Vulture Culture's Best Synths to Buy in 2025 (including Atomika)

Jan 2, 2025 | Vulture Culture

Podcaster Vulture Culture assesses the most notable software and hardware synthesizer releases of 2024, and makes Atomika his choice for Best Value for an Analog Plugin Synth going into 2025.

About to splurge on a new synth? Pump the brakes and tune into this exhaustive guide before you spend a single dime! Welcome to your one-stop-shop for everything synth in 2025, where we break down the good, the bad, and the downright ugly of the synthesizer world.

What’s Inside:

  • From Noob to Pro: The best synths for beginners to gods of the keys!

  • Deal or No Deal: Which synths give you the bang for your buck without breaking the bank.

  • The Crème de la Crème: High-end synths that are basically the muscle cars of the synth world.

  • Tiny But Mighty: Small form-factor synths proving size isn’t everything.

  • Weird and Wonderful: The most innovative and most 'who asked for this?' synths of the year.

  • Hear Them to Believe Them: Sound demos that speak louder than words—recorded by yours truly or snagged directly from the synth lords at their respective YouTube channels.

Synthesizers Covered:

  • Arturia Minifreak, Arturia PolyBrute 12, Arturia Astrolab

  • ASM Hydrasynth Deluxe, Hydrasynth Explorer

  • Behringer UB-Xa, UB-Xa D, Pro 800

  • Cherry Audio Atomika

  • Dreadbox Hades Reissue

  • GForce Software IconDrum

  • Intellijel Cascadia

  • Korg Opsix Rackmount MKii, multi/poly, Modwave, Prologue

  • Melbourne Instruments Delia

  • Modal Cobalt 8M

  • Moog Muse, Mavis

  • Oberheim TEO-5

  • Pittsburgh Modular Taiga

  • Roland JX-08, JD-08

  • Tal Pha

Strap in and get ready to embark on a deep dive that could very well change your synth journey forever. Or at least make you sound cooler at parties.