Vsts reviews from Reddit
Summary
We analyzed 287 Reddit reviews across 33 subreddits and 66 posts to rank the best Vsts brands recommended by redditors, including communities like r/FL_Studio, r/musicproduction, r/trapproduction, r/ambientmusic, r/edmproduction. Top-rated brands include Serum (4.8/5), Vital (4.7/5), Omnisphere (4.6/5).
Stats
Reviews287
Subreddits33
Posts66
Brands87
Products38
287 reviews from
and
By Brand
/By Product
#1
Serum
4.8
(34)
"Paid: Serum, Jst Sub Destroyer. Free: Vital (you should really check this one out)"
"Serum. It‘s always serum"
"I would go with some major VSts players, i.e Serum, Pigments, Vital, Massive, Diva."
"I always liked serum and analog lab, both great vsts."
"Instruments: serum and diva."
"Serum and vital (or even just vital honestly) give more than enough versatility for hyperpop."
"Serum."
"I’d learn basic sound design for leads n plucks tho or get serum banks"
"Serum + eq (fab filter pro q3) and distortion (decapitator, trash 2, saturn 2) will give you all the best tools to make kicks."
"Many producer prefer to make their kicks in serum anyways, so just get Serum..."
#2
Vital
4.7
(31)
"+1 for Vital"
"Vital, phase plant, surge xt."
"Is very powerful, almost top of the line, and has a free version."
"Vital."
"Can’t go wrong with vital 🤷♂️"
"Synth: Vital or Pigments."
"Vital, is free"
"Vital and Surge will get you started and keep you busy a long time."
"If you don’t use Vital you need to! It can do an incredible amount."
"Vital is the best free one."
#3
Omnisphere
4.6
(11)
"Last time I checked it's expensive. But if you can afford it, it's worth it."
"There is only one answer to this question… Omnisphere."
"Vsts: Omnisphere, Nexus, Xpand, Prophet, DX1, CZ."
"Omnisphere."
"Yamaoka used mainly Omnisphere for pads, check out Akai Distorted Reality and Bizarre Guitar"
"Maybe omnisphere"
"Omnisphere might fit what your looking for."
"Omnisphere but mainly for their texture stuff."
"Omnisphere."
"Kontakt, Omnisphere, Analog Lab V"
#4
Spectrasonics
5.0
(9)
"Keyscape, xpand2!, spitfire labs there’s honestly so many good ones"
"Omnisphere, diva, hive, Roland cloud, serum, native instruments komplete, spire is a great one."
"Spectrasonics Trillian."
"Trilian is the best hands down."
"Key scape is the one."
"I love keyscape, and the J3P0 expansion pack has some really great presets."
"Spectrasonics Keyscape"
"Kontakt, Omnisphere, Keyscape, Fabfilter and Soundtoys plugins"
"Kontakt, Omnisphere, Keyscape, Fabfilter and Soundtoys plugins"
#5
Kontakt
4.3
(10)
"Kontakt"
"Kontakt, Omnisphere, Keyscape, Fabfilter and Soundtoys plugins"
"Kontakt, Best Service Engine"
"Someone else mentioned kontakt libraries can work too."
"Kontakt has some excellent libraries of real instruments with a great interface for phrasing."
"You’re gonna want something from Kontakt, and they ain’t cheap."
"Kontakt but only if you are willing to buy libraries or get it some other way"
"Kontakt, Omnisphere, Analog Lab V"
"Kontakt"
#6
PhasePlant
4.8
(6)
"PhasePlant"
"Phaseplant/Multipass/Snapheap."
"PhasePlant, if you know what you’re doing."
"Vital, Synplant 2, Harmor, Xpand!2, Quanta2, Phaseplant."
"Sound design? Phaseplant or Serum."
#7
Valhalla
4.8
(6)
"All Valhalla plugins! (Free ones available)."
"Best free ones: emergence, paulXstretch, valhalla supermassive"
"A very '},{"
"I abuse the shit out of Valhalla Supermassive."
"And valhalla."
"I’d suggest Valhalla supermassive honestly."
#8
Xfer Records
4.8
(6)
"Dude I just got Serum 2 last night ! It’s amazing !!"
"Since this post , Serum 2 just dropped !! This must be a signed to invest in it!!"
"Serum especially since it's so versatile and there's basically an infinite amount of banks and presets for you to get."
"Omnisphere, diva, hive, Roland cloud, serum, native instruments komplete, spire is a great one."
"Serum"
"Serum has tons of preset packs you can find/buy."
#9
Spitfire LABS
4.5
(6)
"Labs was a life saver."
"Spitfire labs is also one of my favourite free plugins and has a great recorded piano sound."
"Spitfire Labs has some great free packs."
"Get spitfire labs, the Kontakt Player with free libraries, bbc orchestra anything free really."
"Spitfire LABS."
"Spitfire LABS
Decent Sampler/Pianobook."
#10
Fabfilter
5.0
(5)
"All the fabfilter stuff is great if you have $."
"Anything by fabfilter."
"Fabfilter plugins i cant think about anything bad about their plugins"
"Imho FabFilter, Serum, Valhalla Reverb, Redline reverb, Sound Toys suite, Endless Smile"
"Probably fab filter and serum"
#11
Soundtoys
5.0
(5)
"Several Soundtoys plugins"
"Soundtoys plugins, little alter boy, analog lab, pigments, random, synplant"
"Soundtoys !"
"Run everything thru soundtoys decapitator."
"Definitely anything by soundtoys."
#12
Superior Drummer 3
5.0
(4)
"My goal is getting Superior Drums 3"
"SD3 is the leader but it is really"
"Superior drummer 3 is the straight king."
"If money's not an issue, Superior Drummer 3 is the best VST as it gives you full control over the samples."
#13
XLN Audio
4.8
(4)
"Superior drummer 3 and Addictive Drums"
"Xln Audio Addictive Keys"
"For many years I play with addicted drums and also got some new kit for it on black Friday."
"They have a Funk drum kit. And a Soul & RnB drum kit that might fill those."
#14
Native Instruments
4.8
(4)
"NI Noire is my overall favorite."
"NI Alicia’s Keys, Giant, Gentleman, Maverick, Grandeur, Claire, Noire"
"Kontakt, Omnisphere, Keyscape, Fabfilter and Soundtoys plugins"
"Kontakt is still a beast"
#15
DIVA
4.5
(4)
"Instruments: serum and diva."
"I have Diva and V-Collection and they're both excellent."
"Diva vst, infiltrator/shaper box on bass lines or drum patterns for variation."
"DIVA, spire, serum, pigments are all great synths too."
#16
Purity
4.5
(4)
"Purity, zenology and serum are my personal go to plugins for that style"
"I've been using Purity for a lot of R&B."
"I’ve been using purity for those Detroit basses."
"Purity"
#17
Korg
4.5
(4)
"Korg M1 or Wavestation"
"Korg M1 or Wavestation"
"Something like a romper I.e. korg triton or m1 vsts should would work well."
"Something like a romper I.e. korg triton or m1 vsts should would work well."
#18
Ableton
4.3
(4)
"If you’re in Ableton, especially as a beginner, the stock options will have you set up nice!"
"Check out the packs on Abletons site. Some really good stuff for orchestral/brass"
"Upgrade to latest Ableton Suite and get yourself a Splice subscription for samples."
"The physical modeling instruments in Ableton like Tension or Collision are good for some unique sounds."
#19
Nexus
4.0
(4)
"If you're not good at sound design then i'd recommend a rompler like nexus."
"Loaded with great pads you'll need."
"Nexus."
"Could be done in Nexus (a lot of similar presets) or Serum easily."
#20
Valhalla Supermassive
5.0
(3)
"Grab Valhalla Supermassive and PaulxStretch and you have all the ambient for free you can handle."
"I also recommend VALHALA SUPERMASIVE."
"Valhalla Supermassive WHY TF IS THIS FREE?!?!?"
#21
Surge XT
5.0
(3)
"Best free ones: surge xt (my fav) and sytrus"
"SurgeXT is great. It's free (both standalone and for FL studio)..."
"Instruments: surge xt, arturia (minimoog, jun6, jup8, cmi v, wurli), labs, kontakt"
#22
Synth1
5.0
(3)
"I mostly use Synth1 and Sonatina."
"Here are my favorite free VSTs: - Synth1"
"Synth1 is amazing imo. It's free and there's good banks for it."
#23
Pianoteq
5.0
(3)
"Pianoteq for piano, especially if you want to tweak things."
"Pianoteq for sure."
"Pianoteq and Keyscape are two solid choices."
#24
Pigments
4.7
(3)
"Pigments."
"Pigments."
"Pigments. Analog Lab along with the Arturia Collection."
#25
Shaperbox
4.7
(3)
"Also shaper boxer."
"Shaperbox & soothe"
"Shaperbox."
#26
Arturia
4.7
(3)
"One of my fave VSTs is the Arturia Analog Lab."
"Abalog Lab > Serum if you’re making any hip hop that isn’t like Yeat beats an"
"Check out analog lab by arturia. They got a lot of analog stuff and it's a great plugin."
#27
FLEX
4.3
(3)
"FLEX has some free guitar packs :) "
"Flex"
"Harmour comes with FL same with FLEX check them both out.
Vital is free."
#28
Analog Lab V
4.0
(3)
"Analog Lab V."
"Analog lab v."
"Kontakt, Omnisphere, Analog Lab V"
#29
Analog Lab
4.0
(3)
"I used analog lab every time i want a key or synth you gotta look at the 3rd party libraries too"
"Try the free version of Analog Lab"
"Analog Lab along with the Arturia Collection."
#30
Xpand2
4.0
(3)
"Xpand!2 and vital too, xpand in particular has a huge collection of great presets."
"Xpand 2 and xenology are gonna give u any sound ever."
"Xpand2 and Serum are dope."
#31
DSK
4.0
(3)
"Dsk just has those delicious lo fi sounds."
"The DSK stuff has that old digital sample style sound."
"Dsk has a free brass vst. I think it's only 32 bit though"
#32
Current
5.0
(2)
"Current or Pigments are probably gonna be your best options."
"The Minimal Audio new synth "Current"."
#33
Portal
5.0
(2)
"Portal."
"Portal is god tier"
#34
Kilohearts Phase Plant
5.0
(2)
"Kilohearts phaseplant is probably the most capable synth on the market"
"Kilo Hearts "Phase Plant" along with Snap Heap and Multipass."
#35
Superior Drummer
5.0
(2)
"If you want to get into the weeds then SD3 is by far the best on the market IMO."
"Superior drummer is so amazing. It’s like an entire drum library and mini daw inside your daw."
#36
Shaperbox 3
5.0
(2)
"Shaperbox 3"
"Shaperbox 3 will allow you to sync the flange pretty much any way you want for timed flanging effects."
#37
Soundtoys Decapitator
5.0
(2)
"Distortion Decapitator"
"SoundToys decapitator"
#38
Krush
5.0
(2)
"Nice bitcrusher"
"Krush (Free)"
#39
Freakshow Industries
5.0
(2)
"Everything Freakshow Industries."
"Freakshow industries, their FXs are just so good."
#40
SurgeXT
5.0
(2)
"SurgeXT."
"SurgeXT. Sounds brilliant, free and open source."
#41
Serato Sample
5.0
(2)
"It makes chopping beats, pitching them, changing speed, etc, super easy."
"The stem separation is pretty handy."
#42
Dexed
5.0
(2)
"If you just want something free for now, check out Dexed."
"I use Dexed and SQ8L all the time."
#43
Spitfire Audio
5.0
(2)
"Keyscape, xpand2!, spitfire labs there’s honestly so many good ones"
"LABs by Spitfire audio is the best, free VST in my opinion."
#44
u-he
5.0
(2)
"Omnisphere, diva, hive, Roland cloud, serum, native instruments komplete, spire is a great one."
"I highly recommend Uhe Diva (for ALL the c)"
#45
Synplant
4.5
(2)
"Synplant, Microtonic, Keyscape, Vcv Rack Pro"
"Synplant and synplant 2."
#46
LABS
4.5
(2)
"LABS."
"LABS is a great free sample library with all kinds of instruments."
#47
Synplant 2
4.5
(2)
"Synplant 2 is pretty much unstoppable rn imo.. took over as my primary from serum"
"Vital, Synplant 2, Harmor, Xpand!2, Quanta2, Phaseplant."
#48
Trash 2
4.5
(2)
"Trash 2 - (with multi band functionality for saturation, compression, distortion and more this plugin is 100% worth the price.)"
"Trent said he used Trash 2 on With Teeth and Year Zero."
#49
SQ8L
4.5
(2)
"I like SQ8L and Vital sounds."
#50
CamelCrusher
4.5
(2)
"CamelCrusher (Free)"
"CamelCrusher (Martin Garrix uses it so I got it and its pretty nice for saturating and distorting stuff)."
#51
Spire
4.5
(2)
"Use spire, serum, electra, frank dukes the prince."
"DIVA, spire, serum, pigments are all great synths too."
#52
Soundpaint
4.5
(2)
"I'm such a huge fan of Soundpaint as an alternative to Kontact"
"There are some really good and inexpensive ones you can buy from Soundpaint"
#53
Arturia V Collection
4.5
(2)
"Arturia V collection has them all plus more."
"Lots of spacey sounds, evolving pads etc."
#54
Spitfire
4.5
(2)
"[spitfire bbc orchestra](https://www.spitfireaudio.com/bbc-symphony-orchestra-discover)"
"Spitfire labs has some good ones too but it can get quite pricey."
#55
Steven Slate Drums
4.0
(2)
"Steven Slate, ML Sound Lab, DrumGizmo"
"Slate has a trial of like three kits that’s what I started with and liked it."
#56
Analog Obsession
4.0
(2)
"Analog obsession for compressors."
"Analog obsession, and look to mixbox by IK multimedia they have a free version with eight free plug-ins."
#57
Plogue
4.0
(2)
"Plogue chipsouds."
#58
Sylenth1
4.0
(2)
"Sylenth1."
"Sylenth1 (Avicii is my biggest inspiration, so this one)."
#59
Harmor
4.0
(2)
"Utilize Harmor or Vital. Possibilities are endless."
"Vital, Synplant 2, Harmor, Xpand!2, Quanta2, Phaseplant."
#60
Ugritone
4.0
(2)
"If you are looking for Drums, check Ugritone."
"Just be quick, they're shutting down."
#61
EVI-NER
4.0
(2)
"Evi-ner is cheap and perfect."
"EVI-NER is cheap and designed for EWI and works really really well."
#62
Zenology
4.0
(2)
"Best priced ones: zenology, nexus, xpand"
"Zenology probably."
#63
jbridge
4.0
(2)
"My suggestion figure out if TBridge still works, if not pay the small fee for JBridge."
"Pay for jbridge."
#64
Sylenth
4.0
(2)
"Sylenth is versatile and easy to create 1960s sounds through to the present."
"Sylenth."
#65
Massive
3.5
(2)
"Massive."
"Massive has some cool presets if you get it on sale it’s like 30 bucks."
#66
Soraboy
5.0
(1)
"Soraboy is a great free plugin to create that chiptune stuff."
#67
Goodhertz
5.0
(1)
"Offers tons of trippy processing to make your tone sound like distorted mp3s."
#68
Sugar Bytes
5.0
(1)
"My personal favorite is Obscurium."
#69
Reveal Sound
5.0
(1)
"Omnisphere, diva, hive, Roland cloud, serum, native instruments komplete, spire is a great one."
#70
Sonosaurus
5.0
(1)
"PaulXStretch is designed for radical transformation of sounds."
#71
HZE
5.0
(1)
"Check out HZE’s Pedals. They’re plugins modeled after guitar pedals."
#72
Brass Quartet
5.0
(1)
"If you have Suite, try the Brass Quartet and Orchestral Brass packs"
#73
East West
5.0
(1)
"Wait until east west opus goes on sale then just get that and you’ll have everything covered"
#74
VCV Rack Pro
5.0
(1)
"I love VCV rack pro — I used it in Ableton all the time."
#75
Surge Synth Team
5.0
(1)
"Surge XT has a wide variety of sounds!"
#76
Aberrant DSP
4.0
(1)
"Their Lofi Oddity is also cool and free."
#77
Dune
4.0
(1)
"Finding its wavetables and getting a wavetable vst with an import function like Dune 2 might be useful."
#78
Electra
4.0
(1)
"Look dude what want is either a moog bass or the anabaz preset in Electra2."
#79
FG
4.0
(1)
"On fl studio i use FG 1982 in the bass section of sawer"
#80
Universal Audio
4.0
(1)
"UA has native bundles now"
#81
Gforce
4.0
(1)
"The Oberheims have a depth of sound for dark moody pads."
#82
HG Fortune
4.0
(1)
"All HG Fortune VST2 synths."
#83
Dada Life
4.0
(1)
"Sausage Fattener."
#84
Full Bucket
4.0
(1)
"Many of the free synths available here have Pad presets or can create pad sounds."
#85
Kick 2
4.0
(1)
"Used Kick 2 for donkeys years but started mixing it up with Sinee Chop Suey for a change for kicks."
#86
Shaper Box
4.0
(1)
"For effects I really like Shaper Box."
#87
Chroma
4.0
(1)
"Chroma, PitchMap."
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