Extremely CPU efficient Plugins? (synth/samplers/processing)

[Synthpark]

Synapse Dune, Sylenth 1
Lexicon PCM Native

[8BitCulprit]

Reason.
Fabfilter Plug ins apart from saturn.

To be honest, if your cpu is taxed by Abletons internal plug ins you're in a whole lot of trouble. I'm confused as to why you don't use them if not.

[defenestration]

for highest stability particularly in a live situation with lot of analog inputs and there is poor ventilation on stage CPU load should ideally be kept under 50%

my testbed project with no fancy processing, 18 simultaneous analog inputs, many compressors and some limiters, and a softsynth or two easily gets over 25% CPU

and this is really just basic gain staging, no max4live, performance routing setups, etc. - even assuming I get 10x faster CPU I'll still use every drop of it (I do not skimp on my machines) I might as well start purposefully collecting highly efficient plugins

[Rimwolf]

Native Instruments FM8

[kasmira]

Cytomic's The Glue. Sylenth1.

A lot of synths use up a lot of CPU power when you do certain things with it, but not otherwise. Read your VSTs manual to see how you can get the best performance with it. For example, NI Massive is made to be most CPU efficient at voices with a multiple of 4; 1, 4, 8, 16, etc. Reverb adds some definite processing, with most synths. Ableton's native stuff is extremely CPU friendly.

[defenestration]

with this setup I do not use many soft synths (often, none), but yes, their usage needs to be carefully managed

mainly I find I am spending my time scrimping and saving CPU on utility processing like compression so I can have more left over for my reverbs, delays, freq shifts, perhaps some max4live step sequencers or some of the very fun but processing-intensive ableton machines I have built

[kacperson]

z3ta really efficient workhorse

[Spectral Climax]

Synth1 (not Sylenth 1) is the most efficient virtual analog vsti I have ever used. It also sounds remarkably good for a free software instrument which you can use tens of times inside a project, even with an older CPU and big polyphonic patches. It's not going to give you a very special tone, but it can be easily the bread and butter everyday synth you might be looking for. Especially in a live performance, it can easily replace a big everyday workhorse synth like Virus for simple VA sounds.

Software Synthesizer Synth1

[kraze]

NI Reaktor