What VSTi's do you guys like the most and why?

[BlakeLight]

I totally agree about Blue Tubes... its a very cool GUI... but the sounds don't work well. I think another example are some of the new ensembles in Reaktor... they are a pretty interesting mesh of visuals with sounds, I forget their names exactly but they are made by Lazyfish.

Though the interfaces on instruments really do make a huge impact on how the instrument can be performed on, I think that the creation of more VST's with XY controllers would really help people start to write music which focuses less on actual notes of the major scale and more on pure timbres. Reaktor is an excellent push in this direction.

Personally I love Arturia's stuff - I think resurrecting these new instruments into new computer environments lets you orchestra tones in ways that noone could ever have imagined before hand. Heck, I can program a complex rhythmic pattern in Rapture infinitely faster than on my Virus TI because of, you guessed it, an intuitive interface... if only Spectrasonics made interfaces for all VST's, the synth world would be a much more comprehendable place to the uninitiated.

[XLR8A]

Originally Posted by BlakeLight

ensembles in Reaktor... they are a pretty interesting mesh of visuals with sounds, I forget their names exactly but they are made by Lazyfish.

Can you please try to remember at least any of their names?
Because i was searching for it and couldn't find anyshit innit.
Lazyfish and Tim Exile, yes, those two studio maniacs and soundmurderers, i'd really like to try their reaktor ensembles.

[BlakeLight]

Theyre a couple of new Reaktor ensembles in version 5.... Newscool and Skrewell.

[Mayday Dream]

I couldnt live without Kontakt!

In fact i would be happy using just Kontakt and my Virus

But spectrasonics Atmosphere and ABL 303 clone are favourites also