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Why is Sylenth1 so good/popular?

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ronny_87
ronny_87|125

Why has Sylenth1 risen above the ranks of other soft synths? It's easily one of the most popular and most-used synth plugins (on this site, at least, it's wildly popular). I think only Massive comes close.

I'm by no means a synth expert, but I can definitely tell it sounds good. It just sounds really polished right out the box, for lack of better word. But I guess from a more technical sense, why is that?

...or maybe it's not that much better than the competition, but I'm biased because of its popularity?

Would love to hear some opinions.

bordercity
bordercity|1064

This is a fun topic I'd like to rip into a bit myself actually so i'm glad someone brought it up. I'm in a similar situation to you that I don't know a lot about synthesisers technically. I have tried Sylenth - honestly feature-wise, as in using Filters, Effects, LFO's, Frequency Modulation, it is not a "power house" synth like Massive, Omnisphere and the like. However yes the sound quality certainly stands out. Personally I don't use it, I find Massive, FM8 and Mini V do the job. But I think the point you make about people liking synthesisers because they are popular certainly needs exploring. Who knows, maybe there are some brilliant hidden plugins out there, but nobody knows about them so they aren't "good" synths? It is certainly true that companies like Native Instruments and Spectrasonics are popular for a reason - but there are hidden gems too. If you are asking this question in hope of deciding whether to buy Sylenth or not - simply try the demos of a lot of synths until you find something you like. My first synth was FM8 and it's easily my favourite. If you learn a synth well they can all be as good as each other. You could probably achieve Sylenth's "polished" sound with another synthesiser and just some EQ's, saturation and compression. Hope I helped and added to the discussion :)

beardo
beardo|61

Sylenth has this sort of wow factor from the moment you play the first note. It sounds very punchy and fat. A lot of that is due to the preset quality. Now I know preset usage is a deeply dividing issue, but that aside Sylenth's presets for the most part sound amazeballs. Reminds me of scrolling through presets of hardware synths like the Nord Lead, Virus, or Korg MS-2000. I'm sure people will jump all over me for saying that but I find it to be true

I agree with jameskelly that its not deep or a super powerhouse like Massive, U he Zebra, etc but it doesn't have to be. Maybe that's what also makes it simple to pick up and play for beginners. Think of it this way there are WAY more beginners (and intermediates) out there than there are production, synthesis, and sound design pros. And if they can all find a tool which sounds great right from the start, but also offers a certain level of depth, thats the formula for a winning synth.

So that's also where I disagree with you jameskelly, I don't think its so liked BECAUSE its popular. I think its popular because its a great & accessible go-to synth for a certain, um, producer demographic let's call it - but there is a lot of that demographic.

That's my take on it at least 😀

modman
modman|431 MODERATOR

My take on why Sylenth's popularity:

  • doesn't strain CPU

  • gui is ugly but functional (A and B sides are nice imho)

  • oscillators and filters sound great

  • presets are indeed punchy, easy to get in there and play and tweak

It's no Nord Lead 2 though so let's stop talking nonsense :-)

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