Octasine : 4 op fm and additive synth, clean looks, very musical sounding imo compared to most as even the metallic screeches of this one seem to have a lot of sweet spots to them, very easy to use etc. Doesn't come with presets so be willing to learn if you don't already have some idea of how these tend to work. 64 bit mac windows and linux.

SawSage Lite : Draw your own wavetable polysynth. Unclear what sets this apart from the paid version other than less presets, looks alright, sounds good and very easy to use though they could have made it visually more distinct that the preset browser and the mod matrix are actually buttons cus they look like any old writing on the gui. Windows only both sets of bit division.

I like Synth1 and Tyrell, they are good plugins that I used.

Reducktion : If you liked Deducktion, here's a same same but different polysynth with a sequencer thrown in for good measure. Clean looks, very easy to use, couple new fx from what i can tell and it sounds as nice as the previous offering. Windows only, both sets of bit division.

WhispAir : Wavetable synth in a korg monopoly-esque chassis, might just be the ticket for people bewildered by the, uh, overabundance of things to explore in something like Vital as this is laid out a lot like the aforementioned classic. Looks nice, considerably "warmer" sounding than most of this ilk imo, very simple to use and allows for wavetable importing so the sky is the limit. Windows and mac both sets of bit division each.

Hum808 X : Very full featured polysynth + sampler combo, considerably more versatile than the dev is giving themselves credit for at any rate. Very modern looking, easy to use despite the kitchen sink being included. sounds great etc. Windows only 32 and 64 bit.

FB-7999 : Based on mid to late 1980s hybrid synths korg made in the run up to the ever popular M1, to my ears it's closer to an ensoniq than let's say a D-50 or a K1 if that makes any sense. Like most all the full bucket stuff it looks good, is easy to use, sounds good etc. Windows and mac both sets of bit division.

Breaking with tradition here, these are time limited offers until the 26th of this month in the current year and will require making an account at these respective websites but i'm putting them up anyway cus they're pretty sweet and free for now.

Brainworx bx_oberhausen : It's an Oberheim SEM that does poly and unison, bunch of effects and an arpeggiator, easy to use, about as plain looking as most of these are and it sounds great. Win and Mac 64 bit.

ETHEREAL EARTH : This is a Kontakt library so insert your own pros and caveats here, it runs in the free player too, quite synth heavy and reasonably low on the granular noise run through too much reverb so very usable for doing atmospheric retro stuff. Win and Mac 64 bit.

Novation V & B Station : A formerly premium mono and poly synth courtesy of the good people at Novation now made freeware. These came out in the early 00s and, uh, well they do look the part and won't resize so if you're on a gonzo ultra hd screen good luck with that, easy to use, lots of presets and they sound as nice as you'd expect from previously commercial products.

When you first fire them up, there's a button that says activate which will open a tab in your browser that downloads a registration file which via the button that says registrate you feed in to the plugin and you'll be good to go. Win and mac, both sets of bit divisions and the V-station comes in vst3 and RTAS as well.

Synthesizer Expander Module : for anyone who missed out on last year's Brainworks give away, another Oberheim SEM emulation, this one by the good people over at Cherry Audio. Like most of these it's cream colored and very easy to use, blendable wave forms along with a blendable multimode filter cus that was Oberheim's jam. unison etc Comes with onboard delay and a really nice phaser effect. Win and Mac 64 bit

Supermassive : was recently-ish updated. adding two more modes to an already substantial list of algorithms which i'm sure current users will appreciate. For anybody whose new to it, this is a very versatile reverb and delay combo that does anything from colossal cinematic spaces to simple rooms and reverse effects.

I tried that same exact setup days ago on this laptop, and I gotta say, the former's dev team nailed with 99.9% accuracy the beefiness of the original analog synth, even with my minor gripes on the controls at times.

Cherry Audio plugins aren't all free but they're really good for the price.