One thing I will say about Vital is that gain staging is difficult at least when it comes to the onboard effects. I tried pushing it hard in terms of playing really high notes, cranking filter resonance, adding distortion, etc and it never sounded unpleasant or harsh. In terms of sound, it’s much better than anyone could hope for in a free VST. But the actual synth you get with the paid options seems to be identical to the free one – it just comes loaded with more wavetables and presets. They have created a model that encourages users to pay for extra presets and wavetables. The Vital Audio team aren’t going entirely penniless, however. Again, I will remind you because it’s hard to believe – this synth is totally free! Personally, I always thought that one filter was not enough for a synth like Serum so I’m really grateful that Vital delivers here. It has three wavetable oscillators and two filters instead of just one. Not only this but it actually boasts some major advantages over Serum. I think most would agree that this is the first free VST synth that can rival Serum in terms of its look and features.

(Download Vital here.) Features and Sound In case you are only just hearing about Vital now, let’s look at why it’s a hit… This is the newest one on our list and I’ve decided to put it first because it’s just that good! Vital is a super hot “Spectral Warping” wavetable synth that is creating a lot of buzz for some really obvious reasons. 5 of the best freeware compressor plugins.

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