Best Orchestral VST Software Plugin Reviews of 2018 Today digital technology is used almost in every type of business. The music industry is not left behind as now most of the musicians are using some of the best orchestral plugins to create great music pieces. 17 of the best VST/AU plugin drum machines in the world today. Click through the gallery for the results, as we present the The 50 best VST/AU plugin synths in the world. Prev Page 1 of 51 Next Prev Page 1 of 51 Next. Steinberg Retrologue 2. The best DAWs 2018: the best music production software for PC and Mac.

In this buyer’s guide, we’ll take a look at the 20 best VST plugins (as well as and AU plugins) that you should be using if you want to take your production game to the next level.

These are suitable for professionals, but thanks to technology, you don’t have to be “pro” if you want to get pro results.

Whether you plan on composing, beat making, or getting better mixes or loud, smoothly polished masters, the plugin you’re probably looking for is in this guide.

And while it’s not the plugin itself that will give you the results you want but the know-how to use it, having the best professional tools will go a long way in taking your music to the next level.

Anyway, let’s take a closer look 🙂

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20 Best VST/AU Plugins – At a Glance

Best Virtual Instrument Plugins	VSTPlugins	Type	Summary
Xfer Records Serum	Soft Synth	Very popular among electronic and dance music producers, it offers one the best ways to get complex wavetable sounds quickly and easily.
Reveal Sound Spire	Soft Synth	Loved by electronic music producers, it’s capable of producing many signature analog sounds most suited to modern digital music productions.
Boom by AIR Music Technology	Drum Machine	Great modern plugin option for those looking for classic analog beatboxes.
FXpansion Geist 2	Drum Machine	More than a drum machine, this is one of the most intuitive and intelligent beat production software on the market.
Garritan Personal Orchestra 5	Orchestra	With over 500 instruments well sampled with articulation control, this is simply one of the best orchestra plugins for the price on the market, that won’t swallow up your drive.
Serato Sample	Sampler	A collection of classic synths and electric keys, emulating the real stuff used on classic records.
Toontrack Superior Drummer 3	Drum Module	Ultimate drum module that will give professional drummers a run for their money.
Spectrasonics Omnisphere	Synth Module	Complete virtual instrument fitted with powerful synthesizers and a massive sample library.
Spectrasonics Keyscape	Keyboard Module	Considered as having the best quality acoustic and electric keys and pianos out of any virtual instrument.
Spectrasonics Trilian	Bass Module	The most realistic bass module out there, decent piano skills will give bass players a run for their money.
Best Effects Processor Plugins	Type	Summary
Softube Harmonics	Saturation	New plugin promising to employ a revolutionary approach to dynamics processing and harmonic enhancement, without ruining your tracks distinctive character.
Eventide SP2016 Reverb	Reverb	An undeniably great sounding plug-in that calls to mind the iconic reverb sounds heard on countless classic recordings
Fabfilter Pro-Q 3	EQ	Fabfilter is one of the most respected effects plug-in developers in recent years, with Pro-Q3 you can expect them to develop on their success with the latest version.
Waves Abbey Road Chambers	Echo	Almost anything that you pump through it comes out rich and musically-pleasing, with a distinctive character that makes it instantly sound like a classic recording.
Kuassa Amplifikation Caliburn	Amp Simulator	If you need a good selection of Marshall-specific “character” sounds, the Caliburn will get you most of the way there at a price that won’t break the bank.
iZotope Nectar 3 Elements	Vocal Processing	What it does to vocal tracks is pretty amazing, and you could find yourself getting a lot of use out of this.If you have never used a mastering plug-in of this caliber before, get ready to have your world rocked.
iZotope Ozone 8 Elements	Mastering Plugin	If you have never used a mastering plug-in of this caliber before, get ready to have your world rocked.
Softube Tube-Tech Classic Channel	Channel Strip	The channel strip that will take all the guesswork out of achieving that “professional sound.”
Soundtoys 5	Effects Bundle	Juicy analog effects from delays to distortions to reverbs and more.
Celemony Melodyne 4	Pitch Correction	Genius tool that corrects and changes the pitch, timing, and even intonation in an audio track, from vocalist to a guitar chord strum, and everything in between.

Best Virtual Instruments VST & AU Plugins on the Market

Click here to jump to effect processors

1 – Xfer Records Serum

Xfer Records Serum is billed as a “Wave Machine”, which is essentially Xfer Records’ marketing-speak for “wavetable synthesizer”. The architecture does indeed implement wavetable animation (in real-time), but it offers quite a bit more features than your typical wavetable synth.

Serum seems especially suited for sound design, with its intuitive layout and the ability to import waveforms and even draw custom ones. It has extensive modulation capabilities, but the simplicity of drag-and-drop routing keeps you from painting yourself into a corner.

Ten built-in effects are available for sweetening your creations or taking them into uncharted territory. You can get started putting together impressive synth parts immediately with the 450 provided presets.

Best Useful Features

Right out of the box, Serum comes with 144 wavetables conveniently sorted into categories. They cover a pretty wide range, from ambient washes to more bombastic soundscapes and textures.

The included wavetables give you a pretty broad range of material to craft your own synth patches, but you don’t have to stop there. You could also import audio from any source you wish, with extensive features provided for editing them down to their component waveforms. You can even import one or more single-cycle waveforms, and arrange them manually or automatically.

You can crossfade between different wavetables or morph between them via harmonic/spectral morphing. This gives you a great deal of flexibility to produce characteristic wavetable synthesis sounds, or to craft your own evolving textures.

Drag-and-drop modulation makes short work of coming up with animated and wildly-evolving sounds. You can just as easily produce subtly-changing patches of course, but the ease by which you could set up complex modulations definitely lends itself to more creative experimentation.

The vast array of modulation options is what many users seem to appreciate the most about Serum. Many have in fact reported spending hours in a rabbit hole of custom sound design, producing a stream of usable results. Judging from user feedback, Serum seems to be one of the easiest wavetable synthesizers to grasp.

Although the gritty character of the synth is one of its most endearing features, some users feel that the base sounds are fairly limited. In any case, the extensive modulation options ce

20 Best VST/AU Plugins – At a Glance

Xfer Records Serum

Reveal Sound Spire

Boom by AIR Music Technology

FXpansion Geist 2

Garritan Personal Orchestra 5

Serato Sample

Toontrack Superior Drummer 3

Spectrasonics Omnisphere

Spectrasonics Keyscape

Spectrasonics Trilian

Softube Harmonics

Eventide SP2016 Reverb

Fabfilter Pro-Q 3

Waves Abbey Road Chambers

Kuassa Amplifikation Caliburn

iZotope Nectar 3 Elements

iZotope Ozone 8 Elements

Softube Tube-Tech Classic Channel

Soundtoys 5

Celemony Melodyne 4

Best Virtual Instruments VST & AU Plugins on the Market

Click here to jump to effect processors

1 – Xfer Records Serum

Best Useful Features

Best Vst Plugins For Mac 2018