Vital

Insane plugin. Genuinely my go-to for sound design. The interface is so perfect for my workflow and the built-in fx, wavetables, and noise samples are super versatile. The spectral fx and warp modes are incredibly useful and make the possibilities basically endless.

The only thing I do prefer serum over vital for is the wavetable editor, but I'm slowly learning how to use it better.

I've been using Vital since it released and I can't see myself using any other synth as efficiently as it. Thank you Matt Tytel. Been here since Helm hahaha :D.

I am in awe of the programmers who create these heavy lifting synths. It is so rare to find one with good sound quality, and equally rare to find one with intuitive, efficient and granular controls. In my mind, Vital is the first all-encompassing hybrid synth which is usable without a steep learning curve. In minutes a new user will be using LFOs to modulate other controls in the waveforms and samples. Creates large and evolving sounds that just aren't possible with most synths. Little else to say: Sounds great, easy to learn, fun to use, beautiful to look at.

Beautiful free VST.

Basically does everything that Serum does but better (minus the filters, Serum filters are the main selling point difference).

Again a fabulous VST the basic free version is all you really need and as such it should be in the top of the best free VST chart here, for some reason that's not the case.

A must have VST in my opinion.

Plenty of addition presets to download as well :-).

Huge Synth with a lot of settings, effects and .... Linux support, which is not a standard in music plugins.

After trying free version, I've decided to subscibe it for monthly 5 bugs and convert earned money to Pro version and have a lot of fun with text to wavetable feature.

I'm satisfacted with it.

Melhor por enquanto. Tem bons presets disponíveis. Muito fácil de mexer e entender. Cobre os principais sistemas operacionais.

It's Serum 2021 - I love Steve Duda's masterpiece, but Vital is better.
I design wavetables, and the Serum editor is more feature packed, but Vital's editor is optimized excellently and it is fun to use. Serum's in comparison feels clunky.

If Vital we're $250 I would have bought it .

What can I say, that 99 percent of these other excellent reviews haven't said?

I absolutely LOVE this synthesizer.

It is a staple in my studio and will be for an indefinite amount of time.

I was so impressed, I bought the Pro version for a mere $80.

Matt Tytel has programmed an absolute beast of a synthesizer that you should definitely have in your studio.

It's not just "Good-because-it's-free", it's more like "How-can-this-astounding-synth-possibly-be-free?"
I say that Matt deserves your money. I reckon you would probably be more than happy to support him too, about five minutes after installing it.
Tons of modulation options and some awesome morph stuff with the wavetables.
Text-to-wavetable is a really cool and useful feature for sound creation.
The Spectral Morph feature is clever.

10/5 stars. I cannot recommend this highly enough.
Look up my username on Soundcloud to hear it in action, as I use it for 90 percent of my synth parts.

Its cool, like a knock of of Serum. BUT. Whats with the no support for free virgin, you cant even post a topic in their forum....

I'll keep my 25$. edit: Also the osc phase is totally unusable for a psytrance style bassline. Its all over the place, like it doesnt recognize) phase position at all. The wave text editor is pretty neat though, and the effects arent to shabby.

Filter isnt that great either. I really just dont like all the loopholes for a pro version, i really dont.

Not sure what the hype is all about TBH.

a synth at this scale as a free plugin. holy fuck. ofc i give it 5 stars. and honestly, well deserved as well. i have a really hard time actually finding aspects that i find worse than in serum without being pedantic. an example would be that is suffers from the typical sensitive mode mouse-event issues of juce plugins. but as i said: pedantic af. here the thigns that i love most about this synth:

1. the fact that it has a speech synthesizer for wavetable creation. how sick is that?

2. the parameters next to each oscillator which are used to really smash the wavetable into whole other directions. it's a bit like serum's warp modes, but 2 of them and with way fancier options.

Amazing and powerful synth, lots of features (modulation and sound fx) and beautiful and inspiring user interface.

Lots of functionality and modulation capabilities, smooth GUI. Only downside is it sounds rather thin. Mad props to Matt Tytel for releasing it for free. All in all, it may not be able to stand toe to toe with the "big boy" synths, but for it's great features it's a superb beginner/learner's softsynth.

The other reviews don't exaggerate. One of the best synths I own at any price point and I own plenty. Great UI, great sound, versatile...this isn't just "great for free," it's great, period.

To me, including surge vst, the best free synth on the market, on a par with other paid ones.

I have been using it for almost a month and I have no complaints. The sound of the oscillators is very clean and the effects, without being the best I have heard, are very good.

May you try the free version, but if you like, you can pay for "pro" version with just 80 €. (the lowest price on market on a serious synth).

Absolutely one of the best synthesizers ever made, hardware or software, regardless of price. It obliterates most paid-for software synths, and stands toe-to-toe with classics like Serum, Alchemy, Diva, Massive, Zebra etc in terms of sound quality and power for what it does. Vital should be in the top 5 synths of every producer's arsenal in my opinion.

What can I say? This synth is amazing. Even if you use it just as a substractive synth you can get high quality sounds. It is indeed a great year to be a broke music producer, there are many free vsts out there and Vital is one of the bests. It is my go to synth every time I start a new project.

When I get money again I will donate to Matt Tytel so he continues making his awesome job. That said, I encourage everyone that can spend a bit of money to buy the plus or even the pro version of this synth.

This synth has the ability to make all kinds of fantastic sounds. I started with the free version, did a couple songs with it, and just upgraded to plus. So many great sounds, it's definitely worth the price to upgrade to either plus or premium, and I very rarely go beyond plugins that are available for free. Just get it, you'll love it.

Great sound engine wirh analogue feelings. The right balance of mods and sound tweeking which inspires creativity. Flexibility with a well designed UI/UX. I love the wavetable editor, MPE support and LFOs design.

What's there to say really? VITAL is an incredibly powerful and entirely capable wavetable synth and it's available sans-barrier (free!) for those of us who cannot afford to buy expensive plugins and if you want to support Matt you can buy versions with more presets and waveforms but you can /also/ subscribe at 5$/mo towards either buying artist's preset packs or the fully stocked paid version (which has the same functionality as the free one! Only limitation is 5 text-to-wavetable requests per day for free users afaik). Between the incredibly powerful synth itself, the beautiful and inviting interface, the thriving active community at the vital audio forum and the empowering pay-what-you-want/can pricing scheme for this synth you can tell this was a work of love. VITAL works on windows and mac but it even works on Linux.

I don't typically do reviews, however Matt deserves good feedback. As I already stated early in the KVR thread: Vital is the biggest boy on the block right now for a whole slew of reasons. Below is just one of those reasons expanded: Control.

Vital takes over for my #1 synth spot for when I need maximum control of live playing sound, which is almost always as I rarely manually input automation. Vital is by far most in-line with how I visualize sound manipulation, and I'm making absolute bangin evolutions right out the gate. Just seeing how the first 4 macros are all put to good use in presets was my first indication, and it only got better from there.

The focus on the home-brewed macro setup to be far and away the best encouragement of control out there -- its right in your face on the left, custom names immediately give a sense of what the patch maker intended, and inspires any would-be patch maker to go that one step further with their envisioned sound.

Its something many synths include one way or another, and people may not think about it much. However with Vital the control macros demand attention, the community of patch makers seem to be aware that this is important in their definition of the sound, and incentivize players to pluck away at some of the controls a bit more instead of move on after a key or two. I actually enjoyed going through all the presets -- something I've not done in 20 years - I was as interested in what the patch macros were named as I was in the sound -- and was rarely disappointed with all control guns blazing.

Great job Matt, you got yourself a clear winner here.

this is my new fave synth plugin; it's a thing-of-it's own, has it's own character, possibilities. have been playing with vital for a few weeks, and barely scratched the surface, and am using it on everything (it's like my new 'salt'); it's inspiring (the thing i look for most in a new plugin). for a version 1, it's pretty amazing.

am a music-maker, not a sound designer, so looking forward to soundsets (i do tweak everything tho); the yuli yolo set that's out is great, the vital community is making some great sounds too.

vital is well-thought out, well designed. and that sound.... def worthwhile going for the pro version, but the free version is an exceptional deal... it's free. get it.