Suggest a soft synth

[fluffy_little_something]

Maybe Xils-Lab Oxium ? comes very close to what you're looking for, as far as I understand it :
Analog-style, 3 oscillators per voice : 2 osc + 2 noise osc but cumulative waveform Oscillators
PWM at least on impulse/square : Yes
Sync, ring mod : Yes. Gorgeous Sync
Some form of FM welcome : No but noise can mod almost anything, including filters
Multimode filter. 2 Filters welcome. : 2 multimode analog 0df filters.
3 envs. 3 LFOs. : Yes, 3 EVs with looping abilities, 3 LFO with cumulative waveforms. Can be triggered by mask sequencers for max flexibility.
A freely assignable matrix-mod with at least 10 slots and good capabilities (for example, modulating single envelope segments, etc.) : Yes you can modulate all EV segments + tons of other targets. 6 freely assignable slots + 15 semi hardwired slots. Performance modulations.
A clear 'front panel' screen would be a bonus : Very clear panel
Stand-alone preferred, but VST or other OK : Only VST/AU/AAX

+ Oxium has arpeggio and unique Mask Sequencers on board, wich means unseen modulation possibilities. So it has a lot of potential for students. And teachers as well.
Then, unfortunately, not free. But very affordable and only serial protected.

A few things Oxium can do :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Csd8nFW5udU

It has 0df filters and uses quite some CPU. And what is very affordable about 99 euros?!

[ImNotDedYet]

Zebra2

It's like every time someone asks which synth to get the knee-pad dawning Uhe fanboys come out of the woodwork, no matter how inapropriate their suggestions. Each of you should be ashamed of yourselves. Now, get your pads back on and get back in the gimp box 'cause daddy wants to go round the world tonight.

But to answer the OP question, Synth-1. Anything more is just a gimmick laden crutch that would hinder learning. If the student complain, tell them to nut up or shut up, and that Nicola Tesla only had 1 osc and he invented FM radio with it!

Scuse me dude, but Zebra fits all of his requirements outside of the last sentence which states as free as possible. Synth-1 doesn't come close to meeting the original list of requirements.

[Uncle E]

Out of that list, Synthmaster will fit the bill.

Agreed on SynthMaster. It has a very clear mod matrix (as you can see in the picture below) and that would make it an excellent teaching tool. We have it on sale for $46.75 in cart:

[Lotuzia]

Maybe Xils-Lab Oxium ? comes very close to what you're looking for, as far as I understand it :
Analog-style, 3 oscillators per voice : 2 osc + 2 noise osc but cumulative waveform Oscillators
PWM at least on impulse/square : Yes
Sync, ring mod : Yes. Gorgeous Sync
Some form of FM welcome : No but noise can mod almost anything, including filters
Multimode filter. 2 Filters welcome. : 2 multimode analog 0df filters.
3 envs. 3 LFOs. : Yes, 3 EVs with looping abilities, 3 LFO with cumulative waveforms. Can be triggered by mask sequencers for max flexibility.
A freely assignable matrix-mod with at least 10 slots and good capabilities (for example, modulating single envelope segments, etc.) : Yes you can modulate all EV segments + tons of other targets. 6 freely assignable slots + 15 semi hardwired slots. Performance modulations.
A clear 'front panel' screen would be a bonus : Very clear panel
Stand-alone preferred, but VST or other OK : Only VST/AU/AAX

+ Oxium has arpeggio and unique Mask Sequencers on board, wich means unseen modulation possibilities. So it has a lot of potential for students. And teachers as well.
Then, unfortunately, not free. But very affordable and only serial protected.

A few things Oxium can do :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Csd8nFW5udU

It has 0df filters and uses quite some CPU. And what is very affordable about 99 euros?!

Well, It does have 0df filters, but a bass or lead sound takes 5/6% on an antique Q9650 PC. ( with 99.99% aliasing free oscillators ) In godly mode ( no low quality mode in Oxium )
As for 99e its less pricey than some synths proposed in this thread. And it does things that no other synth can do.
So its not *cheap*, but I see it as fully *affordable*.Ymmv.

[Uncle E]

Maybe Xils-Lab Oxium ?

It's too bad XILS 3 LE doesn't have more modulators. The mod matrixes in it and SynthMaster have better teaching tools than most of the synths mentioned here.

Personally, I think modulars like XILS 4, Modular V, ACE, and Bazille might be even better teaching tools.

[bmrzycki]

Propellerheads THOR for iOS.

Thanks Sebastian. Thor seems very well designed, almost overkill for my needs! However, the platform could definitely be a problem.
Anything for PC coming to mind?

If this is for teaching purposes why not just use the Reason Demo? You'd have Thor, Maelstrom, Subtractor. Those synths are famous for being light on your CPU:

Reason’s demo mode is fully functional and lets you do everything you can do in authorized mode, except for opening your saved documents.

You can't load songs but you can save and load device presets, including Combinators. As long as you keep inside Thor or a Combinator then this works. There doesn't seem to be a time limit to this mode either.

The only thing you're missing from a single Thor is that third LFO. But you can very easily load up a Maelstrom and add it's unique LFO to a combinator, connect to the back of a thor through the CV mod input port and you have what you need. Or use the step sequencer Curve 1 and Curve 2 sources as two custom LFO-like devices.

Low CPU, all the requirements, mac and windows support, free. The more I think about it the more this makes sense.

[oniram]

Thanks again to everybody who took the time to give suggestions.
And get this: I opened the thread, saw a couple of new posts, and started to reply... until I noticed that there were two more pages of responses! Wow.

So after many hours of researches, I restricted my choice to three synths: Synapse Audio Dune, X-Jupitae Wideboy, and Blarg VSTi. (The latter not exactly a catchy name if you ask me...)

It might seem a strange choice, but these three, other than having most or all the features I need, also have a clearly laid out, "hardware-style" panel which would suit my students just fine. Also, remember that for this particular case, features and price are the important things, moreso than a great sound quality.

Only uncertain thing is what's possible with the mod matrix... none of the makers offer a list of sources and destinations, or a manual to download. I guess I'll have a period of installing trial versions ahead. Aarrgghh.

Of the three, the Dune (even the original version would be ok, not the Dune 2) is the most elegant, and probably the best-sounding, but also the most expensive.

DUNE BE is free and starts to fill the reqs. I'm not sure exactly of all the details. Give it a try. I'm thinking it may be the best free synth.

I'd love to try this free version, to check what they left out to downsize it... but the links that start from the page you linked to seem out of date. Maybe it was a one-time offer which has expired?
Any hint on how to get hold of Dune BE would be wecome!

And again, thanks to everybody! I'm a bit lost in the huge world of softsynths, so your advice has been really precious.

[Lotuzia]

Maybe Xils-Lab Oxium ?

It's too bad XILS 3 LE doesn't have more modulators. The mod matrixes in it and SynthMaster have better teaching tools than most of the synths mentioned here.

Personally, I think modulars like XILS 4, Modular V, ACE, and Bazille might be even better teaching tools.

True, but as you can modulate anything with anything in the Xils 3 LE ( like using one of the 6 oscillators as an -audio rate- LFO for example ) it can do maybe 70% of all the sounds any standard analog synth, software or HW, can do, with a pristine sound. As it can also do 200% of things barely none analog synth can do, hw or hw, I'd say its a very good value, for very little price. I will demonstrate all this in a not so far future btw.

This said, I would not use a modular synth, even more a modular monster like the Xils 4, to teach beginners, or medium force students, synthesis. I would really reserve it for advanced students. The synth I use for beginners to teach basics of synthesis is my Juno 60 , because turning any knob you can hear a result at once. Fm comes next. Then Additive, Granular and WT together. Modular is really for those who want to push things ahead imho.

[discoDSP]

Well, Discovery can be suggested too. It's $99 now.

[cubanoid]

I'd love to try this free version, to check what they left out to downsize it... but the links that start from the page you linked to seem out of date. Maybe it was a one-time offer which has expired?
Any hint on how to get hold of Dune BE would be wecome!

If you have a Facebook account you can get Dune BE as part of the Beat Studio download:

https://www.facebook.com/beat.magazin/a ... 4864173038

The page actually links to this:

http://www.zampler.de:8080/upload/BeatStudio.zip

so I suppose you could just download it directly.

Alternatively you can register with beatdrive and download it from there:

http://www.studiodrive.de/?t=plugin_details&pid=8&cat=1

This site has recently been revamped and is now in English as well as German so it's a bit easier to use than it used to be but don't be surprised if you have to log in more than once to get the download!

Edit: it seems the BeatStudio download is password protected so beatdrive looks to be the best bet. I suspect you have to get the password from serialcenter.de.

Edit #2: to get the BeatStudio.zip password you have to go to

http://serialcenter.de

select 'Facebook BeatStudio' from the drop down and follow the instructions. I think they email the password once you filled in a simple questionaire.

[fluffy_little_something]

Thanks again to everybody who took the time to give suggestions.
And get this: I opened the thread, saw a couple of new posts, and started to reply... until I noticed that there were two more pages of responses! Wow.

So after many hours of researches, I restricted my choice to three synths: Synapse Audio Dune, X-Jupitae Wideboy, and Blarg VSTi. (The latter not exactly a catchy name if you ask me...)

It might seem a strange choice, but these three, other than having most or all the features I need, also have a clearly laid out, "hardware-style" panel which would suit my students just fine. Also, remember that for this particular case, features and price are the important things, moreso than a great sound quality.

Only uncertain thing is what's possible with the mod matrix... none of the makers offer a list of sources and destinations, or a manual to download. I guess I'll have a period of installing trial versions ahead. Aarrgghh.

Of the three, the Dune (even the original version would be ok, not the Dune 2) is the most elegant, and probably the best-sounding, but also the most expensive.

And again, thanks to everybody! I'm a bit lost in the huge world of softsynths, so your advice has been really precious.

Yes, the name is odd
The guy who makes it made a version with a basic integrated patch manager for me, I am sure he will give it to you as well if you need that, for instance in order to exchange patches in the usual fxp format when your DAW does not allow that.

Towards the end of the modulation page of the manual, there is a description of all sources and targets for the modulation matrix.
http://www.contralogic.com/data/vst-plu ... ation.html

But those are not the only types of modulations, of course. For each envelope for instance you can set the influence of velocity on the depth and time scale of the envelope.

[Halma]

...You can't load songs but you can save and load device presets, including Combinators. As long as you keep inside Thor or a Combinator then this works. There doesn't seem to be a time limit to this mode either.

The only thing you're missing from a single Thor is that third LFO. But you can very easily load up a Maelstrom and add it's unique LFO to a combinator, connect to the back of a thor through the CV mod input port and you have what you need. Or use the step sequencer Curve 1 and Curve 2 sources as two custom LFO-like devices.

Low CPU, all the requirements, mac and windows support, free. The more I think about it the more this makes sense.

Dangit, totally forgot that. So true. Patch loading/saving does work. And even combinators can be loaded.

To the OP: download Reason and you will have some very hardware like routing. THOR is really great and as bmrzycki already mentioned you can use every other LFO and route it into THOR.

Cheers
Sebastian

[el-bo (formerly ebow)]

Out of that list, Synthmaster will fit the bill.

Agreed on SynthMaster. It has a very clear mod matrix (as you can see in the picture below) and that would make it an excellent teaching tool. We have it on sale for $46.75 in cart:

Might as well close the thread now

how long till this deal disappears ??

[Uncle E]

True, but as you can modulate anything with anything in the Xils 3 LE ( like using one of the 6 oscillators as an -audio rate- LFO for example ) it can do maybe 70% of all the sounds any standard analog synth, software or HW, can do, with a pristine sound.

Yes, all good points. I guess I was thinking in terms of the OP's requests, which are probably beyond what's really necessary for teaching synthesis.

This said, I would not use a modular synth, even more a modular monster like the Xils 4, to teach beginners, or medium force students, synthesis.

I actually learned synthesis on the huge Moog panel modular over at USC. It took up an entire wall. The great thing about learning on it was I gained a very clear understanding of signal flow and modulators.

[chk071]

DUNE BE is free and starts to fill the reqs. I'm not sure exactly of all the details. Give it a try. I'm thinking it may be the best free synth.

I'd love to try this free version, to check what they left out to downsize it... but the links that start from the page you linked to seem out of date. Maybe it was a one-time offer which has expired?
Any hint on how to get hold of Dune BE would be wecome!

After a while of not using it, i recently got back to Dune BE, and again i am delighted about how easy it is to program. Want a big fat saw pad? No problem with the Dune engine, as you can handle every voice by itself in the mod matrix, pan it, anything. Other plugins feel so restricted in comparison, or have a crappy interface, which makes creating your sound sort of a nightmare compared really. It might not have the best sound in the world, and the filters sound a bit odd with certain envelope settings (you can improve that though by e.g. modulating the filter decay with the filter envelope, as i recently learned from Howard Scarr's programming analog synthesizers tutorial), but it's really a joy to use, and in most cases sounds good enough for me. At least it sounds warmer than many other plugins.