Wherever you are, no matter what platform or device you use, capture your creative spark with Zenbeats. ZC1 is a new plug-in synthesizer using Roland’s ZEN-Core Synthesis System. Available in Zenbeats as a free instrument, ZC1 has 60 presets and a sleek touch-based interface. Use the XY pad for Resonance and Cutoff or other parameters. Plus, unlock ZC1 to share sounds with ZENOLOGY and ZEN-Core-compatible hardware and get around 900 additional preset tones and 90 built-in MFX effects. These sounds cover a wide range from acoustic and electronic to ethnic instruments.

Synthesizers are in just about every style of modern music, so you need something versatile, authentic, and forward-thinking. ZENOLOGY embodies nearly 50 years of synthesizer research and development. Its roots go back to the dawn of synthesis. Its future will reshape your relationship with sound. For decades, Roland sounds have had a massive influence on music. A string of legendary instruments defined genres like techno, house, rap, trap, and hip hop, and deeply influenced pop, rock, and film music. This experience has culminated in the ZEN-Core Synthesis System. It’s the most advanced sound engine we’ve ever made, powering our professional synthesizers like JUPITER-X and FANTOM, used on stages and in studios around the world. ZENOLOGY is an expandable plug-in version of the ZEN-Core Synthesis System. ZEN-Core is based on discrete synth voices,each containing a flexible oscillator, filter, amplifier, dual step-LFOs, and lush effects.

Roland Cloud is an evolving cloud-based suite of software synthesizers, drum machines, and sampled instruments for modern creators. Harness the vast power of the ZEN-Core Synthesis System and dive deep into the world of custom sound design with ZENOLOGY Pro. For nearly fifty years, Roland has delivered memorable, genre-defining sounds. And a big part of that sonic footprint is our unique approach to effects processing. The swirling JUNO chorus, feedback-drenched tape echo, and other sounds have left their mark on countless tracks over the decades, and with ZENOLOGY FX, you can now add that flavor to any keyboard sound or instrument track right inside your DAW. With over 90 processors to choose from, there's a wealth of ways to make your synth sounds come alive. Add delays to arps, larger-than-life modulation effects to chord progressions, and twist and distort basses and lead tones that leap from the speakers.

A digital recording is just a sequence of numbers. Easily quantifiable as ones and zeros, stored on physical media, combined together into larger numbers to form a continuous stream of data. Surge is an instrument capable of generating truly beautiful sequences of numbers. Your ears will agree with us. Architecturally speaking, Surge is a rather complex synthesizer. But because of how it’s put together it’s still easy to learn. Once you do, you will turn the sounds in your head to audio faster than ever. The effortless workflow, attention to detail and sound quality can’t really be appreciated without trying it yourself. We suggest you try the demo! Each patch contain two ’scenes’ which are separate instances of the entire synthesis engine (except effects) that can be used for layering or split patches. 8 versatile oscillator algorithms, Classic, Sine, Wavetable, Window, FM2, FM3, S/H Noise and Audio-input.

Thorn is a cutting-edge tool for making cutting-edge sounds. Designed with the modern electronic music producer in mind, DS Audio’s main goal was to develop a top-notch software synthesizer, for creating punchy, snappy, and aggressive sounds that leap out at the listener. The sound engine in Thorn is built on the novel spectral synthesis method, which gives you complete control over the individual harmonics that go into creating a final timbre. Three harmonic oscillators with an additional Harmonic Filter allow you to create a wide range of forward-looking sounds. Two analog-modeled multi-mode filters, with a zero-delay feedback path, are there to help you tailor your tones and make them shine in the mix. Use them to modulate any parameter you’d like to. A set of 9 high-quality effects helps you polish your sound and breathe life into it. For even more fun, check out the pattern-based glitch sequencer to create glitch-effects.

MidiSoundSynth: The Future of MIDI Player Software. MidiSoundSynth is one of the best solutions in the MIDI Player software landscape thanks to its intuitiveness and power. Developed in collaboration between GoldMidiSF2 and SynthFont, this software not only allows for smooth MIDI file playback but also integrates the innovative sfkr soundfonts, enhancing every piece of music. With its user-friendly interface and advanced features, such as track customization and sound optimization, MidiSoundSynth is destined to become an indispensable tool for musicians, producers, and music enthusiasts. Every work session becomes an opportunity to explore musical creativity. For live playback and excellent performance, MidiSoundSynth supports low latency WASAPI technology.