5 of the Best Synths for Sound Design
Instruments with deep synthesis possibilities from KORG, Behringer, Sequential, Waldorf, and more!
Get deep into synthesis with these five best synths for sound design, with analog, wavetable, digital and hybrid machines all here to inspire you.
5 of the Best Synths for Sound Design
The Best Synths for Sound Design
Not every synthesizer is built for sound design. Some focus on the basics, with an emphasis on sound quality and musical usability. On the other hand, others are deeeeeep. Modulation aplenty, unusual routings, weird combinations and results. These are the instruments you reach for when bread-and-butter won’t cut it, when you need to blast off into outer space and come back with the craziest, most cinematic sound anyone has ever heard.
But what synth should you get if synthesis possibilities are what get you up in the morning? Have no fear, because I’ve put together this list of five of the best synths for sound design. I’ve made an effort to include instruments with different prices and synthesis types so there’s something here for everyone. What did I miss? Let me know in the comments.
The Best Synths for Sound Design: Behringer 2600
The early synthesizers were sound design playgrounds because they were modular. That also made them unwieldy and expensive. Meeting players and synthesists halfway, 1971’s ARP 2600 was the first semi-modular synthesizer that you could use without a single patch cable – although you could also patch it to go beyond what was possible with the normalled connections. That made it very attractive to sound designers, including one Ben Burtt, who famously used it in Star Wars and Raiders of the Lost Ark.
Original 2600s cost a pretty penny these days, but thankfully, Behringer has its own take on the 2600. With three VCOs (that can double as LFOs), a multimode filter, plenty of modulation and 83 patch points, there’s very little that this analog monosynth can’t do.
Affordable and versatile, it’s an amazing place to start (or continue) your synthesis journey.
The Best Synths for Sound Design: KORG modwave mk II
From analog to digital, the next entry in our list of the best synths for sound design is KORG’s modwave mk II, a wavetable synthesizer with an almost absurd amount of sonic shenanigans under its hood.
Inspired by the 1985 DW-8000, the modwave mk II combines dual wavetable oscillators with a digital filter that actually houses emulations of some of KORG’s most famous, including the MS-20 and Polysix. It’s also endowed with plenty of LFOs and envelopes for sound shaping, plus more than 30 modifiers and 13 morph types to process the wavetables themselves. And let’s not forget that the modwave has double layers, so it’s like having two synths in one.
Then there’s the Kaoss Physics pad, which lets you use physics like gravity as a modulation source. Need more? Of course you do. There’s also Motion Sequencing 2.0 for creating assignment loops within the sequencer. This all adds up to a real sound design powerhouse.
The Best Synths for Sound Design: SOMA Lyra-8
Sometimes the best instrument for sound design is the one that forces you to break out of your habits. When you use a traditional synth, you may unconsciously make the same decisions over and over. Work with a machine with a unique signal path or set of controls, and suddenly you’re creating sounds you never thought of before. An amazing synthesizer for this is Lyra-8 from SOMA.
Lyra-8 often gets called a drone synthesizer because it has eight voices that combine in unique ways. SOMA would rather you not call them VCOs because they can behave like tone generators in electric organs or in FM synthesis mode. There’s also a Hyper LFO which combines two traditional LFOs, a Mod Delay, and distortion. And, with the unconventional playing surface of triggered contacts making sure you stay firmly in the realm of experimentation, Lyra-8 will often result in the unexpected.
Even cooler: it’s available in a number of different colors, including a limited-edition Rust model.
The Best Synths for Sound Design: Sequential Pro 3
We tend to think of Sequential as an analog synthesizer company. After all, Dave Smith’s Prophet-5 is an analog poly classic. But Sequential has done all kinds of synths in its long career, including hybrid digital/analog pioneers like the Prophet VS. Dave’s 2020 Pro 3 is part of that hybrid tradition, and as such, it offers some sound design options that you won’t find in other instruments of its caliber.
Although the Pro 3 is mainly monophonic, it’s actually capable of behaving as a three-voice paraphonic instrument. That right there gives you something different. Then there’s the oscillator section, which combines two VCOs with a wavetable oscillator with 32 factory wavetables, each with 16 waves and smooth morphing. In the analog filter, you get not only a Prophet-5-type one but an Oberheim SEM 2-pole multimode and even a Moog-style Ladder filter. Plus there’s a tuned feedback section and you can even morph between patches.
The Pro 3 remains a firm favorite of synthesists for a reason: it’s one of the best synths for sound design. Grab the Special Edition model for the foldable control panel and walnut wood sides.
The Best Synths for Sound Design: Waldorf Iridium MK2
The last entry in this list of the best synths for sound design is none other than the 16-voice Waldorf Iridium MK2. There are few modern synths (or even classic ones, for that matter) with as varied a synth engine as the one in Iridium.
Or should that be ones plural, as there are no fewer than five synthesis types inside this desktop package. These include Wavetable (of course), Waveform virtual analog, Particle with sampling and granular synthesis, Resonator, and Kernel, the latter of which transforms oscillators into up to six sub-oscillators. Add to this the firefilter section with models from Nave, Largo and PPG 3V plus a Digital Former, six envelopes and LFOs, effects, and much more.
Check out the Iridium Core if you want the Iridium sound and engine but don’t need as much polyphony or as many controls.
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