There’s more to music production than just Serum. Elevate your tracks with these 10 next-gen wavetable plugins – including three free ones.
There’s no doubt that Serum from Xfer Records is an amazing wavetable soft synth, both in terms of feature set and sound quality. It’s no surprise then that it’s been rinsed so hard, resulting in a lot of songs that all have a similar sound.
If you’re looking to differentiate yourself from the crowd, or just want some new creative inspiration, there are plenty of excellent wavetable alternatives out there with comparable feature sets to Serum. Many also offer additional synthesis engines like virtual analog and samples. And some are even free.
Check out these 10 best wavetable soft synths that you’re not using. They’re arranged in order of ascending price.
Vital Audio Vital
At $189, Serum isn’t necessarily any more expensive than other synths on this list. However, unlike them, it never goes on sale. You want Serum, you pay full price. Sure, you can do a rent-to-own scheme but you’re still laying out cash moneys – and with inflation what it is, that can be hard.
Hallelujah for Vital then. With a pricing system that starts at free and tops out at a reasonable $80, Matt Tytel’s Vital is a wavetable synth for the everyman (and woman). And the free version isn’t hobbled in any way – you just get more wavetables and presets the more you pay.
The real reason to use Vital though is the sound quality. It is, in a word, astonishing, and rivals any other synth out there. Throw in the spectral morphing wavetables, stereo modulation, keytracking LFOs, MPE and all the other good stuff, and you have yourself a dream of a wavetable synth. It really is that good. Three cheers for the little guy.
Find out more on the Vital Website.
Surge Synth Team Surge XT
The next synth on our list is also free. And also amazing. However, this one is not made by one talented individual but a whole team of geniuses all tinkering away and adding on to it in their spare time. This is Surge XT, an absolutely incredible open-source super synth that also happens to have one hell of a wavetable engine – actually two.
Packed with both factory and third-party wavetables, it has enough variety to handle most anything you need. You can morph and skew and in the Window wavetable model, adjust formants. Combine this with all of the other synthesis types, from VA to FM and beyond, and you’re in good hands.
Surge XT is growing and expanding all the time, so check back frequently for updates.
It’s free. So check it out here.
U-he Zebralette 3
Another “I can’t believe this is free” plugin, Zebralette 3 from legend u-he is a snapshot of the upcoming Zebra 3, and if this is anything to go on, that’s going to be one monstrously powerful instrument.
Zebralette 3 is a single-oscillator synth capable of rendering the oscillator wave as a wavetable. What does this mean? Using the spline editor, you get to draw in up to 16 waveform snapshots and then morph between them. (Yes, you can also export these as wavetables to use in other instruments.)
As you’d expect from u-he, the instrument is gorgeous-sounding. Despite the stripped-down display and seeming simplicity of it, it’s capable of some very complex sounds. It also does additive synthesis, which is always a nice bonus.
Zebralette 3 is currently in public beta.
Minimal Audio Current
Minimal Audio’s Current is part of a post-Serum generation of wavetable soft synths. Something of a super synth that encompasses the company’s entire ecosystem, from effects to content subscription platform Steam, it represents a solid alternative to any other top-shelf synth you may care to mention. Most importantly, however, Current sounds amazing.
The wavetable engine gives you two spectral wavetable oscillators with more than 170 tables to play with and north of 40 warp effects. You can also layer in a multi-mode sampler, granular engine and additive sub. With all of its modulation possibilities, dual morphing filters and effects plucked from Minimal’s stable, it’s a real monster, especially when crafting cinematic sounds. Version 2.0 added a Play view as well, with four macros and an XY pad.
Price for a perpetual license is $199 but you can subscribe and get your payments back as store credit.
Find out more on the Current website.
Korg Modwave Native
Korg’s Modwave was one of the company’s more interesting recent hardware releases. With its dense wavetables, Kaoss Physics modulation section and Motion Sequencing 2.0 borrowed from the Wavestate, it’s a powerful digital hardware synth. And also now a software synth in the form of Modwave Native.
The wavetable engine in Modwave Native gives you more than 200 wavetables, each holding up to 64 waveforms. There are 30-plus modifiers, 13 morph types and even an A/B Blend function to create hybridized wavetables. You can, of course, import your own wavetables – there’s even a free custom version of WaveEdit to use. Add to this the filters modeled from Korg’s illustrious past and a comprehensive effects section and you have yourself one powerful, modern synth. And at $199, it’s a heck of a lot cheaper than the hardware version.
Find out more on the Korg website.
Universal Audio Opal Morphing Synthesizer
Universal Audio resisted the native market for years, keeping its gorgeous-sounding effects locked up inside its famous audio interfaces. Now they’ve been set free to run wild natively, and along with their effects, UAD also offers some quite excellent instruments, including Opal Morphing Synthesizer.
A three-oscillator synth, each sound source can be a VA waveform or wavetable. With around 90 tables to choose from. There are two morphing, sweepable multimode filters, a decent modulation section and a clutch of effects sourced from UA’s venerable roster.
Opal may not be the wildest synth out there. However, what it lacks in depth it more than makes up for in sound quality. If you like the sound of wavetables but don’t need too many bells and whistles, seriously consider this $199 gem.
Find out more on the Universal Audio website.
Arturia Pigments
Arturia’s Pigments is a serious contender for best soft synth on the market today, no matter what kind of synthesis you’re talking about. This is the kind of jack-of-all-trades super instrument that could only comes from a company like Arturia, with tons of incredible instruments and effects to borrow from.
Need more convincing? Pigments does sample and granular, additive, virtual analog and yes, wavetable as well, with 160 wavetables to play with and user import. It’s got 11 filter models, tons of (easy to follow) modulation, plus 18 effects types, from tape echo to shimmer reverb and all points in between.
Now up to version 6, Pigments is a triumph of a wavetable synth that happens to do a lot more too – and all for $199.
Find out more on the Pigments landing page.
Kilohearts Phase Plant
It may seem like just another synth with multiple sound engines but Phase Plant from Kilohearts offers something that the other synths on this list don’t: a modular interface. Each piece of the puzzle can be combined and rearranged, with multiple copies of modules possible for more of everything. You can even purchase and add on additional effects should you need.
All this makes Phase Plant a synthesist’s dream and capable of some pretty impressive and complex sounds. For example, Reese bass. And not just the old-school techno kind but the up-to-date ripping and tearing neuro style. Drum and bass producers, 140 producers, bass producers in general, this is the one you want.
Get in the door for $199 and add on effects as necessary.
Get Phase Plant direct from Kilohearts.
Native Instruments Massive X
In 2006, Native Instruments dropped Massive, the soft synth that changed everything. It popularized wavetable synthesis for bass music production and pretty much ruled the roost until Serum came along. As with other long-awaited follow-ups, the sequel rarely lives up to the expectations of fans, so Massive X has never gotten the kudos that it really deserves.
Taking what Massive did and expanding on it, Massive X sports two wavetable oscillators, each with 10 different modes for reading the more than 170 wavetables. This allows for almost unlimited wavetable mangling and processing and goes a long way towards contributing to Massive X’s unique sound. It also features a comprehensive modulation routing system and all kinds of filter models.
Massive X is good for bass, sure, but it’s also amazing at more unusual timbres and even – shock! – melodic sounds. Give it a try. This $199 synth is hiding in plain sight.
Get it at Native Instruments.
Ableton Wavetable
Our last wavetable recommendation is one that you may already have. We’re speaking, of course, about Wavetable, Live’s, um, wavetable synth that joined at version 10. If you’re not using it, you really should be.
Simple to use yet deep and powerful, it’s often our go-to even when we have lots of other wavetable synths sitting idle in our plugin folder. Why? It’s got more than 100 wavetables, oscillator effects like FM and phase distortion, and solid filters. It’s also a snap to use, with a breakout view to prevent eye squint and an intuitive modulation routing system.
You’ll need to shell out $749 for Suite to access Wavetable, which is why it’s last on this list. It’s a great little synth though, and definitely one of the best wavetable soft synths you’re not using.
Find out more on Ableton’s website.
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