Surge is simpler and more analog-like. U-He also makes an excellent free analog-like synth you can check out called Tyrell.
Starting on an analog-like synth has some advantages in that they generally best support basic subtractive synthesis, which is actually what you want as a beginner. Nothing wrong with not doing that though. I didn’t, my first synth was a hybrid digital/analog based on an early version of wavetables using single waveforms.
I think I’m just going to roll with vital. I watched half of a tutorial and feel like I know enough to be dangerous now.
I also feel like synth learning and pedal effects learning has a whole lot of overlap, plus a decent amount of overlap with getting good recordings.
Synths are all about the fundamentals of sound design, modulation, and transformation so yes, a lot of overlap with pedals.
It’s an extremely capable synth!
so after a week of emailing customer support I figured out why my plugins wouldn’t load into Garageband (well actually neural DSP figured it out). and silly me I just had to disable gatekeeper with a command in terminal
Check if you can run the plugin by disabling the Gatekeeper.
Launch Terminal (/Applications/Utilities/) and issue the following command to turn off Gatekeeper:
sudo spctl --master-disable
Hit return and enter the admin password as usually required by sudo, and Gatekeeper will instantly be disabled.
Finally, close the terminal, launch GarageBand, and check if the issue persists.
so simple! I have completely seen the light now, apple Uber Alles
Ahh they took away the option in the UI to do it from untrusted developers? Weird. Usually this isn’t an issue though (like, I have not had to do this.)
I did 
stupid apple
d16 just released Nithonat 2, to complete their revamp of early Roland gear. This adds the TR-606 to their TB-303 (Phoscyon), TR-808 (Nepheton), and TR-909 (Drumazon) releases in the last couple years.
And of course they released it on June 6 
Currently it’s in their summer sale (along with the rest).
Sounds just like my Roland TR-6S 
Yeah! d16 does a great job, one of my favorite companies. All of their stuff is just fantastic.
You know, Vital is really really good. All the same, I would still recommend you grab Surge XT, and maybe Tyrell too.
Surge is one of those synths I have installed and never really think about, but it really is quite a good synth and really sounds great. It has a very nicely layed out UI, simple and effective. Every time I think about it I wonder why I don’t use it more (which I know for Vital; Vital is great but the overlap with Phase Plant is just too strong, and I would go with Phase Plant every time, it’s a top tier synth.)
But Surge is kind of special. Free, very welcoming of community contributions, capable, simple, and good. There is absolutely no reason to not just grab and use it.
Tyrell - I have never used this synth myself but even this deep in the synth game, I am going to grab it, and for two simple reasons:
(or maybe not, looks like Tyrell was never updated to Apple silicon, like their other stuff has been. This won’t be a factor for Windows.)
No need to bring in the Blade Runner just yet… the Nexus 6 runs fine on Silicon (at least, it does for me) 
lol yes such a great reference 
Pretty solid sale at Eventide right now. @DaveT FYI.
UVI is having a Bastille Day sale at 50% off anything you want. So if you want to pick up Falcon, it’s a good time to. It will still set you back $175 at that discount but that’s as good a deal as they offer on Falcon AFAICT. Tonight is the last night.
(no, I won’t be getting it, I have a hate/hate thing with Falcon’s UI - I hate it and it hates me right back. It’s extremely powerful though.)
Alternatively, both Sparkverb and Thorus are outstanding and this would be a good sale for them.
Speaking of “Tape delay” and “on sale”, Softube makes a Roland RE-201 emulation that people seem to like, and it’s on sale for $40:
I was just talking to Larry about this but thought it was worth pointing out here: Kilohearts Multipass is basically my favorite plugin. It’s on every instrument track I have.
When combined with the rest of Kilohearts snapins, most of which are free, it’s easily the biggest, easiest, and most flexible workhorse for building other effects you can get, at least that I am aware of. It even allows internal modulation with envelopes and LFOs so it can sidechain internally or add time-based modulations on its own. It’s awesome.
I’m not saying that lightly - it really is basically the best plugin. It takes about two minutes to build something like NeuralDSP Parallax in it.
Ok, I actually do want this:
I loved my MicroBrute, I just hate hardware synths
MIght be of interest for some of you (especially those considering to buy an Audient or EVO DAI) - free ARP AXXE emulator plug-in:
GForce is cool. That’s probably a nice synth. I like synths with faders to blend in the oscillator and modulation sources like that.
GForce is pretty well known for their Oberheim emulations.
