FREE VITAL SKINS
THE ULTIMATE LIST 2021
Here at Echo Sound Works, we are big Vital fans. If you don't know what Vital is, it's a spectral morphing wavetable synthesizer made by Matt Tytel. And it's free. Well, there's a free version at least. The free version gives you access to a limited range of wavetables and factory presets. If you have the free version and need some presets, we released a free starter kit for Vital that you can download right here.
Vital is pretty similar to Serum, so if you're used to that workflow, you should feel right at home using it. A lot of people say this is a Serum killer, but we disagree. It's a cool, unique synth that has some overlap with Serum but is still missing some of our favorite Serum features.
But you can load custom skins which is why you're here.
Here's our ultimate list of the best custom Vital skins of 2021.
HOW TO INSTALL VITAL SKINS
Getting a custom skin into Vital is really easy—probably even more so than any other synth out there. Because the Vital GUI is all vector-based, each skin consists of just a single file with the ".vitalskin" extension. You can also load the skins in from anywhere on your computer, which makes the whole process super quick and simple.
Here are the steps you'll need to follow to get a custom Vital skin installed:
1.) Download the skin. Some of the links below will be direct downloads, and others will require some social currency like a Facebook like or follow.
2.) If the download includes more than just a single ".vitalskin" file, locate just that file. That's the file you'll need to open in Vital.
3.) Open Vital.
4.) Click "Advanced," then click the "Skin" section at the bottom towards the left. (Note: You can also option-click (Mac) or alt-click (Windows) on the hamburger menu in the top preset bar. All remaining steps are the same.)
5.) Click "Load Custom Skin..." in the popup menu that appears.
6.) The standard file browser will appear, so just navigate to wherever you saved the skin file and open it.
That's it! If you start downloading a few skins, we suggest making sure you keep all them and the associated files in a dedicate folder.
BEST VITAL SKINS OF 2021
Ableton Dark by Echo Sound Works
Over 6,327 producers have downloaded our Ableton Dark Serum Skin, so this was an obvious pick for our first Vital skin. Like the Serum version, it's inspired by Ableton 10 and 11 dark themes. This skin is super easy on the eyes and is perfect for those long sessions. If you're an Ableton user, you can have the oddly satisfying experience of your synth matching your DAW. If you're not an Ableton user, you can bring some of that flat, minimalist aesthetic into whatever DAW you use.
PhasePlant by deepspace
This skin is a pretty much identical dupe of PhasePlant by Kilohearts. Even the FX are perfectly matched to colors from PhasePlant, which is extra impressive because that's where a lot of dupe skins diverge from the original. Even if you've never seen or used PhasePlant before, this is a nice cool-toned skin that can definitely stand on its own. It comes in a bundle of 5 skins, including Dark Matter below.
Cyan by Outer Lives
Cyan by Outer Lives is inspired by the now classic set of skins for Serum, Anthracite. There is one more color option in this set, the waveforms are orange instead of cyan.
Serum Skin by Astrotype
If you're a Serum lover, then you'll love this skin! It almost looks like Serum 2.0 with those two filters. A guy can dream...
Cyan Grey by Mioseg
If you like more muted colors, this may be the skin for you. Depending on your DAW, this may bleed into the background a bit (with lighter Ableton and Logic X settings, for example) but against a darker background, it really pops!
Diabloic by Mesamask
If you like red, this is the skin for you. Makes me want to make some crazy Dubstep or maybe even some filthy Cyberpunk.
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