Your top 2015 synthesizer list?

[Michael L]

As someone who records his own sounds and loves timbres: Alchemy1, Iris1 and 2, Crystal, MetaSynth, MuLab Mux, Rhino, Wusik Station 8, and the AAS mob.

[excessional]

Why this absence of freeware synths?

At a guess because most people do most of their work using paid vst synths.
I mean I like Synth 1 as much as the next man, but when you spend hundreds of hours per year messing around with your main vsts (and you are an adult with an adult's income) the cost of buying the vst itself isn't really that relevant...

And the kiddies that either can't or think they can't afford $50-$200 tend to use cracked ones anyway so I hear...

The thing to avoid is 'vst collectivitis' where you buy all the new synths and never really get to use any of them properly...

[4damind]

Why this absence of freeware synthts?

Many of them are Synthmaker/Synthedit synth where people stay away from them. Some having no 64Bit support some are not available on MacOS and Windows, some having not so much support or are completely not supported. Commercial synth having often more quality presets... I can only remember 1 freeware synth which earned a bit more interest ("Synth 1").
For effects this is a bit different, there are many good freeware effects available and also used by a lot of people.

[recursive one]

My current top 5

Spire
Massive
Sylenth (still in 2015!)
Dune 2
Diva

Also i'll probably buy Serum, amoung recently released synths this is probably the only one which really captured my attention.

[dakkra]

MUX
Syntmaster2.6
Rapture (original)
DuneCM
Fish

[recursive one]

Fish

Yep, how could I forget about it. Incredible for superfish and fishtable sounds.

[skyscape]

In no particular order:

Mpowersynth - people complain about the interface but if you're serious about sound design this is one of the best synths out there, absolutely superb.

Serum - extremely well thought out, easy to program but also very deep, far far more than an EDM machine.

Xhip - Crystal clear sound that most other free or paid synths can't touch.

Synthmaster - Another sound designers dream - could play with it for the rest of my life and not get bored, and it just keeps getting better and better!

[DubLifeSD]

These have been my workhorses this past year....

-Spire
-SynthMaster
-Z3ta 2

Freeware:

Tyrell n6
Synth1

[asksol]

My list would be:

Elektron Analog Keys/Four
Moog Sub37/Sub Phatty
Novation Bass Station II (price vs sound)
Waldorf Blofeld

Modartt Pianoteq
Madrona Labs Kaivo
U-he bazille
Waldorf PPG Wave 3.V
XILS Syn'X 2

[samsam]

If we're only talking about synths released this year I've got 2 that stand out:

Apple Alchemy
Sylenth1 3.0

[Luftrum]

Here's my own personal synth favorite of 2015: http://www.luftrum.com/luftrum-modular/

Hey, that's not a synth, it's a spaceship!
Your case is gorgeous!

Yeah, my modular is definitely my favorite instrument. It's so much more than a "synth"...

That's a really nice setup!

Isn't that one of Make Noise's prebuild Shared Systems or?

[C-note]

Sylenth1
Omnisphere 2
Reaktor 6
Juno 106
TAL-U-NO-LX
ACE
Electra 2
Gladiator 2
Nexus 2
Loom
Razor
Monark
ARP 2600

[justin3am]

That's a really nice setup!

Isn't that one of Make Noise's prebuild Shared Systems or?

Thanks! It started as a Shared System but I have since expanded it.
I started my modular in 2008, with an all Doepfer system. It's been a lot of fun exploring all of the possibilities!