10 Best VST to produce techno.

author
Neos Sound
Date
February 18, 2022

What is a Techno sound?

The techno sounds are in full evolution these last years, whether it is to play in club or festival, many styles grow as the melodic techno with the label Afterlife of Tale of us or the Industrial techno.

Here are the Top 10 best VST to produce techno.
In this article you will discover the 10 best vst to produce Techno.
If you want to produce sounds like Amelie Lens, Charlotte de whitte, Tale of Us, Adam Bayer, Fjaak and many more, this will interest you.

Many VST are present on the market and one can quickly get lost in not knowing which one to choose to produce techno, moreover the costs of these vst can be important in it is essential to choose these synth.

Contrary to some topics I'm not going to show you only the most famous ones that everyone uses but also some unknown nuggets that will allow you to bring a new sound to your track.

1 – U-he DIVA | $199.

The VST Diva is extremely popular in the Techno music scene. It is an analog synth that can create all kinds of sounds. It is particularly well known for its bass, leads, pads, arp.

With its numerous filter types, diva will allow you to evolve and progress your melodies throughout your songs. The number of possible variations of evolution of your melodies is almost infinite. The use of this synth is very easy, moreover the basic presets are exelent. You just have to find the interesting sound for your song and create an automation on the Cutoff and the Emphasis and vary it during your song.

The only weak point is the high CPU consumption of the vst which can create some latency when several vst are open.

2 – SERUM | $189.

Xfer Records is a company founded by two internationally recognized producers: Steve Duda and Joel Zimmerman (better known by his stage name Deadmau5). Knowing the meticulousness of the two companions, there was therefore no doubt when Serum was released in 2013 that the sound quality would be there.

Serum is just an incredible VST created by Deadmau5. it simply allows you to do everything. You can create your own drums, pad, bass all easily.

He is very complete, but remains quite clear in its operation. Its synthesis form called wavetable allows a very visual retranscription of the sound, which can certainly be nice but is very useful in the editing of the sound which allows you to create or modify the waveforms at your convenience, which gives an impressive number of possibilities.

In addition, Splice offers you to buy it for 18 months by paying only 10 dollars per month to have it.

Here is the link Splice Serum.

It can be used in all types of techno that it is in melodic, industrial, Dub, techno. Some producers even prefer to use the types of acid that serum offers for production rather than the mythical 303 of Roland.

If you are interested I will show you how to create a bass acid in serum in another article.

3 – TR-909| $20 per month.

The TR-909 is a Drum Machine that allows you to create rich and dynamic patterns. It was first designed by Roland in 1983, and it created a revolution in the music world.

It's from this machine that some of the greatest Techno tracks have been produced. It consists of modifiable analogue circuits for bass drum, snare drum, claps and toms, and digital samples for the cymbals.

This machine has become a very expensive collector's item. Today Roland offers these features as well as pre-recorded patterns.

The sounds of this machine are still omnipresent in today's electronic sounds despite the time. It is a must-have.

4 – Element Stereo| $110.

Element stereo 2.0 was designed to deliver fat and powerful sounds. Everything we need in techno. It contains a very large bank of sounds with a variety of sounds just as aggressive.

This synth is little known and used. We find it clearly underrated to be honest with you. The producer Regal uses it very often in his productions, I discovered it with him. If you want to get out of the ordinary VST I recommend it.

5– U-he Bazille| $120.

Bazille is a modular system taking the functions of the most expensive modular systems such as those of the korg or moog brand.

This VST is  very interesting to modulate your sound with the numerous filters present on the VST. The use is more complex but the sound bank being excellent by playing with some filters you will get a very interesting result especially to make your sound evolve.

He will serve you particularly to create Dark Techno tracks with very dark ambiences while having the beauty that analog sounds provide.

6 – TB-303 | $150.

The TB-303, the mytic synth to create Acid Techno it's accessible via Roland Cloud.

Since all its years, it knew to make its proofs and became a synth impossible to avoid of the techno music.

This synth is extraordianire in the composition of the bass lines notably acid or you will be able to find hundreds of melodies integrated ideal to build this first line of bass. You will find there the very known melody Greece 2000.

It is a must have in techno.

7 – Kick 2| $60.

Kick 2 is a VST from SONY ACADEMY, It's our main tool to create our own kicks. You can create a kick from scratch and modify it to your liking or drag and drop a kick sample and modify it as you like.

We use a kick from the TR-909 that we modify with Kick 2 to increase the impact and play the effects that I want.

With Kick 2 you can easily create a perfectly synthesized kick tailored to your needs.

8 – Arturia Pigment 3| $200.

Arturia Pigment 3 is an analog VST made of wavetable engines. It is rather difficult to learn and is aimed at producers who already have a good foundation in sound design.

However you can use the presets provided by the manufacturer Arturia which are excellent. This VST allows to create really interesting sounds with multiple possibilities.

Being a recent VST the sound palette provided by Pigment has not yet been overexploited which will allow you to create sounds unknown to the music scene.

9 – Prophet V | $150.

Prophet V is a vst from the manufacturer Arturia, it is an emulation of the Prophet 5 which is a mythical synth since the 80s. It allows you to access ancestral sounds at a lower cost which is very interesting.

This VST is used in Techno because it has a very powerful and vintage analog sound. It is part of the evolution of techno music since the 80s, which is why it is in this top.

10 – JUNO 106| $20 per month.

It is a vst of the Roland Cloud, it is possible to access it via roland cloud for 19,99$ per month, you will find there more other synth of the Roland Cloud notably the TB-303 and the TR-909 seen before.

Juno 106 is a vintage synth used since the beginning of the techno emergence. For anecdote it is the main synth of the album Homework of daft punks. It's a classic techno synth and a must have today, it will allow you to include freshness and vintage sounds in your tracks. Nowadays it is very used in techno.

What you need to remember.

As you could see, there are many vst, I could name many other more traditional like the nexus synth or sylenth 1 but with this list you will have an excellent base with a very large palette of sounds that it is to create your own drums or synth.

Moreover, the Roland Cloud offer will allow you to have the Roland synthesizers via a subscription which will avoid you to spend directly 150$ per Vst.

If I had to choose one I would choose Serum, you can simply do everything with it and there are many presets depending on the musical style you want to play.

If you want to do acid I recommend this pack where you will have Serum presets as well as melodies in MIDI file, to compose your songs.

Given the high cost of vst, I can understand that to start you do not want to put large sums in your passion.moreover, if your computer is not powerful enough some vst added to the chain will slow down to make bug your DAW software.

What I can propose to you ?

That's why I can advise you to buy first sample packs with many sounds created on purpose to be used directly in your songs.

This is why, I created 'Inception Techno' , a collection of Techno samples inspired by the best producers of this scene (Amelie Lens, Charlotte De Witte, Regal, I Hate Models, Trym, Shlomo and manymore)

You will find everything you need to create your own techno tracks from scratch. The different samples have been created with inspiration from the best and with the addition of our own studio sounds so that you can have a sound that is different from the others producers.  

You simply need to drag and drop into your DAW and let your creativity flow.

If you need more information or have any questions, don't hesitate to contact us !

Products mentioned in this article.

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