Andrew Huang has rounded out 2023 by ranking his favourite 10 plugins of the year.

Topping the list is the “mind-blowing” Sonic Charge’s Synplant 2, which is the recently released upgrade to the 15-year-old two-oscillator and FM synth.

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“Synplant 2 just levels things up in a totally ridiculous way because you’ve got a lot more control over the original synth perimeters than you did in the previous version,” Huang says in the video. “But [the Genopatch] screen is absolutely mind-blowing. You can load a sound into it and then using machine learning, it tries to recreate it with its synth perimeters.”

Huang then goes on to demonstrate how the Genopatch feature works.”Now I have a synth that’s closer to a sample that I dropped in and I can use it as a synth. I can play it on different keys without the thing that happens when you’re playing samples on different keys, changing the tone of it, changing the length of it. I can manipulate it in so many more ways.”

He does joke, however, before revealing his top plugin of the year that the real winner is Transit, the multi-effects plugin he worked on himself with Baby Audio.

Also appearing in Huang’s top 10 countdown are Minimal Audio‘s Current synth, which claims the joint 2nd and 3rd place spot alongside RANDOM by Beatsurfing. Rounding out the top 5 are Reason Rack’s Objekt, which Huang says is one of the best physical modelling synths he’s ever used, and mastering plugin Master Plan, created by MusikHack.

Elsewhere in 2023, Huang was also involved in launching the new Ableton Push 3, posting a video showcasing the power of the pad’s MPE (MIDI Polyphonic Expression) capabilities, live recording workflows via the built-in interface, and he also demonstrates how to integrate external synths.

He also recently took EarthQuaker Devices inside his studio in Toronto in the latest instalment of their acclaimed YouTube series Show Us Your Junk!

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