Omnisphere offers nearly 15000 sounds and endless sound possibilities. You can layer 4 instruments simultaneously, and there are synthesis modules included from some of the most well-renowned synth keyboards that have ever been created.

You will find sounds from the Nord lead synths, Dave Smith, Roland Juno, Korg, Yamaha, Moog, and more. At $499, this is not cheap software, but what it offers is incredibly deep and inspiring for musicians. 

One of the unique features of Omnisphere is its Hardware Synth Integration. This innovation transforms over 65 well-known hardware synthesizers into extensive hands-on controllers that unlock Omnisphere’s newly expanded synthesis capabilities.

This update takes Eric’s classic sound design work from the original 1987 Roland D-50 into completely new sonic territory with Omnisphere’s vast synthesis capabilities.

The synth engine of Omnisphere has been expanded. It now includes four layers per patch, new state variable filters, over 500 DSP wavetables, powerful granular synthesis, 8 LFOs, 12 ENVs, 34 filter types per part, a doubled mod matrix, and full FX modulation.

Omnisphere supports a newly redesigned, high-resolution interface with support for HiDPI displays. The modernized GUI is now easier to use and resizable to fit comfortably into your workspace.

It also has a standalone application with a recording function called Flow Capture™, which simultaneously grabs spontaneous musical moments in audio, MIDI, and .omnisphere sound format.

Heavyocity is another one-stop shop that has everything you need for music production in your home studio. Instruments, pro effects, bundles, everything is here. This is one of the best VSTS available in 2023.

Heavyocity offers a range of virtual software, each with unique features and pricing:

Nexus is some of the most impressive music software and one of the best VSTS to own.

Many of the samples and sounds are aimed at EDM, musicians in all genres are sure to find something that piques their interest.

The basic starter package is $249 and comes with over 4000 presets and 30.5 GB of samples. The next tier up (value 10), costs $499. It has a whopping 46.6 GB of samples and 5611 presets.

Lastly, the complete package includes everything that Nexus has to offer, with 178 expansions, 28,656 presets, and an incredible 235.5 GB of samples.

Add-on expansions from Nexus are generally very impressive and useful, especially for EDM music producers, and they all cost $30 or $60 each at the time of writing. 

NEXUS4 is compatible with all your existing NEXUS projects and libraries. You can load your old beats into your DAW and load the sounds you’ve had before. Everything just works.

The TDR Limiter 6 GE is a modern dynamics compression and limiting toolkit that has received high praise from various sources for its quality, affordability, and versatility.

MusicRadar highly recommends the TDR Limiter 6 GE, stating that it is up there with the best compressors and limiters and is much cheaper than most of them.

This limiter has a great UI and workflow, per-module M/S mode, and a fantastic HF Limiter. The product also represents excellent value at under $60, making it one of the best VSTs available.

Black Tide Music considers the TDR Limiter 6 GE as a modern sound processing tool using 6 dedicated modules. They note that using these modules will help expand the range of sounds in your mix.

Each module allows for the control of different types of events from macro to micro and allows you to set the signal path. They can be combined to increase the perceived loudness of a mix while maintaining superior musical fidelity, punch, and excitement.

The “Gentleman’s Edition” (GE) adds several improvements to the standard edition’s feature set.

The most obvious of these is intuitive access to various equal loudness workflows, the ability to specify ratio in a frequency-dependent manner, and a powerful sidechain high-pass filter allowing continuous variable access over slope and frequency.

The Yin/Yang functions allow manipulating the harmonic pattern produced during compression, and the “insane” quality mode increases processing fidelity even further.

14. TDR Molotok (FREE)

• Full-featured dynamics compressor
• Eleven musically intriguing compression flavor nuances
• Different quality modes including zero-latency operation
• High-quality signal processing

15. TDR VOS SlickEQ (FREE)

The Neve 1073 plugin by UAD, officially known as the UAD Neve 1073 Preamp & EQ Collection, is a highly acclaimed piece of audio software that stands out in the crowded market of digital plugins.

It is universally praised for its faithful recreation of the classic Neve 1073 preamp and EQ, offering an unparalleled level of warmth and depth to your recordings.

The sound quality of the UAD Neve 1073 plugin is exceptional. It does an excellent job of emulating the rich, harmonic character and analog warmth that the original Neve 1073 is known for.

Whether you’re tracking vocals, guitars, or drums, this plugin adds a beautiful coloration that can make any source sound better.

The EQ section of the UAD Neve 1073 is another highlight. It offers a broad range of tonal shaping options, from subtle enhancements to more drastic changes.

The high and low shelving EQs, along with the mid-band, provide a musical touch that can help any mix stand out.

The UAD Neve 1073 Preamp & EQ Collection is a top-notch plugin that faithfully recreates the sound of one of the most revered preamps and EQs in history.

The FabFilter Total Bundle, priced at $899, is a comprehensive collection of all FabFilter plugins. With the bundle, you get access to a wide range of highly-regarded professional quality sound processing tools.

The bundle includes the Pro-L 2, Pro-MB, Pro-Q 3, and Pro-C 2 plugins, among others. These plugins are designed to provide you with a complete toolkit for mixing, mastering, sound design, and music production.

Pro-L 2

The included Pro-L 2 is a peak limiter designed to deal with unwanted loud dynamic bursts.

It comes with eight limiting algorithms, each dealing with different issues, including a mode that irons out all the distortion during digital-to-analog conversion.

Pro-MB

The Pro-MB is a potent compressor and expander, capable of dealing with both individual tracks and entire mixes. Its main strength comes with the possibility to compress with different intensities over the audible spectrum.

Pro-Q 3

The Pro-Q 3 is a state-of-the-art equalizer plugin. It’s very good at helping you single out those “bad” frequencies in your audio files, and the “Dynamic EQ” mode enables you to keep every track and instrument in their respective sonic territories.

Pro-C 2

Lastly, the Pro-C 2 is a professional compressor plugin that allows easy tweaking thanks to its meticulously designed graphical interface.

Overall

The plugins in the FabFilter Total Bundle are known for their high-quality sound, innovative interface, and advanced features. They are well-regarded in the industry and highly regarded by users.

While the price point is high, the quality and versatility of the plugins make it a worthwhile investment for serious music producers and audio engineers.

Also, many of the plugins from Fabfilter are available as a 30-day free trial, so you can see how awesome they are before you make a purchase! 

19. The Fabfilter Creative Bundle

20. Pro-Q 3 by FabFilter – Equalizer

The Pro-Q 3 is designed to help you achieve your desired sound in the quickest way possible. It allows you to create bands where you need them, enable dynamic EQ for any band, and select and edit multiple bands at once.

Unique features like Spectrum Grab, Full Screen mode, and EQ Match are designed to speed up your workflow.

It also includes all the usual FabFilter goodies: perfectly tuned knobs, interactive MIDI Learn, undo/redo and A/B switch, Smart Parameter Interpolation for smooth parameter transitions, and more.

Other features include frequency collision indication, mid-side, stereo, and left-right placements, and a display that can be made full-screen. It also supports stereo, mono, and surround channel layouts (up to Dolby Atmos 7.1.2).

FabFilter Pro-R is a high-end reverb plug-in with natural sound, musical controls, and innovations like the unique Decay Rate EQ to shape the reverb’s character.

The Pro-R is designed with an ergonomic user interface, steering away from the appearance of an analog unit and opting for a more scientific GUI. It features a frequency spectrum-style display and an EQ curve, overlaid with a blue decay rate curve.

It also offers a stepless Space control that allows you to fade between different room models, automatically choosing a matching decay time for a natural-sounding result. 

The Pro-L 2 has several enhancements over its predecessor, including new processing algorithms and true-peak limiting.

The three new limiting algorithms cover more situations and showcase the flexibility of Pro-L 2. The Modern algorithm retains snap and attack while avoiding overloads.

The Bus setting is more evident to the ears but better suited for stem work, and Safe mode means no distortion, ever.

The Pro-L 2 is designed to sound great for every genre and includes comprehensive loudness metering. It also offers a 30-day free trial.

The plugin has a 4k display and a full-screen mode for larger screens. It also includes dithering and noise shaping, and MIDI learning lets you link MIDI devices to the Pro L2. The plugin is also noted for its new widescreen GUI and three new view modes for the central-level display.

The Pro-L 2 is a comprehensive and sometimes complex limiter. As far as limiters go, this one seems to have the most functionality and flexibility compared to its competitors. 

The Pro-C 2 offers eight different, program-dependent compression styles, each with its unique sound and character.

It also includes features such as smooth lookahead, up to 4x oversampling, intelligent auto-gain and auto-release, a variable knee, hold, range, external side-chain triggering, variable stereo linking, and mid/side processing.

All of these features are packed into a beautiful Retina user interface.

The user interface of the Pro-C 2 is one of its standout features. It is larger and easier to navigate than its predecessor, and it provides real-time displays that greatly improve workflow.

The large animated level/knee display visualizes exactly when, why, and how compression is applied to incoming audio.

The Pro-C 2 also includes a vastly improved side-chain EQ, which offers a third band to handle the midrange, creating flexibility in targeting frequencies for de-essing, de-harshing, or simply emphasizing the signal you’d like to drive to your compressor.

The FabFilter Pro-MB is a multiband dynamics processing tool that is both powerful and intuitive. It is designed to make multiband compression and expansion easier to set up and control.

The Pro-MB is praised for its innovative approach to multiband dynamics processing, offering a unique Dynamic Phase processing mode that has virtually the same frequency response as traditional multiband processing, but without latency or pre-ringing.

The Pro-MB is also lauded for its sound quality, with users noting that it sounds different from the competition right from the start, providing an unobstructed and very clean sound.

It is also appreciated for its clean interface, with a fresh instance of the plug-in being free of any active processing bands, allowing users to opt-in to applying detailed dynamics processing.

The ‘Allround’ mode is also mentioned as a great tool for high-frequency limiting of any material.

The FabFilter Pro-DS is highly regarded as a de-esser plugin due to its advanced features, ease of use, and the quality of results it produces.

It is praised for its intelligent and transparent sibilance detection and attenuation, as well as its versatility in dealing with the high-frequency limiting of various materials. 

The plugin is known for its excellent sound and flexible routing options. Users can choose between mono, stereo, or mid/side processing, and in expert mode, external side chain input is available with completely customizable channel linking and routing.

The FabFilter Pro-G also features smart input/output level meters with a real-time level display and transfer curve, designed to provide clear feedback on the current gate/expander settings and processing, making setup easy.

Additional features include six meticulously tuned expander/gate algorithms, program-dependent attack and release curves, low CPU usage, adjustable range, hold time and knee settings, and an optional look-ahead time of up to 10 ms.

The plugin also offers MIDI Learn, Smart Parameter Interpolation for smooth parameter transitions, and an excellent help file with interactive help hints.

27. Fabfilter Saturn 2

FabFilter Timeless 3 is a versatile delay plugin ideal for music production and mixing. The latest version offers enhanced sound quality and a user-friendly interface with up to 6 filters and 16 delay taps.

Notable features include a ping-pong mode and five new effects like Drive, Lo-Fi, Diffusion, Dynamics, and Pitch Shift.

The update also includes interactive displays, a Stereo Width control, a Mix slider, and live modulation visualization.

Envelope generators feature curve slope settings, and Timeless 3 supports Transient mode for envelope followers. XY controllers increase to 6, and modulation sources can be renamed.

The plugin is available in various formats and has new factory presets. It provides support for both Windows and macOS, and users can load presets from previous versions.

This plugin supports hiding modulation sources, interface resizing, and Full-Screen mode.

30. Fabfilter Twin 3

FabFilter Twin 3 is an impressive virtual analog synth known for its massive sound, excellent sound design capabilities, and powerful modulation system. It offers hands-on tweaking options and a redesigned GUI, making it a fantastic update.

The synth’s high-quality filters, effects, and real-time manipulation capabilities make it a sound design dream. It delivers immense and punchy sounds, is suitable for various genres, and integrates well into music mixes.

With a user-friendly interface and a wide range of features, Twin 3 stands out as a powerful tool for sound designers and music producers. Its compatibility with different platforms adds to its appeal.

FabFilter Twin Update

The major upgrade of FabFilter Twin 3 features a redesigned GUI, four oscillators with new poly mode and modeled drift, and enhanced modulation options.

The polyphony is increased to 64 voices, and the filters are upgraded to four with new vintage-style types and modulatable knobs.

The FX section offers six modules, and a creative arpeggiator is introduced. The modulation features see improvements like a new transient mode and curve adjustment handles.

The preset browser receives a makeover with tags, favorites, search, and import functions. Twin 3 is a top choice for music producers and is compatible with macOS and Windows.

FabFilter One features a fat and smooth self-oscillating digital filter and an oscillator that offers triangle, sawtooth, and square waveforms with pulse width modulation. Modulation options are expanded through the LFO and EG.

This plug-in excels in attention to detail, including a refined portamento feature and smart parameter interpolation for smooth transitions. With sample accuracy, automation, and MIDI control support, FabFilter One provides high-quality sound.

Features

It also offers various features like filter keyboard tracking, velocity sensitivity, 10-voice polyphony, and over 100 presets. It comes in multiple formats and is part of the Total Bundle, which includes a comprehensive collection of FabFilter plug-ins.

The high-quality oscillator, free from aliasing, offers sawtooth, triangle, and square waveforms with pulse width modulation. LFO and EG modulations provide creative options, with the ability to synchronize tempo to the host.

FabFilter One handles parameter changes with sample accuracy and supports arbitrary sample rates. It is fully automatable within the user’s preferred host and comes with an extensive help file for guidance.

FabFilter Simplon is a simplified version of FabFilter Volcano, featuring two independent multimode filters with low-pass, high-pass, and band-pass responses.

The filters offer three distinct characteristics, ranging from smooth to raw and self-oscillating, providing up to 27 filter types by combining response and slope settings.

The plugin includes a large interactive filter display for easy tweaking and adjustment. It also provides MIDI Learn, Smart Parameter Interpolation, undo/redo, presets, and sample-accurate automation.

Available in various formats for both Windows and macOS platforms, it is a user-friendly filter plug-in that offers the classic FabFilter sound.

FabFilter Micro is a lightweight, affordable filter plugin that offers the classic FabFilter sound. It features a unique resonating, screaming, and saturating filter, along with low-pass and high-pass filter shapes.

The plugin includes an adjustable envelope follower that modulates the filter frequency based on the incoming audio signal, allowing for creative filter effects.

It also provides individual Input Gain and Output Gain controls for full saturation control. The plugin includes interactive MIDI Learn, Smart Parameter Interpolation, undo/redo features, and a flexible preset system, making it a versatile tool for various audio processing needs.

FabFilter Micro is available in VST, VST3, AU, AAX Native, and AudioSuite formats. It is compatible with Windows and macOS.

FAQ

What Is a VST?

If you are looking to make professional music and want your final mixes to be of the highest quality, consider purchasing some high-quality VSTS!

I worked hard to compile the list of excellent pay-to-own VST instruments and effects plugins in this article, and I hope you found it useful! Happy composing and producing!