If you make music on a computer, your DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) is undoubtedly the single most important piece of software that you’ll buy. However, although you could get away with using just that - it can handle recording, arranging, editing, mixing and mastering, after all - the vast majority of tech-savvy musicians choose to furnish their setups with a selection of plugin synths, too.

In many ways, these work just like the hardware synthesizers that you’ll be familiar with, but they run in software instead of coming in a physical box. Some software synths are emulations of hardware models, but others are completely original.

You’ll hear software synths being referred to by a variety of different names - virtual instruments, software instruments or just plain old VSTs - but on a basic level, they all operate in the same way.

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Once installed on your PC or Mac, each plugin synth can be loaded onto its own track in your DAW, enabling you to play and record it using your MIDI keyboard or other MIDI controller. You can also program notes for it to play using your mouse, and each synth will come with its own set of controls for adjusting the sound.

Typically, you’ll find banks of presets, too: pre-programmed sounds that can simply be loaded up and played or used as starting points for further editing and sound design.

There are a variety of plugin standards out there, so before you buy any plugin synth, you need to make sure that your DAW is compatible with it. On the PC, Steinberg’s VST (Virtual Studio Technology) is by far the most popular, and supported by pretty much all the major DAWs. You can get Mac VSTs, too (though it’s worth mentioning that not all Windows VSTs run on Mac), and Apple also has its own standard called AU (Audio Units). You may also encounter standards such as AAX and RTAS, both of which are specific to Avid’s Pro Tools software.

Here at MusicRadar, we’ve been reviewing plugin synths for well over a decade, so we like to think we know a bit about them, and which are the best. However, this round-up is based on your votes: we put together a list of what we consider to be the best VST/AU plugin synths right now, and asked you to choose your favourite.

The results are in reverse order, so click though the list to discover your winner.

Looking for a great deal on new plugins? With Black Friday and Cyber Monday fast approaching, it could be worth waiting to see what the best Black Friday plugin deals deliver.