5 of the Best Hardware to Software Synth Ports
Top software versions from Korg, Arturia, Roland and more.
3,3 / 5,0 | 
Why bother with physical keys when you can get the same synthesizer inside your DAW? Go native with the best hardware to software synth ports.
The Best Hardware to Software Synth Ports
With digital synthesizers becoming increasingly more complex and chip-reliant, and computer power always increasing, we’ve reached a point where we can comfortably run synthesizers inside our DAWs as plugins. I’m not talking about emulations (although those are getting better all the time). I mean one-to-one ports from the hardware to the software, so completely identical that you can swap presets between them. What a world.
What’s more, manufacturers are starting to release these ports with the original synth still in the shops. You’d think this would cannibalize sales, but perhaps it’s a case of more bites of the cherry: there are enough customers to warrant two versions – and some may end up buying both!
While Teenage Engineering’s OP-1 Field VST may not be real (sorry about that!), these five are very real and very much worth your money, even if you already have the hardware.
Here are five of the best hardware to software synth ports.
The Best Hardware to Software Synth Ports: Korg multi/poly native
Korg has been killing it with its digital synths, with the opsix, wavestate and modwave all powerful and great-sounding hardware instruments. The company has also taken the interesting approach of releasing them all in native plugin editions, one-to-one ports that allow you to share presets between hardware and soft. multi/poly native is the latest in the series, turning one of the best hardware synths of last year into what may be the best software one this year.
If you’re unfamiliar, multi/poly native takes the original analog Mono/Poly as its inspiration, with four layers of virtual analog synths under one roof. Each layer has four oscillators of its own capable of the usual analog waveform suspects, plus waveshaper ones and even wavetables. Throw in two filters packed with emulations of classic synths (Korg and otherwise), plenty of modulation, and effects at both the layer and main level, and you’ve got yourself one powerhouse of an instrument.
There’s more of course, including motion sequencing and Kaoss Physics, which is a hoot to play with. But overall, multi/poly native just sounds amazing, full and rich and capable of pretty much anything you need but with a decided emphasis on pads and soundbeds.
- Korg multi/poly native product page
The Best Hardware to Software Synth Ports: Waldorf Blofeld
One of the best-selling synths of all time, Waldorf’s Blofeld is something of a Waldorf greatest hits album in synthesizer form, with DNA from the Q series, Microwave II and PPG Wave inside in the form of virtual analogue, wavetable, FM synthesis and sample playback engines. It’s also all-digital, meaning it’s ripe for the software treatment. Waldorf had the same idea and the result is… also the Waldorf Blofeld. Don’t get all soft on me here.
Blofeld the plugin is exactly the same as the hardware, with everything that has made the original Blofeld (the synth, not the James Bond baddie) such a hit: three oscillators per voice capable of wavetable, virtual analog (including the Q oscillator models), and sample playback, plus two multimode filters, a mod matrix, effects and more.
The plugin version can also act as an editor for the hardware, handy for incorporating it into your DAW. You can edit all sound parameters on the hardware from the plugin, import presets from the hardware to the plugin, and send .midi presets, wavetables and sample files to the hardware. This makes it one of the best hardware to software synth ports.
- Waldorf Blofeld product page
The Best Hardware to Software Synth Ports: Arturia MiniFreak V
Arturia is probably best known for creating software emulations of famous synths like the Yamaha CS-80 and Sequential Circuits Prophet-5, but now they’ve started to emulate themselves. More than just an emulation, though, MiniFreak V turns the popular MiniFreak polysynth into a VSTi that you can use in your DAW.
As the name suggests, the original MiniFreak is pretty freaky indeed. With its multitude of unusual digital oscillator types, analog SEM filter, mod matrix, and dual layer and effects, it’s a gorgeous synth that can also get pretty weird if you need it to. MiniFreak V puts all of that into ones and zeroes exactly as it was in the hardware – with the exception of the analog filter, of course.
If you happen to have both versions, you can swap presets, control the plugin from the synth itself, and even use the hardware as a controller for other virtual instruments.
- Arturia MiniFreak V product page
The Best Hardware to Software Synth Ports: Roland Cloud System-8
Roland’s System-8 synthesizer is unique in that it allows for plugins – or rather, ‘plug-outs’, as the company calls them – of classic Roland synths to be loaded inside the polyphonic instrument. Some of these plug-outs, like the Juno-106 and Jupiter-8, became the same plugins that you get as part of the Roland Cloud subscription service. Interestingly, Roland also makes the main System-8 engine available in the Cloud too.
The Roland Cloud System-8 main synth features eight voices and three oscillators, with virtual analog plus waveshapes like the SuperSAW, FM and more. There are a variety of filter models too, including unusual ones like formant, harmonic and side-band filters.
The System-8 is a very capable synth that ends up on a lot of artists’ all-time favorite lists. The plugin version has everything that the hardware version does – minus the ability to load plug-outs, of course. Should you have both, you can also control the plugin from the hardware and transfer patches back and forth. Definitely one of the best hardware to software synth ports
- Roland Cloud System-8 product page
The Best Hardware to Software Synth Ports: Korg Collection Triton/Triton Extreme
Korg Collection 5 is a formidable gathering of software versions of many of Korg’s most famous instruments (and ARP’s too!), including the MS-20, miniKORG 700S and the Polysix. It’s not just analog emulations, though. Korg is just as famous for its digital instruments, and the absolute best of the bunch is the Triton.
Sold as the Triton/Triton Extreme (the Extreme model was the last in the Triton series and had all of the expansions), the Korg Collection version recreates the HI (Hyper Integrated) synthesis system, which combines multi-samples with traditional synthesis parameters like filters and envelopes plus effects. Tritons were used heavily in pop, hip-hop and dance records in the early 2000s, a sound that is very much in vogue again today.
The original Triton developers supervised the creation of the plugin, ensuring that it’s exactly the same as the keyboard, only with more screen real estate, a sound browser, and an easy mode for quick access to main parameters. One of the best hardware to software synth ports – if not the best – for retro Millennial pop.
- Korg Collection Triton/Triton Extreme product page
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