Are Presets - Good or Bad ???

[CosmicDolphin]

I love presets...I am Mr Preset

I've never programmed a synth patch from scratch in my life - If it doesn't sound right then I'll just keep on browsing till I find a preset that does.

Now alot of what I read in the music magazines etc say that presets aren't what we should be using , and we should be original and creative and that it's easy to make our own sounds and patches.  They seem to slag off any demos that arrive with obvious preset sounds.

I disagree - Life is too short  - what do you think ?

CosmicDolphin

[NickT]

Presets are great to get going. Synth patches and such, I just use out of the box.

Plugs are another story. Basic understanding of comps, eq's, verbs and whatever...always help me get the plug to play nice. But I still use the presets all the time to get close then adjust to work with my signal.

Nick

[Gerk]

I agree.  Life is too short.  They are are a good starting point, and in the end if they get the job done in a way that lives up to your expectations it's all good   It's all relative.  If you hear a synth patch and say "Oh, that sounds just like ____" then maybe it's not good to use that one

[j]

Life is too short  - what do you think ?

CosmicDolphin

Life's too short! But I think that maybe there is some merit to coming up with your own sound whether it be by tweaking a patch, or adding some effect, or by layering sounds from different keyboards. I still hear the patch IOO Universe from the Korg M1 - that was the default sound on that board that lured  myself and probably hundreds of other young synthkids into the store to make that purchase. I would never ever ever use that sound again! But it still shows up on cheaply made commercials on late night tv.

I still have these patch sheets, actual print out pages that resemble the controls on my Minimoog. You would take a pencil and draw the position of each  knob on the patch sheet. I have a notebook with pages of these, all sounds made by scratch. Back then, before programmable memory was available for synths, this is what you did. It was the only way to get the same sound twice.  you had to write crap down.. couldn't even save it as text or email it.

Now every pc/mac owning musician has a host or two and how many softsynths? and how many patch banks downloaded from kvr-vst.com? Who has time to listen to all of his (her) soundfonts, even? with so many choices, it is hard not to come up with your own sound, unless you deliberatley want to sound like someone else. The problem now for me is finding the time to even check out all my presets! 

[CosmicDolphin]

[[/quote]

 The problem now for me is finding the time to even check out all my presets! 

[/quote]

 

That one had me ROFL....probably because it's true.


Nick - I was more meaning synths than effects , but you are right - at least I've owned all the hardware version at some point ( and Ebayed them ) of the types of plugins so you do get to learn how they work, but there'll be younger music makers out there who just grow up with plugins I guess.  Maybe we'll lose the art of using hardware down the line.

CosmicD

[jeff]

I prefer presets, cuz I've never been much for synth programming.  However, most often, I'll lose my creative ideas before even finding an appropriate preset to use.  My productivity when downhill with the advent of the M1.

I was far more productive when all I had was Casio CZ 101, Dr Baum Drum machine with 8 beats, a bass and a fostex 4 track recorder.

Jeff

[Tacman7]

Hey! Long time no post! I keep checking in now and then but had to respond to this thread.

I know what you mean Jeff. I used to have an sw1000xg soundcard that did all the midi and audio and fx. I was free to create!


With keyboards, samplers, FX units and so many ways to do things I'm more engineer than artist.

I have all the freedom of an astronaut floating in space.


I'm slowly getting to where the engineer part is second nature and I can actually focus on the music. Mostly through learning the equipment and streamlining the process with templates.



I never mess with the synth though, I tweek FX settings but there are so many presets/arps on current synths that I always find something.

[Letizia]

presets vs. programming... it's tit for tat - and who wouldn't be happy with tit for tat? they both can be too time consuming and sound good or bad as well as fresh or stale. suppose the odds of sounding overused is greater for presets, but programming doesn't always sound original either. like Nick, i use the presets to ballpark, then adjust the settings till it sounds right. use the same approach for synths and fx.

as for writing, keep it very simple and record the midi using a piano patch or something that is somewhat like the sound you're after. then, after the song is written and a rough draft recorded, go in and find the proper sound. i do the same for guitar. record everything dry, then find the tone later... whether re-amping through a real amp, using a plugin (amplitube/ guitar rig), or a combination of things.

if you can't or don't wanna use midi. record first with a simple patch, then go back later, find the right sound and re-record with the preferred patch

record the ideas first, then worry about getting the right sound.

having templates is a great idea. the quicker you can go from having the idea to actually recording that idea, the better.... (usually)

[Gerk]

I agree with the comment that it's hard to not end up making it your own sound in this day and age of mixing on DAW's as well ... layering, adding effects, panning tricks all make a preset more your own than not.  A strings patch is a strings patch is a strings patch, until you make it your strings patch   I don't think it matters where this personalization really occurs ... could be tweaking up internal settings int he patch, could be in the mix, could even be the way you record it.

I think they are mostly targetting things saying that you should avoid using presets is like that "late night commercial" usage of patches .. where you find that one trippy/ethereal sorta thing that works for you and you use it as it sits and build something around it, or otherwise exploit that sound as it comes from the factory.