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Best Mac synths and plugins?
What’s the status of Mac synths and plugins in 2025 for a Mac that only has:
Logic Pro
GeoShred studio (no expansions)
Polyverse Manipulator, I Wish, Gatekeeper
Space blender
MIDI Guitar
What’s free that’s good? What’s great? What’s niche?
On iOS I like MOOG, Yonac, Korg, Aurora DSP, SWAM, Koala. I know some of those run on Mac as well.
Edit: maybe this should be in Desktop instead of General. Oops 😬
Comments
Serum 2 is not free but it pretty much covers all forms of audio synthesis.
If you’re willing to risk it, head over to Full Bucket Music. All free synth emulations, some are excellent.
https://www.fullbucket.de/music/vst.html
Yeah that pops up as the gold standard a lot from what I’ve seen.
I kinda hate to say it because their iOS support stinks, but I got the Arturia Synth and Effects bundles plus Pigments and that pretty much cured my app GAS for macOS. If I can't get the sound I need from something in that bundle, I'm not trying hard enough. If you own any Arturia hardware you probably have a license to Analog Lab Intro, which is a preset player from their synth bundle. If you register that you can get a discount on the other products, and they frequently have pretty good sales.
Cross platform with iOS is a little dicey by the way. At least with the use case of starting a project in iOS Logic and opening it in macOS Logic, it's extremely hit-or-miss if a 3rd party plugin will work as expected on the other platform. So while I consider it a plus when I'm considering an iOS purchase if that app includes a Mac version, I don't count on having portable projects that use 3rd party plugins. Some (but not all) Moog plugins do work in this regard. Iceworks plugins that I've tried (notably Nambu) seem to work well. Some others load the plugin but the preset doesn't make the transition. It's honestly a bit of a mess. I'm resigned to freezing tracks to audio when I want 3rd party sounds to make the jump.
Good and free = Surge XT. Also, love the free Usual Suspects DSP56300 emulators like Xenia (Waldorf Microwave XT), OsTIRus (Access Virus TI2).
Valhalla's Super Massive!
https://valhalladsp.com/shop/reverb/valhalla-supermassive/?srsltid=AfmBOor4RNbl3dOmeZuXtCkezSzeE33U6gdgLmb1eyIatyTd8dj6jj0p
Why is full bucket a “risk”?
I think a big factor is how the cross-platform support has been implemented.
Mac Catalyst allows you to port iPadOS apps to macOS and supports Intel and Apple Silicon Macs. It's also possible for Silicon Macs to run iPad OS apps and it's simply an option the developer enables - it's literally a check box on App Store Connect.
However... I find both of these options to be a little dicey / hit and miss
Of course some apps work fine, others... not so much 
Another option is to build (and test) native versions of your app for both iOS and macOS, then make the app a universal purchase. FWIW, that's what I do with all my new 2025 apps, and so far have found this approach to be very reliable.
Because use of these plugins require you to lower your (macOS) computer’s security settings to use them and doing that has caused some serious instabilities and crashes for my computer. I’m not having so many issues with crashes recently, but the risk remains.
From Grok:
Full Bucket Music’s plugins require lowering macOS security settings due to being from an unidentified developer.
• Research suggests macOS flags these plugins because they aren’t notarized by Apple, triggering Gatekeeper restrictions.
• The evidence leans toward users needing to adjust settings to bypass warnings, especially for macOS 15.X (Sequoia) or higher.
macOS implements several security mechanisms to protect users from potentially harmful software:
• Gatekeeper: Prevents the installation of apps from unidentified developers, requiring user confirmation or system adjustments.
• Secure Boot: Ensures only trusted software loads at the system level, with restrictions on kernel extensions in newer versions.
• Notarization: Apple’s process for verifying software, which, if absent, flags apps as from unidentified developers.
I trust full bucket more than Grok.
Regardless, several of the Full Bucket synth plugins used to crash both GarageBand and Logic Pro on my system.*** They've since been fixed (and I update very regularly), but installing any of them requires lowering the security of one's macOS computer.
As I said, I use them and like them (now), but Full Bucket being an unidentified developer means there are repercussions for users.
***I identified the offending plugins via testing, found the culprits and removed them at the time.
There’s too much good Mac audio software to list anything close to all or the best.
There’s plenty of free stuff and plenty of huge discounts available if you keep your eyes peeled.
For synths u-he are up there as the best synths, Serum, phaseplant and Pigments are all kind of ‘super synths’ that can do almost everything. And sound amazing.
Korg and Arturia make mega synth collections. Wait for Black Friday, and for Arturia get one of the old versions often sold for peanuts (the stuff that’s still in the new V collections is the same — you still get up to date versions of most of the plugins).
Dawesome make some awesome synths too — very different to your average emulation. They have a free synth, Zyklop, which is fantastic.
For single hit drums XO or Atlas as they’re fantastic to get the best out of your collection of one hits.
For realistic drums EZDrummer is supposed to be good.
For drum synths Microtonic and Batallion are cool.
For orchestral samples Spitfire (the originals series are good value) and Musio are pretty great. Musio is often the deal of the century.
For EQs and Compressors TDR make some really nice ones often available at a steal. Their free versions are excellent and the paid for GE versions are worth every penny especially on sale.
FabFilter are pricey but people love them.
Arturia’s fx collection has some great plugins.
If you don’t mind ilok, UAD are good.
There are plenty of smaller devs that make awesome fx like Fuse Audio.
And you can often get cool freebies like for example IK mUltimedia’s tape echo which is currently free at audioplugindeals.com
Sites like https://bedroomproducersblog.com/ are good for keeping track of freebies.
That’s mostly a list of things I like rather than a comprehensive list. But I make no apologies for that
It doesn’t lower the security of the computer. You just have to allow the specific plugin to be installed.
Saying it lowers the security makes it sound like the system is less secure after you install a plugin, which in the case of full bucket it is not.
The security is only momentarily ‘lowered’ when you install insomuch that you let the system install something that isn’t notarised. The system itself is still secure and the app is not granted any extra privileges. The protected parts of the system are still protected when you allow an app from an unidentified developer.
It’s not like you’re disabling secure boot (which you had to do for ilok until fairly recently).
I’ve used various full bucket plugins over the years. I’ve not had any issues, but that’s obviously not significant
That’s great insight, thanks! For sure it seems like some developers just check the “macOS version” box and set it loose on the app store.
Yes, your apps are solid on both iPadOS and desktop. Would be nice if more developers designed and tested for both desktop and mobile. I'll always ask.
I posted this in another new thread asking for VSTs (Win) and then I saw this one so, here it goes:
Synplanth 2 has been mentioned and it's not only very good but so original. Their audio plugins are also very cool, especially Permut8 and the drum computer Microtonic it's old but many producers praise it, as the one, to this day.
One of the most brilliant audio plugins ever is released by Lunacy Audio (Cube Synth) and is called Beam I absolutely love this one, so versatile.
The free ODIN synth is also a real gem I recently stumbled upon. Very nice THOR "copy"
@NeuM : Thanks !!
👍
I don’t own a desktop, so can’t try it, but Synplant. Looks. WILD! It like, grows patches or presets? And you can feed it sounds like miracle grow to work with. Or something? Haha glad to see there’s still weird people out there makin far out stuff!
Check out WoodSynth, it’s impressive.
Super feature-rich, really complete, great price for what you get.
Hive and Icarus 3 are all you need imo (and Renoise Redux for a sampler). U-he recently released Tyrell N6, BazilleCM, and ZebraCM on their official website.
Yup and you can get it on Splice via their payment plan 💥
Once you buy into the Arturia platform, the major upgrades are great deals, some free
If you buy Ableton Note on iOS you get a free code for Ableton Lite
If you want to buy the best here is the list of must haves….
SERUM 2 and then add (MICROMUSIC Replicator for serum2 (also works for vital))
SERATO SAMPLER (some of the best time/pitch stretch there is)
ARTURIA PIGMENTS 6 (if you have alchemy, there is probably no need for this)
AVENGER 2 (avenger is just seriously great!)
ICARUS (if you have avenger, you probably don’t need this)
DIVA (Just is the best “analog sounding” plug in synth)
PHASE PLANT (if you like semi modular do it all synthesis this is a great synth)
SYNTHMASTER3 (if you have avenger/icarus this is probably not necessary)
If you can only have one…it’s serum 2 all day
And then there is these free
VITAL if you want a powerful free synth<——if you have serum, vital isn’t necessary
UA Polymax was free, maybe it still is…it’s a nice nice analog sounding beast
Tyrell N 6 is super good for free (great juno ish vibe here lots and lots of presets on the web)
On MAC in Logic there is ALCHEMY and SCULPTURE (free with MainStage or Logic)
I just find that these are always making the cut and I have over 200 synths…
I hope this helps!
The ice gear synths are all worth having and work great on Mac as well as iOS
My search keeps boiling down to Serum and Pigment.
Someone on here mentioned synplant, which I got the demo for. It’s great and almost a definite buy other than I can’t upload anything to the Genopatch plugin to recreate synth sounds. Anyone know if that’s a limitation of the demo?
If you get anything from Sonic Charge, you get a 20% discount for additional items purchased. So if you buy something else, add the cheapest one to the basket first and you'll get the 20% discount on SynPlant even though It's the more expensive item they let you do this.
For example, buy Bitspeak for €33 and Synplant is offered to you for €119.20 (€149-20%) so €152.20 total. Or just €3.20 for Bitspeek...
Add them in the other order and the checkout costs more as you get 20% of Bitspeak, not SynPlant, so total is €175.40 (€149 + €33 -20%).
Microtonic is a must have if you like synth drums.
Good suggestion on the discount - I’ll keep that in mind.
Do you have any idea if the Genopatch issue is a demo limitation? The synth sounds great by growing patches, but Genopatch was a huge draw. If I knew that works on my system I’d grab it.